The Moffats (20 page)

Letitia's feelings never seemed in the least hurt by the Moffats' refusal to open the door to her. She entered into the whole thing as in a game, which might be called "Trying-to-get-into-the-yellow-house." When on occasion she did manage to outwit her adversaries and actually gained entrance in the yellow house, she would scream triumphantly, "I got in!"

"Just don't pay any attention to her," the Moffats advised one another. "She'll get sick of hanging around and go home."

They would then go about their business and try to forget that Letitia was there.

One day Jane fetched her doll, Hildegarde, and her sewing and sat down on the thick grass by the lilac bush. It was time Hildegarde had a new dress. Janey sat with her back to the hitching post, which always now seemed to have a Murdock on it. Janey was trying to ignore the fact that Letitia was sitting there right now, licking a lollipop. After a while she did forget about Letitia. She became lost in her own thoughts. It was a sweet-smelling day with the lilacs all blooming. Janey felt very happy.

A humming noise in the sky made her leap suddenly to her feet. An airplane!

Airplanes always excited Janey. Because she was always wishing she could fly.

She stood with her feet planted far apart to balance herself and she thrust her head back to get a good look at the plane. There it flew straight across the sky—a sky so blue it looked as though it had just been polished.

"Hi! Hi!" yelled Jane, waving her arms as the airplane passed above her and disappeared beyond the elm trees. Oh, wonderful! She wished she could fly, really fly! Not even in an airplane, but really. Well, she could fly down the stairs. At least she could go so fast down the stairs her feet did not touch at all from top to bottom. Of course that was just in her dreams.

But now, this minute, she wished she could fly or at least do something very extraordinary. Turn cartwheels, for instance. Why couldn't she at least turn cartwheels? Rufus could, over and over like a pinwheel. But she just couldn't. She always landed in the wrong position altogether. The hum of the plane's motor echoed in her ears. Flying! Imagine!

"Hildegarde," she said to her doll, "how would you like to fly like that? How would you like to go up in an airplane?"

Hildegarde simply stared with black unblinking eyes.

"Well," continued Jane, holding her high above her head, "now you are in an airplane. You are flying fast across the Nubian desert."

She let go of Hildegarde. She let go of the doll so she could go soaring across the sky. Did she soar across the sky? No! Instead, she crashed to the sidewalk. There she lay, head severed from body! For a moment Jane was stunned! Hildegarde! Then tears started to smart her eyes. But she swallowed her sobs. She didn't want to cry and have to explain how it was she had broken her doll.

"I thought you were in an airplane," she murmured as she gathered up the broken doll. "Why didn't you fly?" she added in exasperation.

She put the broken pieces in her sewing bag, thinking to herself, "Well, anyway, Hildegarde can be my Madame Bust for when I'm sewing for my dolls."

A whining voice from the hitching post startled her.

"Wha-ja-do? Break your doll?"

Jane regarded Letitia resentfully. It was horrible to think that anyone had been watching her, let alone that Letitia.

"Break your doll?" repeated Letitia.

"No!" shouted Jane, lying outrageously. And she resolved then and there to attempt to rid the yellow house of the dreadful Letitia for that day at least. A plan was already racing through her head. She ran around to the backyard to fetch Rufus, whom she needed to help her carry it out. She quickly gave him his instructions. He proved a very willing and apt pupil. Presently he and Janey marched with solemn mien around the yard, past the front porch, and straight to Letitia.

"I am the great Houdini. I hypnotize people," Jane announced to Letitia. "I can hypnotize you, Rufus, or anybody else. I'm going to start on Rufus. I'll do it in a jiffy. Let me see—I think I'll make him think he is a dog."

With that, Jane wasted no time but adopted certain weird postures and passed her hands slowly before Rufus's face. She then began to chant in sepulchral tones:

"You are a dog. You are a dog. You are a dog."

Letitia watched with expressionless face.

"It takes a little while to get a person completely hypnotized," Jane explained to Letitia.

"You are a dog. You are a dog," she repeated.

Rufus slowly wagged his rear end.

"See—it's beginning to work," said Jane to Letitia. "He's trying to wag his tail."

"You are a dog. You are a dog," she continued, making her gestures more mysterious and fearsome. "You are a dog. Now the spell is bound. Spellbound. Bark!" she screamed.

With this, Rufus fell to his knees, began to frisk about and bark. He enjoyed acting like a dog so much that his barks became more and more furious. He started nosing at Letitia's heels. He sounded like all the dogs of New Dollar Street, chasing and barking after a motorcycle. Indeed, several of these dogs, sensing excitement, ran out of their yards howling. Mrs. Squire ran to the window, rapped and scolded to no avail.

"Bow-wow," yelped Rufus, playfully seizing Letitia's sock in his teeth and pulling.

"Let go! Let go!" said Letitia. "Stop being a dog," she ordered him.

"Oh, he can't for you. Not till I un-hypnotize him."

"He'll tear my socks."

"That's too bad," said Jane politely.

"Woof-woof!" barked Rufus, grabbing at the hem of Letitia's skirt.

"He'll tear my dress," screamed Letitia.

"Just playful," murmured Jane delightedly.

"Go away," said Letitia, starting to kick at Rufus.

"Oh, don't hurt my little dog—or I shall hypnotize him into a lion," warned Jane.

"I got to go home," wailed Letitia.

"Oh, must you go so soon?" asked Jane mockingly. "What a great pity. Wouldn't you like me to hypnotize you, too? Maybe if I changed you into a cat, my little dog could chase you up a tree."

And she started to strike hypnotic poses in front of Letitia.

"You're a cat! You're a cat!" she started. But Letitia leaped down.

"Stop it! Stop it!" she yelled, running up the street with Rufus barking after her. Jane watched them and laughed to herself. Then she called Rufus back to the hitching post.

"Guess that got rid of her for once at least," said Jane triumphantly. "Hope she'll leave us alone for a while."

Hurrah! School was all over until next September. Sylvie had left this morning for a week's vacation at Camp Lincoln. The other three children were on their way over to Sandy Beach, a small beach on the harbor at the other end of town altogether. They were going to spend the day there and had sandwiches and fruit for a picnic lunch. Mama was the only one left at home in the yellow house, and she was sneezing her head off with hay fever and trying to finish a dress for Miss Chichester so the children might have another year at the dancing school.

The children loved to go to Sandy Beach. They loved to look out across the harbor that lay like a great pool of water at the feet of the Sleeping Giant and of East Rock and West Rock. They hoped to find a lot of the little pink-and-white shells. If they did they would make a necklace for Mama, Jane thought.

It used to be such a long walk over to Sandy Beach. So long that Rufus used to have to be dragged half the way in his express wagon, he'd get so tired. But now it was nothing to get there. The new Second Avenue trolley line whisked you there in just no time at all. If you were lucky, that is, and the motorman did not have to wait at the switch for the trolley that was coming from the other direction to get past him.

There was a switch at this end and a switch at the Sandy Beach end of the line. Sometimes the motorman was able to get all the way to the switch at the Sandy Beach end before the other trolley came along. That was when you were lucky. But more often than not the red light was on at this end of the line, the red light that said, "Hold! Wait there. Here comes the other car."

Then you had to wait so long you might just as well have walked in the first place. Still, the whole town agreed it was a fine thing, very modern, to have this new trolley line. Because the Sandy Beach end of town was so hard to reach otherwise. And you could bring a book or your knitting to pass the time when you had to wait at the switch.

"Here," Mama said as she kissed them good-bye. "Here is a nickel for each one of you. Don't be gallivantin' all over town. Go straight to Sandy Beach and have a good time!" she called, waving her blue-checked apron after them.

"Good-bye," screamed Jane to Mama. "Don't let those Murdocks buy our house. Lock the doors and pretend you aren't home if they come back again."

"Come on, Jane," said Rufus, always impatient to be off. "What are you goin' to do with your five cents?"

Five cents apiece! They were of two minds as to what to do with it. They might spend it on an ice-cream cone or they might take the new Second Avenue trolley to Sandy Beach. Joe was all in favor of an ice-cream cone. Jane, too. But Rufus had never been on the new Second Avenue trolley line. He preferred spending his five cents that way.

"I may be a motorman when I grow up," he said. "And I'd like to see how they run."

"You've been on trolleys before," said Joe. "They all run alike."

"No," said Rufus. "There's this business about the red lights. I want to see how they handle that. There's two tracks everywhere else, 'n' there's just one track here. S'different."

"But I want a cone," said Joe.

"Well," said Rufus with finality. "I'm goin' to spend my five cents on the new Second Avenue line. I don't mind goin' alone."

"Oh, well. Let's all go that way then," said Jane. "It
is
fun to ride on the trolley, and we'll have more time at the beach."

"All right," agreed Joe, although he still felt somewhat reluctant. However, later on, he was glad he had agreed to this because of the strange doings that followed.

The three sat down on the curb at Second Avenue to wait for the trolley. They picked the tinfoil out of several empty cigarette cases and chewing gum wrappers they found in the gutter. Joe rolled it up in a hard ball and put it in his pocket. Jane found a piece of colored red glass, and they all took turns looking at one another and at the sky through this. When the trolley came, they got on and gave the motorman their five-cent pieces. The motorman handed Rufus's five cents back to him.

"You don't have to pay, young man. Not till you're six," he said.

Well, six was just exactly what Rufus was now, but he saw no good in arguing the point at this moment. He put the five cents back in his pocket and gave Joe and Jane a rather triumphant glance.

There were very few people on the trolley. They were all sitting near the back and they were all very calm. Apparently they were quite accustomed to the new Second Avenue line and thought no more of riding on it than of the milkman delivering a bottle of milk every morning at their door. But Joe, Jane, and Rufus all sat in the front seat as near the motorman as possible. They looked at the signal at the side of the road. The light was green. Good! They would not have to wait for the trolley coming in the opposite direction. The motorman started the car. But look! Just as he stepped on the motor power, the red light flashed on! It meant Stop! But did he stop? He did not! A baleful look came over his face and he steered the car right off the switch and onto the main track. What was the matter with the man? The light said "Stop" and he went!