Cousin Emily's Revolt

Dunstan Times, Issue 2317, 15 January 1906, Page 2

Cousin Emily's Revolt

By CAMROXJL W. RANKIN,

TWO persons stood upon the narrow plank walk at the outer

edge of the long ore dock. One waa a small, soberly-dressed woman of perhaps 40 years of age. The. other was a tall, radiant girl of 17. Their eyes were fixed upon a huge ore-car-

rier, steaming slowly out into the clear blue of Lake Superior. Five handkerchiefs of varying dimensions fluttered gayly from the stern rail, and five happy faces smiled back at the 'wo watchers silhouetted against the ore-stained timbe.ru of the dock.

“What an advertisement they’d make for tooth-powder!” said Katherine, watching the receding boat. “Did you ever see such a beaming lot? Isn’t it lovely for them to have a chance to take a lake trip? Wasn’t it nice of Uncle Joe to think of sending them all? Isn’t it fun to see folks off?”

“No.” said her companion, unexpectedly, “it isn’t!” “Why, Cousin Emily! Anybody’d think you weren’t glad to have them go. Think what a change it will be for mother! Ten whole days without a mite of 'housekeeping to think of!” “Of course I’m glad for your mother's sake; she really needed the rest. But you just wait, Kathwine, until you’ve been seeing people off for 40 years, without ever going to any place yourself, and see how you like it! I’ve seen people off on steamboats and ore-carriers, on special trains and private cars, and just plain, everyday cars ever since I was born; but 1 haven’t been a dozen miles from home in all that time.

“First of all, I saw everybody off to the Centennial. Did I go? Not a bit of itl Young as I was. 1 had to stay at home with your grandfather’s sprained ankle. Then all the family went to Mary Banning’s wedding, and left me at home to poultice Pncle Timothy’s felon. Did I go to the circus? Did I go to Chicago to the opera? Did I get to the world's fair or the Paris exposition? Did I —” “Why, Cousin Emily!”

“Did I go to the family gathering at Madison? No, I didn’t. Somebody had to stay in the house to keep the water-pipes from freezing, and I was that somebody. Did I to the last whist tournament? I wanted to, but somebody had to stay with Cousin Anne’s teething baby, and of course I was the one.

“I didn’t even get to Grandfather Perkins’ funeral. I saw all the family off in a private car that time: but I was left at home with the Denberry twins. There are those twins on that boat this very minute; and here am I, seeing them off and staying here myself to chaperon you.” “I’m sorry —” began Katherine.

“Oh, you needn’t be. It isn’t your fault. It isn’t anybody’s fault, unless it’s mine. 1 tell you, Katherine, it doesn’t pay to be a useful person. But come; let’s go home. The boat went around the point two minutes aß, °” The plank walk was none too wide. While there was no actual danger, it was necessary to proceed cautiously in order to avoid rubbing one's garments against the ore-crimsoned timbers on the one hand, or tumbling unceremoniously into the lake on the other. So Katherine led her • more timorous second cousin along the narrow ledge, up the steps and into the safety of the broad, covered walk in absolute silence.

“Well, that’s over,” said Cousin Bmily examining her sleeve for possible ore-dust. “Katherine, I want you to promise never to tell anybody what I said about being sick or seeing people off and never going anywhere myself. I’m ashamed of myself for saying it. The family has been as good as gold to me all these years. 1 think 1 must have been tired and nervous after flying around all the morning trying to get everybody’s things packed in the right bags. I’m afraid now that 1 put your mother’s thimble in Tom’s suit case.” “All the better.” laughed Katherine. “She'd hem all the way from here to Cleveland if she had it. If Tom finds it he’ll throw it overboard to keep her from sewing. Never mind, Cousin Emily Rub out that anxious wrinkle and come along! T shan’t tell a soul^ about all those trips you didn’t take.” And Katherine did not; but the girl, who had never in her life planned anything for herself, since she had so many others to plan things for her, spent several days in deep thought. This was so unusual that Cousin Emily sent surreptitiously for the family doctor, who felt the girl’s pulse, while pretending to shake her hand, ami/ then gravely roooramended a freckle lotion.

Katherine’s father was not wealthy, but on her mother’s; aid*; the family was a large and influential one. It included one millionaire, one mine-own-er and three railroad men. To be sure, the millionaire was stingy, the mineowner eccentric, and the railroad men too busy to be bothered; but KatK erine was not the girl to be hampered by trifles like these.

“Pooh!" said Katherine, tearing up a six-page letter, the result of an hour’s hard labor. “Uncle John hasn’t time to read *ll that. Be doeeu’t read) anything but telegrams. I’ll write him a telegram and sent it by mail.”

“Dear Uncite Johu: Please send me 1100 by return mall. Will explain later. It’s all ri§rht. KATHERINE DBNHAM." “It’s all right if Katherine says *O,” saidi the stingy millionaire, making out a check for $75, and then tearing it up and replacing it with one for an

even one hundred. "There’* the ranking of a fine business woman in that girl. Any other woman would have written a book.”

Then the wrote to another uncle as follow*:

“Dear Uncle Jot: I want a trip pat* to Cleveland an<J back tor Cousin Erally, for boat after next. It’* all right. "KATHERINE DENHAM." "Then it is all right, since Katherine saj* so,” said Uncle Joseph. “It must be quite awhile since Emily has had a boat trip. 1 don’t remember sending iu;r a pass. She deserves a dozen.” Next Katherine wrote to the most

promising of the three railroad men:

"Dear Uncle Peter: 1 want passes for Cousin Emily from Cleveland to Buffalo, New York, Washington and Boston, and o.'iy place else you can think of, and back io Cleveland again. She’s going down by boat. It’s all right. "KATHERINE DENHAM.”

“Bless her soul, of course it’s all right!” said the railroad msgr. ate, making out passes with his owr. 1 and. “Her Cousin Belle wrote 11 pages when she asked for a pass from Milwaukee to Chicago, and I had to get her letter typewritten before I could read it.”

, Katherine displayed such a deep and mysterious interest in the postman the following week that Cousin Emily began to fear that the chaperoning of a young woman of 17 was a position of no light responsibility. The mystery was explained, however, when Katherine appeared one morning i in Cousin Emily’s doorway, with a raI diant countenance, numerous slips of , paper and a work-basket, j “There!” said Katherine, with dancj ing eyes. “These are all yours!” f “Mine!” exclaimed Cousin Xmily..

. “What are they?” f “A little of everything,” replied the- , plotter. “A lake trip, railroad trips, a> j to Washington, a trip to the sea- { shore, a run to Boston, another to New iYork —you’re to stay a month if yoa want to.” “Katherine, you told!” j “I didn’t! I never said a word!” j “But y„u explained—" 1 “Nothing,” said Katherine. “This; family’s too large and too honest for explanations. Here, if you must cry, j take my apron. But you haven’t time.. j You’re to go the minute the others , get back. I’ve come prepared to sew i on buttons by the quart and braid by , the mile. You’ll have to have some i clothes, you know. It’s a blessing i your ' U’ing suit is so new!” j The day of Cousin Emily’s departure | dew Dec. Tlie relatives that went to see j her off formed a scattered procession f that reached from one end to the other I of the long ore dock. Now that their attention was called to the fact, all j realized that quiet, unobtrusive, help* I ful Emily had lived all her life in the I little village without a glimpse of the J word beyond - . j “Really,” said Katherine’s mother, I waving a handkerchief energetically after the departing boat. “I’m afraid we’ve all been abominably selfish. We’ve given Emily half a dozen homes among us, to be sure, and we’ve provided her with all she could eat and wear; but I’m afraid we haven’t been quite as thoughtful aswe should have been about her pleasures. Now 1 come to think of it, she has always been the one to stay at home; and no one has ever heard her complain.” Katherine tipped her hat o.- ; ; -:.r of telltale eyes, and grabbed a small nephew by the arm just in time to save the boy from disappearing over the side of the dock and herself from the. necessity of a reply. With Cousin Emily gone, the familyseemed singularly incomplete. No one else could put the Perkins baby to sleep. No one else could bathe the j Denham baby to his satisfaction. For no one else would Grandfather Dsnham’s gruel attain the proper consistency. And it suddenly became evident that no other member of the family was competent to make button:.oles in the Denberry twins’ shirt-waists.

When, therefore, ju&t five days after her departure, Cousin Emily walked in unannounced, she was greeted with joy. as well as with no little astonishment.

“How in the world,” gasped Katherine, almost dropping the Perkins baby in her surprise, “ddd you get.back so soon?"

“Soon!” cried Cousin Emily, seizing the baby and shedding tears of joy down his neck. “Soon! It’s be a the longest week I ever lived, i was so homesick for this baby, and the Denham baby, and Grandfather Itenham and the twins, that I left the boat the moment it touched the dock at Cleveland and came home by rail on the very first train.” “But you had no past —” “I had money!” said Cousin Bmijy. triumphantly.

“Do you mean to «ay that with a pocketful of passes to Washington and Boston and Buffalo and New York, and everywhere, and a boat pass, besides." gasped horrified Katherine, “that you bought and paid for a ticket, and wasted all those passes?” “Yes, I do!” said Causin Emily, hugging the Perkins baby ecstatically “I’d have come by telegraph if I could.” “Well,” aaid Katherine, in a tone of deep disgust, “I see I wasn’t «s smart M I thought I was! Ne*t time I plan r. a trip fox you I’ll include a few: grandparents, all the babies and all the twins; and I’U go myself to tee that you don’t waste even a fraction of % pass.” At first Katherine was keenly disappointed at the eseming failure of Lei plan; but when little, undemonstrative Cousin Emily, still fairly beaming In her joy at being home again, threw both arms round Katherine’* neckasshekissodhergoodnight at bedtime, saying that in allher 40 years she had never known a happier day, Katherine felt that perhaps, after all, the trip had been 9 s ucc ess Youth’l, Omemo* . U