rose scrambled into the china-closet as rapidly as possible, andthere refreshed herself by making faces at debby, while she settledher plumage and screwed up her courage. then she crept softlydown the hall and peeped into the parlor. no one appeared, and allwas so still she felt sure the company was upstairs. so she skippedboldly through the half-open folding-doors, to behold on the otherside a sight that nearly took her breath away.
seven boys stood in a row all ages, all sizes, all yellow-haired andblue-eyed, all in full scotch costume, and all smiling, nodding, andsaying as with one voice, "how are you, cousin?"rose gave a little gasp, and looked wildly about her as if ready tofly, for fear magnified the seven and the room seemed full of boys.
before she could run, however, the tallest lad stepped out of theline, saying pleasantly"don't be frightened. this is the clan come to welcome you; andi'm the chief, archie, at your service."he held out his hand as he spoke, and rose timidly put her owninto a brown paw, which closed over the white morsel and held itas the chief continued his introductions.
"we came in full rig, for we always turn out in style on grandoccasions. hope you like it. now i'll tell you who these chaps are,and then we shall be all right. this big one is prince charlie, auntclara's boy. she has but one, so he is an extra good one. this oldfellow is mac, the bookworm, called worm for short. this sweetcreature is steve the dandy. look at his gloves and top-knot, if youplease. they are aunt jane's lads, and a precious pair you'd betterbelieve. these are the brats, my brothers, geordie and will, andjamie the baby. now, my men, step out and show your manners."at this command, to rose's great dismay, six more hands wereoffered, and it was evident that she was expected to shake themall. it was a trying moment to the bashful child; but, rememberingthat they were her kinsmen come to welcome her, she tried herbest to return the greeting cordially.
this impressive ceremony being over, the clan broke ranks, andboth rooms instantly appeared to be pervaded with boys. rosehastily retired to the shelter of a big chair and sat there watchingthe invaders and wondering when her aunt would come and rescueher.
as if bound to do their duty manfully, yet rather oppressed by it,each lad paused beside her chair in his wanderings, made a briefremark, received a still briefer answer, and then sheered off with arelieved expression.
archie came first, and, leaning over the chair-back, observed in apaternal tone"i'm glad you've come, cousin, and i hope you'll find the aunt-hillpretty jolly.""i think i shall."mac shook his hair out of his eyes, stumbled over a stool, andasked abruptly"did you bring any books with you?""four boxes full. they are in the library."mac vanished from the room, and steve, striking an attitude whichdisplayed his costume effectively, said with an affable smile"we were sorry not to see you last wednesday. i hope your cold isbetter.""yes, thank you." and a smile began to dimple about rose'smouth, as she remembered her retreat under the bed-cover.
feeling that he had been received with distinguished marks ofattention, steve strolled away with his topknot higher than ever,and prince charlie pranced across the room, saying in a free andeasy tone"mamma sent her love and hopes you will be well enough to comeover for a day next week. it must be desperately dull here for alittle thing like you.""i'm thirteen and a half, though i do look small," cried rose,forgetting her shyness in indignation at this insult to her newlyacquired teens.
"beg pardon, ma'am; never should have guessed it." and charliewent off with a laugh, glad to have struck a spark out of his meekcousin.
geordie and will came together, two sturdy eleven and twelveyear olders, and, fixing their round blue eyes on rose, fired off aquestion apiece, as if it was a shooting match and she the target.
"did you bring your monkey?""no; he is dead.""are you going to have a boat?""i hope not."here the two, with a right-about-face movement, abruptly marchedaway, and little jamie demanded with childish frankness"did you bring me anything nice?""yes, lots of candy," answered rose, whereupon jamie ascendedinto her lap with a sounding kiss and the announcement that heliked her very much.
this proceeding rather startled rose, for the other lads looked andlaughed, and in her confusion she said hastily to the young usurper"did you see the circus go by?""when? where?" cried all the boys in great excitement at once.
"just before you came. at least i thought it was a circus, for i sawa red and black sort of cart and ever so many little ponies, and "she got no farther, for a general shout made her pause suddenly, asarchie explained the joke by saying in the middle of his laugh"it was our new dog-cart and the shetland ponies. you'll neverhear the last of your circus, cousin.""but there were so many, and they went so fast, and the cart was sovery red," began rose, trying to explain her mistake.
"come and see them all!" cried the prince. and before she knewwhat was happening, she was borne away to the barn andtumultuously introduced to three shaggy ponies and the gay newdog-cart.
she had never visited these regions before, and had her doubts asto the propriety of her being there now, but when she suggestedthat "auntie might not like it," there was a general cry of"she told us to amuse you, and we can do it ever so much betterout here than poking round in the house.""i'm afraid i shall get cold without my sacque," began rose, whowanted to stay, but felt rather out of her element.
"no, you won't! we'll fix you," cried the lads, as one clapped hiscap on her head, another tied a rough jacket round her neck by thesleeves, a third neatly smothered her in a carriage blanket, and afourth threw open the door of the old barouche that stood there,saying with a flourish"step in, ma'am, and make yourself comfortable while we showyou some fun."so rose sat in state enjoying herself very much, for the ladsproceeded to dance a highland fling with a spirit and skill thatmade her clap her hands and laugh as she had not done for weeks.
"how is that, my lassie?" asked the prince, coming up all flushedand breathless when the ballet was over.
"it was splendid! i never went to the theatre but once, and thedancing was not half so pretty as this. what clever boys you mustbe!" said rose, smiling upon her kinsmen like a little queen uponher subjects.
"ah, we're a fine lot, and that is only the beginning of our larks.
we haven't got the pipes here or we'd'sing for you, play for youa dulcy melody."'
answered charlie, looking much elated at her praise.
"i did not know we were scotch; papa never said anything about it,or seemed to care about scotland, except to have me sing the oldballads," said rose, beginning to feel as if she had left americabehind her somewhere.
"neither did we till lately. we've been reading scott's novels, andall of a sudden we remembered that our grandfather was ascotchman. so we hunted up the old stories, got a bagpipe, put onour plaids, and went in, heart and soul, for the glory of the clan.
we've been at it some time now, and it's great fun. our people likeit, and i think we are a pretty canny set."archie said this from the other coach-step, where he had perched,while the rest climbed up before and behind to join in the chat asthey rested.
"i'm fitzjames and he's roderick dhu, and we'll give you thebroadsword combat some day. it's a great thing, you'd betterbelieve," added the prince.
"yes, and you should hear steve play the pipes. he makes 'em skirllike a good one," cried will from the box, eager to air theaccomplishments of his race.
"mac's the fellow to hunt up the old stories and tell us how to dressright, and pick out rousing bits for us to speak and sing," put ingeordie, saying a good word for the absent worm.
"and what do you and will do?" asked rose of jamie, who satbeside her as if bound to keep her in sight till the promised gift hadbeen handed over.
"oh, i'm the little foot-page, and do errands, and will and geordieare the troops when we march, and the stags when we hunt, andthe traitors when we want to cut any heads off.""they are very obliging, i'm sure," said rose, whereat the "utilitymen" beamed with modest pride and resolved to enact wallaceand montrose as soon as possible for their cousin's special benefit.
"let's have a game of tag," cried the prince, swinging himself up toa beam with a sounding slap on stevie's shoulder.
regardless of his gloves, dandy tore after him, and the restswarmed in every direction as if bent on breaking their necks anddislocating their joints as rapidly as possible.
it was a new and astonishing spectacle to rose, fresh from a primboarding-school, and she watched the active lads with breathlessinterest, thinking their antics far superior to those of mops, thedear departed monkey.
will had just covered himself with glory by pitching off a high lofthead first and coming up all right, when phebe appeared with acloak, hood, and rubbers, also a message from aunt plenty that"miss rose was to come in directly.""all right; we'll bring her!" answered archie, issuing somemysterious order, which was so promptly obeyed that, before rosecould get out of the carriage, the boys had caught hold of the poleand rattled her out of the barn, round the oval and up to the frontdoor with a cheer that brought two caps to an upper window, andcaused debby to cry aloud from the back porch"them harum-scarum boys will certainly be the death of thatdelicate little creter!"but the "delicate little creter" seemed all the better for her trip, andran up the steps looking rosy, gay, and dishevelled, to be receivedwith lamentation by aunt plenty, who begged her to go and liedown at once.
"oh, please don't! we have come to tea with our cousin, and we'llbe as good as gold if you'll let us stay, auntie," clamoured the boys,who not only approved of "our cousin" but had no mind to losetheir tea, for aunt plenty's name but feebly expressed her bountifulnature.
"well, dears, you can; only be quiet, and let rose go and take heriron and be made tidy, and then we will see what we can find forsupper," said the old lady as she trotted away, followed by a volleyof directions for the approaching feast.
"marmalade for me, auntie.""plenty of plum-cake, please.""tell debby to trot out the baked pears.""i'm your man for lemon-pie, ma'am.""do have fritters; rose will like 'em.""she'd rather have tarts, i know."when rose came down, fifteen minutes later, with every curlsmoothed and her most beruffled apron on, she found the boysloafing about the long hall, and paused on the half-way landing totake an observation, for till now she had not really examined hernew-found cousins.
there was a strong family resemblance among them, though someof the yellow heads were darker than others, some of the cheeksbrown instead of rosy, and the ages varied all the way fromsixteen-year-old archie to jamie, who was ten years younger.
none of them were especially comely but the prince, yet all werehearty, happy-looking lads, and rose decided that boys were not asdreadful as she had expected to find them.
they were all so characteristically employed that she could nothelp smiling as she looked. archie and charlie, evidently greatcronies, were pacing up and down, shoulder to shoulder, whistling"bonnie dundee"; mac was reading in a corner, with his bookclose to his near-sighted eyes; dandy was arranging his hair beforethe oval glass in the hat-stand; geordie and will investigating theinternal economy of the moon-faced clock; and jamie lay kickingup his heels on the mat at the foot of the stairs, bent on demandinghis sweeties the instant rose appeared.
she guessed his intention, and forestalled his demand by droppinga handful of sugar-plums down upon him.
at his cry of rapture the other lads looked up and smiledinvoluntarily, for the little kinswoman standing there above was awinsome sight with her shy, soft eyes, bright hair, and laughingface. the black frock reminded them of her loss, and filled theboyish hearts with a kindly desire to be good to "our cousin," whohad no longer any home but this.
"there she is, as fine as you please," cried steve, kissing his handto her.
"come on, missy; tea is ready," added the prince encouragingly.
"i shall take her in." and archie offered his arm with great dignity,an honour that made rose turn as red as a cherry and long to runupstairs again.
it was a merry supper, and the two elder boys added much to thefun by tormenting the rest with dark hints of some interestingevent which was about to occur. something uncommonly fine,they declared it was, but enveloped in the deepest mystery for thepresent.
"did i ever see it?" asked jamie.
"not to remember it; but mac and steve have, and liked itimmensely," answered archie, thereby causing the two mentionedto neglect debby's delectable fritters for several minutes, whilethey cudgelled their brains.
"who will have it first?" asked will, with his mouth full ofmarmalade.
"aunt plenty, i guess.""when will she have it?" demanded geordie, bouncing in his seatwith impatience.
"sometime on monday.""heart alive! what is the boy talking about?" cried the old ladyfrom behind the tall urn, which left little to be seen but thetopmost bow of her cap.
"doesn't auntie know?" asked a chorus of voices.
"no; and that's the best of the joke, for she is desperately fond ofit.""what colour is it?" asked rose, joining in the fun.
"blue and brown.""is it good to eat?" asked jamie.
"some people think so, but i shouldn't like to try it," answeredcharlie, laughing so he split his tea.
"who does it belong to?" put in steve.
archie and the prince stared at one another rather blankly for aminute, then archie answered with a twinkle of the eye that madecharlie explode again"to grandfather campbell."this was a poser, and they gave up the puzzle, though jamieconfided to rose that he did not think he could live till mondaywithout knowing what this remarkable thing was.
soon after tea the clan departed, singing "all the blue bonnets areover the border," at the tops of their voices.
"well, dear, how do you like your cousins?" asked aunt plenty, asthe last pony frisked round the corner and the din died away.
"pretty well, ma'am; but i like phebe better." an answer whichcaused aunt plenty to hold up her hands in despair and trot awayto tell sister peace that she never should understand that child, andit was a mercy alec was coming soon to take the responsibility offtheir hands.
fatigued by the unusual exertions of the afternoon, rose curledherself up in the sofa corner to rest and think about the greatmystery, little guessing that she was to know it first of all.
right in the middle of her meditations she fell asleep and dreamedshe was at home again in her own little bed. she seemed to wakeand see her father bending over her; to hear him say, "my littlerose"; to answer, "yes, papa"; and then to feel him take her in hisarms and kiss her tenderly. so sweet, so real was the dream, thatshe started up with a cry of joy to find herself in the arms of abrown, bearded man, who held her close, and whispered in a voiceso like her father's that she clung to him involuntarily"this is my little girl, and i am uncle alec."
