Of course she and Candace saw us,but they didn't hunt eggs and they'd never tell.If ever I thought I'd burst wide open!About dusk I saw Leon coming from the barn carrying his hat at his side--more eggs--so I ran like a streak and locked the front door,and then slipped back in the dining-room and almost screamed,when I could hear him trying it,and he couldn't get in.After a while he came in,fussed around,and finally went into the sitting-room,and the key turned and he went upstairs.
I knew I wouldn't dare look at him when he came down,so I got a reader and began on a piece I just love:
"A nightingale made a mistake;
She sang a few notes out of tune:
Her heart was ready to break,And she hid away from the moon."When I did get a peep,gracious but he was black!Maybe it wasn't going to be so much fun after all.But he had the money last year,and the year before,and if he'd cleaned his feet well--I was not hunting his eggs,when I found them."His tracks betrayed him,"as father said.I was thankful supper was ready just then,and while it was going on mother said:"As soon as you finish,all bring in your eggs.I want to wrap the ones to colour to-night,and bury them in the fireplace so they will colour,dry,and be ready to open in the morning."No one said a word,but neither Laddie nor Leon looked very happy,and I took awful bites to keep my face straight.When all of us finished May brought a lot from the bran barrel in the smoke house,but Laddie and Leon only sat there and looked silly;it really was funny.
"I must have more eggs than this?"said mother."Where are they to come from?"Father nodded to me and I said:"From under your bed!""Oh,it was you!And I never once caught you snooping!"cried Leon.
"Easy son!"said father."That will do.You lost through your own carelessness.You left wet mud on the garret floor,and she saw it when mother sent her for the onion skins.You robbed Laddie of his last egg this morning;be a good loser yourself!""Well,anyway,you didn't get 'em,"said Leon to Laddie.
"And she only found them by accident!"
Then we had a big time counting all those eggs,and such another heap as there was to sell,after mother filled baskets to cook with and colour.When the table was cleared,Laddie and Leon made tallow pencils from a candle and wrote all sorts of things over eggs that had been prepared to colour.Then mother boiled them in copperas water,and aniline,and all the dyes she had,and the boys polished them,and they stood in shining black,red,blue and yellow heaps.The onion ones would be done in the morning.Leon had a goose egg and mother let him keep it,so he wrote and wrote on it,until Laddie said it would be all writing,and no colour,and he boiled it in red,after mother finished,and polished it himself.It came out real pretty with roses on it and lots of words he wouldn't let any of us read;but of course it was for Susie Fall.
Next morning he slipped it to her at church.When we got home,all of us were there except Shelley,and we had a big dinner and a fine time and Laddie stayed until after supper,before he went to Pryors'.
"How is he making it?"asked Sally.
You could see she was making it all right;she never looked lovelier,and mother said Peter was letting her spend away too much money on her clothes.She told him so,but Peter just laughed and said business was good,and he could afford it,and she was a fine advertisement for his store when she was dressed well.""All I know is,"said mother,"that he goes there every whipstitch,and the women,at least,seem glad to have him.He says Mr.Pryor treats him decently,and that is more than he does his own family and servants.He and the girl and her mother are divided about something.She treats her father respectfully,but she's in sympathy with mother.""Laddie can't find out what the trouble is?"
"I don't think that he tries."
"Maybe he'd feel better not to know,"said Peter.
"Possibly!"said mother.
"Nonsense!"said father.
"You seem to be reconciled,"said Elizabeth.
"That girl would reconcile a man to anything,"said father.
"Not to the loss of his soul,I hope,"said mother stiffly.
"Souls are not so easy to lose,"said father."Besides,I am counting on Laddie saving hers."
