Nancy and Plum (19 page)

There was another grumble from the clouds, this time much louder. Lightning lit up the little room.

Plum said, “You don’t scare me, you old lightning bolts. Nothing scares me any more.” Then she threw herself down on the bed face down, and Nancy could hear her sobbing even above the whining wind, the thrumming rain and the growling thunder.

B
ACK AT THE FARM
, Mr. Campbell hurried around feeding the animals and getting them under shelter. He was so angry that he slammed doors, shot the bolts and banged water buckets and feed pails until it sounded like the Fourth of July.

Nellie and Herbert, the horses, put their ears forward and looked at him in amazement. Wild Rose and Susie, the cows, got scared, switched their tails and tried to jerk their heads out of their stanchions. The chickens went, “Waaaak, waaaak, waaaak!” and flew straight up in the air. The geese said, “Hissssssssssssssss,” and ran with their heads forward and their wings up like fat ladies holding up their skirts and running to get out of the rain. Only the pigs didn’t care. “Slurp, slurp, gulp,” they said, up to their eyes in their food and not
caring whether Mr. Campbell shot their dinner at them out of a cannon or hit them on the head with it, just so there was plenty.

In the house, Mrs. Campbell slammed the ice-box door, banged the lids on the stove, thumped the churn, whacked the butter into pats with the paddle and said to herself, “That woman. That awful woman!”

That night after supper as she took out the quilt she was piecing, she said, “Angus, we have to do something. Right now!” She bit off a piece of thread angrily.

Mr. Campbell lit his pipe, blew a big thick smoke ring and said, “I was so furious after they left I could barely control myself, then after I’d worked out my anger on the feed buckets and a few doors I got to thinking. What we have to do, Mary Ann, is to prove that Mrs. Monday is not telling the truth. That she doesn’t give her little boarders good or kind care. That she has deliberately deceived Uncle John. But
how?”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Well, how?”

Mr. Campbell said, “I haven’t figured it out yet.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Well, I have. Tomorrow morning, right after breakfast, I’m going into town to see Miss Appleby. She knows Nancy and Plum and she knows how Mrs. Monday used to keep them home from the library for punishment. Then I’m going to see Miss Waverly and I’m going to ask them both to go to Central City and see Uncle John.”

Mr. Campbell said, “If and when we are able to convince Uncle John that Mrs. Monday is not fit to take care of Nancy and Plum, what then?”

“Why,” said Mrs. Campbell, “they are coming here to live, of course.”

Mr. Campbell smiled and said, “I hoped you’d say that. I used to dream of having a little girl and in my dreams she was always just like Plum.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “And I’ve always dreamed of having a little girl and in my dreams she was just like Nancy.”

Mr. Campbell said, “Of course, I love Nancy too, but Plum is so good with animals and she has so much spirit.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Of course, I love Plum too, but Nancy is so little girly, so gentle and dreamy.”

Mr. Campbell said, “We couldn’t be better satisfied if we’d had them ourselves.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “They’re heaven sent, that’s what.” She stopped her sewing and stroked the cat and her eyes were brimming with tears.

The next morning early, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell got in their old blue sedan and headed for town. The storm had settled the dust and the whole countryside was clean and fresh and sweet smelling from the rain.

When they got to town, they drove straight to the library. Miss Appleby was very glad to see them and started to tell Mrs. Campbell about two very good new novels that had come in but Mrs. Campbell cut her short. She said, “Miss Appleby, we’ve got to have your help and we’ve got to have it today. Can you get someone to take your place?”

“Certainly,” said Miss Appleby. “Miss Warren will substitute for me any time. But what in the world is the matter?”

Mr. and Mrs. Campbell told her about Nancy and Plum running away, about their coming to their house, about Uncle John and Mrs. Monday. Before they had half finished, Miss Appleby said, “Don’t tell me any more. I’m already so mad I’m about to burst.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Well, what I want you to do is to get hold of Miss Waverly and the two of you go into Central City and see Mr. Remson and tell him the truth. Make him listen. Make him realize that Mrs. Monday is deceiving him. Tell him about Nancy and Plum’s school clothes. Tell him about the program and the holes in Plum’s shoes and Nancy having to wear a tree costume. Tell him how hard they have to work. Tell him that they spent last Christmas in a barn all alone. Tell him that they have never had enough to eat since they went there. Tell him how Plum mailed Nancy’s letter. Tell him that it might be a good idea if he asked Nancy and Plum to describe the wardrobes of clothes they are supposed to have and to list the gifts he has sent them and that Mrs. Monday swears they have received.”

Miss Appleby said, “Oh, Mary Ann, what if Miss Waverly isn’t here? She was supposed to visit her brother in Florida and I’m afraid she has already left.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Call her on the telephone, right now, and see.”

Miss Appleby did and Mrs. Wentil said that Miss Waverly had just that minute gone but she would try to catch her. She said that she would call back.

While they waited for the call, Miss Appleby sent
Mr. Campbell over to get Miss Warren, then she and Mrs. Campbell went on with their plans.

Miss Appleby said, “Imagine those two poor little things having to sit there while that unscrupulous woman told their uncle they were sulky and ate nothing but sweets.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “I was tickled to death when Nancy told Mrs. Monday she didn’t tell the truth and her heart would turn black and Plum said, ‘What heart?’ ”

Miss Appleby said, “What makes me so furious is that two such unusually brilliant and sensitive children should be in the care of such a stupid and insensitive woman.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Plum told her uncle that she wouldn’t stay at Mrs. Monday’s and the next time she ran away it would be to Africa.”

Miss Appleby said, “And for Mr. Remson to believe that awful Mrs. Monday. Of course, he couldn’t care anything at all about those children or he would never have put them in Mrs. Monday’s in the first place. One look at that spiked fence would have been enough for me.”

Then Mr. Campbell and Miss Warren came in and the phone rang and it was Miss Waverly.

Miss Appleby said, “Peggy Waverly, get in your car and come over here to the library right away. It’s terribly important and too long to discuss on the phone.”

Miss Waverly said, “But I’m all packed to leave for Florida.”

And Miss Appleby said, “This is right on your way and it’s an opportunity you wouldn’t miss for the world.”

She hung up the phone, turned to the Campbells and said, “Now you run along home and don’t worry. Everything will be all right and Nancy and Plum won’t have to stay at Mrs. Monday’s. You’d better go home and bake a big chicken pie, Mary Ann, because I have a hunch Peggy, Mr. Remson, Nancy and Plum and I will all be there for supper.”

Mrs. Campbell took out her handkerchief, dabbed at the corners of her eyes and said, “I couldn’t ever make a chicken pie as good as the one Nancy made.”

Miss Appleby said, “I’m glad to know that Nancy’s such a good cook, but I’ll take a chance on supper at your house, any day.”

When they got in the car, Mrs. Campbell said, “I want to stop at Gatsby’s department store a minute. Those children can’t sleep in your nightshirts forever and I’m going to get them each a pair of shoes.”

“How can you get them shoes without trying them on?” Mr. Campbell asked.

“This way,” Mrs. Campbell said, reaching in her purse and taking out the two cardboard insoles. “I drew around their bare feet to make these,” she said. “And I’m going to get them those pretty colored tennis shoes. Bright red for Plum and blue for Nancy. I’m going to buy them some new blue jeans and T-shirts, too,” she added defiantly.

Mr. Campbell said, “Anything you get Nancy and Plum is all right with me. Got enough money?”

“Plenty,” said Mrs. Campbell through set lips.

“Well then,” said Mr. Campbell, “I’ll pick you up here in about half an hour.”

When Mr. Campbell stopped for Mrs. Campbell, she was laden with packages and he sheepishly admitted that he had done a little shopping, too.

He said, “I looked in those bundles of ‘treasures’ as they called them, and, Mary Ann, those kids don’t have anything. A string of broken beads, a dried june bug, a snake’s skin and some rocks full of fool’s gold is all Plum had.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “And Nancy had a little china doll with the head off, some paper dolls cut out of a magazine and a little locket with a broken chain.”

Mr. Campbell said, “Well, I bought Plum a pocketknife. A very good one with two blades, a screw driver, can opener, nail file, scissors and an awl in it.”

Mrs. Campbell said, “A knife, Angus? I certainly hope she won’t hurt herself.”

Mr. Campbell said, “Plum won’t hurt herself. You don’t need to worry about her.”

“What did you get Nancy?” Mrs. Campbell asked.

“A little sewing box,” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s green leather and it has scissors, a thimble, needles, pins, a tape measure and little spools of different colored thread. Do you think she’ll like that?”

“Well, I should say so,” Mrs. Campbell said, “I’d like one myself.”

They both laughed. Then Mrs. Campbell said, “I bought
them pajamas, bedroom slippers, tennis shoes, blue jeans and T-shirts.”

Mr. Campbell said, “I got a couple of other little things, too. Straw farmer hats and some bubble bath.”

“Oh, Angus,” Mrs. Campbell said. “Bubble bath! I know they’ll love that.”

By five o’clock, Mrs. Campbell had the chicken pie in baking, the table set, the salad made and she was frosting a huge coconut cake. Mr. Campbell had the barn swept, the milk-room floor scrubbed and big welcome wreaths of flowers ready to slip over the heads of Nellie, Herbert, Wild Rose and Susie as soon as he heard the car.

Then came six o’clock. Mrs. Campbell took the chicken pie out of the oven, wrapped a damp tea towel around the salad and put her big yellow mixing bowl over the coconut cake. Mr. Campbell separated the milk, fed the calves and kept his eye peeled on the road in from the highway.

Then seven o’clock came. Mrs. Campbell put the chicken pie back in the oven, peered anxiously at the salad and opened the canned peaches. Mr. Campbell, who by this time had changed his clothes and was all washed and combed, lit his pipe and went out on the back porch.

Then at last, far down the road, appeared the lights of a car, Sandy began to bark and Mr. Campbell called, “Mary Ann, Mary Ann, they’re coming.”

Mrs. Campbell smoothed her hair down with her hands, hung her apron behind the stove, checked the floor to be sure
there wasn’t a speck or a crumb on it and went out on the porch. Mr. Campbell put his arm around her and said, “I’m praying, too, honey.”

Slowly the car crawled up the road. Mrs. Campbell’s heart pounded thump, thump, thump and her mouth was so dry she couldn’t swallow.

She said, “It’s going to be awfully hard for me to be nice to that Mr. Remson.”

He said, “Oh, that won’t be hard once we have Nancy and Plum. Just remember that he’s an old bachelor and doesn’t know a thing about children.”

She said, “But I keep thinking of him turning those babies over to that Mrs. Monday.”

He said, “Well, at least it hasn’t hurt them any. They are the prettiest, smartest, most well-behaved children I’ve ever seen.”

She said, “That anybody has ever seen.”

Then the car was at the door and Nancy and Plum were on the porch hugging and kissing the Campbells and shouting, “We’re back. We’re back!”

Mr. Remson looked pretty sheepish as he waddled up the steps and shook hands with the Campbells. He said, “That woman fooled me completely. Terrible creature. When we went up to get Nancy and Pamela, we found them locked in the attic and they haven’t had a morsel of food since they left here.”

Miss Waverly said, “Speaking of food, let me help you, Mary Ann. Where’s an apron?”

Mrs. Campbell said, “Everything’s ready. I baked you another chicken pie, Plum.”

Plum said, “Oh, boy,” and gave Mrs. Campbell another hug.

Nancy said, “Is there anything I can do to help?” Mrs. Campbell thought she sounded a little wistful, so she said, “Do you know what Angus said today when I told him I was going to bake a chicken pie? He said, ‘It’s going to be pretty hard to eat your cooking now that I’ve tasted Nancy’s.’ ”

Nancy said, “Oh, Uncle Angus, you shouldn’t talk like that!” But she looked very pleased.

Then they were all sitting at the kitchen table, even Danby, the chauffeur, eating chicken pie, hot biscuits, spring salad, pickled beets, coconut cake and canned peaches.

When Uncle John passed his plate for a third helping of chicken pie, Plum nudged Nancy and whispered, “I bet he’d like to live here, too.”

After supper, while the grown people held a conference in the parlor, Nancy and Plum surprised Mrs. Campbell by washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen. Nancy was just sweeping up the crumbs while Plum held the dustpan, when Mrs. Campbell came out to get a glass of water for Uncle John. She told the girls they shouldn’t have bothered, kissed them and told them there were a few little surprises for them up on their bed.

They came down in a few minutes in their new blue jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes, wearing their straw farmer hats, carrying the knife and the sewing box. The conference in the parlor was just breaking up and Miss Waverly was telling
Uncle John that she thought that prosecuting Mrs. Monday would be far too upsetting to the children. In her opinion the best thing to do was give Mrs. Monday a warning and then to help the children forget all about her and to start in fresh at the Campbells’.

Miss Appleby said that she thought that as long as the Campbells would not accept payment for Nancy and Plum’s board, she thought Uncle John should put the money in the bank for their college education. She said, “You can send them clothes and books, the expensive toys such as sleds and bicycles, pay their dentist bills and give them music and dancing lessons.”