Brother and Sister

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BROTHER AND SISTER

BY JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE

AUTHOR OF
"BROTHER AND SISTER'S SCHOOLDAYS"
"BROTHER AND SISTER'S HOLIDAYS"

BROTHER AND SISTER SERIES

BY JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE

1. BROTHER AND SISTER
2. BROTHER AND SISTER'S SCHOOLDAYS
3. BROTHER AND SISTER'S HOLIDAYS

BROTHER AND SISTER

CONTENTS

I. THE MORRISONS
II. GRANDMA HASTINGS
III. SISTER IN MISCHIEF
IV. PARTY PREPARATIONS
V. DICK'S BUTTONS
VI. RALPH'S PRESENT
VII. MORE PRESENTS
VIII. THE PARTY
IX. OUT IN THE BARN
X. THE HAUNTED HOUSE
XI. JIMMIE'S SURPRISE
XII. A LITTLE SHOPPING
XIII. A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT
XIV. TWO IN TROUBLE
XV. TROUBLE AGAIN
XVI. MISS PUTNAM COMPLAINS
XVII. MAKING UP WITH JIMMIE
XVIII. MICKEY GAFFNEY
XIX. A VERY SICK DOLL
XX. PLANS FOR MICKEY
XXI. BROTHER AND SISTER PAY A CALL
XXII. MICKEY OWNS UP

BROTHER AND SISTER

CHAPTER I

THE MORRISONS

"Brother," said Mother Morrison, "you haven't touched your glass
of milk. Hurry now, and drink it before we leave the table."

Brother's big brown eyes turned from his knife, which he had been
playing was a bridge from the salt cellar to the egg cup, toward
the tumbler of milk standing beside his plate.

"I don't have to drink milk this morning, Mother," he assured her
confidently. "Honestly I don't. It's raining so hard that we can't
go outdoors and grow, anyway."

Louise, his older sister, said sharply. "Don't be silly!" but
Ralph, who was in a hurry to catch his train, stopped long enough
to give a word of advice.

"Look here, Brother," he urged seriously, "better not skip a
morning. Your birthday is next week, isn't it? Well, if you're not
tall enough by Wednesday morning, you can't have the present I
bought for you last night. Too short, no present--you think it
over."

He stooped to kiss his mother, tweaked Sister's perky bow of hair-
ribbon, and with a hasty "Good-bye" for the others at the table,
hurried out into the hall. They heard the front door slam after
him.

Spurred by Ralph's mysterious hint, Brother drank his milk, and
then the Morrison family scattered for their usual busy day.

Brother and Sister were left to clear the breakfast table. They
always did this, carrying out the dishes and silver to Molly in
the kitchen. Then they crumbled the cloth neatly. Molly declared
she could not do without them.

"What do you suppose Ralph is going to give you?" speculated
Sister, carefully folding up the napkin Louise had dropped, and
slipping it into the white pique ring embroidered with an "L."
"Maybe it's a train?"

"No, I don't believe it's a train," said Brother slowly, crumbling
a bit of bread and beginning to build a little farm with the
crumbs. "No, I guess maybe he will give me a tool-chest."

"Come on, and bring the bread tray," suggested Sister practically.
She never forgot the task in hand for other interests. "Mother
says we mustn't dawdle, Roddy, you know she did. It's my turn to
feed the birds, so I'll crumb the table. Could I use your saw if
you get a tool-chest?"

Brother answered dreamily that he supposed she could. He watched
Sister and her crumb-brush sweep away his nice little bread-crumb
fences, while he planned to build a real fence if Ralph's present
should turn out to be the long-coveted tool-chest.

When Sister had swept up every tiny crumb, she and Brother went
out to scatter the bits of bread to the birds who, winter and
summer, never failed to come to the back door and who always
seemed hungry.

This morning there were robins, starlings, a pair of beautiful big
blue jays, and, of course, the rusty little sparrows. Each bird
seemed to be pretending to the others that he was looking for
worms, and each one slyly watched the Morrison back door in hopes
that two small figures would presently come out and toss them a
breakfast of breadcrumbs.

Sister flung her crumbs as far as her short arm would send them,
and managed to hit an indignant old starling squarely in the eye.
He glared at her crossly.

"Birds don't mind getting wet, do they?" said Brother, as the
sparrows hopped about in the driving rain and pecked gratefully at
the crumbs. "Let's hop the way they do, Betty."

Sister obediently hopped, looking not unlike a very plump little
robin at that, with her dark eyes and bobbing curls. Only, you
see, she and Brother were much heavier than any birds, and they
made so much noise that Molly came to the door to see what they
were doing.

"Another rainy day and the two of you bursting with mischief!" she
sighed good-naturedly. "Will you be quiet for an hour if I let you
make a dough-man while I'm mixing my bread?"

Brother and Sister loved to make dough-men, and so while Molly
kneaded her bread, they worked busily and happily at the other end
of the table, shaping two men from the bit of sponge she gave them
and quite forgetting to scold about the unpleasant weather which
kept them indoors.

Their real names, you must know, were Rhodes and Elizabeth
Morrison. Rhodes was six, and Elizabeth five, and sometimes they
were called "Roddy" and "Betty," but most always Brother and
Sister.

This was partly because they were so many Morrisons.

There was Daddy Morrison, who was a lawyer and who went to town
every morning to a busy office that seemed, to Brother and Sister,
when they visited him, to be all papers and typewriters.

There was dear Mother Morrison, who was altogether lovely, with
brown eyes like Brother's, and dark curly hair like Sister.

There were Louise and Grace, the twins; they were fifteen and went
to high school, and were very pretty and important and busy.

Then there was Dick, the oldest of them all, and Ralph, who went
to law school in the city, and Jimmie, who was seventeen and the
captain of the high school football team.

Counting Brother and Sister, seven children, you see, and as Molly
truly said, "a houseful." Molly had lived with Mother Morrison
since Louise and Grace were babies, and they would not have known
what to do without her. She was as much a part of the family as
any of them.

The Morrison house was a big, shabby, roomy place with wide, deep
porches and many windows. There was a large lawn in front and an
old barn in back where the older boys had fitted up a gymnasium
with all kinds of fascinating apparatus, most of which Brother and
Sister were forbidden to touch.

The Morrisons lived in Ridgeway, a thriving suburb of the city,
where Daddy Morrison, Dick and Ralph went every day.

And now that you are introduced, we'll go back to Brother and
Sister making dough-men in Molly's kitchen.

"What makes my dough-man kind of dark?" inquired Sister, calling
Molly's attention to the queer-shaped figure she had pieced
together.

Sure enough Sister's dough-man, and Brother's, too, was a rather
dark gray, while the bread Molly was mixing was creamy white.

Mother Morrison, coming into the kitchen carrying Brother's
rubbers and raincoat, saved Molly an explanation.

CHAPTER II

GRANDMA HASTINGS

"Where are you going Mother?" asked Brother, when he saw the
rubbers.

"I'm not going out," smiled Mother. "You are going for me, dear.
These are your rubbers and coat--hop into them and run across the
street to Grandma's with this apron pattern."

"Will you bake my dough-man, Molly?" begged Brother, struggling
into his coat and taking the small parcel Mother gave him. "Is
Betty coming?"

"Not this time," answered his mother. "It is raining too hard.
Yes, Molly will bake your dough-man and you may eat him for lunch.
Run along now."

Grandmother Hastings lived almost directly across the street from
the Morrison house and she was putting her beautiful Boston fern
out to get the rain when Brother tramped sturdily up her side
garden path.

"Bless his heart, he's a regular little duck!" cried Grandma,
giving him a tremendous hug.

That is the way grandmothers are, you know, whether they live
across the street from you and see you every day, or whether they
live miles away and come to visit you Christmas and summer times.
A grandmother is always glad to see you.

Grandmother Hastings was short and plumpy and her white hair was
curly and her eyes were blue. She had pink cheeks and wore a blue
dress and a white apron with a frilly bib, and altogether, Brother
thought privately, she looked very nice indeed.

"I'm very glad to get that pattern," she told him, patting the
long leaves of the fern and spreading them out to catch the rain.
"I've a magazine you can take back to Mother, dearie, and an old
fashion book Sister will like for paper dolls. Come into the
sitting-room while I find them for you. Take off your rubbers,
child."

Brother followed her into the house and there Aunt Kate swooped
upon him and tickled him as she always did. Aunt Kate was a school
teacher. In summer she tutored backward pupils. She was on her way
to give a lesson now and in a few minutes she went away merrily
into the driving rain. That left Grandmother and Brother to
entertain each other.

"Do you know what Ralph is going to give me for a birthday
present, Grandmother?" Brother asked, dropping flat on his stomach
to play jungle with the tigerskin that lay before the fireplace.
"He says if I'm not tall enough I can't have it. But he's bought
it all ready--he said so."

Brother, you see, would be six years old in a few days. He
couldn't help thinking a great deal about his birthday.

Grandmother and Brother had no secrets from each other, though
sometimes they planned surprises for the other members of the
family.

"No, I don't know what Ralph plans to give you," admitted
Grandmother. "Don't try to find out, dearie. It is much nicer to
be surprised. Why, you know you wouldn't have a bit of fun next
Wednesday if you knew what your presents were to be."

Brother was willing to be surprised, because Wednesday wasn't so
long to wait. Still he thought he would like to know what Ralph's
present was. Ralph was his dearest brother, and he had a happy
knack of always giving Brother and Sister exactly what they
wanted. Louise and Grace were apt to make them presents which were
useful, like pretty socks and hair-ribbons for Sister, and gloves
and handkerchiefs for Brother, but Ralph never did anything like
that.

"I've dropped a stitch in my knitting," said Grandmother suddenly.
"Brother, I wonder if you could run upstairs and bring me my
glasses? I think they are on the bureau in my room."

Brother ran upstairs and went into Grandmother's pretty bedroom.
There were white and silver things on her bureau and a little gold
jewel box and several bottles of different colors. But, though
Brother looked carefully, he could not find the glasses.

He went out into the hall.

"Oh, Grandma!" he called. "Your glasses aren't on the bureau."

"Dear, dear," sighed Grandmother. "'Let me see, where can they be?
Do you know, Brother, I'm afraid I have left them in my black silk
bag on the closet shelf. Can you get it, or shall I come up?"

"I can get it," answered Brother confidently. "You wait, Grandma."

The closet shelf was pretty high, but Brother carried a chair to
the closet door and by standing on it he was able to reach the
shelf. Goodness, what was more, he could see the things on the
shelf.

And they were bundles!

One--two--three--Brother counted three mysterious paper bundles,
tied with brown string.

Now you know if you had a birthday due most any minute and your
head was full of the presents you hoped to receive, and you saw
three bundles on the shelf in your grandma's closet, you know you
would probably do just what Brother did; poke your finger into the
top bundle. Brother poked. Then he prodded. The top bundle slipped
and carried the other two with it. Brother was brushed off the
chair and three bundles and one boy landed in a heap on the floor.

"Brother!" cried Grandma, who had come up to see what kept him so
long. "Are you hurt?"

"No'm," answered Brother, rather foolishly. "I was just feeling
these bundles, Grandma, to see--to--see----"

"Whether they were birthday presents?" smiled Grandma. "Well,
dearie, they are nothing but blankets tied up to send to the
cleaners. I'm glad, for your sake, they were, for you might have
hurt yourself, otherwise, as it is, they were soft and thick for
you to fall on."

"I'll get the glasses now," murmured Brother hastily.

He climbed up on the chair again and this time found without any
trouble the black bag which held Grandma's glasses.

"Mother is waving a handkerchief--that means she wants you," said
Grandmother, glancing from the window. "Scoot along, dear, and
don't think too much about the birthday till it comes. Here are
the magazines. And here's a drop-cake for you."

Brother paddled down the steps, went halfway to the front hedge,
and then turned.

"Oh, Grandma!" he shouted. "Do you know what I think Ralph is
going to give me? I think it's a tool-chest!"

CHAPTER III

SISTER IN MISCHIEF

"I hope it's like this to-morrow!"

Brother stood on the front porch, flattening his nose against the
screen door and sniffing the fragrant June sunshine.

Ever since his unsuccessful attempt to find out from Grandma
Hastings what Ralph's present was to be, it had rained. That was
three days ago, so you may be sure the whole Morrison family were
very glad to see the sun again. Especially as the very next day
was Brother's birthday.

"Brother, I'm going down town to buy the favors for your party,"
announced Louise, who sat in the porch hammock crocheting a
sweater. "Wouldn't you like to go with me?"

Brother thought he would.

"Take me?" begged Sister, falling over the small broom she
carried, in her eagerness to be one of the party. "It's my turn,
Louise, honestly it is."

"Well, you see, I can't very well take you both," explained Louise
kindly. "Mrs. Adams is going to call for me with her car, and it
wouldn't be polite to ask her to take two children; and as it is
Brother's birthday, he ought to be the one to go--don't you think
so?"

Sister nodded, though her lower lip trembled suspiciously. And
when Mrs. Adams drove her shiny automobile up to the curb, and
Louise and Brother were whisked away in it, two big tears rolled
down Sister's round cheeks.

"Why, honey!" Grace, the other twin sister, swinging her tennis
racquet, came through the hall and saw the tears. "What you crying
for?" she asked. "Everyone gone and left you? I'll tell you what
to do--you go out in the kitchen and take a peep at what is on the
table and you won't feel like crying another moment."

"What is it?" asked Sister cautiously.

She wasn't going to stop crying and then find out she had been
cheated.

"You go look," answered Grace mysteriously.

So sister started for the kitchen and Grace ran off to her game of
tennis with Jimmie.

The kitchen was in perfect order and very quiet. Molly was
upstairs making the beds, and Mother Morrison was planning the
party with Grandmother Hastings.

"Oh!" said Sister softly as she saw what was on the table. "Oh,
my!"

For right in the center of the white-topped table, on a large pink
plate, perched Brother's birthday cake! It was a beautiful cake,
perfectly round and very smooth and brown.

"But the icing!" said Sister aloud. "There's no ICING! I s'pose
Molly didn't have time."

If Sister had stopped to think, she would have remembered that all
the birthday cakes Molly made--and she made seven every year for
the Morrisons, and one for Grandmother Hastings--were always iced
with pink or white or chocolate icing.

But, you see, she didn't stop to think, and when she discovered a
bowl of lovely creamy white stuff on the small table between the
windows, this small girl decided that she would ice the cake and
save Molly the trouble.

There was a little film of water over the top of the bowl, but
Sister took a wooden spoon and stirred it carefully, and the water
mixed nicely with the white stuff, so that she had a bowl filled
with the smoothest, whitest "icing" any cook could ask for.

"I'll get a silver knife to spread it with," said Sister, who had
often watched Molly, and knew what to do.

She brought the knife from the dining-room and had just put one
broad streak of white across the top of the cake when Molly came
down the back stairs and saw her.

"Sister!" cried Molly. "What are you doing with my cold starch?"

"I'm icing the cake," answered Sister calmly. "You forgot it, I
guess."

Poor Molly grabbed the bowl from Sister's hands.

"Can't I leave the kitchen one minute that you don't get into
mischief?" she scolded. "This isn't ICING--it's STARCH for Mr.
Jimmie's collars. I'm going to make a beautiful chocolate icing
for the cake this afternoon and write Brother's name on it in
white frosting."

"Oh!" said Sister meekly.

"Go on upstairs, do," Molly urged her. "I've my hands full today
getting ready for the party; can't you find something nice to do
upstairs?"

Thus sped on her way, Sister reluctantly mounted the stairs to the
second floor.

"I could play jacks with Nellie Yarrow," she said to herself.
"Only she's lost her jackstones and I can't find mine. What's that
on Dick's bureau?"

Ralph and Jimmie roomed together, but Dick had a room of his own,
and though Sister was strictly forbidden to meddle with his
things, they had a great attraction for her. She could just see
the top of Dick's chiffonier from the floor and now she dragged a
chair up to it and climbed up to see what the shining thing was
that had caught her eye.

It was a gold collar button, and Dick, she found, had a box of
pearl and gold buttons that Sister was sure she had never seen
before. She played with them, tossing them up and down and
watching them glitter, until a sudden thought struck her.

"They'd make lovely jackstones," she whispered. "I could use 'em
and put them right back. I know Nellie has a ball."

Dick had several new ties, and Sister had to admire these before
she could leave the chiffonier. Finally she slipped the box of
pretty buttons in her pocket and jumped down. She put the chair
where she had found it, and ran downstairs and through the hedge
that separated the Morrison house from that of Dr. Yarrow's.

"Nellie, oh, Nellie!" called Sister. "Come on, let's play
jackstones."

"Haven't any," answered Nellie Yarrow, a little girl a year or so
older than Sister. "All I have left is my ball."

"Well, get that and we can play," Sister told her. "I've found
something we can use--see!"

Nellie admired the collar buttons immensely and thought it would
be great fun to play with them. She ran and got her ball and the
two little friends sat down on the concrete walk to play
jackstones, heedless of the hot morning sun.

Sister had won one game and Nellie two, when they heard Louise
calling.

"Sister! Sister! Where are you? If you want to help fix the
fishpond, you'll have to come right away."

Sister stuffed the buttons in her pocket and ran home, eager to
see what Louise and Brother had bought.

CHAPTER IV

PARTY PREPARATIONS

When Mother Morrison had suggested a fishpond for the party,
Louise and Grace had protested.

"Oh, Mother!" they cried. "That's so old!"

"But the children like it," said Mother Morrison mildly.

"It's fun," urged Brother. "It's fun to fish over the table and
catch something!"

Sister, too, had asked for the pond, so it was decided to have
one. Louise and Grace might not care for such things at their
birthday parties, but this, as Sister said, was "different."

"We bought bushels and bushels," Brother informed Sister as she
bounded through the hedge and up to the front porch. "Little
colored pencils, and crayons, and games, and dolls, and oh!--
everything!"

Louise, whose shopping bag was certainly bulging with parcels,
laughed merrily.

"We bought all the little gifts for the fish-pond and for the
--there! I almost told you." She clapped her hand over her mouth and
laughed again.

"For the what?" teased Sister. "Tell me, Louise--I won't tell."

"No, Mother said no one was to know," declared Louise firmly. "Now
all these packages you may open, and after lunch I'll help you tie
them up again and fix the pond. But these other parcels go
upstairs to Mother's room and no one is to touch them."

She tumbled half the contents of her bag on the porch floor and
then ran upstairs with the rest.

"Let's look at them," said Sister eagerly. "What's the matter,
Roddy?"

"I was thinking," explained Brother, making no move to open the
packages. "We saw a little boy down town and his foot was all tied
up in a rag, and I know it hurt him 'cause he limped."

"Maybe he sprained his ankle," said Sister. "Like Dr. Yarrow's
cousin, you know."

"It wasn't his ankle--it was his foot," insisted Brother. "And I
told Louise Mother said we mustn't go on the ground without our
sandals, and she said she guessed the boy didn't have any sandals;
she said he prob'bly didn't have any shoes, either."

"Nor any stockings--just rags?" asked Sister in pity. "I like to go
barefoot, Roddy, but I like my new patent leather slippers, too."

"Maybe he has some for Sunday," comforted Brother, trying to be
hopeful. "Everybody has to wear shoes on Sunday."

"Yes, of course they do," agreed Sister, who had never heard of a
boy and girl who didn't wear shoes on Sunday and every day in the
week except when they were allowed to go barefoot as a great
treat.

The tempting packages were not to be forgotten one moment longer,
and they decided to "take turns" opening them.

"Isn't it fun!" giggled Sister. What do you s'pose Mother is going
to make you, Roddy?"

"I don't know," replied Brother absently. "I keep thinking about
Ralph's present. He says that he thinks I'll be tall enough to
have it by tomorrow."

"Did you drink all your milk for breakfast?" asked Sister
anxiously.

Ralph was most particular about the children's milk. He insisted
that they couldn't grow properly without enough milk, and as both
were anxious to grow tall, Brother and Sister usually drank their
milk without fussing.

Brother had finished his to the last drop that morning, he said,
and when they were called in to lunch presently, he drank another
glass so that he would surely grow enough to please Ralph.

"And now we'll do up the fishpond presents," said Louise, when
they had finished lunch.

She and Grace both helped, for Mother Morrison was busy in the
kitchen with Molly, and of course none of the brothers were home
during the day except Jimmie, and he was usually busy out in the
barn where the gymnasium was.

You have probably "fished" in a fishpond yourself at parties, and
know what it is. Little gifts are placed somewhere out of sight,
and each small guest is given a fishing rod and line with a hook
at the end. He dangles this over the back of a sofa, or over a
table, and when he draws it up there is a "fish," or the present,
attached to it.

Louise had plenty of nice white paper and pink string, and each
gift was carefully wrapped and tied. Dark blue crepe paper was
tacked around three sides of a table and this table placed across
one corner of the parlor. This was the "ocean." The presents were
placed on the floor back of the table, and Brother and Sister
knew, from past pleasant experience, that when it came time to
fish, the packages would obligingly attach themselves to the
hooks.

"Tomorrow's ever so long off," sighed Brother, when the fishpond
was ready and Louise and Grace had gone over to the library to
take back some books.

He and Sister were not wanted in the kitchen and they were asked
not to touch the clean white clothes spread out on the guest room
bed for them to wear to the party. There really did not seem to be
anything for them to do.

"Let's go out and watch for Ralph?" suggested Sister.

Ralph was the best loved brother, after all, though, of course,
the children loved Dick and Jimmie dearly. But no one was quite as
patient as Ralph, no one had time to read to them as often as he
did, no one told them stories without coaxing as Ralph did.

He and Dick came up the street from the station together this
night, and though Dick kissed Sister and said, "Hello, kid," to
Brother, he dashed into the house, while Ralph stayed to talk.

"Birthday tomorrow, Brother?" he asked teasingly, though he knew
very well that Brother would be six years old.

"Oh, Ralph!" Brother was so excited he nearly stuttered. "Ralph,
couldn't you tell me what the present is now? I'm just as tall,
and it's almost my birthday. Please, Ralph?"

Ralph swung Sister up and sat her on the fence-post.

"Well, I don't believe I could do that," he replied slowly. "Let's
see, did you drink your milk today without grumbling?"

"Yes, I did--didn't I, Sister?" said Brother eagerly.

"Yes," nodded Sister. "He drank all of his for lunch, too, Ralph,
and didn't spill any."

"That's certainly fine," praised Ralph. "I'm sure you've grown a
little bit every day, too. Well, Brother, I tell you what I'll do
--tomorrow morning I'll bring the present up to your room before
breakfast. How will that do?"

Brother was more excited than ever, and for once he was ready to
go to bed that night without a protest. He and Sister trailed
sleepily off upstairs, wishing for the morning to come so that
they might know what this mysterious present was.

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