dorothy had freshened up little celia’s garments as well as she could while the child slept. she was handier with the needle than tavia, although the latter had greatly improved in domestic science since those early days when she first began to take pattern of dorothy, back in dalton.
“those shoes aren’t fit for the child to wear,” grumbled tavia, who was helping to dress celia when the warning bell for supper rang.
“come on! hurry up!” commanded dorothy. “we’re late now. haven’t you got her shoes on yet?”
“yes, ma’am! all but one,” responded tavia.
“‘all but one!’ how many feet has the poor child got?” cried dorothy. “you talk as though she were a centipede.”
“she wriggles as though she had a hundred legs,” panted tavia. “do be still, dearie—for a minute.”
“celia’s full of wriggles,” declared dorothy. “now come. aren’t you hungry, dear?”
161 “oh-o-o! you jes’ bet i am!” exclaimed celia, running to the door ahead of her friends.
“nice bread and milk for little girls—and plenty of it,” promised dorothy.
“don’t they haf to save the milk here at this school?” asked celia, wonderingly. “sometimes i get a little skimmed milk; but mrs. hogan says it pays best to give it to the hens and pigs.”
“i suppose it does!” growled tavia. “she can’t sell little girls when they are fattened.”
“hush!” warned dorothy, opening the door for the impatient celia. “now, wait and walk beside me—like a little lady.”
the other girls were eager to see and speak with the little runaway. miss olaine being absent from her station at the head of the senior table, the classmates of dorothy and tavia hardly ate, watching celia and listening to her prattle.
“she just is the cutest little thing that ever happened!” murmured cologne.
dorothy had placed celia between herself and tavia, and the little girl sat upon a dictionary borrowed from the principal’s office. celia had been neglected in many ways, one of which was in the niceties of etiquette. so dorothy whispered to her to use her fork more frequently than she did a spoon, or her fingers—for there was something beside bread and milk for the little visitor.
“ain’t that funny?” cried celia, in her shrill162 voice. “i used to eat with my spoon, an’ now you tell me to eat with my fork, dorothy; how old must i be ’fore i eat with my knife—say?”
the upper class had the fun of celia at table; but afterward she was borne off to the gym., where the whole school could entertain her.
tavia took charge. the girls got into their gym. suits and an up-to-the-minute circus was arranged for the visitor’s entertainment. there was “ground and lofty tumbling,” clown tricks, jumping through hoops, ned ebony in tights and tinsel to represent the usual lady “bare-back rider,” all the known ferocious beasts in chair-rung cages, with the labels displayed very prominently, including the “gyrogustus” and the “chrisomela-bypunktater”; and at last there was a splendid side show, with cologne in a position of prominence as the $10,000 fat beauty, molly richards as an albino twin, nita as the tatooed lady, well disguised with red, blue and green chalk, and tavia herself as the bearded lady, with so much black fringe on her face that she could scarcely talk.
celia entered into the spirit of all the fun, appeared scared into fits by the roaring of the lions and the fierce appearance of the other astonishing animals; laughed at the antics of the clowns, was thrilled by the acrobatics, and wasn’t quite sure that nita’s “tattooing” would really come off if you rubbed it!
163 the nine o’clock bell sent all hands scattering to their rooms. perhaps mrs. pangborn had been more lenient than usual this evening; at least, none of the other teachers had interfered with the hilarity of the school in general—and the strict miss olaine was shut away in her room.
but as dorothy and tavia, bearing the sleepy celia in a “chair” between them, passed the door of miss olaine’s room, they saw mrs. pangborn come forth.
“let me see your little friend, dorothy,” she said, hastily, and the chums stopped to introduce celia moran to the principal.
“so this is tom moran’s little sister; is it?” mrs. pangborn said, patting the little girl’s cheek.
“do—do you know my brother, tom moran, ma’am?” asked celia, sleepily. “he’s big—an’ he’s got such red hair—and he builds bridges an’ things——”
she almost nodded off to sleep. mrs. pangborn kissed her. “i have heard a good deal about tom moran—this evening,” she said, and she looked significantly back at the door which she had just closed.
tavia flashed a meaning look at dorothy, and the moment the principal was out of the way, she whispered: “what did i tell you?”
“about what?” demanded dorothy.
“about miss olaine and tom moran? she164 knows something about him and she has been telling mrs. pangborn.”
“sh!” warned dorothy. “if it was anything that might lead to his being found, she would have told me—surely.”
“who?”
“mother pangborn.”
“well, there’s something queer about it,” declared tavia, nodding, “and miss olaine knows.”
they put celia to bed in number nineteen and some time after dorothy had put out the light and crept in beside the little girl—tavia was already asleep in her own bed—dorothy heard a sound outside of the door.
somebody was creeping along the corridor. was it some teacher on the watch for some infraction of the rules? dorothy had heard nothing of a “spread-eagle” affair on this corridor to-night.
the step stopped. was it at this door? for some moments dorothy lay, covered to her ears, and listened.
then to her surprise she knew that the door was open. it was the draft from the window that assured her of this fact. the door was opened wider and a tall figure, dimly visible because of the light in the hall, pushed into the room.
the lock clicked faintly as the knob was released by the marauder’s hand. dorothy was half-frightened at first; then she knew there could be165 nobody about the building who would hurt her.
the visitor moved toward her bed. peeping carefully, but continuing to breathe in the same regular fashion that tavia did, dorothy watched the shadowy form draw near.
it was a woman, for whoever it was had on a long woollen dressing gown. but the face and head were in complete shadow, and at first dorothy had no idea as to the person’s identity.
the woman came close to the foot of the bed and stood there for several minutes. dorothy began to feel highly nervous—she really thought she should scream. not that she was afraid as yet; but the strange actions of the unknown——
ah! now she was moving nearer. she was coming alongside—between tavia’s and dorothy’s beds. celia was on that side, and dorothy was about to put her arm protectingly over the child.
then she feared the visitor would suspect that she was not asleep. and if she was frightened off, dorothy might not learn who it was.
so the girl kept very still, continuing to breathe deeply and regularly. the woman stooped closer and closer. it was over celia that she bent, and dorothy saw her hand steal out to draw the sheet farther back from the child’s face.
then dorothy knew suddenly who it was. she recognized the long, clawlike hand; and the peculiar166 ring upon the third finger—the engagement finger—fully identified miss olaine!
dorothy had often noted that ring on the strange teacher’s hand. miss olaine had come creeping into the room, supposing all the girls to be asleep, just to see celia moran!
there could be no doubt but that miss olaine had some deep interest in the morans—in both tom and celia. tavia had suggested such a thing; but really dorothy had not believed it before mrs. pangborn spoke as she did on this evening as the girls were coming up to bed with celia.
the queer teacher bent down and peered into the face of the unconscious child. a glance at dorothy seemed to have satisfied her that the latter was asleep. all her interest was centered in the little child who had run away from her hard task-mistress.
she stooped lower. dorothy saw that miss olaine’s face was tear-streaked and her eyes were wet. she bent near, breathing softly, and touched her lips to the pale forehead of little celia.
then miss olaine rose up quickly and stole away from the bed again. dorothy almost forgot to breathe steadily. she was amazed and excited by the actions of the teacher who, heretofore, had seemed so hard-hearted.
there certainly was what tavia would have called a “soft streak” in miss olaine. dorothy167 was sure that she heard her sobbing as the teacher opened the door quietly again and stole out.
what did it mean? had miss olaine a personal interest in the little girl from the “findling asylum”—the little lost sister of tom moran?
evidently mrs. pangborn had told her assistant of the presence in the school that night of little celia. miss olaine must have a deeper interest in tom moran than the incident of the school building fire two years before would suggest.
it was a big mystery—a puzzle that dorothy could not fathom, though she lay awake a long time trying to do so. here was another reason for finding the missing man. dorothy could not help pitying miss olaine, although the teacher had treated her so harshly for a fortnight or more.
“just as mrs. pangborn says, we have reason to excuse her harshness,” thought dorothy, as usual willing and ready to excuse other people. “and i’d just love to be the one to clear all the trouble up both for miss olaine and little celia.
“finding tom moran will bring celia happiness, i am sure. now, would finding him bring happiness to rebecca olaine, as well?”
early in the morning mrs. ann hogan made her appearance at glenwood school. but dorothy and tavia had got celia up betimes, and the three had had their breakfast before the regular breakfast hour. tavia always knew how to “get168 around the cook” and did about as she pleased with that good soul.
“we’ll just fill celia up as tight as a little tick,” declared tavia, “before that ogress carries her off to her castle again. oh, dorothy! do you suppose that horrid thing will beat poor little celia?”
“i am sure mrs. pangborn will ’tend to that matter,” dorothy said.
and mrs. pangborn did ask mrs. hogan into her office before she had celia brought in by the girls. it was evident that the dignified school principal had spoken much to the point to the red-faced mrs. hogan, for the latter was both subdued and nervous when celia appeared.
“celia has certainly done wrong in coming here to find you, dorothy,” said mrs. pangborn, quietly. “i hope you said nothing to her which encouraged her to run away?”
“oh, no, indeed, mrs. pangborn!” said dorothy, while celia clung tight about her neck and looked fearfully at her taskmistress.
“then mrs. hogan knows that it was just the child’s longing for you that brought her here.”
“sure, the little plague has been talkin’ about miss dale all the time since she was wid us for the week-end,” grumbled mrs. hogan. “come here, cely. i’ll not chastise ye this time—but if there’s another——”
“i am sure there is no need of threatening169 her,” interposed mrs. pangborn. “come, celia!”
the little one unclasped her hands lingeringly from about dorothy’s neck.
“oh, i’ll find some way to see you again, dorothy dale,” she whispered. “for you know they all say——”
“you be good, and i’ll come to see you,” declared dorothy.
“and so will i,” cried tavia, almost in tears.
“yes. you both come. it—it won’t be so bad if i can see you now and then,” sighed celia. “and you’ll find tom moran?”
“have done with that fulishness now!” exclaimed mrs. hogan. “she goes on about that brother av hern foriver. ye’ll niver see him again, my gur-r-rl.”
“oh, yes, she shall!” cried dorothy dale. “don’t you fear, celia. i shall find him for you.”
then mrs. hogan bore the little one off to her wagon, and they drove away. it made dorothy and tavia feel very sad to see the cute little thing go off in such a way.
“i am sure that woman abuses her!” cried tavia.
“oh, we will hope not. but if only tom moran would re-appear,” sighed dorothy, “all her troubles would vanish in smoke.”
