Melville raised himself upon his pillows, Grandmother Capers screamed, and Content ran to the window. Outside stood a tiny dog-cart, drawn by a sturdy little pony, driven by a lad who could not have seen more than eight summers, though his face bore freckles enough to have resulted from a dozen.
“Hello!” cried the licorice-stained mouth of the small teamster. “Is this my grandmother’s house?”
“Maybe; what is your grandmother’s name?” said Content.
“I—er—I forget! It’s—it’s—dang it! Why ain’t Paula here! She knows everything, and she’d know what it is. You see I came on ahead; me and Pretzel here. Ain’t she a stunner? Uncle Fritz give her to me—give me the hull turnout. Say, do you live here? Have you got a grandmother what’s an old Quaker lady, and lives in a big homestead with pigs and chickens and folks? Say, this is a big house, ain’t it? I bet a cent this is the very place! Won’t you just step in and ask if my grandmother does live here? ’Cause I’m all tuckered out. This cart shook me up awful, comin’ up hill.”
The speaker paused from lack of breath, and Content sprang through the low window-sash and held out her arms to the little fellow.
“I’ve no need to go and ask, for I am sure that you are my little cousin Fritz. Is it not so?”
“Yep. Anyhow, I’m Fritz; but who the mischief are you?”
“I’m Content; Content Kinsolving; aged fifteen, and your Uncle Benjamin’s only child. But where are the rest of your party? The telegram said that all of Aunt Lydia’s children were coming.”
“Oh, they be; when they get ready. Paula,—she’s a stick,—she told Uncle Fritz that she could not come till she had stopped to the hotel and freshened herself. She’s always a freshening herself, Paula is, but I’m sure I don’t know why, for she never does a blessed thing to get herself messed. Octave, now—Octave, she is a jolly one! she’s always messing, but she never freshens. I like Octave.”
“Indeed! most boys do like their sisters. But come, come quickly to dear grandmother! She will be so glad to see you!” and Content slipped her arm fondly about the child’s waist, as he still sat in the cart.