of course. we are trying to remember your name. that’s why we didn’t invite you in. how do you do?”
“fine.” then he remembered his tribulations of a few minutes ago and added, “that is, pretty fair.” he closed the gate behind him and joined the twins, who had started down the path to meet him. “you must be hard up for something to do,” he said with a superior air, “if you have to play croquet!”
“we’re very fond of it,” replied the blue-eyed twin. “do you play?”
“i used to sometimes,” answered rodney carelessly. “it’s a girl’s game though.”
the blue-eyed one—he remembered now that she was matty—smiled. “would you like to play a game?”
“i don’t mind. i’ll stand you two.”
[92]
“i think we’d better each play separately,” said matty. “you see, may and i play pretty well. we do, don’t we, may?”
“we do,” replied the other gravely.
“all right,” rodney laughed. “each for himself then. have you another mallet and ball?”
may supplied them from a box on the floor of the tumble down, rustic summer-house nearby. “i’ve brought you green,” she announced. “somehow you suggest green to me, rodney. does he to you, matty?”
“n-no, i think brown,” answered the other twin reflectively. “perhaps a greenish-brown, though.”
“oh, i’m not as green as i look. who goes first?”
“may does. she plays red. then you come next. then i play.”
may took the first two wickets in one, got into position at the third wicket with the next shot, went through it with the next and then placed her ball in front of the middle arch. rodney negotiated the first two wickets cleanly but his next shot left him badly placed for the third and[93] his attempt to go through resulted disastrously. his ball glanced off a wire and rolled into the path of the on-coming matty. when she arrived she hit the green ball, skillfully sent it to the further side of the third wicket, went through herself, hit him again, sent it into the path and herself to the middle wicket, played off may’s ball for two wickets and finally landed within a yard of the further stake. rodney frowned as he recovered his ball. evidently these young ladies knew more about croquet than he had ever dreamed of.
may cleverly got herself into position again and rodney rolled short. matty hit the stake, took the next two wickets at one stroke and crossed to the further side arch. may reached the first of the double wickets on her next play. rodney got into position for his third. he was still at the middle wicket when matty, closely pursued by may, struck the home stake.
“these wickets are awfully narrow,” murmured rodney. “want to try again?”
“we’d love to if you’re not tired,” replied matty. “i’m sorry you had such poor luck, rodney. and then of course, you’re not used[94] to the grounds. there’s a lot in being used to the grounds, isn’t there, may?”
“lots,” agreed may. “it’s your first, rodney.”
the second game resulted as disastrously for rodney as had the first, and when it was over he had the grace to acknowledge that the twins were “some players.”
“i thought i knew a little about the game,” he said ruefully, “but i guess i don’t. you girls play better than anyone i’ve seen play.”
“we play a good deal,” replied may. “almost every day in summer. practice makes perfect, you know.”
rodney wished she hadn’t used the word practice. it reminded him unpleasantly of what awaited him on the morrow. his face clouded up and he sighed. matty, seeing his expression, imagined him tired and suggested a rest. so they went into the summer-house, which was almost enveloped in honeysuckle vines, and sat down on the curving seat.
“how are you getting on at school?” asked matty politely.
“all right, i guess. the studies aren’t hard.”
[95]
“probably that’s because you are naturally smart,” responded the girl. “you impress us as being clever. doesn’t he, may?”
“you do,” said may. “we both said so the other day.”
“and, oh, please tell us how you like your roommate!” and matty clasped her hands eagerly. may giggled. rodney frowned at the levity.
“he’s all right,” he replied. “sort of a peculiar fellow, but i rather like him.”
“and how are his lungs?” asked may very, very solicitously.
rodney grinned. “all right, i guess. he wants me to take walks with him. says it would do me a lot of good.”
“perhaps it would,” said matty, “although you don’t look very weak. you’re not, are you? may and i decided that you looked rather athletic. do you go in for football or baseball? anything besides croquet?”
rodney caught the little mocking gleam in the girl’s blue eyes and flushed uncomfortably.
“that’s all right about the croquet,” he said[96] defensively. “if i played half as much as you kids——”
“he’s quite right, matty,” declared may. “i think you should not have said that.”
“i was just in fun,” replied the other twin contritely. “i’m sure you’d play the game beautifully if you had more practice.”
“i guess,” said rodney, mollified, “i’d never get good enough to beat you two. i’ve never played very much. out home i used to play with my sisters sometimes. they like it.”
“where do you live?” asked matty. “we meant to ask you the other day.”
“orleans, nebraska. ever been in nebraska?”
each shook her head. “we haven’t travelled much,” confessed may. “after we finish high school, though, we’re going abroad with mother. have you ever been in europe?”
“no. don’t want to. what’s the use?”
“oh, but think of seeing the pyramids!” exclaimed matty.
“and the tomb of napoleon!” said may with calm rapture.
“and venice!”
[97]
“and the alps!”
“pompeii!”
“the nile!”
“piffle!” grunted rodney. “what’s the nile? ever been down the missouri and mississippi? they’ve got the nile beaten to a thick froth! as for the alps, why, you could set them down in the rockies and never be able to find them again! say, ever see the grand canyon, you girls?”
they shook their heads in unison. they did almost everything in unison.
“well that’s something worth while! you come out in my part of the world and i’ll show you things that’ll make your eyes pop out. you won’t think about europe after that, nor africa either!”
“but—but the antiquities!” said matty.
“all right. we’ve got antiquities in our own country, haven’t we?” asked rodney indignantly. “look at the cliff dwellings!”
“what are those?” asked may.
“there it is!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “i knew it! never heard of the cliff dwellers! that’s always the way with folks who spout[98] about europe. they don’t know what—what’s in their own country!”
“we will read about them,” replied may untroubled. “we will find a book in the library that tells about them. please remind me, matty.”
“you’d better,” grumbled rodney. “learn about your own country first, that’s what i say!”
“of course,” agreed matty, “only—well, we might not have another opportunity to go abroad for years and years, and so it wouldn’t do not to go just because we hadn’t seen those places you spoke of, would it?”
rodney agreed that it wouldn’t. after that they talked of many things out there in the summer-house, while the sun sank lower and lower over the trees. and finally, just as rodney had secretly hoped it would, the story of his dilemma came out. he wanted sympathy, and he received it, but he was a little bit annoyed at the manner in which the twins clasped their hands and said “oh!” quite breathlessly when he told them that he was a brother of ginger merrill’s.
[99]
“think of that!” exclaimed matty, who was the first to recover from her surprise. “aren’t you proud?”
“no, i’m not,” returned rodney, speaking in very bored tones. “i wish stanley had never been at school here.”
“why, rodney!” this was may, scandalized. “how can you say such a thing? just think what it is to be the brother of a real hero like ginger merrill! you can’t mean it!”
“do, though,” grunted rodney doggedly. “i’m sick of hearing about him and sick of seeing his pictures all over the shop. and look what a mess i’m in on his account. got to go out to-morrow and fall around on a slippery old football and get bruised up. i can’t play and i told them so, but it didn’t do any good.” he kicked exasperatedly at the mallet he held. “i’ve a good mind not to go at all!”
“oh, rodney!” cried matty. “you must! think what a splendid thing it will be to get on the team and play against bursley and maybe win the game for us!”
“tell you i’m no good at it!” said rodney impatiently.[100] “i’ve tried it. besides, i don’t want to play football. i won’t have time.”
“why won’t you?” asked matty.
“because i want to study. i’m going to try for a scholarship. i’m willing to try for the baseball team and i like to play tennis, but i don’t want anything to do with football.”
“but—but—you ought to, rodney! your duty to the school——”
“piffle!”
matty looked pained. “but you did ought to——”
“had ought to, i think,” corrected may.
“should ought to,” laughed rodney. “oh, well, i’ll have to see it through, i guess. after i’ve been out a few days they’ll be glad to let me alone. only that’s going to get fellows sort of down on me. they’ll say ‘ginger merrill’s brother is an awful duffer. he can’t even hold the ball!’”
“but i don’t believe you’re nearly as bad as you try to make out,” said matty, smiling. “how could you be? ginger merrill’s brother——”
“there you go! i wish they’d forget i’m[101] ginger merrill’s brother. you, too. i’m going home.”
“well, it was very nice of you to play croquet with us, wasn’t it, may?”
“it was,” agreed may promptly and calmly.
“and to-morrow, if mama will allow us to, we’ll go over to the field and watch you practice.” and matty smiled encouragingly.
“rather you didn’t,” replied rodney gloomily. “so long.”
he squirmed through a thin place in the hedge that separated the binner’s garden from mrs. westcott’s yard, and entered the cottage. mrs. westcott, as luck would have it, was seated in her private parlor at the left of the door, and at sight of rodney hurried into the hall.
“my dear, dear boy!” she exclaimed rapturously. “i’ve just heard the news!”
“what news, ma’am?” asked rodney unsuspiciously.
“why, that you are stanley merrill’s brother! why didn’t you tell us?” she had both his hands now and was beaming radiantly upon him. “just to think that we never suspected it! why, i can’t tell you how proud i am, rodney![102] your dear brother used to come very often to my house to see my boys, and he and i were the best of friends! and to think that you are his brother!”
“yes’m,” replied rodney flatly. “it—it’s quite remarkable.”
