SHORT STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 3

SHORT STORY.

SADIE'S SKIPPING-ROPE. *

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(Copyrights

Ma was quite scandal'led. She had quite hoped she would contrive to like this girl from Montana, and if Sadie hid matched her looks—arid some of her ways—ma would have managed it, not only easily but triumphantly. In fact when ma first saw Sadie Bhe simply and literally took her to her heart, and hugged and kissed her as fondly and as often as if she had been my married sister Marjory back from India. And really I didn't wonder at ma's early enthusiasm, for Sadie looked as sweet as a pictuie—l moan a Marcus Stone, or a Leighton picture, and not one of those horridly impossible and hopelessly hideous Cubist monstrosities. No one could have dreamt that such a dainty, exquisite little thing could be so mannish and outrageous. Of course, ma's a bit old-fashioned.

She even deprecates slang, especially in a girl, and was horrified the other day when I called Harry Lisle a ''nut." The fact is I fancy she has sort of ear-marked I Larry for a son-in-law, and I'm not having any! But that's only by the way. This story is about Sadie, and she fills the bill. Teddy at any rate thought so from the first, as well as ma, hut whilst ma "ratted" and joined the opposition,

Teddy was as firm as Ailsa Ciaij to ;;is first impressions. The fact is h-.- had sit.p-han; i'i I '>'0 v. it.li bauij at first sight, and 1 believe ,1 she had Pr..'ki-d a clay pipo he would have thought it became her.

The worst of Teddy is that be is the met unconceiled fellow I kii«.w. i »-t

,<■ are a few men still left in the world who think a gill—if she doesn't happen to bo their sister—is a goddess to be set 011 a pedestal and worshipped. Teddy was like that- Of course, I know that he was clean gone on Sadie, but 1 also knew that nothing short of a. miracle would buck him up to ask her.

He might have done it if Sadie had given him half a chance. But she didn't. She rugged him and nagged him and slanged him, much to ma's horror, but sho never came within fifty miles of sentiment, and even I, who generally managed to worm myself into other people's affairs, hadn't the ghost of an idea what her feelings were tor Teddy.

Of course, the fact is she had never been in love and hadn't the least notion what the symptoms were. She accepted Teddy as a good chum, and thought nothing of taking him for a walk over hill and dale. She sort of whistled for him as she might have whistled for the dog, and metaphorically took him on th© lead. I don't say that ma ever disliked her. That would be saying too much. But she strongly disapproved of her under certain aspects. Sadie could he very proper and exceedingly improper— ma's fit point that isand undo all the good impressions ma had been laboriously placing to her credit. I shall never forget Sadie breaking the co't in as long as 1 live. She looked I superb as, with a hop, skip, and jump, and with a snaffle in her hand, she landed plump into the small of his back. Then the fun began. 1 never saw a horse look so surprised in ail my life. But as soon as he dropped his jaw to express his : feelings, she had the bit in his mouth, and he set off round the paddock like a mad thing, kicking up his heeLs and doing his level best to dislodge this audacious creature from his back. But Sadie stuck. She had no saddle, but her legs were long and she evidently had knees that gripped like a vice. Teddy was scared at first. He thought she would be killed. But when she came past us again like the wind, with her hair flying half a yard behind her, her eves shining with excitement, her high legged boots whacking at the colt ribs, lie fairly yelled with enthusiasm. It was •' just at this juncture," as our M.P. would say, that ma looked over the gate and saw this awful sight. The girl j who, the irs'it liefore, had sat like a duchess in Lor lovely frock and talked to our M.P. about the American tariff— her father was a senator, so she could be excused —was now riding lik« a cowboy, barebacked. But ma had to see it through. Nothing could stop the colt till he was dead tired and beaten, and if a g' o '*' °f pride did not gleam through ma's thunder-cloud of wrath, she must have been made of sterna- stuff than I wot of. "There"' cried Sadie, leaping to the ground, and patting the colt's nose, ' he's as quiet as a brass monkey." And he was. He never needed any further breaking in. Sddie had done the trick in one! But ma upbraided her. She slid she did not think it becoming, and that she did not think her father would approve, 1 And Sadie looked very penitent, and wept 'a little bit, and looked so pathetic that

ma kissed her and nut a protective arm around her and led nor indoors. But the penitence, . though perfectly real and genuine, was not lasting, and Sadie seemed to be rapidly getting permanently into ma's baa book? when an incident happened, as the staid storywriter would sav, which I will now relate.

The season was autumn, and the woods were in the "sore am! yellow leaf I '— Byron, I believethe blackberries were rarely ripe aid plentiful, and the whole pang of us. ma included, were all agog to dash through thick and thin" in search of them.

Teddy carried the tuck in a rucksack strapped in true Alpine fashion on his broad and manly back. Harry Lisle, the '"nut," was loaded un with the biz kite-hen basket containing a modicum or table linen and other necessary adjuncts of an al frweo luncheon fit-out. Ho tried

to " swop " loads with Teddy, but secretly instructed by me. Teddy utterly refused to see the matter from his standpoint. The rest of us were variously armed. Ma and I and the kids all carried walk ing sticks if the crook-handled type for bringing to hand prickly and remote bramble stems, for, as the copybook would say. '' the good fruit doth ever hang high." Sadie also carried a stick, but her most distinguishing feature was a long lopo wound l'uiind and round her waist. Itwas Sadie's skipping rope. She delighted in playing with the kids. Ma said thai was one of her best features. Teddy voted this predilection a nuisance. When ho wanted her to be his partner at tennis, | or to take him for a walk, he would find her playing "follow my leader" on the back lawn' with Kathie and Jinme and Lorrie. and setting them all sorts of tasks, under the rope, and over the rope, and sideways and backways. and pepper and salt, and all that sort of "boeli." But Sadio loved it. She said " skipping with tin- kids hnntred tennis all to diukvdo'i." and the ' ids adored her in consequence, ai:d 1 thero wan* t> another person on ~e ■ net that, co-.i'd hold a candle to Cousin .~>adie as a good

sport. •a she had brought the lon* skipping rope with —really a clothes-line it the Mutli must to told—with the intention of having some fun with it after lunch. She kufcw the kids would join, and, as for the others, they could please themselves. Well, we had a lipping morning. Blackberries were a* plentiful even as thev wetv supposed to be, and we scratched ourselves to our heart's content, and kept wonderfully prolific "corners" I a dead secret till we had stripped the I bushes, and we tore our frocks, and we tumbled into dry ditches and had to be hauled out. and, in fact, wo enjoyed ourselves to the top of our bent. Then came the great function of lunch. Only ma and I knew what that- rucksack contained, and «<• f.i-'v op n-d the eyes of the others >' C J' reduced_ the provender. It really made a ripping show, and when Sadie ;-n<l ieddy strolled in from the " bu.-ii" and the kick came

trooping in to the rendezvous, they gaw three lusty cheers for the chicken and. - ham pie, and three more for Coo solid phalanx of sandwiches, > ■ Where was Harry? Ho was the only <, nor-arrival. He had, of coarse, dumped down the kitchen basket at tfco rendezvous and ioinod the blackberry hunt,, but now ho was nowhere to bo teen. As ma and I were engaged with tho tea kettle Sad.e sallied out of the ramp to call the wanderer home, and had , «st disappeared into 'hi? thicket >'hcii most horrible and 1 otally unexpected thing happened. Fob 1- tramps v v :> had probably been attracted by the sound of cheering suddenly attacked the camp, evidently thinking that one man, three kids, ana two women would make no sort of resistance. I must say they were right as far as ma and I and the kids were concerned. We were panic-stricken. The felloe? were such horrible specimens of humanity and looked bo ferocious with their scrubby beards and filthy faces that I simply screamed in unison with the rest. Of course, the fellows were limply after the food. It seemed too good a chanco to bo lost. But if at the 6amo time' they could carry off a few silver spoons and forks, it would be so much the better. Two of the men set on Teddy whilst the other two set upon, the eatables. The latter made no resistance but Teddy did. He owns a useful pair of fists, and ho put up a good fight as far as I could see, which wasn't far. The fact i.» things happened so quickly that I hardlv know what I saw or what I didn't. But one thing I know I sawSadie sprint like a deer acro.a the sward, stop at twenty p'.ces, and uncoil her skipping rope. Two of the marauders were stooping over the tablecloth with their heads clow together when something came swishswash over their heads and curled like a serpent round iheir bodies. They sprang upright ivi'ii awful oaths and tried to jet free fiom their entanglement. B".t S?die ja'-v t>» '-hat. The .'kipping i v >po ;ook the, -y ollxjws and packed the :v *■ mi.- .Taints together as tight as a .•oajJe i Cambridge sausages. The more ,h r y ; irusrled and cu.'S'xi . / ■."titer it ;rinp*jd. '!>.»!' iv.die ga-'e a sue!''en jerk ind they Tulle J uv.-r a> 1 -lpless as a ■orp'e of trussed chickens. Then she ook the tope half a dozen turns round a ;:1 vi-i birch a id Svt off u£_ a new trail.

This was the rescue of Teddy. Ma ar I and the kids ' id been so fascinates with Sadie's laria" that for the moment wo had lost sight of Teddy. Now, to our horror we saw that ho was kneeling; on the chest- of one of th 3 beasts, and that the other had actually picked up a table-knifo that was hint; _ handy and was taking a run at Teddy's back ! We all screamed in unison but Sadie. She acted. She left her rope to do its dutv and let fly at this murderous fellow's head with her walking stick. H came down with an awful whack and h<* turned round with a snarl like a trapped hysena. Then he saw his two comrades bound together and helpless and the wonder of it smote him like a blow. He cast the knife away and fled through the bnsh just as Harry sprinted in and helped to secure Teddy's prize. But though the victory was complete we did not know what to do for the beet till a happy thought struck Sadie. " We don't want to be burdened with this trash," she said, "we've no use for 1 it. We'll leave the two skipping rope prisoners bound to their tree, and run the other bandit a mile towards home. Then we'll let him make back-tracks and loose his chumsif he want.B to. Savvy This seemed to be something on _ the lines of the old puzzle about the river, the fox, the goose and the corn, and we acted upon it. Whether Teddy's victim ever returned to set his comrades free we never knew, Sadie's only regret was the loss of the skipping rope. But she had compensations. Their mutual danger and help seemed to bring Teddy and Sadie together like magnetism, and before two days were gone they were engaged, with ma's fervent blessing. It is quite immaterial and quite unconnected with Sadie's skipping rope and the way she lassoed two wild beasts, but I might as well mention :it nevertheless. Hairy Lisle, the "nut" having now hopelessly lost his friend and chum Teddy, asked me to take his place. I I knew it would please ma, so just to even ' things up a bit and keep the balance of power I said "Yes." Meanwhile Sadie still plava "follow ray leader" but it is Teddy who does the " pepper ind salt at her bidding and nut the kids!