there was not quite so large a crowd at the sunbridge station to welcome the texas travelers as there had been to see them off; but it was fully large enough to give a merry cheer of greeting, as the train pulled into the little station.
"they're all here, with their 'sisters and their cousins and their aunts,'" laughed tilly, stooping to look through the window as she passed down the narrow aisle behind genevieve.
"i should say they were," answered genevieve a little wistfully. "we haven't got any one, i'm afraid, though. miss jane's been 'down in maine,' as you call it, visiting, and she doesn't come till next week."
"oh, yes, you have," chuckled tilly, as she caught sight of an eager face in the crowd. "there's harold day."
"pooh! he didn't come to welcome me any more than he did the rest of you," retorted genevieve severely, as she neared the door.
and what a confusion and chatter it all was, when "their sisters and their cousins and their aunts"—to say nothing of their fathers and mothers and brothers—all talked and laughed at once, each trying to be first to kiss and hug the one returning traveler, before bestowing almost as cordial a welcome on all the others. at last, however, in little family groups, afoot or in carriages, the crowd began to leave the station, and genevieve found herself with mrs. kennedy in the family carriage with the old coachman sitting sedately up in front. mr. hartley had left the party in new york, after seeing them safely aboard their boston train.
"well, it's all over," sighed genevieve, happily, "and hasn't it been just lovely—with nothing but poor tilly's arm to regret!"
"yes, it certainly has been a beautiful trip, my dear, and i know every one has enjoyed it very much. and now comes—school."
genevieve made a wry face; then, meeting mrs. kennedy's reproving eye, she colored.
"there, forgive me, aunt julia, please. that wasn't nice of me, of course, when you're so good as to let me come another year. but school is so tiresome!"
"tiresome! oh, my dear!"
"well, it is, aunt julia," sighed the girl.
"but i thought you liked it now, dear. you took hold of it so bravely at the last." mrs. kennedy's eyes were wistful.
"oh, of course i wanted to pass and go on with the rest of the girls, aunt julia. i couldn't help wanting that. but as for really liking it—i couldn't like it, you know; just study, study, study all day in hot, poky rooms, when it's so much nicer out of doors!"
mrs. kennedy shook her head. her eyes were troubled.
"i'm afraid, my dear, that this trip hasn't helped any. i was fearful that it wouldn't be easy for you to settle down after such a prolonged playday."
"oh, but i shall settle, aunt julia, i shall settle," promised genevieve with a merry smile. "i know i've got to settle—but i can't say yet i shall like it," she finished, as the carriage turned in at the broad driveway, and nancy and bridget were seen to be waiting in respectful excitement to welcome them.
there would be five days to "get used to it"—as genevieve expressed it—before school began; but long before noon of the first of those five days, genevieve had planned in her mind enough delightful things to occupy twice that number of days. immediately after dinner, too, came something quite unexpected in the shape of a call from cordelia.
cordelia looked worried.
"genevieve, i've come to ask a favor, please. i'm sure i don't know as you'll want to do it, but—but i want you to go with me to see hermit joe."
"to see—hermit joe!"
"o dear, i knew you'd exclaim out," sighed cordelia; "but it's just got to be done. i suppose i ought not to have told you, anyway, but i couldn't bear to go up to that dismal place alone," she finished, tearfully.
"why, of course not, dear; and i'm sure you did just right to tell me," soothed genevieve, in quick response to the tears in cordelia's eyes. "now wait while i get my hat and ask aunt julia. she'll let me go, i know;—she'd let me go to—to london, with you."
"just please say it's an errand—an important one," begged cordelia, nervously, as genevieve darted into the house.
in two minutes the girl had returned, hat in hand.
"now tell me all about it," she commanded, "and don't look so frightened. hermit joe isn't cross. he's only solemn and queer. he won't hurt us."
"oh, no, he won't hurt us," sighed the other. "he'll only look more solemn and queer."
"why?"
"because of what i've got to tell him. i—i suppose i ought to have written it, but i just couldn't. besides, i hadn't found out anything, and so i didn't want to write until i was sure i couldn't find anything. now it's done, and i haven't found out anything. so i've got to tell him."
"tell him what, cordelia?" demanded genevieve, a little impatiently. "how do you suppose i can make anything out of that kind of talk?"
"o dear! you can't, of course," sighed cordelia; "and, of course, if i've told you so much i must tell the rest. it's hermit joe's son. i can't find him."
"his son! i didn't know he had a son."
"he has. his name is john. he ran away to texas twenty years ago."
"and you've been hunting for him, too—besides that lester goodwin who turned out to be reddy?"
cordelia nodded. she did not speak.
genevieve laughed unexpectedly.
"of all the funny things i ever heard of! pray, how many more lost people have you been looking for in the little state of texas?"
cordelia moved her shoulders uneasily.
"i—i'd rather not tell that, please, genevieve," she stammered, with a painful blush.
genevieve stared dumbly. she had not supposed for a moment that cordelia had been looking for any more lost people. she had asked the question merely as an absurdity. to have it taken now in this literal fashion, and evidently with good reason—genevieve could scarcely believe the evidence of her senses. another laugh was almost on her lips, but the real distress in cordelia's face stopped it in time.
"you poor dear little thing," she cried sympathetically. "what a shame to bother you so! i wonder you had any fun at all on the trip."
"oh, but i did, genevieve! you don't know how beautiful it all was to me—only of course i felt sorry to be such a failure in what folks wanted me to do. you see, reddy was the only one i found, and i'm very much worried for fear he won't be satisfactory."
genevieve did laugh this time.
"well, if he isn't, i don't see how that can be your fault," she retorted. "come, now let's forget all this, and just talk texas instead."
"aunt mary says i do do that—all the time," rejoined cordelia, with a wistful smile. "aunt sophronia is there, too, and she says i do. still, she likes to hear it, i verily believe, else she wouldn't ask me so many questions," concluded cordelia, lifting her chin a little.
"i'd like to take miss jane there sometime," observed genevieve, with a gravity that was a little unnatural.
"oh, mercy!" exclaimed cordelia—then she stopped short with a hot blush. "i—i beg your pardon, i'm sure, genevieve," she went on stammeringly. "i ought not to have spoken that way, of course. i was only thinking of miss jane and—and the cowboys that day they welcomed us."
"yes, i know," rejoined genevieve, her lips puckered into a curious little smile.
"i don't believe i'm doing any more talking, anyway, than tilly is," remarked cordelia, after a moment's silence. "of course, tilly, with her poor arm, would make a lot of questions, anyway; but she is talking a great deal."
"i suppose she is," chuckled genevieve, "and we all know what she'll say."
"but she says such absurd things, genevieve. why, charlie brown—you know he calls us the 'happy texagons' now—well, he told me that tilly'd been bragging so terribly about texas, and all the fine things there were there, that he asked her this morning real soberly—you know how charlie brown can ask questions, sometimes—"
"i know," nodded genevieve.
"well, he asked her, solemn as a judge, 'do these wondrous tamales of yours grow on trees down there?'
"'oh, yes,' tilly assured him serenely. and when charlie, of course, declared that couldn't be, she just shrugged her shoulders and answered: 'well, of course, charlie, i'll own i didn't see tamales growing on trees, but texas is a very large state, and while i didn't, of course, see anywhere near all of it, yet i saw so much, and it was all so different from each other, that i'm sure i shouldn't want to say that i knew they didn't have tamale trees somewhere in texas!' and then she marched off in that stately way of hers, and[255] charlie declared he began to feel as if tamale trees did grow in texas, and that he ought to go around telling folks so."
"what a girl she is!" laughed genevieve. "but, cordelia, she isn't all nonsense. we found that out that dreadful night of the accident."
"indeed we did," agreed cordelia, loyally; then, with a profound sigh she added: "o dear! for a minute i'd actually forgotten—hermit joe."
hermit joe lived far up the hillside in a little hut surrounded by thick woods. a tiny path led to his door, but it was seldom trodden by the foot of anybody but of hermit joe himself—hermit joe did not encourage visitors, and visitors certainly were not attracted by hermit joe's stern reticence on all matters concerning himself and every one else.
to-day, as the girls entered the path at the edge of the woods, the sun went behind a passing cloud, and the gloom was even more noticeable than usual.
"mercy! i'm glad hermit joe isn't dangerous and doesn't bite," whispered genevieve, peering into the woods on either side. "aunt julia says he is really a very estimable man—cordelia, if i was a man i just wouldn't be an 'estimable' one."
"genevieve!" gasped the shocked cordelia.
genevieve laughed.
"oh, i'd be it, of course, my dear, only i wouldn't want to be called it. it's the word—it always makes me think of side whiskers and stupidity."
"oh, genevieve!" cried cordelia, again.
"well, as i was saying, aunt julia told me that hermit joe was really a very nice man. she used to know him well before a great sorrow drove him into the woods to live all by himself."
cordelia nodded sadly.
"that was his son that ran away. aunt mary told me that long ago. she told us children never to tease him, or worry him, but that we needn't be afraid of him, either. he wouldn't hurt us. i heard once that he was always stern and sober, and that that was why his son ran away. but that it 'most killed him—the father—when he did go. and now i couldn't find him! isn't it terrible, genevieve?" cordelia's eyes were full of tears.
"yes," sighed genevieve. "but you aren't to blame, dear."
it was very beautiful in the hushed green light of the woods, with now and then a bird-call, or the swift scampering of a squirrel's feet to break the silence. but the girls were not noticing birds or squirrels to-day, and they became more and more silent as they neared the end of their journey. the little cabin was almost in sight when genevieve caught cordelia's arm convulsively.
"cordelia, sh-h-h! isn't that some one—talking?" she whispered.
cordelia held her right foot suspended in the air for a brief half minute.
"yes. that's hermit joe's voice. he is talking to some one."
"then there must be somebody there with him."
"yes. genevieve, i—i guess i won't tell him to-day," faltered cordelia. "let's go back. i'll come again to-morrow."
"nonsense! go back, and have you worrying about this thing another twenty-four hours? no, indeed! come, cordelia, we must tell him now. i think we ought to do it, really."
"all right," sighed the other despairingly. "come, then." the next minute she gave a sharp cry. "why, mr. edwards!" she breathed.
they had come to the turn which brought the cabin into plain sight; and on the stone step with hermit joe sat the man cordelia had last seen driving away from the six star ranch in texas.
both men rose abruptly. the younger stepped forward. there was a whimsical smile on his lips, but his eyes were wonderfully tender.
"yes, 'mr. edwards,' miss cordelia—but mr. 'jonathan edwards sanborn.' you see, you didn't know all my name, perhaps."
to every one's surprise and consternation cordelia sat down exactly where she was, and began to cry softly.
"why, cordelia!"
genevieve was at her friend's side at once. hermit joe looked plainly distressed. mr. jonathan edwards sanborn hurried forward in frightened dismay.
"oh, but miss cordelia, don't, please don't—i beg of you! don't you understand? i am john sanborn, hermit joe's son; and 'twas all through you that i came home again."
cordelia only sobbed the harder.
genevieve dropped on her knees at the girl's side, and put her arms about her.
"cordelia, cordelia, dear—don't you see?—it's all come out right. you did find him, after all! why are you crying so?"
"t-that's why," stuttered cordelia, smiling through tear-wet eyes. "it's because i d-did find him, and i'm so glad, and everything!"
"but, if you're glad, why cry?" began hermit joe's son, in puzzled wonder, but genevieve patted cordelia's back, and smiled cheerily.
"that's all right, cordelia," she declared. "i know just how you feel. now you know what was the matter with me when you girls gave me the texas yell at the station. just cry all you like!"
as if permission, only, were all she wanted, cordelia wiped her eyes and smiled shyly into mr. jonathan edwards sanborn's face.
"it is really you, isn't it?" she murmured.
"it certainly is, miss cordelia."
"and you wouldn't have come if it hadn't been for what i said?"
"no. you set me to thinking, and when i got to thinking i couldn't stop. and, of course, when i couldn't stop thinking i had to come; that's all."
"i'm so glad," sighed cordelia; then, interestedly: "how long have you been here?"
"only since day before yesterday. no one in the village knows i'm here, i suspect. we've been talking over our plans—father and i. i want him to come west with me."
cordelia got up from the ground.
"i'm so glad," she said again, simply. "genevieve, i think we ought to be going."
as she turned toward the path, hermit joe advanced so that he intercepted her.
"miss cordelia, i would like to tell how—but i can't. still—i wish you could know how happy you've made me."
hermit joe spoke with evident difficulty. his lips, so long unused to speaking, stumbled over the words; but his eyes glowed as with hidden fires, and his whole face was alight with joy.
