Rilla of Ingleside - Lucy Maud Montgomery (the gingerbread man read aloud .TXT) 📗

was guilty of paying so much for a hat, in war-time, too, when everybody is—or should be— trying to be economical.

“When I got home and tried on the hat again in my room I was assailed by qualms. Of course, it was very becoming; but somehow it seemed too elaborate and fussy for church going and our quiet little doings in the Glen—too conspicuous, in short. It hadn’t seemed so at the milliner’s but here in my little white room it did. And that dreadful price tag! And the starving Belgians! When mother saw the hat and the tag she just looked at me. Mother is some expert at looking. Father says she looked him into love with her years ago in Avonlea school and I can well believe it—though I have heard a weird tale of her banging him over the head with a slate at the very beginning of their acquaintance. Mother was a limb when she was a little girl, I understand, and even up to the time when Jem went away she was full of ginger. But let me return to my mutton—that is to say, my new green velvet hat.

“‘Do you think, Rilla,’ mother said quietly—far too quietly—‘that it was right to spend so much for a hat, especially when the need of the world is so great?’

“‘I paid for it out of my own allowance, mother,’ I exclaimed.

“‘That is not the point. Your allowance is based on the principle of a reasonable amount for each thing you need. If you pay too much for one thing you must cut off somewhere else and that is not satisfactory. But if you think you did right, Rilla, I have no more to say. I leave it to your conscience.’

“I wish mother would not leave things to my conscience! And anyway, what was I to do? I couldn’t take that hat back—I had worn it to a concert in town—I had to keep it! I was so uncomfortable that I flew into a temper—a cold, calm, deadly temper.

“‘Mother,’ I said haughtily, ‘I am sorry you disapprove of my hat—’

“‘Not of the hat exactly,’ said mother, ‘though I consider it in doubtful taste for so young a girl—but of the price you paid for it.’

“Being interrupted didn’t improve my temper, so I went on, colder and calmer and deadlier than ever, just as if mother had not spoken.

”’—but I have to keep it now. However, I promise you that I will not get another hat for three years or for the duration of the war, if it lasts longer than that. Even you’—oh, the sarcasm I put into the ‘you’ —‘cannot say that what I paid was too much when spread over at least three years.’

“‘You will be very tired of that hat before three years, Rilla,’ said mother, with a provoking grin, which, being interpreted, meant that I wouldn’t stick it out.

“‘Tired or not, I will wear it that long,’ I said: and then I marched upstairs and cried to think that I had been sarcastic to mother.

“I hate that hat already. But three years or the duration of the war, I said, and three years or the duration of the war it shall be. I vowed and I shall keep my vow, cost what it will.

“That is one of the ‘catawampus’ things. The other is that I have quarrelled with Irene Howard—or she quarrelled with me—or, no, we both quarrelled.

“The Junior Red Cross met here yesterday. The hour of meeting was half-past two but Irene came at half-past one, because she got the chance of a drive down from the Upper Glen. Irene hasn’t been a bit nice to me since the fuss about the eats; and besides I feel sure she resents not being president. But I have been determined that things should go smoothly, so I have never taken any notice, and when she came yesterday she seemed so nice and sweet again that I hoped she had got over her huffiness and we could be the chums we used to be.

“But as soon as we sat down Irene began to rub me the wrong way. I saw her cast a look at my new knitting-bag. All the girls have always said Irene was jealous-minded and I would never believe them before. But now I feel that perhaps she is.

“The first thing she did was to pounce on Jims—Irene pretends to adore babies—pick him out of his cradle and kiss him all over his face. Now, Irene knows perfectly well that I don’t like to have Jims kissed like that. It is not hygienic. After she had worried him till he began to fuss, she looked at me and gave quite a nasty little laugh but she said, oh, so sweetly,

“‘Why, Rilla, darling, you look as if you thought I was poisoning the baby.’

“‘Oh, no, I don’t, Irene,’ I said—every bit as sweetly, ‘but you know Morgan says that the only place a baby should be kissed is on its forehead, for fear of germs, and that is my rule with Jims.’

“‘Dear me, am I so full of germs?’ said Irene plaintively. I knew she was making fun of me and I began to boil inside—but outside no sign of a simmer. I was determined I would not scrap with Irene.

“Then she began to bounce Jims. Now, Morgan says bouncing is almost the worst thing that can be done to a baby. I never allow Jims to be bounced. But Irene bounced him and that exasperating child liked it. He smiled—for the very first time. He is four months old and he has never smiled once before. Not even mother or Susan have been able to coax that thing to smile, try as they would. And here he was smiling because Irene Howard bounced him! Talk of gratitude!

“I admit that smile made a big difference in him. Two of the dearest dimples came out in his cheeks and his big brown eyes seemed full of laughter. The way Irene raved over those dimples was silly, I consider. You would have supposed she thought she had really brought them into existence. But I sewed steadily and did not enthuse, and soon Irene got tired of bouncing Jims and put him back in his cradle. He did not like that after being played with, and he began to cry and was fussy the rest of the afternoon, whereas if Irene had only left him alone he would not have been a bit of trouble.

“Irene looked at him and said, ‘Does he often cry like that?’ as if she had never heard a baby crying before.

“I explained patiently that children have to cry so many minutes per day in order to expand their lungs. Morgan says so.

“‘If Jims didn’t cry at all I’d have to make him cry for at least twenty minutes,’ I said.

“‘Oh, indeed!’ said Irene, laughing as if she didn’t believe me. ‘Morgan on the Care of Infants’ was upstairs or I would soon have convinced her. Then she said Jims didn’t have much hair—she had never seen a four months’ old baby so bald.

“Of course, I knew Jims hadn’t much hair—yet; but Irene said it in a tone that seemed to imply it was my fault that he hadn’t any hair. I said I had seen dozens of babies every bit as bald as Jims, and Irene said, Oh very well, she hadn’t meant to offend me—when I wasn’t offended.

“It went on like that the rest of the hour—Irene kept giving me little digs all the time. The girls have always said she was revengeful like that if she were peeved about anything; but I never believed it before; I used to think Irene just perfect, and it hurt me dreadfully to find she could stoop to this. But I corked up my feelings and sewed away for dear life on a Belgian child’s nightgown.

“Then Irene told me the meanest, most contemptible thing that someone had said about Walter. I won’t write it down—I can’t. Of course, she said it made her furious to hear it and all that—but there was no need for her to tell me such a thing even if she did hear it. She simply did it to hurt me.

“I just exploded. ‘How dare you come here and repeat such a thing about my brother, Irene Howard?’ I exclaimed. ‘I shall never forgive you— never. Your brother hasn’t enlisted—hasn’t any idea of enlisting.’

“‘Why Rilla, dear, I didn’t say it,’ said Irene. ‘I told you it was Mrs. George Burr. And I told her—’

“‘I don’t want to hear what you told her. Don’t you ever speak to me again, Irene Howard.’

“Oh course, I shouldn’t have said that. But it just seemed to say itself. Then the other girls all came in a bunch and I had to calm down and act the hostess’ part as well as I could. Irene paired off with Olive Kirk all the rest of the afternoon and went away without so much as a look. So I suppose she means to take me at my word and I don’t care, for I do not want to be friends with a girl who could repeat such a falsehood about Walter. But I feel unhappy over it for all that. We’ve always been such good chums and until lately Irene was lovely to me; and now another illusion has been stripped from my eyes and I feel as if there wasn’t such a thing as real true friendship in the world.

“Father got old Joe Mead to build a kennel for Dog Monday in the corner of the shipping-shed today. We thought perhaps Monday would come home when the cold weather came but he wouldn’t. No earthly influence can coax Monday away from that shed even for a few minutes. There he stays and meets every train. So we had to do something to make him comfortable. Joe built the kennel so that Monday could lie in it and still see the platform, so we hope he will occupy it.

“Monday has become quite famous. A reporter of the Enterprise came out from town and photographed him and wrote up the whole story of his faithful vigil. It was published in the Enterprise and copied all over Canada. But that doesn’t matter to poor little Monday, Jem has gone away —Monday doesn’t know where or why—but he will wait until he comes back. Somehow it comforts me: it’s foolish, I suppose, but it gives me a feeling that Jem will come back or else Monday wouldn’t keep on waiting for him.

“Jims is snoring beside me in his cradle. It is just a cold that makes him snore—not adenoids. Irene had a cold yesterday and I know she gave it to him, kissing him. He is not quite such a nuisance as he was; he has got some backbone and can sit up quite nicely, and he loves his bath now and splashes unsmilingly in the water instead of twisting and shrieking. Oh, shall I ever forget those first two months! I don’t know how I lived through them. But here I am and here is Jims and we both are going to ‘carry on.’ I tickled him a little bit tonight when I undressed him—I wouldn’t bounce him but Morgan doesn’t mention tickling—just to see if he would smile for me as well as Irene. And he did—and out popped the dimples. What a pity his mother couldn’t have seen them!

“I finished my sixth pair of socks today. With the first three I got Susan to set the heel for me. Then I thought that was a bit of shirking, so I learned to do it myself. I hate it—but I have done