Chapter 1 of Natalie Page. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Natalie Page by Catherine Haviland Taylor. Chapter 1, How It Began I think it is strange how the scenes surrounding big events stay in your memory. And sometimes with years they become more clear than the happening which impressed them. I know this because I remember a big four-posted bed and a lot of people around it crying. And then I remember someone lifting me up to kiss the woman who was on the bed, but I do not remember how she looked and she was my mother. She died at that time and now I only recall the crying people and the big four-posted bed and thinking it funny that a bed should wear petticoats. It had a balance on it, you see, and I evidently have not noticed it before. Just in that same way I remember coming to live with Uncle Frank Randolph, who is my mother's brother. And all I remember about that is whiskers. They were miles long, I was sure, and the fact that it was raining. And now, somehow, when I think of home and saying goodbye to it, all I can see is swirling yellow leaves and the dust and peanuts, shells and bags that were flying in the wind around the station. But I must start this story properly. It really all began the day. I rode a bicycle down the courthouse steps on a bed. At that time I saw nothing wrong in doing this. And to be frank, I was quite proud that I could do it, for there are 15 of those steps and they're quite steep. After I did it, I went over to the drugstore with Willie Jepsen and had a soda and then we rode down to the ball field and I pitched nine innings for the red socks, after which I thought I'd go home. I usually went home when I had a funny hollow feel under my belt and Uncle Frank didn't mind my not being on time for meals so it didn't matter, but when I got in that night I knew something had happened. In the first place Uncle Frank wasn't reading any of his bug books. Uncle Frank is very famous for his bug knowledge. As you probably know, some people even calling him the second favor. Nor did he have on two pairs of glasses. In fact, he was acting entirely unnatural and quite as people of his age do when they are preparing to be disagreeable. Oh, hum, where have you been? He asked as I sat down at the table. Down at the flats I answered, pitched nine innings against Corky McGowan's gang and we looked them and then feeling some pride, I reached for the spiced peaches and chocolate cake and began to satisfy my craving for food. Don't you? He began, hesitated, fumbled for words and then went on. Ah, like the gentler pursuit of maidens. I said I didn't. Oh, hum, he said and he wagged his head several times which means he is perplexed. How old are you? He asked next. I told him I was sixteen. I do every two or three days and then I asked him to pass the strawberry preserve because I found that I was still hungry. He did and then he asked me whether I had eaten any meat. I'd always depended upon his absent mindedness and I was surprised to see him so obviously upset and truth to be told also a little annoyed for I knew that my life would be one series of explanations if he began to notice. I told him that I hadn't felt the need for anything but chocolate cake and preserves but he wagged his head again and then he drew forth a letter and I knew by the shade and the address which was engraved on the envelope that it was from Aunt Penelope Randolph James who lives in New York. Penelope said Uncle Frank intimated as much where is it? Oh, hum, oh, here we are and then he read aloud this.  I said why shouldn't I and then will you please pass the cake for I realized that Uncle Frank was absorbed. He passed it to me as he turned the page and went on with obviously she must have two or three years in a good school and one year after her coming out I think she will be happy with Evelyn and Amy and we will love having her. I want to know her to have a few years of her and a chance to do whatsoever I can because of Nellie. And after that Uncle Frank stooped and stared down at the letter Nellie was the name of my mother and everyone who knew her loved her a great deal. So much in fact that they can't speak of her easily. I always wish and so much that it was hard for me to speak of her. But as I said before I can only remember the big four post of bed and the crying people and I never did think that was quite fair for as I look on girls with mothers I realize I've missed a great deal. I do think I at least might have been allowed to have a few years of mine but that attitude doesn't help me. In this world you have to make up your mind to lots that isn't happy for if it is all your complaints won't change it. But to get on I was not impressed with my aunt's letter. I knew I wouldn't have a good time with my cousin Evelyn because I wear her old clothes sometimes and by their architecture I realized that our tastes are not in common. They are very flossy. Usually she chooses the kind of color that soils when you shin up a tree and they have lots of buttons on them that sort of catch when you take any mild exercise such as sliding down a barn roof on your stomach. There are some ideal barns for that in this section. And once when I went down the spouting from the Jepsen's third floor we were playing hide and seek. I got hung up by a button three feet from the ground and had to scream for someone to loosen me. It was consequently it beside which I might have been killed if it had been higher and the button had not held. This is all mixed but English is not my strong point. I like gym, work best of any study and do best in it. Then beside that I have a photograph of Evelyn and I realized from it that we wouldn't mean much to one another. Also I've never got along very well with girls. So I said but I feel that my education is finished. My uncle didn't think so and he tried not to smile which I think is a very impolite habit of older people.  I went on, I said and heatedly, I must admit I can say the multiple occasion table up to the 12s and what more can you ask? And just to prove it I did up to 12 times 12 is 159 but even then he didn't look convinced. There are other things he said. I asked what but he wasn't concrete. I love life as it is. I said and none too steadily. I couldn't bear to think of leaving Queensborough and Virginia but uncle had got up and was puttering around near the bay window where a bookcase stands so I knew he didn't hear me. I tried once more to attract his attention but he was looking at a lot of colored plates of the antennae of some sort of rare beetle and I had to give up. But after I'd eaten another piece of cake and a little more preserved I got up. I picked up the dishes and went to the kitchen with them for always clear the table for Mrs. Bradley who is Uncle Frank's housekeeper. She was washing lettuce and splattering a good deal of water. Bradley dear, I said do you know about this letter? Said, she said and waved toward a stool which stood before the back window. I settled on it and looked out in the garden which is a shabby but dear place. The Holly Hawks were beginning to sag I remember and sprawled every way and the zinnias positively blaze color in the first taupe shadows of the dusk. It was pretty and it made you feel still as if you wanted to close your eyes halfway and smile just a little but it made you feel sad. I don't understand that feeling but sometimes I had it. Mrs. Bradley never had it before I asked her but I think my mother would have understood it. Pretty things make it in some kinds of music and I don't know whether anything else does or not but those are the only things that have made me have it. I don't imagine Uncle ever felt it.  Crickets he said looking over his glasses for the dinner. Ho hum and then he went and got some engravings that he bought in France of some sort of cricket who was eating her husband. They do it quite a lot of them and although that does seem cruel they are very bright and intelligent in more ways than just that. Their husbands weren't useful and so they ate them which is more than some women do. This is mixed but as I said Jim work is where I star. But of course I knew from that I felt that poetic longing or whatever it is that I felt that night when Mrs Bradley was washing lettuce and I asked her about the letter. High time she said after I spoke that you were sent off I can do a thing with you. Playing ball a great girl like you. Oh Bradley dear I said I hated displeasing her but she did not soften. Well I'll stop I said after a deep drawn breath I sighed because playing ball means a great deal in my life. Bradley dear sniffed and flopped the lettuce terribly. I didn't play at Parsons I went on she didn't reply. I wanted to frightfully I said it is quite an honor Bradley dear to pitch on a business men's team and they had to let Mr Horner do it and he has a glass eye and let three men sneak into third because he couldn't see out of the glass one. I had wanted to play ball in Parsons. It is a town some 10 miles distance where all the train stuff they claim that it has 10,000 inhabitants which of course makes it a city. The reason I didn't play was because the minister Mr Diggs called and asked uncle not to let me. I don't know why religious people are so often disagreeable. Bradley dear spoke again unwitheringly. Fine life for the daughter of Nellie Randolph she said to sit here and rot. The place is all right for your uncle. Laws he could mash his bugs and put them on paper anywhere but for a girl. Again she sniffed but I love it I protested this sort of life is all I want. Your mother she went on spoke French and was a lady she could enter a room and talk highfalutin and entertain anybody.  I didn't reply there wasn't anything to say for all that Bradley dear had said was true I'm very awkward but I like being so your mother she said slowly and solemnly would out wanted you to be learned right and proper manners I stood up alright Bradley dear I said if you really think she would and Uncle Frank thinks I should and then I stopped speaking I had never felt so miserable I was out in the garden and Willie Jepsen yelled over from the kitchen roof where he was mending a fish line come over and play catch he how don't believe I can I said sort of stiffly I guess why not he yelled I'm not going to tell the whole town I answered and after that he slid down by way of a grape arbor and came over to stand near the fence why not he repeated my last game of ball is played I said it seems I'm too old for it they don't want me to at least not in big games and I couldn't indulge as an amateur my gosh he said that's fierce I'm not it I almost never cry in fact I don't cry any oftener than Willie Jepsen does but I was near it then so I looked down at the hedge and broke twigs why he went on it's fierce you have the making of a big leaguer that is if you'd been a man I say it's fierce your drop curves he paused and that pause meant a lot just because you're a girl he asked I admitted it I had to that's fierce he said again his kindness helped me a great deal and his commendation was not a light thing for Willie does the best spitballs in our county they were really dreams of poetic beauty and almost never fail him I looked up and said thank you and again he said my gosh that's fierce and I did feel cheered up then I heard uncle's voice calling me and I went in I found him mounting a black beetle no more he began and then looked perplexed he scratched his head and dislocated one pair of his glasses and I supplied ball why yes he said that was it and then you are to go to your aunt's the last of this month mrs. Bradley thinks she can get your clothes ready by that time we will miss you my child let me see oh hum long feelers and hardback page 927 I left him to his bugs I went to the kitchen but I only stood in the door for a moment and then I backed away from mrs. Bradley was crying awfully hard her face buried in the roller towel and I knew it was because I was going away I felt that way too but I never cry so I went up to my room and got up my fishing tackle and tried to make a fly for a shallow shady stream out of some gray and green silk and a grasshopper wing but it didn't divert me much I didn't think I could exist very long in real civilization I knew I didn't want to the loveliness that I felt earlier in the evening was gone and all that was left was an ache a dull sudden gray growing larger all the time ache you see I cared awfully for outdoors and those sports that keep you there they were all I really knew of life and my New York relatives live in an apartment I will be bored I thought and miserably horribly unhappy but whatever else I was I was not bored oh my so no not for one instant sometimes it was almost ghastly that mystery which gripped and held us all and even now I tremble to think of phases of it but it gave more in the end than it took which is the curious way of much pain and discomfort when I think that but I mustn't begin now but for that part comes much later end of chapter one chapter two of Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Catherine Haviland Taylor chapter two goodbyes the next few weeks were so crowded that the events which came in them have a kaleidoscopic flavor everyone called on me and everyone gave me advice the calls, the advice the shrill of the locusts the way the sunlight looked in the garden and the braid which Mrs. Bradley insisted must be put on my new dresses all tangled like a one thing without having something else that came in that time creep in I suppose it was because I was so hurried that nothing was sorted it all simply sunk in my mind together as I rushed and of course there was no calm between in which one's consciousness builds fences or tethers a thought in its proper pasture my going away acted like a big egg leader on everything that happened then everything was too well mixed and flavored with tears Mrs. Bradley wept over everything including my favorite things to eat which she cooked for every meal corn fritters she'd say and then begin to catch her breath won't be so long now that I can make them for you thought you'd relish them and then she'd go out in the woodshed thinking that she needed a little kindling to hurry the fire but I knew she didn't and it made me feel awfully I think I was never quite so unhappy as then when everyone was so kind to me but I didn't cry because that isn't the way I show unhappiness hurts make a hard heavy load which roosts on my heart and does something to my lungs they want to take long breaths but feel squeezed sometimes I think this sort of misery is really more uncomfortable than tears but at least no one can see whether your heart has a red nose and of course outside tears leave traces there are advantages Willie Jepsen seemed to understand how I felt more than anyone else which was surprising he sat with me a good deal in the garden while I sewed on braid I was not interested in the braid nor sewing it on but Mrs Bradley made me put yards on everything she said you gotta look swell in New York take this here and put three rows above the hem and for the first time in my life I sewed we put narrow ribbon velvet on my thin things and lace wherever it could be attached when I had to rip it off I did almost cry and not because of the work but because dear Bradley thought it was so fine I can't quite explain and I haven't time here but when people whom you love think things are beautiful you don't like to destroy them what you're doing that for Willie asked one afternoon we were sitting in the arbor I told him Mrs Bradley thought you had to be trimmed in New York well it is he said looking at my skirt a little doubtfully and it doesn't look like you that annoyed me because I'd prick my fingers a lot it's got to I said I'm going to wear it you'll have it ripped off in two days he replied I know you you'll shen up something or slide down something and that stuff will trail behind you for blocks I slide down in New York I asked resentfully oh he answered there are fire escapes I sniffed at that I never dreamed I ever would but of course that time I didn't know what was coming after that we were quiet I sewed hard and Willie looked at me I felt him as you do and wondered whether I was losing my petticoat of anything when he spoke he did something noble which I shall never forget look here now he said after a call I can't I answered I have nine more yards of this step to lamb on he goes around the sleeves too well he said and his voice was very gross it's this way if you get too darned homesick you can always come back and marry me I appreciated that I really did although it was not my idea of a romantic proposal my reading taste most closely embraces Alger but I've read a few love stories and Willie didn't act at all like the man in the rosary but Evelyn says that men never do act like books she has had several proposals she says they look sort of scared and as if they wish they hadn't begun it and usually stutter a little beside gulping but as I said before using Willie's technique I was grateful for I thought if nothing else turned up I could marry Willie before I became an old maid no woman really wants to be one she only says so after she is don't you tell any of the fellows said Willie after a few moments I said I wouldn't then I thanked him and said I might call his bluff when I was about 22 or so that memory is closely wrapped in braid and a blue and pink and he said that the aunt Penelope gave that one to the janitor's daughter Willie's offer was a help for Uncle Frank had told me that I must try to stay in New York with Aunt Penelope for the three years anyway he explained about the locus and how they went through stages and he thought it would take about three years for my country shell to slip off and be replaced by the new one Aunt Penelope has a country place but Uncle was afraid it was not very wild it is at Southampton and she wants me to go there with her when I heard that I wasn't to come home at all I almost expired but anyone needs a vacation I said sort of shakily if I can't climb trees or go barefoot at least once a summer I shall die but Uncle Frank had forgotten me and got up to haunt a picture of a variety of the praying mantis which he found climbing a tree it did not cheer me I said I wish I was one and he said rare specimen rare specimen how hum and again went to pouring over his books those weeks passed and then I found that I cared a lot about many people whom I had almost avoided before I knew I was to go away even old Mr. Diggs who growls and used to complain of me so often I occasionally broke a window in his house it stands near the diamond which is near his school stopped me and gave me a mouth organ he had had when he was a boy I appreciated it for I knew it meant lots to him if it wasn't exactly useful to me when I showed it to Mrs. Bradley she said swell thing to play on in New York and really laughed but afterwards she went to the wood shed to get kindling and I knew she was thinking of the New York part of her joke Aunt Heddy James knitted me a bridged jacket and she used to come regularly to talk with Uncle about my ways and five other women whom I hadn't thought liked me much made me bridged jackets too but they were all different colors I mean the jackets not the women I had seventeen pin cushions given me and nine boudoir caps Jim Hooker who is the town disgraced but with whom I often fished meeting him a little way out on the Chanceburg Pike he can cast better than anyone I ever saw gave me a collection of flies that were wonderful and Willie Jepsen gave me a box of lavender correspondence cards which I thought beautiful before I had become climatized to New York they had pink edges and gold ends on them to be brief everyone was kind to me and it made my throat feel stuffy it was honestly a relief to go for I knew it had to come and the feeling of its coming was like that pressure that going to the dentist tomorrow lays on your spirit and at last the day did come and I went in the morning of that day I went out in the garden and looked at it carefully I thought that perhaps I could pack the way it looked in my heart as I had Uncle Frank's face and Bradley Dears that figure just dimly indented at the waistline with her starchy blue-jacked apron and so I walked around a little while August had made it sag but it was lovely grass was sprouting between the walk the picket fence was leaning and being greyed from the sun and the rain made a lovely background for the late flowers and the dusty foliage across the fence was the spot where Willie Jepsen taught me to pitch and on the small platform outside the back door was the hook where they used to tie me when I was a tiny girl and ran away so much everything was familiar and because of that very dear I knew it and had lived in that house loved and been loved by the people of that house it was home Willie Jepsen got up early that morning he came out in the backyard carrying a crawler in one hand and four plums in the other heavy rain last night he said breakfast isn't ready yet thought I'd take a bite to carry me on till Liza gets up got packed I said I had green bites and what I said about marrying me goes I'll let you if you can't stand it in New York although a woman hampers a man I didn't think that was a happy manner of putting it and said so oh shucks he replied don't expect slush from me I'm not anxious to get married I say so frankly a woman hurts a man's career but considering your drop curves and scents I'll help you out if you need really need helping then he went on eating his plums I like you he continued after several shoes it isn't as if I didn't and he didn't look at me so I knew he wasn't as averse to marrying me as he seemed I've known Willie for a long time and so I understood quite a lot he didn't say I don't think I shall trouble you I said although I'm grateful and it is nice to think that there is somewhere where you can go if your family won't receive you before your education is finished Willie nodded and went on chewing and then Bradley dear called and I knew that breakfast was ready goodbye Willie I said coming down to the station he said and very gruffly I said alright and went toward the house when I reached the porch I looked back and I knew that Willie felt badly Willie wasn't chewing into chapter 2 chapter 3 of Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Catherine Haviland Taylor chapter 3 story as I said before almost all I remember about going away is the leaves, bags, dust and peanut shells which were in the wind around the station platform a great many people came down to see me off which was dear of them considering that my conduct has not always been exemplary and they all kissed me and said that they hope New York would be pleasant and that I wouldn't be lonesome and women said that they hoped it would tame me down which I did not entirely enjoy even the minister came down and he put me out of the choir last year because I let mice loose in the middle of Miss Hooker's solo which she finished from the top of the organ in a squat Willie Jepsen dared me to and it was especially nice for the minister to come down I thought Uncle Frank coughed a lot and blamed it on the dust I was feeling badly because I was going away oh how me said dust pretty bad pretty bad I have here and then he pulled out a little box in which he'd mounted that little beetle which stays on the ground three years and then comes out and acquires lovely shiny wings and flies besides making a real song with its hind legs he said he hoped I would understand the implied lesson and he meant that I was to dig hard at knowledge for three years not that I was to attempt noises with my hind legs he said when things looked hard I was to look at that little insect who so patiently waited for wings and work so hard to get them and to be ready to float and make attractive tunes and I said I would keep it on my bureau next to the China cat with a hollow back for matches that Bradley Deer gave me and then there was a great deal of kissing on Frank Koham some and coughed Bradley Deer frankly wept Willie Jepsen reminding me that I could lean on him if I had to leave Swirl Madly as the train pulled in and made a real breeze around the station and I started I carried five bouquets which have been presented in umbrella a suitcase and a shirt waste box which held all those things which the trunk wouldn't hold beside a basket of Miss Hooker's sheep nose apples I've often eaten them but she never gave me any before I was ever so grateful her orchard is walled and guarded by a dog and getting her apples is really difficult we used to do it by dropping a packing box over the dog and then adding bricks to be sure that he'd stay but that is another story the gift of those apples really touched me but they didn't taste as good I can understand how self made men feel about their fortunes it is perfectly natural to enjoy something that you steal under adverse circumstances it sort of makes you feel clever with feeling everyone enjoys but to get on I was to go to Dr. Crane's for the night his wife was a great friend of my mother's and has always written me more or less regularly besides sending me things at Christmas time and although it is hard for me to meet strangers I really looked forward to going there and it was lovely I arrived in Baltimore at eight that night and I was never so frightened in the first place I'd never been in a large city before and the crowd was dense and then I'm used to being near people I know and I hadn't spoken a word to anyone besides the conductor all day I began to feel terribly lonely so after I'd got to the waiting room with the help of a porter I stood and waited feeling intensely miserable and when I heard Miss Natalie Page in a nice man's voice I said thank you ever so much God inside for I was beginning to wonder if I should do if I wasn't met I didn't feel as if I could go out and take a taxi as I've been told to for I was sure I wouldn't know a taxi from any other kind of a car although Miss Hooker said they had flags on them well it was Dr. Crane and he has a real smile yes he went on it is Miss Natalie Page and some baggage and we both laughed then he got a porter had my things put in his small car and we started I think Mrs. Crane has a little supper waiting he said very cheerfully I'm sure he somehow knew that I felt timid and a little alone for I heard her ordering patty cases and French pastries this morning I don't suppose you like them I said I was sure I would then he asked about uncle in my trip and whether I'd ever been in a city before and I answered him trying ever so hard not to be frightened by the great crowds that ran right in front of cars at the crossings I was quite sure we could kill someone but we didn't nervous asked Dr. Crane as we turned up into a quieter street which went past the Walters Art Gallery Dr. Crane told me what it was I said I wasn't exactly but that I expected to see someone killed in the mob through which we had threaded he laughed and replied that he didn't have to do it with a Ford because he was a doctor and then we rode quite a distance although it didn't seem so for I was interested and at last we stopped before a old white house a little girl of about 13 stood on the doorstep and as we near I heard her call mother she's come they're here mother and then she stopped yelling into the house and ran down to open the door of the car for me I am Mary Eleanor Crane she said shyly but she smiled so genuinely that I liked her right away yes said the doctor the only girl we have left and if she marries they'll be a massacre around here and then Mrs. Crane came to the door and I forgot Mary Eleanor and the doctor she kissed me and said why my dear little girl and I felt as if I had always known her just like your mother she went on just like Nelly Randolph the prettiest girl in the green spring valley and I saw that her eyes were too bright and swimming and then she changed the subject abruptly and said come in dear you must be tired Ted have lucky take those bags up to the blue room lucky was the darkest little coon I ever saw and she went on Mary Eleanor you take Miss Natalie upstairs and see that she has clean towels and as a nice chance to brush up and then come down to supper come on said Mary Eleanor as she slipped her arm through mine and we went up some splendid broad winding stairs which led to a great upstairs hall it was the loveliest house I've ever seen I could only gas there were dark old pictures and beautifully wide gently mellowed guilt frames and funny old fashioned pieces of furniture standing here and there I particularly noticed one and Mary Eleanor told me it was a frame on which people of art great great grand mother's time did embroidery and on the floor were rag rugs and the prettiest colors they belonged with the old mahogany I don't know about periods or anything like that but I could feel that they fitted as we went along Mary Eleanor talked ever so fast she said that they had always been poor since people almost never paid the doctor unless they were sick and wanted him to come again and most always they were only really sick once but she said that they had an aunt who gave them a lot of money and that now they were comfortable and had ice cream as often as three times a week and two cars one of which her mother ran and she has two sisters and a brother who was visiting then and was going to college and that little girl is the aunt of two children a boy and a girl she said her sister Barbara almost named her baby after her but it happened to be a boy and of course Mary Eleanor was out of the question she told me quite a lot as I watched Shep and said she wished I would stay as she missed her sisters and brothers and would like to have me around I thought it was dear of her and then as I was ready and awfully hungry we went downstairs and there I began to understand that it was not all history geography French English and mathematics that I was to learn in New York I began to see what I never had seen or could see in our little village that is the prettier way of living this hooker's table never looked like Mrs. Grains and this hooker went to the World Sphere studied singing in Washington in 1895 and has been as far west as Chicago it was lovely I did wish that Uncle Frank and Bradley dear could see it there was a lunch set on it and the way the table gleamed between the lace edges was beautiful there were candles with pink shades and in a high glass basket late autumn roses then there were tiny baskets of nuts and candies I could only look I said I think that is beautiful Mrs. Crane and she said dear child which wasn't exactly an answer but which satisfied me then we ate and the things were very good I did enjoy myself they laughed and talked a lot and we had such a good time Mrs. Crane and Mr. Crane seemed to talk by looking to which is queer and yet I suppose if you've been in the same house with a person for a great many years and love them lots she would understand every little flicker that makes a change in expression just as I understand what sort of a fly fish will want from look at the light and the depth of the water and the sort of wings the insects have that hover above sometimes I think that everything in the world is observation that that is the only education and that education perhaps after all only tries to make you do that I was deeply impressed by the French pastries of course I'd never had them before because almost everyone in Queensburg does their own baking and there isn't any bakery near than Parsons and that deals with nothing more involved in macaroons I asked Mrs. Crane whether she thought that I could get them in New York and she said I could I was ever so glad for I think that if you are very homesick you can be diverted as well by cheerful things to go inside as by cheerful surroundings I told them so Mary Eleanor agreed with me eating she said is underrated it has a great deal to do with the set of your spirits mother I would love having another pastry round one was a complete disappointment and I only ate it to save it and when I grow up and am a doctor I'm going to advocate complete freedom in gratifying appetite better advocate complete freedom in engulfing sodoments advise Dr. Crane most people need him even while eating with care Mary Eleanor didn't answer she was too much occupied with the pink pastry when she did speak she announced something which excited me Natalie she said mother's going to give you a present tonight something that is really yours and ever so valuable because of historic association and I'm so anxious to see you get it for it is really yours your mom but her mother interrupted with that she didn't finish and then an old colored woman came in with little cups of coffee for Dr. Mrs. Crane and chocolate with whipped cream on top for Mary Eleanor and me we walked a little longer went in a yellow room and played the Victoria and then I said good night and Mary Eleanor and I went out after I got undressed and was in bed Mrs. Crane tapped on my door dearly she said may I come in I sat up and said oh please do just as Mary Eleanor from way down the corridor screamed a request to come over to Mrs. Crane asked if she might and I said I'd love having her so she did when she came along Mrs. Crane said get in with Natalie if she doesn't mind daddy hasn't any time to fuss with colds now and this is a long story and then as Mary Eleanor sat under the covers Mrs. Crane opened a square box which was covered in yellow satin a satin which had once been white and held it so I could see a beautiful bracelet inside this my dear she said was your mother's and her father gave it to me a short time after she died isn't it lovely she held out the box and very carefully I picked it up it was a wonderful thing of soft dull gold and the sort that they were at that time broad and firm looking I had a queer feeling to think that it had been around her mother's arm and I ran my fingers around the inside of it then Mrs. Crane leaned over and clasped it on my arm and kissed me and I was awfully afraid I was going to cry but I didn't I find it you swallow two or three times very hard when tears are near that you can divert them well said Mrs. Crane and she sat down on that little rocking chair that stood near the bed that has a history a great history it belonged to Madame Jumail she married Aaron Burr you know when she was an old woman a nice rosy age for romance wasn't it I was glad to have something at which to laugh yes she went on that was her bracelet it happened at one of your great great grandmother's sale for Bordeaux on that same ship in which Madame Jumail took past you Madame Jumail was then traveling under the name of the widow of the vice president of the United States although she divorced Aaron Burr after they had been married for less than a year and a very grand lady indeed she thought herself to be she had letters French nobility letters which she wished to send from Bordeaux announcing her arrival but her French was faulty and she found the task of writing them extreme and the result far from her personal satisfaction so your great great grandmother being a person of education and the nicest sort of French helped her one noon Madame Jumail waited for her at the entrance to the dining saloon and as your relative approached said pardon Madame but I heard you conversing in the most elegant and gentile French I could not help but overhear it and I wondered whether you would be so good as to offer me your assistance my letters to royalty and history says she waved a hand most early are things that must be just so as you can understand I am proud that crowned heads bow to me but laws my dear it is a past and the long and the short of it is that she was helped and by your great great grandmother Natalie after the letters had been corrected and little niceties were added Madame Jumail expressed the gratitude many a million times dear friend she said and very quaintly broken French and then taking this bracelet from her arm added no doubt one day when I'm dead but not forgotten the bracelet which I retain the companion to this will be displayed they will say it belonged to the widow of Burr my dear he was a wretch but this one which I give you and you must accept I will have no nose your descendants will display as having belonged to your friend a friend who was helped by a friend let me clasp it please it looks upon your arm although it has not the round fairness of mine and that is the story I look down at the bracelet did my mother wear it I asked Mrs. Crane's face changed curiously and then she said she had but not often but she did I question further really did yes dear she responded there's a picture in the Jumail mansion she went on after a few moments but you will doubt let's see it shows Madame Jumail wearing the companion to this bracelet the painting was done in Rome the last time she went abroad which was the time your great-great-grandma met her in it she is sitting between her niece and nephew the nephew who afterward angered at her through an inkwell at his aunt's face in the painting missed it and left a scar above his own head wasn't that frightful I said I was thinking of the aim more than the motive he must have been a rotten pitch but Mrs. Crane thought that meant his anger was wrong it was she said and yet old Madame Jumail was a queer piece she adopted children who bought one by one all left her she was a lonely old woman and one pity sir but madly the world gives back what she put in it and usually when people are lonely they have been cruel I suppose so I said what was the matter with him didn't he ever play ball Mrs. Crane didn't know but went on with you'll be interested in that Jumail mansion because of your bracelet and then Madame Jumail her husband Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and Alexander Hamilton's son who was Alexander Hamilton junior was her lawyer even during the time when she was Mrs. Burr wasn't that strange there are lots of queer things about her and more about her influence again Mrs. Crane's face changed I've wondered what made it and she looked at the bracelet then after a little more talk she kissed me ordered Mary Eleanor off and put out the light when I was alone I put the bracelet under my pillow and kept my hand on it I loved feeling it it was nice to think that my mother hurt if only for a few times I lay awake thinking of it for a long time and I'm sure it must have been away past 11 when I last slept before I did I thought of Uncle Frank and Mrs. Bradley I wasn't worried about Uncle Frank for he always has bugs but I did hope that Bradley dear wasn't crying when I thought she might be I was miserable again and then I found the bracelet to be a comfort I put my hand on the inside of it for Mrs. Crane did say my mother wore it sometimes and it seems queer it helped lots lots End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Kathleen Haviland Taylor Chapter 4 what Mary Eleanor told me the next morning I got up quite early and Mrs. Crane who did too helped me to assemble my things she loaned me a suitcase for the bridge jackets and my pin cushions which would not go in the trunk and then taking a few of the best flowers from each bouquet made them into a small one which she pinned on me with a lovely little gold headed pin which she called a violet pin and all the time we worked together she talked most comfortingly if everything seems right first dear she said as she folded up my nightie and bathrobe don't worry things have a way of smoothing out you know and you'll accommodate yourself I suppose you're used to being outdoors I responded that I was then she said and very cheerfully think of the walks you can take in New York the things you can see the most beautiful buildings and parks and dear knows what all honey why you'll have a beautiful time I sort of hope I can fight it to one of the big league games it was hard for me to speak of it because I did so want to go and I was afraid it wouldn't be suitable or something for almost invariably things that are pleasant or not proper to do I've always noticed it the Mrs. Green thought my uncle would take me if I told him how much I cared about going do you I said and ever so earnestly for it meant a great deal to me I don't see how he could help it she answered and then after kissing me she told me to hurry on with my dressing and come down to breakfast and I did as I did my hair which was at that time a very simple operation and involve three licks of the comb and one rubber strap I thought of Mrs. Green and I did wish I could stay with her for I began to see that my clothes did look strange and I knew that she would help me to fix them without laughing at me or them Bradley had had them made so that I was too aware of them and so that no one else could overlook them it is hard to explain but the trimmings and the dresses did mix and the braid drew attention to the dresses and the dresses drew attention to the braid which was not all moored on the level I anchored a good deal of it myself and I can tell you that it is far easier to pitch against the left handed batter than to put on a yard of serpentine braid beside being a great deal more interesting just as I had got my dress on I was trying to hook it under the arm someone tapped and after my come in I found it was Mary Eleanor Bill's home she said first he just got in he's glad he's going to meet you he likes baseball too I have something to tell you but I don't just know how it is a delicate thing to say and requires womanly tact of which I have not much since father whips us if we tell fibs that kind of upbringing is an awful handicap she sat down after this and began to plait her handkerchief if you feel as if you ought to say it I said go to it I won't mind and she did it's about the bracelet she said mother doesn't believe in such things but Aunt Eliza she's our cook knows all about them and she says that probably the ghost of the first owner has put a hand on it I don't believe in such stuff I answered you know how niggers are I know Mary Eleanor answered but well look here your own mother thought so thought what I asked and quickly I was getting excited and I wanted her to come to the point thought Madam Jumel didn't want anyone to wear her bracelet and made them unhappy in some queer way if they did everyone who wears that bracelet has awful things happen to them what I asked I sat down on the foot of the bed my mother said your mother said that because she wore it the first time your father kissed her he died with pneumonia before he'd ever seen you she said that made it I don't believe it I asserted I was annoyed it didn't sound like Mrs. Green Mary Eleanor bridal and her eyes snapped then done she said I only thought someone ought to tell you before something frightful happened to you and I don't lie Miss Natalie Page you can ask my father because he taught me not to and I know you don't I answered and I'm sorry I said that and then I decided I'd better hear the story beside I wanted to so I told her to tell me all about what she knew of it it seems to have a room which they call the winter room and this contains a cozy little alcove lighted by a high window which is remote and an ideal reading spot and one day after Mrs. Green got Uncle Frank's letter the letter about my coming Mary Eleanor happened to be there reading it was a book she had read before and of course she knew what happened next and so she wasn't especially interested and what her mother and father said sort of floated in her consciousness and rooted she said before she realized that she was listening and since they hadn't known she was there she decided not to enlighten them she knew that they would be shocked by her presence and she assured me that she always tried to be considerate and she reasoned further that since she had heard so much almost involuntarily there was no use stuffing up her ears and beside she was interested it was interesting but I didn't believe it then Ted Mrs. Green had said Dr. Green's first name is Theodore I want to give Natalie Page that bracelet but you know poor Nellie's foolish fear of it bothers me. Nonsense Dr. Green answered and Mary Eleanor said she knew he was smoking by the type where he spoke I suppose it is Mrs. Green said isn't it well of course it is nothing to matter with that bracelet my dear how could it affect anything and as for poor Carter Page's pneumonia Carter Page was my father and he was an admiral in the Navy he went off with that because of a severe climatic change of bad saving and a weak heart and of course Nellie was upset both physically and mentally by that but before said Mrs. Green you know her little sister the one who was killed in that Carroll County hunt thrown from a horse well she'd borrowed this bracelet and wore it that day my dear said Dr. Green that simply coincidence and it certainly proves nothing I think Nellie's daughter ought to have it because of its historic value and I wouldn't be bothered for a second by those imaginings then Mary Eleanor heard him scratch a match and relight his pipe she said that it was really interesting the way she could tell what was going on without seeing it it was like movies for the blind suppose that Mrs. Green there is something in that sort of thing although of course there isn't and I did give this child something that would then Dr. Green asked if she needed atomic which is his way of saying that people are cross or crazy or nervous Mrs. Green laughed Ted she said I know I am crazy but when I remember it and then Mary Eleanor said her voice became soft as she told this story and I had heard it but never told this way and here it is I was born while my father was cruising the Pacific each day he had hoped to be able to come home but orders were against him and like all sailors he had to abide by those and not by the dictates of his heart and so I grew for three months and then one day my mother heard that father was to come home and would probably be in port within three or four weeks Mrs. Green's description of that was lovely and she could describe it while my mother then lived in the green spring valley with grand papa and Mrs. Green went there often taking Alex, Barbara and William Mary Eleanor wasn't at that time excitement Ted said Mrs. Green I wish you might have seen it but you remember how I told it a little well Nellie was the happiest little person I've ever seen and simply delighted over the beautiful baby she had reading to show her husband each day little Natalie who really was a sweet child was dressed in her best and ready for display for Nellie couldn't realize that three weeks at least must elapse before a big husband could come home to her and she herself pretty as ever would wail dear do you think I'm as pretty as I was Carter always thought me pretty you know do you and then quickly but if he doesn't there's the baby and she is a beauty always was a coquette said Dr. Crane yes admitted Mrs. Crane Nellie knew her husband was wild about her they really loved each other too much the other would have been easier if they had been a bit closer to normal caring and then came what I've always known and been saddened by for my poor little mother after getting me already for my daddy and herself already for him to both of us in our previous things had a wire and in this she heard that he was dead and when she heard that she took off the bracelet I did not know this part of the story and flung it far from her and then she fainted and she never cried at all which I can understand well a few months went on and although they said I cared a great deal for her she didn't seem to care for anything even me and quite naturally she began to be ill I suppose that there was nothing left for which life was worth the living a big mommy took care of me and my grandpa loved me a lot but I'm sure even then that I wanted my mother most one day perhaps six or eight months after my father's death my mother asked for the Jumel bracelet and when they brought it to her with a dent in the side which had come from her throwing it she smiled I'm going to take it to its jealous owner Chloe she said to my mommy or at least I will take it where no one else can wear it and where Madam Jumel will not mind it's being worn and then again she smiled and when she died she had it on her arm and of course she meant that she was to be buried in it and my mommy would not have that she did not believe in carrying unhappiness to the other world and like a great many of her race believe that you could take things with you if they went in your coffin which is of course silly for all you really take is love and the widest part of your soul I'm sure all jealousies and hurts and little things stay here and I like to believe so but to get on oh Chloe told my grandfather and he a broken hearted old man took it off and then he kissed my mother's arm at the brace that had made a mark and he said it's all right now my little girl isn't it it's all right now for I hope she was very happy and then he went off and sat down on the porch his head sagging down on his chest and in his hands the Jumel bracelet there were three years which followed three years in which nothing happened and then my grandfather began to lose money I remember that time although I was only three and a half I remember his holding me very tight and pressing his face against my chest and I always hugged him and said granddad dear for Chloe who taught me everything had said your granddaddy done gotta have a lot of love on each child he done gotta for he's lost a lot of love a powerful lot for two of his daughters and his wife had all gone within eight years and I did love him I remember also how when they brought him in bleeding and with his eyes wide open but sightless how I felt how I screamed and how even Chloe could not stop me little by little he had lost money and the small sums have worried him and he had tried to catch them back with the big ones and somehow after a little time of this there were no big ones and then one day in hunting season they found my dear grandfather by a style where they thought he had fallen and accidentally discharged his gun which is of course possible anyway he had evidently lain therefore a good many hours and he had bled to death and they found the Jumel bracelet in his pocket flattened and bent looking as if someone had stepped grounded into the earth and believed this story Chloe took charge of it and Mrs. Crane saw it when she came out to take charge of me until I should go to Uncle Frank's and Mrs. Crane took the bracelet because she thought no one of our family would want to see it since even Uncle Frank seemed to believe in the eel omens it carried she had it straightened and made whole again and sometimes more but not often since she cared deeply for my mother and the memories it gave her hurt and so the bracelet was kept until I got it Dr. Crane asked about Aunt Penelope and how she would feel about it but Mrs. Crane said she'd never believed a word of the tale she was my mother's much older half sister my grandfather first married a northern woman and after she died my mother's mother it won't bother Penelope said Mrs. Crane and she laughed and then Mary Eleanor said she added I wonder how Natalie will get on there did I imagine there is a good deal of worldiness and thought of form I do hope it would be all right for if she is like her mother she is a dear end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Catherine Havlin Taylor chapter 5 New York and my new home I had a very happy time with the Cranes and although Mary Eleanor's story upset me a little in spite of my then not believing it I was cheered by the time I left and entirely myself Mrs. Crane told me to go play ball with William after breakfast she said I was foolish to drop it entirely and that she knew Mrs. Bradley would want me to play if she realized what good exercise it was and Dr. Crane said he would write her so I played and after William let go of two hot ones and said ouch before he could suppress it I felt better Dr. Crane rooted for me and it was all very happy and I did so want to stay he and Mary Eleanor sat on grapefruit crates and yelled Mrs. Crane came to the door now and again lucky the black little nigger climbed up on the laundry roof and every once in a while old Aunt Eliza would look out the window and laugh so that she shook all over don't that beat all she'd say and missed William dropping them balls and then she'd laugh again and William did too although he couldn't have enjoyed having me come out on top but they are all that way they really don't mind discomfort if other people are happy they are so kind we scored by making each other drop and miss balls but of course the aim had to be square the method was the thing and just as Dr. Crane was yelling good grounder not now sock him with a warm baby Mrs. Crane opened the door and said Ted you've got to start it's almost half past and I had to put on my hat I hated to I just wish I could have stayed there and have my education applied so I went to the station with me except Mrs. Crane and Mary Eleanor bought me a little box of mints and William gave me a glass baseball bat filled with tiny candies for a joke then Dr. Crane bought me several magazines some of which were full of baseball stories talked to the porter about me Dr. Crane somehow got through the gates and I was off and all the way to New York I was cheered by the way the Crane said goodbye to me Mary Eleanor made me promise to come again and Dr. Crane wrote down just what I was to do if I wasn't met beside being awfully good to me and William said I could play ball I thought about them a lot about my new bracelet and about New York I had dinner on the train which in the north they call lunch and got on very well it wasn't difficult because you wrote down what you wanted and I knew exactly what that was I ordered lobster which I had never tasted ice cream cake a cream puff and chocolate with whipped cream on top of it a gentleman who sat opposite me gasped and said oh my then he asked me if I was tired of life he seemed impressed with my order but I don't know why he got Zwei back he told me what it was and soft boiled eggs and milk and after he finished lunch he offered me some pepsin tablets he took several but I refused he said he didn't know what one little tablet could do against that lineup then he asked me if there were any ostriches among my ancestors he was selling automobile tires and called the waiter George and seemed to know him very well and he told me all about his indigestion as his eyes roved over at my order as for eating a mess like that he said and then ended with oh my but I cannot quote him entirely for it was terrible it is that word which goes in church but which becomes swearing when a man says it in talking to the Empire I suppose this man was in pain after that we talked of baseball and he knew Hans Wagner and had known him since the beginning of his career when he played in the oil league in western Pennsylvania of course I was interested I lingered over my cream puff ice cream and cake and he lingered over his milk he said he'd looked me up in New York and I was awfully grateful and I said my aunt would love to have him come to supper to which you reply me for it kid which sounded a little queer to me even then I did not know at that time that you are not supposed to talk to people to whom you have not been presented or who have not been presented to you I learned that later but that belongs in another part of this story we reached New York when it was just growing dark and never in all my life will I forget the look of it the dazzling lit Christmas trees look all bright buildings in the hurrying bright face crowds everyone seemed in a hurry and some people actually ran and especially as they crossed Fifth Avenue where we drove for some distance my uncle's chauffeur met me and he did not seem very sociable I had not learned that you mustn't talk to them at that time and after I asked him how he was and whether my aunt and uncle were well and whether they had had summer colds or hay fever which is the way we start acquaintance in Queensburg I stopped talking and looked and I never saw so much to see before it is wonderful it took all my dreams of fairy land and made them look like a miffed ball I looked up and began to see why the picture of the Ruben type with their mouths ajar it is natural to let your chin droop from surprise are we almost there I asked after we'd gone about a million blocks Jackson replied not yet miss and stared straight ahead and I said well this is a long way and he said yes miss after that I did some more looking the dusk had fallen and it made a lovely haze around the tops of the buildings and looking down the side streets one could see only millions of motor headlights and nothing but those and the women were so beautifully dressed some of them in the passing motors leaned way back and looked tired but beautifully so not as the women do around Queensburg when they are tired they wear calico wrappers and their backs get stooped and usually as a baby clinging to their skirts but here it is different I can't say why the women's eyes are narrowed as if they wanted to look tired and they are so pretty Jackson I said I never saw such beautiful complexions no I said Mr. Jackson then and he said yes miss well after a great way of this we reached a quieter section and here in front of a very tall brown stone building Jackson I liked it and I followed a girl whom I knew to be Evelyn came out of the doorway and said why what made you write up with Jackson and then she turned her cheek for my kiss and I can't yet understand what there was about that which made me feel so hollow and cold inside then she said come in and we'll go up I don't think mother's in but she will be soon I hope your trip was pleasant I replied that it was but I don't think she heard what I said for we had stepped in an elevator and she was busy smiling at a man who leaned on a heavy cane she said you've been motoring he said he had I have to a bit said Evelyn but I was kept in most of this afternoon by a while bout of auction and I took the prize she showed it to him it was a beautiful thing a little enamel box on a gold chain and then it was a powder puff pink powder and a place for coins even I was impressed with it and at that time I knew little beside what the proper balance of a bat should be I began to feel worse and to swallow hard the man looked at me in a quizzical way his eyes narrowed and little wrinkles showing at the corners of them then he said good night and got off Mr. Samuel Campwood said Evelyn as we went on she said this in a low tone so that the elevator man shouldn't hear has the apartment on the third floor wonderful collection of ivories and is the most thrillingly romantic person ah here we are and then we stepped out well I don't know what I had expected but I know I mean apartment like this it is wonderful in the first place it takes up the whole floor of that great big building and doesn't seem at all crowded I'd expected folding beds and having to put your head on the piano and eat off a card table but it isn't that way when we got off we stepped into a little outer hall and Evelyn rang then a maid opened the door and we went in without speaking to her after she took Evelyn's furs Evelyn said is my mother in Jane and the maid answered with not yet Miss after that Evelyn said you had your dinner on the train and I said I had she didn't say anything about supper and of course I didn't understand at that time but I began to feel frightfully hollow under my belt I stood this a little while and at last I said could I have a cup of tea I don't like to make any trouble but tea she echoed and raised her eyebrows as if she were ever so surprised and then added of course and she rang a bell I didn't get any supper I explained because I thought you'd be waiting it here for me I thought you meant you'd had your evening meal she said quickly it is called dinner here you will avoid confusion if you remember that Jane please see that some dinner is put on for Miss Natalie she is not dying Jane bowed and left and I began to feel even more hollow and this time it was my heart that felt that way too Evelyn moved around humming she had been reading a great deal of mail and casually commenting on it as she read like this Tuesday um I don't know and as Mrs. Stan would think I would accept her invitation and then she would hum something else she shakes her voice a great deal when she sings she forgot me even more than she had and I did feel so alone when Jane at last came back Evelyn looked up and spoke really she said you must excuse me I didn't mean to neglect you but I had to get through my mail you know how it is of course do you want to brush up before you eat frightful of me to forget to ask you I said all I wanted was to eat and then Jane said this way please and I followed sort of tiptoeing because everything seems so very grand and it all made me seem even shabbier than I was the dining room is all paneled in some sort of dark wood and has beautifully upholstered dark furniture in it silver gleaned from a long sideboard which hasn't one mirror in it they all have mirrors on them in Queensburg and a Jap served things I liked him he smiled at me there were roses and lilies of the valley and a great silver bowl which stood in the center of the table and I like those better than anything and when I looked at them my eyes filled and I guess the Jap man sought for he took out a rose and several sprays of lilies of the valley and laid them by my place and said like flowers always pretty and I said can I really have them and he smiled at me again and then he got food and gave me the right fork after I had used up the wrong thing to eat it with which is mixed but as I said Jim work is where I do well after I had got through in the Jap had given me a bowl of water with a flower floating in it it confused me then was asking me whether I wanted coffee here or in the drawing room Amy my cousin who is nearest my age came in my dear she said I simply hated not being here to receive you but it was my dancing class afternoon and after I went to dinner with a friend I couldn't indecently refuse her I hope your trip was pleasant do let us go in where we can talk comfortably eat a coffee in the drawing room please mother isn't in is she poor mother so rushed but every one is we love having you Natalie and then she slid her arm through mine and squeeze my hand and I loved her from that minute on for although we are very different and she sometimes seems affected to me she is kind and you can overlook anything if people are that Evelyn is not when you humiliate her she hurt you to pay it back I know that after the first half hour of Evelyn I learned my first big lesson from New York and that wasn't calling dinner supper it was that kindness and making other people feel happy is the most important thing in life and the thing that counts most truly and deeply I try hard not to her in this now for I know how it feels to have people do it when we reached the drawing room we found Evelyn had left she is 21 and out and she goes to parties a great deal Amy sat talking about her and her bow she didn't call them that and her engagements and I sat trying to look as if I cared a great deal about what Amy said but thinking of Uncle Frank Bradley dear and of Willie Jepson that night I was quite sure that Willie Jepson would have a wife before he was 18 but he didn't however that comes later at about 10 Amy asked whether I'd like to go to bed and I admitted that I was tired and so she showed me to the most beautiful little room near hers with the bathroom which she and Evelyn and I were to use absurd little room we had to give you dear she said but I suppose you can make out if you need anything the button is by the door and the electrics turn on here anything I can get you I thanked her and said no and then she wished me happy dreams and left alone I looked around it was the most beautiful bedroom I'd ever seen but that did not help me there was a dressing table with three mirrors to it and long mirrors and all the doors there was a table by the bed with a telephone on it under a little lady's fluffy skirts and there was a light on this table too with a pink shade from which roses artistically drew there were books by this and a flashlight I never dreamed then that I would use that flashlight as I did later the walls were a brocade and a rose shade and the furniture was gray with baskets of roses painted on it and there was a sort of lounge on which you could sit up but lie down if you understand and deep crouton covered chairs when you open the cupboard door the cupboard lit up and there were hangers inside and it was scented I went around touching things very timidly and looking and as I said before it was the most beautiful bedroom I ever saw and at that time frankly ought me but it showed how little things count for I wanted my own bare floored little bedroom with no decoration except two fishnets mounted eagle and which held nothing but a straight back chair bed and a bureau with a wavery mirror I wanted it terribly I wanted to hear Uncle Frank co-hum and have Mrs. Bradley scold me when all the time she was loving me inside I wanted to hear Billy Jepsen whistling yell come on Matt let's go fishing I wanted home but I swallowed hard and began to unpack when I found the China cat I held him awfully close between my hands and then when I found the bug that stays in the ground three years I stood up I've got to I said unsteady for Uncle Frank and my mother I've got to and I will and then I set those things on the bureau and began to undress I looked at them a lot as I did and after I was ready for bed I said my prayers awfully hard the way you do when things go wrong and it is nice to remember that there is someone who will do his best to write files if you need it and then I turned off the lights and got in bed I couldn't sleep so after quite a while I got up and fumbled around to find that jumelle bracelet Bradley Deers cat and the bug and I put them all on the table by my bed and then after I touched them now and again I slipped into dreams and I dreamed that Uncle Frank said ho-hum-ho-hum she's a pretty nice little bug end of chapter 5 chapter 6 of Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Catherine Haviland Taylor chapter 6 the second bracelet the whole mystery really began the next afternoon but I must begin by telling of what happened in the morning I got up and met my aunt she sent for me and I went to her room where she dressed in a beautiful negligee was eating her breakfast she looked a little tired and white but she didn't let herself seem so when she talked my dear child she said we are so happy to have you here sit down, not there dear that's a frock I've had sent up on approval and one doesn't like to crush them more than so much I was so sorry I didn't meet you last night but I was persuaded to stay downtown and go to see something light with a group of friends so seldom have an evening free not that vows Jane now let me see you Natalie stand up I did so and she said um in a lingering speculative way I didn't feel very comfortable well we must go shopping she said with a sigh go ask Miss Evelyn to be kind enough to come hear a moment Jane vanished and my aunt went on looking me over some gray mixture for your day frocks I think she said at length with your gray eyes yes gray and we'll look at something soft in rose and in pink for evening lovely hair you have dear like your mothers but it looks more like New Orleans I wonder whether there was pre-old blood in your mother's mother's family I said I didn't know and then Evelyn came in she spoke to me pleasantly although carelessly and then to her mother the way she spoke to her was not pleasant what is it she almost whined I was right in the middle of notes mother I wanted you to telephone Mrs. Lathridge Guth tell her I'm indisposed this morning this child will have to have some clothes Evelyn looked at me she most certainly will she admitted I should think some of that braid could come off before you go out Aunt Penelope nodded got a scissors and I slipped from my frock then I sat down and began to rip off the braid which I had so painfully attached my dear child look out after a look at my arm where did you get that have you been in my things I hated that last and I suppose I showed it for I know my head went up and I answered coldly that I said is the June Mel bracelet and it is mine it belonged to my mother almost forgotten it said Aunt Penelope let's see the thing I slipped it off and handed it to her Evelyn's father had one like this made for her said Aunt Penelope he had Tiffany send a man up to the June Mel mansion and make drawings of the mate of this which is in a case by the painting I think Eve is a little annoyed at your having the real one while hers is a copy and Aunt Penelope looked shrewdly at Evelyn and laughed a little how silly of you mother said Evelyn hotly I'm nothing of the sort and then she spoke of the dent in mine and handed it back to me you could see she thought mine was very unimportant after that she asked some fretful questions about what she should say at the telephone and laugh a little out of sorts said my aunt as Jane came back with her street things late hours you know will have to get you something that you can put on immediately for there's a friend of your mother's coming in to tea whom you must see dear old soul not that one Jane Mercy my girl can I never teach you know the gray after my aunt had dressed for 45 minutes she was at last ready to start and we did but we didn't go down to the shopping district by motor we said that took too long so we walked a little way and then went in the subway which was hot and that made everyone look sleepy and yawn Aunt Penelope bought me a great many things and enough under clothes to change every day they were very pretty and I must say I did enjoy trying on the soft things I was to wear in the house at night there was a white crepe to sheen with a broad sash and hand embroidered scallops done in yellow around the collar the woman who sold us things who had a beautiful voice and it was very polite and complimentary said beautiful with her hair and skin the two are a rare combination and my aunt said yes let me see that gray with the rose girdle and she bought that too and then she bought a rose color dress which was untrimmed except for broad collars and cuffs of scrim and a plain heavy white dress untrimmed except for buttons and stitching and she bought stockings to match all these she selected shoes for me skirts for me morning frocks as she called them a motor coat a suit and several hats all of which were very plain and a squashy black tan made of lovely soft velvet I could only gasp oh yes I almost forgot she bought brushes and combs for me too and a little tiny brush to brush my eyebrows with I almost fainted and all that took us quite a while of course we had lunch in the store but I didn't enjoy it much because my aunt selected it and naturally it was nourishing which always detracts from the interest of food and then we went home as we walked down a wide street I saw the loveliest white house on a hill and realized it stood only a few blocks from aunts I asked what it was and found it was the Jew Mel mansion some of the things had reached home before we had those that we bought first and it was while I was standing and gazing rapturously at that pink dress that I saw the note it was scrolled on my telephone pad and it said do not bear the Jew Mel bracelet today it is my wish that you do not EJ I read it two or three times and then I went to the drawing room Jane was dusting and I asked her what I wanted to know Jane I said what was Madam Jew Mel's first name I can't say miss she replied but if she is important you'll find her in the New York guide perhaps I thanked her and went to look it up and I found that her first name was Eliza well I'd heard of spirits writing but I hadn't believed it before and I really didn't believe it then I thought it was a joke but I decided I would go over to the Jew Mel mansion for a few moments if my aunt would let me I felt as if I must so I asked her and she said I might for just a little while I put on my new suit and the tan which I had worn home to finally clasp that bracelet and started and when I got there I found that it was open and that anyone might go in so I did and I did enjoy it in the first place it is a lovely old house and it has everything in the way of interesting relics that you can imagine it was Washington's headquarters for more than a month during the revolution and the room where he slept especially interested me it proved to me that good deeds don't die for Washington who did lots of them is remembered because he always did his best and was upright and fine and true and now every little thing that he even touched is kept in treasure I stood looking at the Washington relics for a long time and then one of the curators asked me whether I would like to see the door through which the Indian Braves came to pledge allegiance to Washington and I said I would so he showed it to me and he said this he said they trooped in soft footed I suppose they were since they all wore moccasins and they carried laurel branches as an outward sign of the tune of their spirits and then he told me that the British occupied the house later they captured it November 16 1776 to be exact but he said there was no soft footed approach with them he said they were a noisy their ale I said perhaps they were home sick and had to do something to cheer themselves up I could understand that why he said perhaps they were and he smiled at me then he asked me if I was from the south he said he rather noticed it in my voice and he smiled again I told him yes and then I thought perhaps he would be interested in my bracelet and so I showed it to him and he replied the confusion that ensued he called everyone else who took care of the house and they all came and I had to tell my story at least six separate times and quite an interesting crowd of visitors listened and looked at it too I simply told them how it came to me and not about the tragic happenings that it made for at that time I had made up my mind I would not believe in that tale well we stood around talking and I saw the bracelet she had kept it was in a little case a great many people admire that said one of the women who stayed there especially the women there was a little Spanish woman in here the other day who was simply mad about it all she could say was as incomparable Linda Iyo Lo Desayo which the man said meant incomparably beautiful how greatly do I desire it he said that men like the Washington things best but that women almost always liked the bracelet then because it was growing late I knew I must go although I hated to the people who took care of the house all asked me to come soon again and I said I would for I like them and the house and after goodbyes and a promise to return and show them the bracelet again I hurried off and outside it began I don't know how you know you are being followed but I did then and suddenly I heard soft skinny footsteps drawing closer to me at every second I ran and then I stopped for I meant to be brave and face it and I give you my word although not a second before I'd heard those hurrying feet when I turned there was no one in sight except an old man who was sitting on the curb and holding out a tin cup he wore dark glasses so I knew he was blind I went back to him did you I asked and foolishly I realized afterward see anyone pass I am blind he replied and then I said that I knew that was silly to say and that I was sorry and I gave him 15 cents which was all I had with me I went on and I began to hear those footsteps again coming closer and closer and then ahead of me I saw the man that Evelyn said was mentally thrilling and I ran for him someone I gasped is following me he stopped and looked down and I saw that he didn't recognize me and then he looked back as I had and saw nothing there's no one in sight he said soothingly and I'm sure there's nothing to be frightened about perhaps not I answered but if you are going home I'll go with you and then I told him that I was Evelyn's cousin and he said he hadn't recognized me I told him my aunt had bought me a lot of new clothes and I told him quite a little about them because he was sympathetic and easy to talk to he is a little lame and has to use a cane all the time and somehow his being not just like other people makes you want to be kind to him and that or something else has made him very kind as we turned in the apartment house I saw the blind man going along the other side of the street doing the feeling for him and his movements awkward and stiff there are great many things that are sad in New York which seems strange for so many people are so wealthy now in Queensburg no one has much money but no one could go in want for the people who have just a little more than they have wouldn't let them I told Mr. Campwood a little about Queensburg too and he was really interested and that helped me for not even Amy will listen to that he wrote up to our floor with me and stepped off to wait until I got in then he shook hands and said goodbye as he rang for the elevator he said if that hat is one of the new ones you did well it's a corker I thanked him and admitted it had some sense for you could keep it on if you wanted to make a home run he said I seem to be doing that when we met and then the elevator came and he went down and I went in remembering his smile so hard that I almost forgot about being followed my mother's friend was there and I liked her and I enjoyed the tea although Aunt Penelope suppressed my natural tendency to engulf cakes and indicated thin bread and butter sandwiches then Amy came in and I went with her to dress Aunt told me to bathe and put on one of my soft frocks and to do that each evening at the same hour but not to wear one frock continually simple because I liked it I said I wouldn't and decided to wear the pink one every other evening I slipped off the bracelet and laid it on my bureau when I was bathing I heard a little noise but I didn't pay much attention to it I thought that Amy had come in my room to get a pin or to borrow some hairpins she uses invisible ones to make her hair look curlier around her face but when I got out and was doing my hair I saw another note it lay where my bracelet had been on it was written I told you not to wear this my warnings are not given not reason when I deem it wise this will be returned E J end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of Natalie page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie page by Katharine Taylor chapter 7 real excitement if the bracelet had not been gone I would have thought I imagined everything of the afternoon before but when morning light and a real search revealed no trace of it I believed I had been followed and had heard those footsteps drawing closer and closer to me as I ran and it did not make me comfortable I wondered what to do all morning and after reflection decided not to speak of it to my cousins aunt or uncle my uncle I had met the night before he had just come in from a business trip for somehow I knew they would not believe it and I didn't want them to laugh my uncle Archie has a great big stomach and says huh if anyone speaks to him which they don't often he eats a great deal and tells Ito to hurry up he said something about bills to Aunt Penelope they don't seem to be very congenial but he can talk for I heard him at the telephone sold it today he simply yelled then fools I'll teach him I'll the and he simply spluttered it was becoming interesting when Aunt Penelope said Ito closed the door and of course when Ito did the rest was lost I was sorry but Amy only looked bored and she had gone out with us to a dinner dance Aunt Penelope at T told the other women what a great treat it was to have Evelyn at home she did it a great many times and it almost seemed as if she wanted them to know that Evelyn went out a great deal although why she didn't say it outright if she did want them to know I don't see but that's the way a great many people in New York act they sort of shout around it about the weather which I think is silly well to get on after dinner Amy and I sat I never have done so much sitting as I've done since coming to New York the chairs and Davenport's are so luxurious they just must be sat on or curled up in Amy and I each have our pet arm chair and way of sitting in it but this is beside the subject I found that Amy had never done any hazing and she was much interested in my accounts of it I told her how we had had a secret society called the ancient and Evervescent order of yellow pups and how we made the new members get down on all fours and chew at a hand bone and she honestly giggled and then I told her how Willie Jepsen had filled his aunts bedroom slippers full of tar and she was interested in that and a description of how his aunt did when she slipped her feet in the slippers you see she was still half asleep and sort of blinky the way you are in the morning who would we haze she asked I suggested Evelyn and not alone because I wanted to but because I thought she honestly needed it I decided it would do wonders for her character how would we do it Amy next asked and I suggested the cold bottle trick which is simple but satisfactory you take a bottle and fill it with cold water the colder the better and if you can get ice in it that adds a great deal then you tie ribbon around the cork awfully tight and pin the other end of the ribbon to the bottom of the mattress and the bottle then in place and at the foot of some dear friends bed awaits when their feet hit it they naturally reach down and pull and when they do it the next and the puller wades and I can tell you it is one thing to wait in the Babylon brook and another to wait in an ostomor Willie Jepsen put green paint in the bottle he put in his brother's bed and his brother looked like the first note of spring for weeks but we decided that wouldn't do for Evelyn because the sort of stocking she wears show the color of her skin Amy said people would comment on it if her ankles we could blame it on Jane said Amy I didn't think that was fair until she explained it seems Jane is exceptional because she is willing to be a parlor made and help on Penelope dress to which combination is not often found mother wouldn't think of dismissing her said Amy so that would be all right I agreed then Amy told me that they were bitterly poor and live like paupers and my chin did drop and she went on to say that her mother encouraged her father to make money all the time but that he didn't make nearly all that they really needed now that Evelyn was out and had to have about 60 costumes to the minute I just listen it was the only thing to do but I thought to and I decided that it is bad to want things so much and that it is especially easy for a girl to do and so it is well to guard against it here was my cousin Evelyn with this lovely home and simply beautiful clothes wanting more and fretting because she can't have them and my aunt hurry my uncle so that he hasn't time or energy left to do anything but eat and say ha when he's at home and Amy being sorry for herself because she hasn't all the pretty things that her wealthiest friend has and I saw that wanting was just a habit and a bad one I said I think it would be a fine thing for you to take account of stock Amy and count all the lovely things you have maybe you'd feel better but she said I I'm too busy thinking of the things I haven't and the whole trouble lay right there well as I said we talked a lot played the Victorola a little and then we got a long necked mint sauce bottle from the cook and fixed Evelyn's bed and then returned in or as Miss Hooker would say retired and I thought as I always do about Uncle Frank and Bradley dear and the cranes Willie Jepsen and baseball but I went to sleep feeling less badly than I had before for I felt confident that the bracelet will come back to me and somehow Mr. Kemp would have made me less afraid and home seemed near Evelyn found that bottle and never heard such a noise she said someone was trying to murder her and everyone got up except Amy and me we giggled until Aunt Penelope came in and said does either of you know anything about this Amy had come over in my bed and then Amy said maybe Jane did it but her mother didn't seem convinced she only said I will attend to you too in the morning and she said it sternly when she went out we giggled some more it was impossible to help for Evelyn's room is near ours and we could hear her gasp and threaten to sit up all night and then sort of hiccup and say she thought she was getting hysterics and that she hoped her mother would beat me and we could hear Aunt Penelope and Jane flop around and bells ring and hot rings ordered and all because Evelyn's feet were a little wet which was irrational since she puts them in the tub at least once every day but as Uncle Archie said to me much later there is no reasoning with a woman and there's a lot in that statement we giggled until Aunt Penelope returned when we pretended to be asleep I hope the way we looked in sleep would soften her but it didn't I was in disgrace until about 7 the next evening but that comes later the next morning I will pass over hurriedly as it was not pleasant Aunt talked to us frankly and Amy put the blame on me where it belonged but I would have liked her better if she let me step forward and take it as I intended to you know it was your fault she said after we went out of her mother's room I said I knew it was well she said you needn't be annoyed because I said so I wasn't annoyed I was sorry that she was so poor a sport but I wasn't angry I pitted her I think you always feel sorry for a person when they don't play the best game they can because she had failed to stick to fair rules I didn't care so much for her that day and I suppose because she dimly felt that she failed she avoided me so after lunch I asked Aunt if I might go walking she said yes if I was careful not to get lost adding that she would rather not have me leave the immediate neighborhood I said I wouldn't and then I started out I put on the time again because it sticks and doesn't have to have pins and then Mr. Kempwood said it was becoming I will acknowledge that influenced me a little after I walked around several blocks and seen nothing but the same sort of houses and pavements and babies all with nurses I turned toward the Jumel mansion and again the people who take care of it were kind to me and I enjoyed my visit and I learned some more about the place that seemed the French merchant Stephen Jumel did not build it but Roger Morris then loyal servant of the king built it for his wife seven years after they were married before she became Mrs. Morris she was married for leaps nicknamed the Charming Polly he built it well and strongly which was fortunate since it was to have so many inmates and so much wear when you think of it a house that was put up in 1765 and 1766 would have to be splendidly made to stand the years the Charming Polly must have been indeed charming for her descendants say that Washington who was just before her marriage a man in 1925 offered her his hand and name but from the look of things it would not seem so for a friend of Washington's Joseph Chew wrote him that Captain Roger Morris who was a ladies man always something to say was breakfasting often with mistress reliefs and at the town talk Tavit as a sure and settled affair and he added an urgent appeal for Washington to return as he was sure charming Mr. Polly must prefer Washington to all others but perhaps Washington had found another charming somebody for the letter of July brought no visit from Washington until late one winter's eve when the descendants of Mary Phillips say he arrived post-haste and demanded an interview immediate not withstanding that the hour was late however whether or not it was more than a flirtation or a light admiration it does seem strange does it not that Washington should direct his army from the house that his rival built for the much admired and talked of Polly Phillips Mary Phillips and Captain Morris were married in 1758 they had four children two boys and two girls if I recall correctly what I was told and when General Washington took command at Cambridge they had been married for 17 years now to me there is something unsatisfactory about a man who doesn't take sides and Captain Morris didn't in fact the builder of that lovely house evaded a sighting with either the British or the United States at the time of the revolution and one day while the males were being taken aboard the Harriet packet he quietly slipped aboard with John Watts who with Roger Morris was a member of his majesty's council for this province together they sailed for England and Captain Morris remained abroad for almost two years and unhappy years they were too for he was homesick for the big white house his lovely wife and children and I can understand the first although no one who hadn't lived in it would think that Uncle Frank's house was lovely rumor stays to Captain Roger Morris took rooms in London Town so to be near the males of the ships that his wife's letters would come to him without delay and can you see him waiting for those wanting them and looking for the crosses that his girls and boys wrote at the bottom of the letter I'm sure they were there perhaps his little less girl wrote for my dearest father whom I do so greatly love dear kisses and of course one of every double S was written like an F for that is the way they did it in that time can you see it the little girl in quaint long frock painfully writing out a message while her mother looked on and wondered whether the dearest father would ever reach home the letters he wrote her were lovely but I didn't see those that day Mr. Kempwood showed me those after he began to teach me to see history for history he says is not a dead thing although it is about dead people all you have to do is to remember that they lived just as we do with your eyes not to think dates most important and to remember those people as living and he taught me to do that but that comes later well after I'd learned quite a little bit about the morises and had felt ever so glad that he did get back the man who had so kindly told me these things had to leave me and I was alone I wandered over to stand before Madame Jumel's portrait and here I leaned forward and whispered to her and I said won't you please return it my mother wore it won't you please and then I went out and turned toward home I saw the blind man again but no one followed me I went up in the elevator with Mr. Kempwood and I was so glad any more home runs he asked I shook my head and out as New York pleased you he asked further and to that I replied that it was all right I made an involved living since my aunt insisted on my changing my clothes all the way through every day and eating in a different dress at night I said it was simpler at home before you dressed for dinner when you got up I told him it left you more time for fishing and baseball and not more serious things of life he laughed and then looked suspicious young woman he said that country bloom doesn't hide up brain picker does it and I didn't understand him then but he explained it seemed that Robert Louis Stevenson had lived on an island in the Pacific and when someone had asked whether they dressed for dinner he had said just as I did no we dress when we get out and I said I didn't read Stevenson liking Alger best of anyone but Mr. Kempwood said that Treasure Island couldn't be beaten and that he'd loaned it to me and then I found out what he meant by brain picker he meant someone who pikes Evelyn Reed's book covers and reviews and then talks of the books as if she'd read them I told Mr. Kempwood so he said she wouldn't thank me for doing so and then it was our floor and again he stepped out waited until Jane opened the door and then said I remember his smile as I had the night before on a long hall table I found a letter from Bradley Deer and I was so glad to see it and it made me laugh but felt ever so tight in my throat too here's what she wrote or some of it dear Natalie we miss you fierce Willie Jepsen run a nail in his foot and fell off the back roof don't you climb no fences at your aunts or ride a cow if they keep one your uncle is deep in bugs and has a mess of them in my tubs with up and the Lord knows when I will get the wash to soak we miss you there was a lot more Bradley Deer had been fine about writing the news I went to my room with it sat down and then got up and went over to Amy's where my radiator had cooled off and I didn't know how to turn it on it was not easy for me to ask servants to do things then I had not learned how well I read that letter a great many times and there was no one to interrupt me and I was glad everyone but Evelyn was out and she was lying somewhere I heard a clock strike seven and realized they would soon be in but I must begin to change my clothes for dinner I heard a little noise in my room a little scratching noise and I got up and looked in but no one was there then I heard a noise in Amy's room the going back there I found that empty I turned on all the lights and read Bradley Deer's letter again I felt curiously nervous and oppressed quite as if I were breathing something poisonous and my heart began to pump I thought I was simply letting myself be silly from nervousness you silly thing I said scornfully and I read the end of Mrs. Bradley's letter it said now dearie I must stop I love you and I pray God for your safety and happiness and then you were sincerely Mrs. G. N. Bradley it helped me a lot that about loving and praying I looked at it and then I did hear something there was a step behind me and a voice a high pitch voice said very slowly do not turn you will be sorry if you turn do not turn I didn't I couldn't I was absolutely frozen I felt something drop over my face and then things began to swim and grow black I think I struggled a little and tried to scream but I'm not sure of anything but horror and the horror I felt at that moment will live in my soul until I am an old old woman and I'm allowed to forget all the things that hurt me and to have another start end of chapter seven chapter eight Natalie Page this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Natalie Page by Catherine Havlin Taylor chapter eight again awake when I was again aware of living I heard things hazy quite as if there were a thick wall between me and the voices of the people who stood so anxiously bending over me I tell you Archie the child was strangled I heard Aunt Penelope say and heaven only knows what may happen next with all the oh Chevicki around can't you do something Amy put down that revolver you are driving me crazy and Evelyn right in the next room hearing nothing and said she wasn't asleep Amy if you don't sit down screen and Eto right in the pantry by the fire escape on which he must have climbed if it was a he and how he got up I don't know and you say there's no danger doctor the only child of my dear dead sister and what will happen next the only thing of course is to remain calm Amy can't you stop wiggling there are limits and I suppose to maintain calm is the only sensible proceeding what was that she screamed the last and I sat up the doctor was almost rude about telling her to be quiet and then he ordered them all out and sat down on the edge of my bed anyone you especially want to see he asked I said I didn't think so sure he asked you'd better not sit with your back to the window I advised then he took hold of my hand there is no danger in windows he said in a level awfully sure voice what hurt you won't hurt you again I said it so that I believed him at the time now about someone to sit with you tonight the ladies that seems all have engagements and I've urged them to keep them thought the normal might give them a balance well I'll be all right I answer Jane can look in once in a while but without meaning to I looked at the window the doctor frowned and I was ashamed I told him about how I had been chased and that that had upset me a little and that I was usually brave he wasn't angry with me Sam Kempwood who helped you out of that scrape he questioned I nodded bully chap he said I know him I said I thought he was one of the nicest men that I'd ever met that you could tell it suppose he comes up and plays nurse the doctor suggested I smiled that would be lovely I admitted after a long breath for even then I really loved Mr. Kempwood but I'm sure it will bore him you see I don't know how to entertain the way my cousin Evelyn does but the doctor said that I was to be entertained and that he'd stop at Mr. Kempwood's on the way down and then he wrapped me up in a pink comforter and carried me out to the living room where he put me on a wide lounge which stands before the fire now Hannah or Molly or whatever your name is he said to Jane you stay with this child until I come back and Jane did but she wasn't much help she was so awfully frightened and kept jumping and looking around in just a few moments the bell rang and I heard the men in the hall just a little while will change the trend and help her the doctor said the rest have cleared out and good riddance weren't any good awfully decent of you Kempwood not a bit of it said Mr. Kempwood hadn't anything to do or don't make a long business of it said the doctor just a few moments will help the child's evident admiration for you led me to think that you could help her most and then they stopped talking and tiptoed in and smiled at Mr. Kempwood and tried to tell him how grateful I was to him for coming up but it was not easy to talk never mind about that he said gently and then he sat down by me and showed me some pictures which I couldn't see very well because my sight was so blurred suppose he said we're quiet and I nodded and then he took hold of my hand and padded it and it helped a great deal and I don't know how it happened but somehow I was telling him how I hated coming to New York how I missed Uncle Frank and Bradley dear and about the cricket that stays in the earth for three years then my eyes filled and I could feel them and I whispered it's only been three days my dear child he answered and I could see he was awfully sorry for me he padded terribly hard that helped too but it made me smile after that one tear slipped over the edge and because I hadn't a handkerchief he wiped it off with his I thanked him very much and then I said I don't ever cry so I see he answered and he smiled gently but I didn't mind I said I don't really that is not when I'm well I hadn't before tonight for ages you didn't tonight he answered and so cheerfully one swallow doesn't make us summer so certainly one two doesn't make her cry and I was so glad he thought I hadn't when you want to cry hard I can fight it further swallowing very quickly again and again well stall it it's a great help and he said you little sport he looked at me so nicely it warmed me up and my throat began to feel better I asked him when he had to go and he said not until I was so sick of him that I would have Jane throw him out then again we were quiet look here he said after a few moments don't you like baseball I nodded as hard as my stiff throat would let me well he went on don't you think your aunt would let you go to the big games with me next year I sat up oh I said if she only would we'll see that she will but that's a long way off we'll have to have good times before that ever been to the hippodrome I said I hadn't any described it I became very interested for it sounded like a sort of glorified circus I had to lie down again for I began to feel dizzy and sick but he went right on talking of it as he arranged the pillows for me and made me comfortable then I thought of the bracelet and asked for Jane Mr. Kemplett rang and she came in a white satin box that stood on my bureau and asked her please to get it when she brought it back I held it for several minutes without opening it and then I shut my eyes and felt the bracelet was there I put it on and then after a little interval I told Mr. Kemplett the whole story I couldn't talk loudly but he leaned over and got it all dear child he said that's utter nonsense I looked at it and shook my head give it to me he said I have a wall safe and I'll take charge of it for you I shook my head you said you'd take me to the league games I answered I'm not going to run any risks and then we both laughed he did some more urgings but I did not give in for I knew that it was my battle and I meant to fight it out I didn't think I could ever hold up my head if I abated it and then I couldn't bear the idea of it's hurting Mr. Kemplett I told him so and not entirely because of those games I admitted honestly but because I like you a great deal he answered me quickly Natalie as I related the story of the bracelet let's be friends for I like you too and he added after a pause a great deal that began my friendship with Mr. Kemplett which helped me in so many ways and came to mean so much End of Chapter 8