Clara Louise Burnham - Jewel\'s Story Book

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[Illustration: "YOU'VE MADE ME SOME STORIES, MOTHER!"]

JEWEL'S STORY BOOK

BY

CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT 1904 BY CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published October, 1904_

_TO THE CHILDREN
WHO LOVE JEWEL_

CONTENTS

I. OVER THE 'PHONE

II. THE BROKER'S OFFICE

III. THE HOME-COMING

IV. ON THE VERANDA

V. THE LIFTED VEIL

VI. THE DIE IS CAST

VII. MRS. EVRINGHAM'S GIFTS

VIII. THE QUEST FLOWER

IX. THE QUEST FLOWER (CONTINUED)

X. THE APPLE WOMAN'S STORY

XI. THE GOLDEN DOG

XII. THE TALKING DOLL

XIII. A HEROIC OFFER

XIV. ROBINSON CRUSOE

XV. ST. VALENTINE

XVI. A MORNING RIDE

XVII. THE BIRTHDAY

XVIII. TRUE DELIGHT

JEWEL'S STORY BOOK

CHAPTER I

OVER THE 'PHONE

Mrs. Forbes, Mr. Evringham's housekeeper, answered the telephone one
afternoon. She was just starting to climb to the second story and did not
wish to be hindered, so her "hello" had a somewhat impatient brevity.

"Mrs. Forbes?"

"Oh," with a total change of voice and face, "is that you, Mr. Evringham?"

"Please send Jewel to the 'phone."

"Yes, sir."

She laid down the receiver, and moving to the foot of the stairs called
loudly, "Jewel!"

"Drat the little lamb!" groaned the housekeeper, "If I was only sure she
was up there; I've got to go up anyway. _Jewel!_" louder.

"Ye--es!" came faintly from above, then a door opened. "Is somebody calling
me?"

Mrs. Forbes began to climb the stairs deliberately while she spoke with
energy. "Hurry down, Jewel. Mr. Evringham wants you on the 'phone."

"Goody, goody!" cried the child, her feet pattering on the thick carpet as
she flew down one flight and then passed the housekeeper on the next.
"Perhaps he is coming out early to ride."

"Nothing would surprise me less," remarked Mrs. Forbes dryly as she
mounted.

Jewel flitted to the telephone and picked up the receiver.

"Hello, grandpa, are you coming out?" she asked.

"No, I thought perhaps you would like to come in."

"In where? Into New York?"

"Yes."

"What are we going to do?" eagerly.

Mr. Evringham, sitting at the desk in his private office, his head resting
on his hand, moved and smiled. His mind pictured the expression on the face
addressing him quite as distinctly as if no miles divided them.

"Well, we'll have dinner, for one thing. Where shall it be? At the
Waldorf?"

Jewel had never heard the word.

"Do they have Nesselrode pudding?" she asked, with keen interest. Mrs.
Forbes had taken her in town one day and given her some at a restaurant.

"Perhaps so. You see I've heard from the Steamship Company, and they think
that the boat will get in this evening."

"Oh, grandpa! grandpa! _grandpa!_"

"Softly, softly. Don't break the 'phone. I hear you through the window."

"When shall I come? Oh, oh, oh!"

"Wait, Jewel. Don't be excited. Listen. Tell Zeke to bring you in to my
office on the three o'clock train."

"Yes, grandpa. Oh, please wait a minute. Do you think it would be too
extravagant for me to wear my silk dress?"

"No, let's be reckless and go the whole figure."

"All right," tremulously.

"Good-by."

"Oh, grandpa, wait. Can I bring Anna Belle?" but only silence remained.

Jewel hung up the receiver with a hand that was unsteady, and then ran
through the house and out of doors, leaving every door open behind her in a
manner which would have brought reproof from Mrs. Forbes, who had begun to
be Argus-eyed for flies.

Racing out to the barn, she appeared to 'Zekiel in the harness room like a
small whirlwind.

"Get on your best things, Zeke," she cried, hopping up and down; "my father
and mother are coming."

"Is this an india rubber girl?" inquired the coachman, pausing to look at
her with a smile. "What train?"

"Three o'clock. You're going with me to New York. Grandpa says so; to his
office, and the boat's coming to-night. Get ready quick, Zeke, please. I'm
going to wear my silk dress."

"Hold on, kid," for she was flying off. "I'm to go in town with you, am I?
Are you sure? I don't want to fix up till I make Solomon look like thirty
cents and then find out there's some misdeal."

"Grandpa wants you to bring me to his office, that's what he said,"
returned the child earnestly. "Let's start real _soon_!"

Like a sprite she was back at the house and running upstairs, calling for
Mrs. Forbes.

The housekeeper appeared at the door of the front room, empty now for two
days of Mrs. Evringham's trunks, and Jewel with flushed cheeks and
sparkling eyes told her great news.

Mrs. Forbes was instantly sympathetic. "Come right upstairs and let me help
you get ready. Dear me, to-night! I wonder if they'll want any supper when
they get here."

"I don't know. I don't know!" sang Jewel to a tune of her own improvising,
as she skipped ahead.

"I don't believe they will," mused Mrs. Forbes. "Those customs take so much
time. It seems a very queer thing to me, Jewel, Mr. Evringham letting you
come in at all. Why, you'll very likely not get home till midnight."

"Won't it be the most _fun_!" cried the child, dancing to her closet and
getting her checked silk dress.

"I guess your flannel sailor suit will be the best, Jewel."

"Grandpa said I might wear my silk. You see I'm going to dinner with him,
and that's just like going to a party, and I ought to be very particular,
don't you think so?"

"Well, don't sit down on anything dirty at the wharf. I expect you will,"
returned Mrs. Forbes with a resigned sigh, as she proceeded to unfasten
Jewel's tight, thick little braids.

"Just think what a short time we'll have to miss cousin Eloise," said the
child. "Day before yesterday she went away, and now to-morrow my mother'll
braid my hair." She gave an ecstatic sigh.

"If that's all you wanted your cousin Eloise for--to braid your hair--I
guess I could get to do it as well as she did."

"Oh, I loved cousin Eloise for everything and I always shall love her,"
responded the child quickly. "I only meant I didn't have to trouble you
long with my hair."

"I think I do it pretty well."

"Yes, indeed you do--just as _tight_. Do you remember how much it troubled
you when I first came? and now it's so much different!"

"Yes, there are a whole lot of things that are much different," replied
Mrs. Forbes. "How long do you suppose you'll be staying with us now,
Jewel?"

The child's face grew sober. "I don't know, because I don't know how long
father and mother can stay."

"You'll think about this room where you've lived so many weeks, when you
get back to Chicago."

"Yes, I shall think about it lots of times," said the little girl. "I knew
it would be a lovely visit at grandpa's, and it has been."

She glanced up in the mirror toward the housekeeper's face and saw that the
woman's lips were working suspiciously and her eyes brimming over.

"You won't be lonely, will you, Mrs. Forbes?" she asked; "because grandpa
says you want to live with Zeke in the barn this summer while he shuts up
the house and goes off on his vacation."

"Oh, yes; it's all right, Jewel, only it just came over me that in a week,
or perhaps sooner, you'll be gone."

"It's real kind of you to be glad to have me stay," said the child. "I try
not to think about going away, because it does make me feel sorry every
time. You know the soot blows all around in Chicago and we haven't any
yard, and when I think about all the sky and trees here, and the ravine,
beside grandpa and you and Zeke and Essex Maid--why I have to just say 'I
_won't_ be sorry,' and then think about father and mother and Star and all
the nice things! I think Star will like the park pretty well." Jewel looked
into space thoughtfully, and then shook her head. "I'm sure the morning we
go I shall have to say: 'Green pastures are before me' over and over."

"What do you mean, child?"

"Why, you know the psalm: 'He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He
leadeth me beside the still waters'?"

"Yes."

"Well, in our hymnal there's the line of a hymn: 'Green pastures are before
me,' and mother and I used to say that line every morning when we woke up,
to remind us that Love was going to lead us all day."

"I'd like to see your mother," said Mrs. Forbes after a pause.

"You will, to-night," cried Jewel, suddenly joyous again. "Oh, Mrs. Forbes,
do you think I could take Anna Belle to New York?"

"What did Mr. Evringham say?"

"He went away before I had a chance to ask him." Jewel looked wistfully
toward the chair where the doll sat by the window, toeing in, her sweet
gaze fixed on the wall-paper. "She would enjoy it so!" added the little
girl.

"Oh, it's a tiresome trip for children, such late hours," returned Mrs.
Forbes persuasively. "Beside," with an inspiration, "you'd like your hands
free to help your mother carry her bags, wouldn't you?"

"That's so," responded Jewel. "Anna Belle would always give up anything for
her grandma!" and as the housekeeper finished tying the hair bows, the
little girl skipped over to the chair and knelt before the doll, explaining
the situation to her with a joyous incoherence mingled with hugs and kisses
from which the even-tempered Anna Belle emerged apparently dazed but
docile.

"Come here and get your shoes on, Jewel."

"My best ones," returned the child.

"Oh, yes, the best of everything," said Mrs. Forbes good-humoredly; and
indeed, when Jewel was arrayed, she viewed herself in the mirror with
satisfaction.

Zeke presented himself soon, fine in a new summer suit and hat, and Mrs.
Forbes watched the pair as they walked down the driveway.

"Now, I can't let the grass grow under my feet," she muttered. "I expected
to have till to-morrow night to get all the things done that Mr. Evringham
told me to, but I guess I can get through."

Jewel and Zeke had ample time for the train. Indeed, the little girl's
patience was somewhat tried before the big headlight came in view. She
could not do such injustice to her silk dress and daisy-wreathed leghorn
hat as to hop and skip, so she stood demurely with Zeke on the station
platform, and as they waited he regarded her happy expectant face.

"Remember the day you got here, kid?" he asked.

"Yes. Isn't it a long time since you came and met me with Dick, and he just
whirled us home!"

"Sure it is. And now you're glad to be leaving us."

"I am not, Zeke!"

"Well, you look in the glass and see for yourself."

Just then the train came along and Zeke swung the child up to the high
step. The fact that she found a seat by the window added a ray to her
shining eyes. Her companion took the place beside her.

"Yes," he went on, as the train started, "it's kind of hard on the rest of
us to have you so tickled over the prospect."

"I'm only happy over father and mother," returned Jewel.

"Pretty nice folks, are they?"

Jewel shook her head significantly. "You just wait and see," she replied
with zest.

"Which one do you look like?"

"Like father. Mother's much prettier than father."

"A beauty, is she?"

"N--o, I don't believe so. She isn't so pretty as cousin Eloise, but then
she's pretty."

"That's probably the reason your grandfather likes to see you
around--because you look like his side of the house."

"Well," Jewel sighed, "I hope grandpa likes my nose. I don't."

Zeke laughed. "He seems able to put up with it. I expect there's going to
be ructions around here the next week."

"What's ructions?"

"Well, some folks might call it error. I don't know. Mr. Evringham's going
to be pretty busy with his own nose. It's going to be put out of joint
to-night. The green-eyed monster's going to get on the rampage, or I miss
my guess."

Jewel looked up doubtfully. Zeke was a joker, of course, being a man, but
what was he driving at now?

"What green-eyed monster?" she asked.

"Oh, the one that lives in folks' hearts and lays low part of the time,"
replied Zeke.

"Do you mean jealousy; envy, hatred, or malice?" asked Jewel so glibly that
her companion stared.

"Great Scott! What do you know about that outfit?" he asked.

The child nodded wisely. "I know people believe in them sometimes; but you
needn't think grandpa does, because he doesn't."

"Mr. Evringham's all right," agreed Zeke, "but he isn't going to be the
only pebble any longer. Your father and mother will be the whole thing
now."

The child was thoughtful a moment, then she began earnestly: "Oh, I'm sure
grandpa knows how it is about loving. The more people you love, the more
you can love. I can love father and mother more because I've learned to
love grandpa, and he can love them more too, because he has learned to love
me."

"Humph! We'll see," remarked the other, smiling.

"Is error talking to you, Zeke? Are you laying laws on grandpa?"

"Well, if I am, I'll stop it mighty quick. You don't catch me taking any
such liberties. Whoa!" drawing on imaginary reins as the engine slackened
at a station.

Jewel laughed, and from that time until they reached New York they chatted
about her pony Star, and other less important horses, and of the child's
anticipation of showing her mother the joys of Bel-Air Park.

Chapter II

THE BROKER'S OFFICE

It was the first time Jewel had visited her grandfather's office and she
was impressed anew with his importance as she entered the stone building
and ascended in the elevator to mysterious heights.

Arrived in an electric-lighted anteroom, Zeke's request to see Mr.
Evringham was met by a sharp-eyed young man who denied it with a cold,
inquiring stare. Then the glance of this factotum fell to Jewel's uplifted,
rose-tinted face and her trustful gaze fixed on his own.

Zeke twirled his hat slowly between his hands.

"You just step into Mr. Evringham's office," he said quietly, "and tell him
the young lady he invited has arrived."

Jewel wondered how this person, who had the privilege of being near her
grandfather all day, could look so forbidding; but in her happy excitement
she could not refrain from smiling at him under the nodding hat brim.

"I'm going to dinner with him," she said softly, "and I _think_ we're going
to have Nesselrode pudding."

The young man's eyes stared and then began to twinkle. "Oh," he returned,
"in that case"--then he turned and left the visitors.

When he entered the sanctum of his employer he was smiling. Mr. Evringham
did not look up at once. When he did, it was with a brief, "Well?"

"A young lady insists upon seeing you, sir."

"Kindly stop grinning, Masterson, and tell her she must state her
business."

"She has done so, sir," but Masterson did not stop grinning. "She looks
like a summer girl, and I guess she is one."

Mr. Evringham frowned at this unprecedented levity. "What is her business,
briefly?" he asked curtly.

"To eat Nesselrode pudding, sir."

The broker started. "Ah!" he exclaimed, and though he still frowned, he
reflected his junior's smile. "Is there some one with her?"

"A young man."

"Send them in, please."

Masterson obeyed and managed to linger until his curiosity was both
appeased and heightened by seeing Jewel run across the Turkish rug and
completely submerge the stately gray head beneath the brim of her hat.

"Well, I'll--be--everlastingly"--thought Masterson, as he softly passed out
and closed the door behind him. "Even Achilles could get it in the heel,
but I'll swear I didn't believe the old man had a joint in his armor."

Zeke stood twisting his hat, and when his employer was allowed to come to
the surface, he spoke respectfully:--

"Mother said I was to bring word if you would like a late supper, sir."

"Tell Mrs. Forbes that it will be only something light, if anything. She
need not prepare."

Jewel danced to the door with her escort as he went. "Good-by, Zeke," she
said gayly. "Thank you for bringing me."

"Good-by, Jewel," he returned in subdued accents, and stumbling on the
threshold, passed out with a furtive wave of his hat.

The child returned and jumped into a chair by the desk, reserved for the
selected visitors who succeeded in invading this precinct. "I suppose you
aren't quite through," she said, fixing her host with a blissful gaze as he
worked among a scattered pile of papers.

"Very nearly," he returned. He saw that she was near to bubbling over with
ideas ready to pour out to him. He knew, too, that she would wait his time.
It entertained him to watch her furtively as she gave herself to inspecting
the furnishings of the room and the pictures on the wall, then looked down
at the patent leather tips of her best shoes as they swung to and fro. At
last she began to look at him more and more wistfully, and to view the
furnishings of the large desk. It had a broad shelf at the top.

Suddenly Jewel caught sight of a picture standing there in a square frame,
and an irrepressible "Oh!" escaped from her lips.

She pressed her hands together and Mr. Evringham saw a deeper rose in her
cheeks. He followed her eyes, and silently taking the picture from the desk
placed it in her lap. She clasped it eagerly. It was a fine photograph of
Essex Maid, her grandfather's mare.

In a minute he spoke:--

"Now I think I'm about through, Jewel," he said, leaning back in his
chair.

"Oh, grandpa, do these cost very much?"

"Why? Do you want to have Star sit for his picture?"

"Yes, it _would_ be nice to have a picture of Star, wouldn't it! I never
thought of that. I mean to ask mother if I can."

The broker winced.

"What I was thinking of was, could I have a picture of Essex Maid to take
with me to Chicago?"

Mr. Evringham nodded. "I will get you one." He kept on nodding slightly,
and Jewel noted the expression of his eyes. Her bright look began to cloud
as her grandfather continued to gaze at her.

"You'd like to have a picture of Star to keep, wouldn't you?" she asked
softly, her head falling a little to one side in loving recognition of his
sadness.

"Yes," he answered, rather gruffly, "and I've been thinking for some weeks
that there was a picture lacking on my desk here."

"Star's?" asked Jewel.

"No. Yours. Are there any pictures of you?"

"No, only when I was a baby. You ought to see me. I was as _fat_!"

"We'll have some photographs of you."

"Oh," Jewel spoke wistfully, "I wish I was pretty."

"Then you wouldn't be an Evringham."

"Why not? You are," returned the child, so spontaneously that slow color
mounted to the broker's face, and he smiled.

"I look like my mother's family, they say. At any rate,"--after a pause
and scrutiny of her,--"it's your face, it's my Jewel's face, that suits me
and that I want to keep. If I can find somebody who can do it and not
change you into some one else, I am going to have a little picture painted;
a miniature, that I can carry in my pocket when Essex Maid and I are left
alone."

The brusque pain in his tone filled Jewel's eyes, and her little hands
clasped tighter the frame she held in her lap.

"Then you will give me one of you, too, grandpa?"

"Oh, child," he returned, rather hoarsely, "it's too late to be painting my
leather countenance."

"No one could paint it just as I know it," said Jewel softly. "I know all
the ways you look, grandpa,--when you're joking or when you're sorry, or
happy, and they're all in here," she pressed one hand to her breast in a
simple fervor that, with her moist eyes, compelled Mr. Evringham to swallow
several times; "but I'd like one in my hand to show to people when I tell
them about you."

The broker looked away and fussed with an envelope.

"Grandpa," continued the child after a pause, "I've been thinking that
there's one secret we've got to keep from father and mother."

Mr. Evringham looked back at her. This was the most cheering word he had
heard for some time.

"It wouldn't be loving to let them know how sorry it makes us to say
good-by, would it? I get such lumps in my throat when I think about not
riding with you or having breakfast together. I do work over it and think
how happy it will be to have father and mother again, and how Love gives us
everything we ought to have and everything like that; but I
_have_--cried--twice, thinking about it! Even Anna Belle is mortified the
way I act. I know you feel sorry, too, and we've got to demonstrate over
it; but it'll come so soon, and I guess I didn't begin to work in time.
Anyway, I was wondering if we couldn't just have a secret and manage not to
say good-by to each other." The corners of the child's mouth were twitching
down now, and she took out a small handkerchief and wiped her eyes.

Mr. Evringham blew his nose violently, and crossing the office turned the
key in the door.

"I think that would be an excellent plan, Jewel," he returned, rather
thickly, but with an endeavor to speak heartily. "Of course your
confounded--I mean to say your--your parents will naturally expect you to
follow their plans and"--he paused.

"And it would be so unloving to let them think that I was sorry after they
let me have such a beautiful visit, and if we can _just_--manage not to say
good-by, everything will be so much easier."

The broker stood looking at her while the plaintive voice made music for
him. "I'm going to try to manage just that thing if it's in the books," he
said, after waiting a little, and Jewel, looking up at him with an April
smile, saw that his eyes were wet.

"You're so good, grandpa," she returned tremulously; "and I won't even kiss
Essex Maid's neck--not the last morning."

He sat down with fallen gaze, and Jewel caught her lip with her teeth as
she looked at him. Then suddenly the leghorn hat was on the floor, daisy
side down, while she climbed into his lap and her soft cheek buried itself
under Mr. Evringham's ear.

"How m-many m-miles off is Chicago?" stammered the child, trying to repress
her sobs, all happy considerations suddenly lost in the realization of her
grandfather's lonely lot.

"A good many more than it ought to be. Don't cry, Jewel." The broker's
heart swelled within him as he pressed her to his breast. Her sorrow filled
him with tender elation, and he winked hard.

"There isn't--isn't any sorrow--in mind, grandpa. Shouldn't you--you think
I'd--remember it? Divine Love always--always takes care--of us--and just
because--I don't see how He's going--going to this time--I'm crying! Oh,
it's so--so naughty!"

Mr. Evringham swallowed fast. He never had wondered so much as he did this
minute just how obstinate or how docile those inconvenient and superfluous
individuals--Jewel's parents--would prove.

He cleared his throat. "Come, come," he said, and he kissed the warm pink
rose of the child's cheek. "Don't spoil those bright eyes just when you're
going to have your picture taken. We're going to have the jolliest time you
ever heard of!"

Jewel's little handkerchief was wet and Mr. Evringham put his own into her
hand and they went into the lavatory where she used the wet corner of a
towel while he told her about the photographer who had taken Essex Maid's
picture and should take Star's.

Then the cherished leghorn hat was rescued from its ignominy and replaced
carefully on its owner's head.

"But I never thought you meant to have my picture taken this afternoon,"
said Jewel, her lips still somewhat tremulous.

"I didn't until a minute ago, but I think we can find somebody who won't
mind doing it late in the day."

"Yours too, then, grandpa.--Oh, _yes_," and at last a smile beamed like the
sun out of an April sky, "right on the same card with me!"

"Oh, no, no, Jewel; no, no!"

"Yes, _please_, grandpa," earnestly, "do let's have one nice nose in the
picture!" She lifted eyes veiled again with a threatening mist. "And you'll
put your arm around me--and then I'll look at it"--her lip twitched.

"Yes, oh, yes, I--I think so," hastily. "We'll see, and then, after
that--how much Nesselrode pudding do you think you can eat? I tell you,
Jewel, we're going to have the time of our lives!" Mr. Evringham struck his
hands together with such lively anticipation that the child's spirits rose.

"Yes," she responded, "and then after dinner, _what_?" She gazed at him.

The broker tapped his forehead as if knocking at the door of memory.

"Father and mother!" she cried out, laughing and beginning to hop
discreetly. "You forgot, grandpa, you forgot. Your own little boy coming
home and you forgot!"

"Well, that's a fact, Jewel; that I suppose I had better remember. He is my
own boy--and I don't know but I owe him something after all."

CHAPTER III

HOME-COMING

Again Jewel and her grandfather stood on the wharf where the great boats,
ploughing their way through the mighty seas, come finally, each into its
own place, as meekly as the horse seeks his stable.

The last time they stood here they were strangers watching the departure of
those whom now they waited, hand in hand, to greet.

"Jewel, you made me eat too much dinner," remarked Mr. Evringham. "I feel
as if my jacket was buttoned, in spite of the long drive we've taken since.
I went to my tailor this morning, and what do you think he told me?"

"What? That you needed some new clothes?"

"Oh, he always tells me that. He told me that I was growing fat! There,
young lady, what do you think of that?"

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