Janice Day at Poketown

Helen Beecher Long

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• Publié par: tavic
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 57
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Janice Day at
Poketown, by Helen Beecher Long
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Title: Janice Day at Poketown
Author: Helen Beecher Long
Release Date: November 1, 2007 [eBook #23278]
Language: English
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK JANICE DAY AT POKETOWN***
E-text prepared by Al Haines
Transcriber's note:The book's Frontispiece was missing. There
were no other illustrations.
JANICE DAY AT
POKETOWN
by
HELEN BEECHER LONG
Author of "The Testing of Janice Day,"
"How Janice Day Won,"
"The Mission of Janice Day," Etc.
Illustrated by Walter S. Rogers
The Goldsmith Publishing Co.
ClevelandCopyright, 1914, by
Sully & KleinteichCONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. A NEW-FASHIONED GIRL II. POKETOWN III.
"IT JEST RATTLES" IV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS V.
'RILL SCATTERGOOD AND HER SCHOOL VI.
AN AFTERNOON OF ADVENTURE VII. THE
LITTLE GIRL WHO LOST THE ECHO VIII. A BIT
OF ROMANCE IX. TEA AND A TALK WITH
DADDY X. BEGINNING WITH A BEDSTEAD XI. A
RAINY DAY XII. ON THE ROAD WITH WALKY
DEXTER XIII. NELSON HALEY XIV. A TIME OF
TRIAL XV. NEW BEGINNINGS XVI. "SHOWING"
THE ELDER XVII. CHRISTMAS NEWS XVIII.
"THE FLY-BY-NIGHT" XIX. CHRISTMAS, AFTER
ALL! XX. THE TROUBLE WITH NELSON HALEY
XXI. A STIR OF NEW LIFE IN POKETOWN XXII.
AT THE SUGAR CAMP XXIII. "DO YOU MEAN
THAT?" XXIV. THE SCHOOL DEDICATION XXV.
THROUGH THE SECOND WINTER XXVI. JUST
HOW IT ALL BEGAN XXVII. POKETOWN IN A
NEW DRESS XXVIII. NO ODOR OF GASOLINE!
XXIX. JANICE DAY'S FIRST LOVE LETTER XXX.
WHAT THE ECHO MIGHT HAVE HEARD
JANICE DAYCHAPTER I
A NEW-FASHIONED GIRL
"Well! this is certainly a relief from the stuffy old
cars," said Janice Day, as she reached the upper
deck of the lake steamer, dropped her suitcase,
and drew in her first full breath of the pure air.
"What a beautiful lake!" she went on. "And how big!
Why—I had no idea! I wonder how far Poketown is
from here?"
The ancient sidewheel steamer was small and
there were few passengers on the upper deck,
forward. Janice secured a campstool and sat down
near the rail to look off over the water.
The officious man in the blue cap on the dock had
shouted "All aboard!" the moment the passengers
left the cars of the little narrow-gauge railroad, on
which the girl had been riding for more than two
hours; but it was some minutes before the wheezy
old steamer got under way.
Janice was interested in everything she saw—even
in the clumsy warping off of the Constance Colfax,
when her hawsers were finally released.
"Goodness me!" thought the girl, chuckling "what a
ridiculous old tub it is! How different everything
East here is from Greensboro. There! we're really
off!"The water hissed and splashed, as the wheels of
the steamer began to turn rheumatically. The
walking-beam heaved up and down with many a
painful creak.
"Why! that place is real pretty—when you look at it
from the lake," murmured Janice, looking back at
the little landing. "I wonder if Poketown will be like
it?"
She looked about her, half tempted to ask a
question of somebody. There was but a single
passenger near her—a little, old lady in an old-
fashioned black mantilla with jet trimming, and
wearing black lace half-mitts and a little bonnet that
had been so long out of date that it was almost in
the mode again.
She was seated with her back against the cabin
house, and when the steamer rolled a little the ball
of knitting-cotton, which she had taken out of her
deep, bead-bespangled bag, bounced out of her
lap and rolled across the deck almost to the feet of
Janice.
Up the girl jumped and secured the runaway ball,
winding the cotton as she approached the old lady,
who peered up at her, her head on one side and
her eyes sparkling, like an inquisitive bird.
"Thank ye, child," she said, briskly. "I ain't as spry
as I use ter be, an' ye done me a favor. I guess I
don't know ye, do I?"
"I don't believe you do, Ma'am," agreed Janice,smiling, and although she could not be called
"pretty" in the sense in which the term is usually
written, when Janice smiled her determined, and
rather intellectual face became very attractive.
"You don't belong in these parts?" pursued the old
lady.
"Oh, no, Ma'am. I come from Greensboro," and
the girl named the middle western state in which
her home was situated.
"Do tell! You come a long distance, don't ye?"
exclaimed her fellow-passenger. "You're one of
these new-fashioned gals that travel alone, an' all
that sort o' thing, ain't ye? I reckon your folks has
got plenty of confidence in ye."
Janice laughed again, and drew her campstool to
the old lady's side.
"I was never fifty miles away from home before,"
she confessed, "and I never was away from my
father over night until I started East two days ago."
"Then ye ain't got no mother, child?"
"Mother died when I was a very little girl. Father
has been everything to me—just everything!" and
for a moment the bright, young face clouded and
the hazel eyes swam in unshed tears. But she
turned quickly so that her new acquaintance might
not see them.
"Where are you goin', my dear?" asked the oldlady, more softly.
"To Poketown. And oh! I do hope it will be a nice,
lively place, for maybe I'll have to remain there a
long time—months and months!"
"For the land's sake!" exclaimed the old lady,
nodding her head briskly over the knitting needles.
"So be I goin' to Poketown."
"Are you, really?" ejaculated Janice Day, clasping
her hands eagerly, and turning to her new
acquaintance. "Isn't that nice! Then you can tell me
just what Poketown is like. I've got to stay there
with my uncle while father is in Mexico——"
"Who's your uncle, child?" demanded the old lady,
quickly. "And who's your father?"
Janice naturally answered the last question first,
for her heart was full of her father and her
separation from him. "Mr. Broxton Day is my
father, and he used to live in Poketown. But he
came away from there a long, long time ago."
"Yes? I knowed there was Days in Poketown; but I
ain't been there myself for goin' on twelve year. I
lived there a year, or so, arter my man died, with
my darter. She's teached the Poketown school for
twenty year."
"Oh!" cried Janice. "Then you can't really tell me
what Poketown is like—now?"
"Why, it's quite a town, I b'lieve," said the old lady."'Rill writes me thet the ho-tel's jest been painted,
and there's a new blacksmith shop built. You goin'
to school there— What did you say your name
was?"
"Janice Day. I don't know whether I shall go to
school while I am in Poketown, or not. If there are
a whole lot of nice girls—and a few nice boys—who
go to your daughter's school, I shall certainly want
to go, too," continued Janice, smiling again at the
little old lady.
"Wal, 'Rill Scattergood's teached long enough, I tell
her," declared the other. "I'm goin' to Poketown
now more'n half to git her to give up at the end o'
this term. With what she's laid by, and what I've
got left, we could live mighty comfertable together.
Who's your uncle, child?" pursued Mrs.
Scattergood, who had not lost sight of her main
inquiry.
"Mr. Jason Day. He's my father's half brother."
"Ya-as. I didn't know them Days very well when I
lived there. How long did you say you was goin' to
stay in Poketown?"
"I don't know, Ma'am," said Janice, sadly. "Father
didn't know how long he'd be in Mexico——"
"Good Land o' Goshen!" ejaculated Mrs.
Scattergood, suddenly, "ain't that where there's
fightin' goin' on right now?"
"Yes'm. That's why he couldn't take me with him,"