"Ain"t it lovely, Amarilly?" asked the mother, apprehensive lest the little leader might blackball the project.

"We"re all doing so well here, why change? Why not let well enough alone?" she asked.

There was a general and surprised protest at this statement. It was something new for Amarilly to be a kill-joy.

"Do you like to live in this alley when we kin hev all outdoors and git a chanst to be somebody?" demanded Flamingus, who was rapidly usurping his sister"s place as head of the house.

"And think of the money we"ll make!" reminded Milton.

"And the milk and b.u.t.ter and cream and good things to eat without buying them!" exclaimed Gus.

"And huntin" f"r eggs and swimmin" in the river and skatin" and gettin"

hickory nuts and all the apples you kin eat," persuaded Bobby, who had evidently been listening to the Boarder"s fancies of farm life.

"Thar"s a school close by, and all the chillern kin go," said the mother anxiously. "Mebby you kin git to teach it after a while, Amarilly."

"Oh, Amarilly!" cried Lily Rose ecstatically, "to think of all the trees, and all the sky, and all the green gra.s.s and all the birds--oh, Amarilly!"

Words failed Lily Rose, but she sighed a far-seeing blissful sigh of exquisite happiness at her horoscope. The Boarder looked at her, his heart eloquent in his eyes, but he said nothing.

"Amarilly," cried Cory, "we kin hev real flowers fer nuthin" and pies and ice-cream, and we kin cuddle little chicks like ma told me, and make daisy chains, and hev picnics in the woods. Oh--"

Words also proved inadequate to Co"s antic.i.p.ations.

"Amaw.i.l.l.y, we kin play wiv little lambs," lisped Iry.

"Bud, you haven"t made your speech, yet," said Amarilly, wistfully, realizing that the majority was against her.

"Bud won"t go till fall," said Mrs. Jenkins.

"Till fall!" cried Amarilly faintly. "Why, when are we going?"

"Next week," answered the Boarder jubilantly. "The folks want to leave right away, and we must get busy plantin". I went to Vedder"s friend, the real estate man, this mornin" as soon as I got back, and he says it"s a real bargain."

"But why isn"t Bud going?"

"This morning," informed Mrs. Jenkins proudly, "Bud had an offer. As soon as the theatre shuts down, Mr. Vedder is going to take Bud to a big resort and manage him for the season. He"ll git lots of money. I wouldn"t let Bud go off with no one else, but Mr. Vedder is so nice, and he says when Bud goes to the country in the fall he kin come into the city Sat.u.r.day nights on the Interurban and sing in the choir Sundays and come back Monday. He kin stay with him, Mr. Vedder says. And the country air and the fresh milk and eggs, will make a diff"rent boy of him. It"s what the doctor says he"d orter hev."

"Then, we"ll go, of course," declared Amarilly resolutely.

"And, Amarilly," said the Boarder gravely, "your ma ain"t said why she wanted to go, but think of the diff"rence it will make in her life. To be sure, she will have to work hard, but with you, Lily Rose, and Co to help her, it won"t be so hard, and it"ll be higher cla.s.s work than slushing around in tubs and water, and she"ll hev good feedin" and good air, and we"ll all feel like we was folks and our own bosses."

"Ma, I was selfish!" cried Amarilly remorsefully. "I"ll work like a hired man!"

Amarilly thereupon bravely a.s.sumed a cheerful mien and looked over the Boarder"s figures, listening with apparently great enthusiasm to the plans and projects. But when she was upstairs in her own little bed and each and every other Jenkins was wrapt in happy slumber, she turned her face to the wall, and wept long, silently, and miserably. Far-away fields and pastures did not look alluring to this little daughter of the city who put bricks and mortar and lighted streets above trees and meadows, for Amarilly was entirely metropolitan; sky-sc.r.a.pers were her birthright, and she loved every inch of her city.

"But it"s best for them," she acknowledged.

A little pang came with the realization that they who had been so dependent upon her guardianship for guidance were entirely competent to act without her.

"It"s Flam. He"s growed up!" she sobbed, correctness of speech slipping from her in her grief. "And he don"t know near so much as I do, only he"s a man--or going to be--so what he says goes."

And with this bitter but inevitable recognition of the things that are, Amarilly sobbed herself to sleep.

CHAPTER XXVII

The next morning Amarilly served Derry"s breakfast in heavy-hearted silence, replying in low-voiced monosyllables to his gay, conversational advances. She performed her household duties about the studio listlessly though with conscientious thoroughness. When it came time to prepare luncheon, Derry called her into the studio.

"Come here to the light, where I can see you best, Amarilly."

Reluctantly she came.

He turned his searching, artist"s eyes upon her unsparingly, noting the violet shadows under the white-lidded eyes, and the hard, almost tragic lines in the drooping of her mobile mouth. She bore his gaze unflinchingly, with indrawn breath and clenched hands.

"What is it, Amarilly?" he asked gently. "You will tell me, _nicht wahr_?"

These two last words were in deference to her new study of German.

At the genuine sympathy in his voice, Amarilly"s composure gave way and there was a rush of tears.

He led her to a divan and sat beside her.

"Yes, of course you will tell me, Amarilly. I knew there was an emotional side to my practical, little maid, and I noticed at breakfast that there was something wrong."

"Yes," she replied, with an effort, wiping away the rising tears, "I will tell you, but no one else. If I told Mr. Vedder, he would not understand; he would say I must do what was sensible. If I told Mr. St.

John, he would be shocked, and tell me that duty was hard, and that was why it must be done,--to strengthen. Mrs. St. John would laugh, and say: "Oh, what a foolish Amarilly!""

"And what will I say, Amarilly?" he asked interestedly.

"You! Oh, you will understand what I feel, and you will be sorry."

"Then spin away, Amarilly. You"ll have my sympathy and help in everything that makes you feel bad, whether it"s right or wrong."

"Oh, Mr. Derry, we are all going away--way off to the country--to live on a farm!"

"Amarilly, you little city brat! You"d be a misfit on a farm. Tell me what has sent the Jenkins family into the open."

Faithfully Amarilly enumerated the pros and cons of the agricultural venture. When she had concluded her narrative, Derry, to her surprise and sorrow, looked positively jubilant.

"And you don"t want to live in the country, eh, Amarilly?"

"No, Mr. Derry," she protested. "I don"t. I have never been there, but I know the woods and the fields and--all that--must be beautiful--in patches--but I couldn"t bear it all the time--not to see all the bright and white lights at night and the hurry, and the people, and the theatres. No! I"d rather be the poorest little speck here than to own and live on the biggest farm in the world."

He laughed delightedly.