What Katy Did (Puffin Classics Relaunch)

by Susan Coolidge

  ‘Oh, Imogen, you look just like a young lady in a story!’ said simple Katy; whereupon Imogen tossed her head and rustled her skirts about her more than ever.

  Somehow, with these fine clothes, Imogen seemed to have put on a fine manner, quite different from the one she used every day. You know some people always do when they go out visiting. You would almost have supposed that this was a different Imogen, who was kept in a box most of the time, and taken out for Sundays and grand occasions. She turned herself about, and tittered, and lisped, and looked at herself in the glass, and was generally grown up and airy. When Aunt Izzie spoke to her, she fluttered and behaved so queerly that Clover almost laughed; and even Katy, who could see nothing wrong in people she loved, was glad to carry her away to the playroom.

  ‘Come out to the bower,’ she said, putting her arm round the blue barège waist.

  ‘A bower!’ cried Imogen. ‘How sweet!’ But when they reached the asparagus boughs her face fell. ‘Why it hasn’t any roof, or pinnacles, or any fountain!’ she said.

  ‘Why no, of course not,’ said Clover, staring; ‘we made it ourselves.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Imogen. She was evidently disappointed. Katy and Clover felt mortified; but as their visitor did not care for the bower, they tried to think of something else.

  ‘Let us go to the loft,’ they said.

  So they all crossed the yard together. Imogen picked her way daintily in the white satin slippers, but when she saw the spiked post she gave a scream.

  ‘Oh, not up there, darling, not up there!’ she cried; ‘never, never!’

  ‘Oh, do try! It’s just as easy as can be,’ pleaded Katy, going up and down half a dozen times in succession to show how easy it was. But Imogen wouldn’t be persuaded.

  ‘Do not ask me,’ she said, affectedly; ‘my nerves would never stand such a thing! And besides – my dress!’

  ‘What made you wear it?’ said Philly, who was a plain-spoken child, and given to questions. While John whispered to Dorry, ‘That’s a real stupid girl. Let’s go off somewhere and play by ourselves.’

  So one by one the small fry crept away, leaving Katy and Clover to entertain the visitor by themselves. They tried dolls, but Imogen did not care for dolls. Then they proposed to sit down in the shade, and cap verses – a game they all liked. But Imogen said that though she adored poetry, she never could remember any. So it ended in their going to the orchard; where Imogen ate a great many plums and early apples, and really seemed to enjoy herself. But when she could eat no more a dreadful dullness fell over the party. At last Imogen said:

  ‘Don’t you ever sit in the drawing-room?’

  ‘The what?’ asked Clover.

  ‘The drawing-room,’ repeated Imogen.

  ‘Oh, she means the parlour!’ cried Katy. ‘No, we don’t sit there except when Aunt Izzie has company to tea. It is all dark and poky, you know. Besides, it’s so much pleasanter to be out-doors. Don’t you think so?’

  ‘Yes, sometimes,’ replied Imogen, doubtfully; ‘but I think it would be pleasant to go in and sit there for a while now. My head aches dreadfully, being out here in this horrid sun.’

  Katy was at her wits’ end to know what to do. They scarcely ever went into the parlour, which Aunt Izzie regarded as a sort of sacred place. She kept cotton petticoats over all the chairs for fear of dust, and never opened the blinds for fear of flies. The idea of children with dusty boots going in there to sit! On the other hand, Katy’s natural politeness made it hard to refuse a visitor anything she asked for. And besides, it was dreadful to think that Imogen might go away and report, ‘Katy Carr isn’t allowed to sit in the best room, even when she has company!’ With a quaking heart she led the way to the parlour. She dared not open the blinds, so the room looked very dark. She could just see Imogen’s figure as she sat on the sofa, and Clover twirling uneasily about on the piano-stool. All the time she kept listening to hear if Aunt Izzie were not coming, and altogether the parlour was a dismal place to her; not half so pleasant as the asparagus bower, where they felt perfectly safe.

  But Imogen, who for the first time seemed comfortable, began to talk. Her talk was about herself. Such stories she told about the things which happened to her! All the young ladies in ‘The Ledger’ put together never had stranger adventures. Gradually, Katy and Clover got so interested that they left their seats and crouched down close to the sofa, listening with open mouths to these stories. Katy forgot to listen for Aunt Izzie. The parlour door swung open, but she did not notice it. She did not even hear the front door shut when Papa came home to dinner.

  Dr Carr, stopping in the hall to glance over his newspaper, heard the high-pitched voice running on in the parlour. At first he hardly listened: then these words caught his ear:

  ‘Oh, it was lovely, girls, perfectly delicious! I suppose I did look well, for I was all in white with my hair let down, and just one rose, you know, here on top. And he leaned over me and said in a low, deep tone: “Lady, I am a Brigand, but I feel the enchanting power of beauty. You are free!”’

  Dr Carr pushed the door open a little farther. Nothing was to be seen but some indistinct figures, but he heard Katy’s voice in an eager tone:

  ‘Oh, do go on. What happened next?’

  ‘Who on earth have the children got in the parlour?’ he asked Aunt Izzie, whom he found in the dining-room.

  ‘The parlour!’ cried Miss Izzie, wrathfully; ‘why, what are they there for?’ Then going to the door she called out, ‘Children, what are you doing in the parlour? Come out right away. I thought you were playing out-doors.’

  ‘Imogen had a headache,’ faltered Katy. The three girls came out into the hall; Clover and Katy looked scared, and even the Enchanter of the Brigand quite crestfallen. ‘Oh,’ said Aunt Izzie, grimly, ‘I am sorry to hear that. Probably you are bilious. Would you like some camphor or anything?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ replied Imogen, meekly. But afterwards she whispered to Katy:

  ‘Your aunt isn’t very nice, I think. She’s just like Jackima, that horrid old woman I told you about, who lived in the Brigand’s Cave and did the cooking.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re a bit polite to tell me so,’ retorted Katy, very angry at this speech.

  ‘Oh, never mind, dear, don’t take it to heart!’ replied Imogen, sweetly. ‘We can’t help having relations that ain’t nice, you know.’

  The visit was evidently not a success. Papa was very civil to Imogen at dinner, but he watched her closely, and Katy saw a comical twinkle in his eye which she did not like. Papa had very droll eyes. They saw everything, and sometimes they seemed to talk almost as distinctly as his tongue.

  Katy began to feel low-spirited. She confessed afterwards that she should never have got through the afternoon if she hadn’t run upstairs two or three times, and comforted herself by reading a little in Rosamond.

  ‘Aren’t you glad she’s gone?’ whispered Clover, as they stood at the gate together watching Imogen walk down the street.

  ‘Oh, Clover! how can you?’ said Katy. But she gave Clover a great hug, and I think in her heart she was glad.

  ‘Katy,’ said Papa, next day, ‘you came into the room then, exactly like your new friend Miss Clark.’

  ‘How? I don’t know what you mean,’ answered Katy, blushing deeply.

  ‘So,’ said Dr Carr; and he got up, raising his shoulders and squaring his elbows, and took a few mincing steps across the room. Katy couldn’t help laughing, it was so funny, and so like Imogen. Then Papa sat down again and drew her close to him.

  ‘My dear,’ he said, ‘you’re an affectionate child, and I’m glad of it. But there is such a thing as throwing away one’s affection. I didn’t fancy that little girl at all yesterday. What makes you like her so much?’

  ‘I didn’t like her so much yesterday,’ admitted Katy, reluctantly. ‘She’s a great deal nicer than that at school, sometimes.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said her father. ‘For I should be sorry to th
ink that you really admired such silly manners. And what was that nonsense I heard her telling you about Brigands?’

  ‘It really hap–’ began Katy. Then she caught Papa’s eye, and bit her lip, for he looked very quizzical. ‘Well,’ she went on laughing, ‘I suppose it didn’t really all happen; – but it was ever so funny, Papa, even if it was a make-up. And Imogen’s just as good-natured as can be. All the girls like her.’

  ‘Make-ups are all very well,’ said Papa, ‘as long as people don’t try to make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant. If I were you, Katy, I’d be a little shy of swearing eternal friendship for Miss Clark. She may be good-natured, as you say, but I think two or three years hence she won’t seem so nice to you as she does now. Give me a kiss, Chick, and run away, for there’s Alexander with the gig.’

  7

  Cousin Helen’s Visit

  A little knot of the schoolgirls were walking home together one afternoon in July. As they neared Dr Carr’s gate, Maria Fiske exclaimed at the sight of a pretty bunch of flowers lying in the middle of the sidewalk:

  ‘Oh, my!’ she cried, ‘see what somebody’s dropped! I’m going to have it.’ She stooped to pick it up. But just as her fingers touched the stems, the nosegay, as if bewitched, began to move. Maria made a bewildered clutch. The nosegay moved faster, and at last vanished under the gate, while a giggle sounded from the other side of the hedge.

  ‘Did you see that?’ shrieked Maria; ‘those flowers ran away of themselves.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said Katy, ‘it’s those absurd children.’ Then, opening the gate, she called: ‘John! Dorry! Come out and show yourselves.’ But nobody replied, and no one could be seen. The nosegay lay on the path, however, and picking it up, Katy exhibited to the girls a long end of black thread tied to the stems.

  ‘That’s a very favourite trick of Johnnie’s,’ she said; ‘she and Dorry are always tying up flowers, and putting them out on the walk to tease people. Here, Maria, take them if you like. Though I don’t think John’s taste in bouquets is very good.’

  ‘Isn’t it splendid to have vacation come?’ said one of the bigger girls. ‘What are you all going to do? We’re going to the sea-side.’

  ‘Pa says he’ll take Susie and me to Niagara,’ said Maria.

  ‘I’m going to make my aunt a visit,’ said Alice Blair. ‘She lives in a real lovely place in the country, and there’s a pond there; and Tom (that’s my cousin) says he’ll teach me to row. What are you going to do, Katy?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know; play around and have splendid times,’ replied Katy, throwing her bag of books into the air, and catching it again. But the other girls looked as if they didn’t think this good fun at all, and as if they were sorry for her; and Katy felt suddenly that her vacation wasn’t going to be so pleasant as that of the rest.

  ‘I wish Papa would take us somewhere,’ she said to Clover, as they walked up the gravel path. ‘All the other girls’ papas do.’

  ‘He’s too busy,’ replied Clover. ‘Besides, I don’t think any of the rest of the girls have half such good times as we. Ellen Roberts says she’d give a million of dollars for such nice brothers and sisters as ours to play with. And, you know, Maria and Susie have awful times at home, though they do go to places. Mrs Fiske is so particular. She always says “Don’t”; and they haven’t got any yard to their house, or anything. I wouldn’t change.’

  ‘Nor I,’ said Katy, cheering up at these words of wisdom. ‘Oh! isn’t it lovely to think there won’t be any school tomorrow? Vacations are just splendid!’ and she gave her bag another toss. It fell to the ground with a crash.

  ‘There, you’ve cracked your slate,’ said Clover.

  ‘No matter, I shan’t want it again for eight weeks,’ replied Katy, comfortably, as they ran up the steps.

  They burst open the front door and raced upstairs, crying, ‘Hurrah! hurrah! vacation’s begun. Aunt Izzie, vacation’s begun!’ Then they stopped short, for lo! the upper hall was all in confusion. Sounds of beating and dusting came from the spare room. Tables and chairs were standing about; and a cot-bed, which seemed to be taking a walk all by itself, had stopped short at the head of the stairs, and barred the way.

  ‘Why, how queer,’ said Katy, trying to get by. ‘What can be going to happen? Oh, there’s Aunt Izzie! Aunt Izzie, who’s coming? What are you moving the things out of the Blue-room for?’

  ‘Oh, gracious! is that you?’ replied Aunt Izzie, who looked very hot and flurried. ‘Now, children, it’s no use for you to stand there asking questions; I haven’t got time to answer them. Let the bedstead alone, Katy, you’ll push it into the wall. There, I told you so!’ as Katy gave an impatient shove, ‘you’ve made a bad mark on the paper. What a troublesome child you are! Go right downstairs, both of you, and don’t come up this way again till after tea. I’ve just as much as I can possibly attend to till then.’

  ‘Just tell us what’s going to happen, and we will,’ cried the children.

  ‘Your Cousin Helen is coming to visit us,’ said Miss Izzie, curtly, and disappeared into the Blue-room.

  This was news indeed. Katy and Clover ran downstairs in great excitement, and, after consulting a little, retired to the loft to talk it over in peace and quiet. Cousin Helen coming! It seemed as strange as if Queen Victoria, gold crown and all, had invited herself to tea; or as if some character out of a book, Robinson Crusoe, say, or ‘Amy Herbert’, had driven up with a trunk and announced the intention of spending a week. For the imaginations of the children, Cousin Helen was as interesting and unreal as anybody in the fairy tales: Cinderella, or Blue Beard, or dear Red Riding-Hood herself. Only there was a sort of mixture of Sunday-school book in their idea of her, for Cousin Helen was very, very good.

  None of them had ever seen her. Philly said he was sure she hadn’t any legs, because she never went away from home, and lay on a sofa all the time. But the rest knew that this was because Cousin Helen was ill. Papa always went to visit her twice a year, and he liked to talk to the children about her, and tell how sweet and patient she was, and what a pretty room she lived in. Katy and Clover had ‘played Cousin Helen’ so long, that now they were frightened as well as glad at the idea of seeing the real one.

  ‘Do you suppose she will want us to say hymns to her all the time?’ asked Clover.

  ‘Not all the time,’ replied Katy, ‘because you know she’ll get tired, and have to take naps in the afternoons. And then, of course, she reads the Bible a great deal. Oh dear, how quiet we shall have to be! I wonder how long she’s going to stay?’

  ‘What do you suppose she looks like?’ went on Clover.

  ‘Something like “Lucy” in Mrs Sherwood’s story, I guess, with blue eyes, and curls, and a long, straight nose. And she’ll keep her hands clasped so all the time, and wear “frilled wrappers”, and lie on the sofa perfectly still and never smile, but just look patient. We’ll have to take off our boots in the hall, Clover, and go upstairs in stocking feet, so as not to make a noise, all the time she stays.’

  ‘Won’t it be funny!’ giggled Clover, her sober little face growing bright at the idea of this variation on the hymns.

  The time seemed very long till the next afternoon, when Cousin Helen was expected. Aunt Izzie, who was in a great excitement, gave the children many orders about their behaviour. They were to do this and that, and not to do the other. Dorry at last announced that he wished Cousin Helen would just stay at home. Clover and Elsie, who had been thinking pretty much the same thing in private, were glad to hear that she was on her way to a water cure, and would stay only four days.

  Five o’clock came. They all sat on the steps waiting for the carriage. At last it drove up. Papa was on the box. He motioned the children to stand back. Then he helped out a nice-looking young woman, who, Aunt Izzie told them was Cousin Helen’s nurse, and then very carefully lifted Cousin Helen in his arms and brought her in.

  ‘Oh
, there are the chicks!’ were the first words the children heard, in such a gay, pleasant voice. ‘Do set me down somewhere, Uncle. I want to see them so much!’

  So Papa put Cousin Helen on the hall sofa. The nurse fetched a pillow, and when she was made comfortable, Dr Carr called to the little ones.

  ‘Cousin Helen wants to see you,’ he said.

  ‘Indeed I do,’ said the bright voice. ‘So this is Katy? Why, what a splendid tall Katy it is! And this is Clover,’ kissing her; ‘and this dear little Elsie. You all look as natural as possible – just as if I had seen you before.’ And hugged them all round, not as if it was polite to like them because they were relations, but as if she had loved them and wanted them all her life.

  There was something in Cousin Helen’s face and manner which made the children at home with her at once. Even Philly, who had backed away with his hands behind him, after staring hard for a minute or two, came up with a sort of rush to get his share of kissing.

  Still, Katy’s first feeling was one of disappointment. Cousin Helen was not at all like ‘Lucy’, in the story. Her nose turned up the least bit in the world. She had brown hair, which didn’t curl, a brown skin, and bright eyes which danced when she laughed or spoke. Her face was thin, but except for that you wouldn’t have guessed that she was sick. She didn’t fold her hands, and she didn’t look patient, but absolutely glad and merry. Her dress wasn’t a ‘frilled wrapper’, but a sort of loose travelling thing of pretty grey stuff, with a rose-coloured bow, and bracelets, and a round hat, trimmed with a grey feather. All Katy’s dreams about the ‘saintly invalid’ seemed to take wings and fly away. But the more she watched Cousin Helen the more she seemed to like her, and to feel as if she were nicer than the imaginary person which she and Clover had invented.

  ‘She looks just like other people, don’t she?’ whispered Cecy, who had come over to have a peep at the new arrival.