Nancy and Plum (11 page)

Some of the other children, who had seen Nancy come storming out of the sitting room a few minutes before, clustered around Plum and asked what had happened. She said, “I’ll tell you about it later,” and ran upstairs.

She found Nancy lying on their bed sobbing convulsively. Plum sat down beside her and said, “Well, I feel better now. I jammed the goldfish bowl down over Marybelle’s head. It had the goldfish in it, too.”

Nancy turned over and said, “Did you really?”

Plum said, “Yes, I was trying to be like Sara Crewe and hold in my anger but Mrs. Monday was so horrible and cruel and that little sneak was standing there enjoying it all and pretending to feed her goldfish, and when I started to go out she called to me and then made a face at me and it wasn’t a bad face at all, not half as bad as the ones I make or the ones she usually makes at me, but it was just too much. The next thing I knew the goldfish bowl was down over her head and there was seaweed all down the front of her and one big fat goldfish swimming around in her pocket.”

Nancy wiped her swollen red eyes on her sleeve and said, “Didn’t Marybelle scream?”

Plum said, “She gurgled like dishwater when the sink’s stopped up. Mrs. Monday didn’t even hear her, so I just sauntered out and closed the door.”

Nancy said, “Well, we’re certainly in trouble now. I wonder what Miss Waverly will say when I tell her we can’t be in the program and can’t go to the school picnic.”

Plum said, “I don’t care so much about the program but we are going to the picnic. We’re going to run away and go.”

Nancy said, “But how? You know that we’ll be locked in.”

Plum said, “I don’t know how, but I’ll find a way. Now I’m going down and try to find that dumb chicken. If Mrs.
Monday comes up, don’t talk back to her. Just don’t say anything to her.” Plum went out.

In a few minutes, Eunice, Evangeline, Sally, Todd and Allan came in to see what had happened. When Nancy told them they all laughed delightedly at Plum’s putting the goldfish bowl on Marybelle’s head but they were furious at Mrs. Monday’s unfairness.

Sally said, “I’m going to be a tree in the program and Miss Dowd made us all tree costumes and I don’t see why, as long as you are going to sing ‘Trees,’ you couldn’t wear one of those. They’re awfully pretty. The dresses are long and brown and our arms and heads are all covered with pale pink blossoms.”

Nancy said, “That’s a wonderful idea, Sally. Do you think if I asked her, Miss Dowd would make me one?”

Sally said, “She wouldn’t have to, there’s an extra one because Jeanie Kirk has mumps and can’t wear hers.”

Eunice said, “I’ll go with you Monday and we can ask Miss Waverly to ask Miss Dowd.”

Nancy said, “Oh, I forgot. Mrs. Monday said that Plum and I can’t be in the program and we can’t go to the picnic.”

Todd said, “She can’t keep you out of a school program. That’s against the law.”

Allan said, “That’s right. She can keep you home from the picnic but she wouldn’t dare keep you out of the program.”

Nancy said, “Are you sure?”

Todd said, “Yes, because at another boarding home where I was, the woman kept some of the bigger kids home from
school to do the work and the truant officer came out and then the police came and they closed up her house and sent all the kids home.”

Nancy said, “Was that out in the country like this?”

Todd said, “No, it was in Central City but I’m just sure you have to let kids go to school.”

Plum came in then, looking very dejected, and said, “I can’t find that old chicken. She must have flown back over the fence and gotten back with the other chickens.”

Nancy said, “Never mind, Plum, Sally had a splendid idea,” and she told Plum about the tree costume.

Plum said, “But Mrs. Monday said we couldn’t be in the program.”

Todd said, “I know but if you tell Miss Waverly that Mrs. Monday’s going to keep you home for a punishment, she’ll get the principal to talk to her.”

Allan said, “Yeah, Plum, keeping kids out of school is against the law.”

Plum said, “Oh, boy, do you think she’ll get sent to jail?”

Todd said, “She might, if the truant officer catches her.”

A voice from the doorway said, “Why are you children up here? Why aren’t you doing your work?”

The children scattered like frightened birds and Mrs. Monday said, “Pamela, I expect you to apologize to Marybelle.”

Plum said, “Mrs. Monday, I will apologize to Marybelle, if you let Nancy be in the school program.”

Mrs. Monday said, “I do not bargain with children,
Pamela. When Nancy has apologized to me for her outrageous behavior I will then take the matter of the school program under consideration.”

Nancy said, “Mrs. Monday, I’m sorry I lost my temper, that was very foolish of me, but you were unfair about the school clothes. I have worn the same school dress for two years and it is all faded and shabby and it is way, way above my knees.”

Mrs. Monday said, “I feel that I was perfectly justified in telling you that it would be foolish to buy new school clothes at the end of the school year.”

Nancy said, “But, Mrs. Monday, a new dress wouldn’t be just for school. I could wear it to Sunday School, to Library Day and when company comes.”

Mrs. Monday said, “I am the best judge of if and when you need new clothes. Now let’s hear no more of this. Pamela, are you ready to come down and apologize to Marybelle?”

Plum said, “Mrs. Monday, if I apologize will you let Nancy go to the school program?”

Mrs. Monday said, “I repeat, Pamela, I do not bargain with children.”

Plum said, “Then I won’t apologize.”

Mrs. Monday said, “Very well, then, you will both stay in your room until you do apologize.” She went out, closing the door and locking it.

Plum said, “It’s lucky she doesn’t know how easy it is for me to go out the window and down the maple tree.”

Nancy said, “Do you think Todd and Allan are right? Do
you think that Mrs. Monday has to let us be in the school program?”

Plum said, “Yes, but knowing Mrs. Monday, she’ll figure out a way to keep us home and that is why I’m planning on running away the night before.”

Nancy said, “But how will we get over the fence?”

Plum said, “I’ll think of a way. You just wait and see. Now I’m going down the tree and ask Old Tom for some fresh milk.”

Nancy stood by the window and watched Plum climb down the maple tree, take a quick look around to be sure no one was watching, then skitter across the barnyard and through the big barn door. Nancy saw St. Nick and her kittens come running up to Plum. “Oh, those darling kittens,” she said. “I wonder how much they’ve grown.”

She was squinting her eyes trying to see into the darkness of the barn, when suddenly she thought, “I’ll go down and see the kittens. If Plum can go down the tree, so can I.”

Rather timidly she eased herself out the window and onto the big limb that was just below the sill. With one hand she held to a branch over her head, with the other she clutched the window ledge. Then she looked down. My goodness, it was far down to the ground. She was right above one of the lightwells of the basement windows, too, and it was deep and dark and solid cement. Nancy shivered and looked longingly back into the little bedroom. Then she looked over toward the barn. She could still see Plum bent over playing with the
kittens. Carefully she let go of the sill, moved her hand down to the branch beside her and inched her way along until she got to the main trunk. Still holding to the upper branch, she moved to a lower one. Then she changed hands and moved to a still lower one. It was scary but fun. She was surprised when she finally saw the ground just a few feet away. She jumped down, took a look around the way Plum had done and then skipped across the barnyard and slipped through the door calling, “Plum, I did it. I climbed down the tree.”

Plum said, “Wow, you scared me. It wasn’t hard, was it, Nancy?”

Nancy said, “At first I was nervous, especially when I looked down at the ground, but then I started down and the next thing I knew I was almost on the ground.”

Plum said, “That’s the way with everything the first time you do it. You’re sort of shaky and your stomach feels awfully empty, that’s the way I felt when I went in to ask Mrs. Monday for the new dresses, then you feel a little bit better and then before you know it, whatever it is you used to be afraid of, is over. Look at Prancer, he’s the biggest.”

Nancy said, “Come here, Prancer, don’t you remember me?” She picked up the fat little kitten and held it against her cheek. Prancer began to purr very softly and Nancy, her tear-swollen eyes shining, said, “Oh, Plum, listen to him. He likes me.”

Plum said, “Come over here, I’ll show you how funny they are when they play. I’ve got a string with a piece of paper tied on it and when I drag it across the floor they all jump on it and on each other.”

For about half an hour the little girls played with the kittens. Then Old Tom came in to milk and they stood and watched him and drank dipper after dipper of the warm foaming milk. Old Tom said, “No supper again tonight, eh? What’s the trouble this time?”

Plum told him about the program and the scene in Mrs. Monday’s sitting room and when she got to the part about the goldfish globe, Old Tom laughed so hard that Clover turned around to see what the commotion was.

Old Tom said, “Look, isn’t that just like a woman? Curious as can be. Gotta know what the joke is. Now you turn around there, Clover, and concentrate on giving down your milk so these hungry little children can have some supper.”

Plum said, “I love it out here in the barn. I wish we lived out here.”

Old Tom said, “It can get mighty lonesome out here, Plum. I love animals and they’re awfully comforting at times but it’s pretty hard to stay out here alone in the winter, especially when your own sister is living in such style right across the barnyard.”

“Your own sister, Mrs. Monday?” Both little girls said together.

“Yep,” Tom said. “My own sister. This was our home when we were little kids. We jumped in the old haymow together. We both rode our ponies together. We went to school together. But when we grew up we went different ways. Mine wasn’t a good way and I got in some serious trouble and when things got awful bad I turned to my sister Marybelle for help.
She helped me, I’ll say that for her, but she never let me forget it. At first I was so troubled I didn’t notice how things had changed around here. But after I had been back a year or two, I saw that my sister Marybelle had turned into a hard, greedy woman. A woman who lets nothing or nobody stand in her way. I don’t know much about you two except that I like you and I feel sorry for you and if ever there’s anything I can do to help you, that’s in my power anyway and that my sister can’t find out about, I’ll sure do it.”

Nancy and Plum thanked Old Tom, and Plum said, “Well, Tom, if Mrs. Monday won’t let us go to the school program or the picnic, we are planning on going anyway and we may need you to help us get out.”

Old Tom said, “I don’t have the keys to the gates, she keeps them, but if she wasn’t home I could help you over the fence.”

Plum said, “If you help us, Tom, someday maybe we can help you.”

Old Tom said, “Who knows, Plum, who knows?”

While Plum and Nancy and Old Tom were talking in the barn, a farmer had stopped his truck and was examining a dead chicken that he had found lying in the road.

“Too bad,” he said. “Somebody’s nice big, fat red hen.”

He was just going to throw it in the ditch when he noticed something tied to its wing. Something white. With his pocketknife he cut the strings that held it, saw that the white thing was a letter, put the letter in his pocket and tossed the dead chicken away.

When he got home he told his wife about finding the chicken with the letter tied to its wing. His wife said, “Sounds like some child’s idea. Let me see the letter.”

The farmer took it out of the pocket of his blue shirt and handed it to his wife. She adjusted her glasses, looked it over carefully and said, “Certainly it is the work of a child. Notice the round careful writing. Also it hasn’t any stamp. Well, I’m going to town tomorrow and I’ll put a stamp on it and drop it at the post office.”

M
ONDAY MORNING AT RECESS
, Nancy and Plum asked Miss Waverly if she would ask Miss Dowd if Nancy could wear the extra tree costume,
if
she sang her solo.

Miss Waverly said, “What do you mean,
if
Nancy sings her solo?”

Nancy said, “Well, Mrs. Monday has told Plum and me that we can’t be in the program or go to the picnic but we’re hoping that she will change her mind and if she doesn’t we’re going to try and come anyway.”

Miss Waverly said, “Why won’t Mrs. Monday let you be in the program or come to the picnic?”

Nancy and Plum told her the whole story and when they
got through, Miss Waverly’s cheeks were bright red, her eyes were flashing and her lips were set in a thin straight line. She said, “Nancy and Plum, you can just plan on being in the program and you can count on the picnic. I am going in to see the principal.”

Nancy and Plum hugged each other and Nancy said, “And you know what else, Plum, if I wear a tree costume to sing, then you can wear my school dress for the spelling match and it won’t be short on you at all.”

Apparently Miss Waverly was as good as her word. That very afternoon when the children were changing their school clothes, Mrs. Monday sent Marybelle up to tell them that she had reconsidered and if Plum apologized to Marybelle they could be in the program and go to the picnic.

Marybelle said, “Aunty Marybelle said that if you apologize to me, Nancy can sing her ugly old song and you can spell all the words wrong at the program Friday. She said you can go to the picnic, too.”

Plum said, “All right, Marybelle. I’m sorry I put that little goldfish bowl on your head. I wish it had been bigger and with a shark in it.”

Marybelle said, “That isn’t a real apology.”

Plum said, “You didn’t tell us what Mrs. Monday really said, either.”

Marybelle said, “Oh, all right. She said that you and Nancy can be in the program and go to the picnic if you tell me you’re sorry.”