THE DOGBERRY BUNCH. 41

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PART

Ulls

 

BY MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD,

 

CHAPTER I.
“NO HOME!”

T isatact in our, existence that some days or
I weeks, crowded with events, seem longer and of
more importance than months or even years of quiet
living. During the years, however, we are growing
ready to burst into the flower of new events.

For two years after Arthur's journey the Dogberrys
went on pretty much as usual; on a new plane to be
sure, and improving themselves, but. without any
important adventures. j

The Greenoff family did not forget them. Joslyn
gave Alice music lessons, and the whole Bunch, in
instalments of two or three berries at a time, were
taken to visit in Danport. But Allie’s every-day life
was one of school work and planning out the chil-
dren’s clothes.

The Durand heirs were so glad to get their brass-
bound coffer that they very readily sent the twin dis-
coverers of it a couple of hundred dollars apiece ;
and this great. property Rome and Remus solemnly
turned over to their guardian to be invested at ten
per cent, along with Jack’s hundred. They felt that
they were mighty capitalists. In seven years, if the
interest remained untouched, their fortune would
double. Their heads often swam with considering
how they might use it to the best advantage in life.
On first coming into their estate they proposed divid-
ing it equally among the family; but all the Bunch
except themselves scouted the very idea. Now they
were thrust into the enviable position of heirs! and
Rheem never met Jacey Dixon anywhere without
taking care to act with humility, for fear that highly
imaginative boy should think he was proud.

During: this time they thought much about enlare-
ing their house. Their tastes and ideas were grow-

ing. So Ben and Alice took tithes from their earn-

 

ings, and Jack and the twins turned over their two
years’ interest to the fund, and Ben himself built a
wing, raised the roof of the summer kitchen, and fin-
ished the latter room with a rough plaster. They
had now a parlor, a dining-room and a kitchen, a
guest-room and two roomy chambers for themselves.
There was so much consultation and so much wait-
ing before these rooms could all be furnished and
arranged according to their satisfaction, that it was
quite six months after the beginning that they got to
the outside of the house. It needed a new coat of
paint, and they all went out and looked at its brown
and weather-beaten sides.

‘“‘Let’s paint it white,” said Jack.

O, no! For Allie couldn’t endure white.

“ And white lead costs like fun,” said Benjamin.

“ And a white house always looks like a big tent,”
said Lucy.

“I think green would be pretty,” suggested
Rheem. “TI never saw a green house!”

“And you’re never likely to see one,” said Jack;
“especially Dogberrys’ house. When I was in Cin-
cinnati—” Jack was very fond of soaring back
through his travels —“I noticed a good many nice
buildings painted gray and brown.”

“In stripes and crossbars, eh?” quizzed Ben.

“No, I don’t mean ¢Aat way. I mean some were
brown and some were gray. Gray’s a pretty color.”

They held many councils, and Ben Bolt investi-
gated every shade of pigment. A very pale brown
was found to be as cheap and pretty as anything they
could command, Pale brown it was, and Ben, in put-
ting it on, emphasized it with darker facings. Under
this treatment the old house appeared actually to
expand. How fine, warm-toned and hospitable it
looked !

“There’s one thing more,” said Sweet Alice, “ but
we can’t afford it! That’s a verandah.”

“T tell you what looks nicer,” cried Rome, “and