"Wouldn't it be dreadful if my father and mother fought like that?” thought Di. "Oh, if I were only back home! Don't suck your thumb, Tuppy.”
She said that before she thought. They had had SUCH a time breaking Rilla of sucking her thumb.
Instantly Curt was red with rage.
"Let him alone!" he shouted. "He can suck his thumb if he likes!
WE ain't bossed to death like you Ingleside kids are. Who do you think you are?”
"Curt, Curt! Miss Blythe will think you haven't any manners," said Aunt Lina. She was quite calm and smiling again and put two teaspoons of sugar in Uncle Ben's tea. "Don't mind him, dear.
Have another piece of pie.”
Di did not want another piece of pie. She only wanted to go home ... and she did not see how it could be brought about.
"Well," boomed Uncle Ben, as he drained the last of his tea noisily from the saucer, "that's so much over. Get up in the morning ... work all day ... eat three meals and go to bed. What a life!”
"Pa loves his little joke," smiled Aunt Lina.
"Talking of jokes ... I saw the Methodist minister in Flagg's store today. He tried to contradict me when I said there was no God. 'You talk on Sunday,' I told him. 'It's my turn now. Prove to me there's a God,' I told him. 'It's you that's doing the talking,' says he. They all laughed like ninnies. Thought he was smart.”
No God! The bottom seemed falling out of Di's world. She wanted to cry.
Chapter 29
It was worse after supper. Before that she and Jenny had been alone at least. Now there was a mob. George Andrew grabbed her hand and galloped her through a mud-puddle before she could escape him. Di had never been treated like this in her life. Jem and Walter teased her, as did Ken Ford, but she did not know anything about boys like these.
Curt offered her a chew of gum, fresh from his mouth, and was mad when she refused it.
"I'll put a live mouse on you!" he yelled. "Smartycat! Stuckupitty! Got a sissy for a brother!”
"Walter isn't a sissy!" said Di. She was half sick from fright but she would not hear Walter called names.
"He is--he writes po'try. Do you know what I'd do if I'd a brother that writ po'try? I'd drown him ... like they do kittens.”
"Talking of kittens, there's a lot of wild ones in the barn," said Jen. "Let's go and hunt them out.”
Di simply would not go hunting kittens with those boys, and said so.
"We've got plenty of kittens at home. We've got eleven," she said proudly.
"I don't believe it!" cried Jen. "You haven't! Nobody ever had eleven kittens. It wouldn't be RIGHT to have eleven kittens.”
"One cat has five and the other six. And I'm not going to the barn anyhow. I fell down off the loft in Amy Taylor's barn last winter.
I'd have been killed if I hadn't lit on a pile of chaff.”
"Well, I'd have fell off our loft once if Curt hadn't caught me,” said Jen sulkily. Nobody had any right to be falling off lofts but her. Di Blythe having adventures! The impudence of her!
"You should say 'I'd HAVE FALLEN,'" said Di; and from that moment everything was over between her and Jenny.
But the night had to be got through somehow. They did not go to bed till late because none of the Pennys ever went to bed early.
The big bedroom where Jenny took her at half-past ten had two beds in it. Annabel and Gert were getting ready for theirs. Di looked at the others. The pillows were very frowsy. The quilt needed washing very badly. The paper ... the famous "parrot" paper ... had been leaked on and even the parrots did not look very parroty. On the stand by the bed were a granite pitcher and a tin wash-basin half full of dirty water. She could never wash her face in THAT. Well, for once she must go to bed without washing her face. At least the nightgown Aunt Lina had left for her was clean.
When Di got up from saying her prayers Jenny laughed.
"My, but you're old-fashioned. You looked so funny and holy saying your prayers. I didn't know anybody said prayers now. Prayers ain't any good. What do you say them for?”
"I've got to save my soul," said Di, quoting Susan.
"I haven't any soul," mocked Jenny.
"Perhaps not, but I HAVE," said Di, drawing herself up.
Jenny looked at her. But the spell of Jenny's eyes was broken.
Never again would Di succumb to its magic.
"You're not the girl I thought you were, Diana Blythe," said Jennie sadly, as one much deceived.
Before Di could reply George Andrew and Curt rushed into the room.
George Andrew wore a mask ... a hideous thing with an enormous nose. Di screamed.
"Stop squealing like a pig under a gate!" ordered George Andrew.
"You've got to kiss us good-night.”
"If you don't we'll lock you up in that closet ... and it's full of rats," said Curt.
George Andrew advanced towards Di, who shrieked again and retreated before him. The mask paralyzed her with terror. She knew quite well it was only George Andrew behind it and she was not afraid of HIM; but she would die if that awful mask came near her ... she knew she would. Just as it seemed that the dreadful nose was touching her face she tripped over a stool and fell backward on the floor, striking her head on the sharp edge of Annabel's bed as she fell. For a moment she was dazed and lay with her eyes shut.
"She's gone dead ... she's gone dead!" sniffled Curt, beginning to cry.
"Oh, won't you get a licking if you've killed her, George Andrew!” said Annabel.
"Maybe she's only pretending," said Curt. "Put a worm on her.
I've some in this can. If she's only foxing that will bring her to.”
Di heard this but was too frightened to open her eyes. (Perhaps they would go away and leave her alone if they thought her dead.
But if they put a worm on her ...) "Prick her with a pin. If she bleeds she ain't dead," said Curt.
(She could stand a pin but not a worm.) "She ain't dead ... she CAN'T be dead," whispered Jenny. "You've just scared her into a fit. But if she comes to she'll be screeching all over the place and Uncle Ben'll come in and lambast the daylights out of us. I wish I'd never asked her here, the fraid-cat!”
"Do you s'pose we could carry her home before she comes to?” suggested George Andrew.
(Oh, if they only would!) "We couldn't ... not that far," said Jenny.
"It's only a quarter of a mile 'cross lots. We'll each take an arm or leg ... you and Curt and me and Annabel.”
Nobody but the Pennys could have conceived such an idea or carried it out if they had. But they were used to doing anything they took it into their heads to do and a "lambasting" from the head of the household was something to be avoided if possible. Dad didn't bother about them up to a certain point but beyond that ... good-NIGHT!
"If she comes to while we're carrying her we'll just cut and run,” said George Andrew.
There wasn't the least danger of Di coming to. She trembled with thankfulness when she felt herself being hoisted up between the four of them. They crept downstairs and out of the house, across the yard and over the long clover field ... past the woods ... down the hill. Twice they had to lay her down while they rested.
They were quite sure now she was dead and all they wanted was to get her home without being seen. If Jenny Penny never prayed in her life before she was praying now ... that nobody in the village would be up. If they could get Di Blythe home they would all swear she had got so homesick at bedtime that she had insisted on going home. What happened after that would be no concern of theirs.
Di ventured to open her eyes once as they plotted this. The sleeping world around looked very strange to her. The fir trees were dark and alien. The stars were laughing at her. ("I don't like such a big sky. But if I can just hold on a little spell longer I'll be home. If they find out that I'm not dead they'll just leave me here and I'll never get home in the dark alone.") When the Pennys dropped Di on the verandah of Ingleside they ran like mad. Di did not dare come back to life too soon, but at last she ventured to open her eyes. Yes, she was home. It seemed almost too good to be true. She had been a very, very naughty girl but she was quite sure she would never be naughty again. She sat up and the Shrimp came stealthily up the steps and rubbed against her, purring. She hugged him to her. How nice and warm and friendly he was! She did not think she would be able to get in ... she knew Susan would have all the doors locked when Dad was away and she dared not wake Susan up at this hour. But she did not mind. The June night was cold enough but she would get into the hammock and cuddle down with the Shrimp, knowing that, near to her, behind those locked doors, were Susan and the boys and Nan ... and HOME.