The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna: or, The Crew That Won. Morrison Gertrude W.
all domestic troubles. The neighbors declared that the Lockwood household would have been a very shiftless establishment had it not been for Mrs. Betsey.
Mr. Lockwood seldom knew how the bills were paid, what the girls wore, or how the house was run. His mind was given wholly to inventing new forms of plant life. He experimented with white blackberries, thornless roses, dwarf trees that bore several kinds of fruit on different limbs, and, of late, had tried to cultivate a seedless watermelon. He was always expecting to make a fortune out of some of his novel experiments; but as yet the fortune had not materialized.
But he was a most lovable gentleman, and the twins were as proud of him as though he was the most successful man in Centerport. Mr. Lockwood had one cross to bear, however – a thorn in the flesh which troubled him on occasion very much. This was a certain very practical sister – the twins' Aunt Dora. Fortunately Aunt Dora lived in another city; but she was apt to make unexpected visits to her brother, and when she came to the Lockwood house there was no peace for any of the inmates while she stayed.
As the twins on this occasion entered the premises by the back gate they saw certain windows on the second floor of the house wide open, and the curtains drawn back. They halted in something more than astonishment, and looked at each other solemnly.
"That's Aunt Dora's room!" gasped Dora.
"She's here!" returned Dorothy, in the same awe-struck voice.
"Oh, dear!" sighed her twin.
"Now we're in for it," rejoined Dorothy.
Then both together they exclaimed: "Poor papa!"
It was a solemn moment for the whole household, and the twins felt it.
CHAPTER V
AUNT DORA
"I feel just like running away," said Dora, "and staying until Auntie goes."
"Don't do it," begged Dorothy, "for I shall have to go, too."
"Poor papa!" they both exclaimed again.
"No. We shall have to stay and brace papa up," admitted Dora.
"We've just got to," groaned her twin.
"And if she begins to nag him again about giving one of us up – "
"We won't leave him," declared Dorothy, very firmly.
"I wouldn't live at her house for a fortune!" repeated Dorothy.
"Come on! let's see how the land lies," suggested Dora. "Perhaps the worst of it's over."
"No such luck," groaned Dorothy. "There's Betsey."
They ran up the winding path to the kitchen porch. The gentle, pink-faced old lady who met them at the door, had a worried brow.
"Hush, girls! you're aunt is here," she whispered.
"We know it. We saw the windows of the best room wide open. Is she making Mary clean the room all over again?"
"Yes," sighed Mrs. Betsey. "Your aunt declared it smelled musty from being shut up. She has such a nose," and the little old lady shook her head.
"Interfering old thing!" snapped Dora.
"Hush! you must not speak so," admonished Mrs. Betsey.
"Well, she is," declared Dorothy, of course agreeing with her twin.
"Where is she?" queried Dora.
"With your father in the hot-house."
"Come on, then," said Dora to her sister. "Let's get it over right away."
They heard voices in the conservatory, for the sashes were open on this warm day. There was the stern, uncompromising tone of Aunt Dora, and the gentle, worried voice of Mr. Lockwood. The twins never liked to hear their father's voice when he was worried, and they saw to it – with Mrs. Betsey – that it did not occur frequently. But there was no help for it when Aunt Dora was about!
First of all, the twins heard their aunt say:
"You're no more fit to bring up girls, Lemuel, than I am to steer one of these dratted airships the papers are full of!"
"No. You are right," said Mr. Lockwood. "The comparison is just. You would not do well in an airship, Dora."
"Huh! I should think not! And you're as little fit to bring up two girls – and twins, at that!"
"But – but I don't really bring them up," said Mr. Lockwood, apologetically. "Mrs. Betsey does that."
"Mrs. Betsey!" with a sniff.
"And really, they get along very well, Sister."
"They get along well because they are no trouble to you."
"Well, isn't that as it should be? They are good girls – and loving girls."
"I declare to man! Lemuel Lockwood, you haven't any more idea of what those girls need than a babe unborn."
"What do they need, Dora?" asked worried Mr. Lockwood.
"They need a strong hand – a stern and uncompromising spirit to govern them – that's what they need!" declared the militant aunt.
"But Dora, they are good girls and make me no trouble at all."
"Of course they make you no trouble. You let them do exactly as they wish."
"No, no!" urged Mr. Lockwood, hastily. "They don't always do as they wish. Sometimes we haven't the money to let them do with. I've heard Mrs. Betsey say so. And – and – why, there is one of them who likes three lumps of sugar in her coffee; but I always reprove her for it. That is extravagance."
"Huh!" sniffed Aunt Dora.
"Otherwise they are no trouble to me at all," said Mr. Lockwood, briskly. "They are not, I assure you. We live a very quiet and peaceful life here."
"Yah!" exclaimed his sister. "That is all you want – peace."
"I admit it – I admit it," returned her brother. "I am naturally retiring and of a peaceful disposition, Dora."
"You're a natural born fool, Lemuel!" declared his sister, so sharply that the twins, who were inadvertently listening at the door, hesitating to go in, fairly jumped. "I want to tell you right now that you are a disgrace to manhood! You've never amounted to a row of beans since you were out of pinafores. If your little property wasn't tied up hard and fast so that you could only use the income of it, you would have frittered it all away long ago, and left these children penniless. You've never made a dollar in your life, Lemuel Lockwood!"
"But – but there has never been any real necessity for me to make money," stammered the horticulturist. "And one of these days we are going to have a plenty. I've got a melon started here on the bench, Dora – "
"You needn't show me any of your nasty plants. They're all ridiculous. And it isn't plants we're talking about. It's girls. Mercy knows how an inscrutable Providence ever came to allow two helpless girl babies to fall into your hands, Lemuel. But they're here and you've the burden of them. One would be more than you could manage properly; but two is ridiculous. I'd undertake, as I have told you before, to bring my namesake up as a girl should be brought up – and that will leave more money for you to fritter away on your hot-beds and cold-frames, and the like," she added, slily.
"Dora!" exclaimed Mr. Lockwood, with a quaver in his voice, "do you really think I am not doing my duty by Dora and Dorothy?"
"Think it?" sniffed his sister. "I know it! And everybody else with sense knows it. How can a mere man bring up twin girls and give them a proper start in life?"
"But Mrs. Betsey does her very best – "
"And what does she know?" demanded his sister. "Does she ever read papers upon the proper management of girls? Or magazine articles upon what a young girl should be taught by her parents? Or books upon the growth and development of the girlish mind?"
"No – o," admitted Mr. Lockwood. "I am very sure Mrs. Betsey never has time for such reading."
"Then what does she know about it?" demanded Aunt