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Page 20
As Romeo had said, the chimney had blown down and several loose bricks
lay upon the roof. They had a small vegetable garden, fenced in, and an
itinerant gardener looked after it, in Summer, but they had no flowers,
because they maintained a large herd of stray dogs, mostly mongrels,
that would have had no home had it not been for the hospitable twins.
Romeo bought the choicest cuts of beef for them and fed them himself.
Occasionally they added another to their collection and, at the last
census, had nineteen.
Their house would have delighted Madame Bernard--it was so eminently
harmonious and suitable. The ragged carpets showed the floor in many
places, and there were no curtains at any of the windows. Romeo
cherished a masculine distaste for curtains and Juliet did not trouble
herself to oppose him. The furniture was old and most of it was broken.
The large easy chair in the sitting room was almost disembowelled, and
springs showed through the sofa, except in the middle, where there was a
cavernous depression. Several really fine paintings adorned the walls,
and the dingy mantel was glorified by exquisite bits of Cloisonne and
iridescent glass, for which Juliet had a pronounced fancy.
"Set the table, will you, Romie?" called Juliet, tying a large blue
gingham apron over her sweater. "I'm almost starved."
"So'm I, but I've got to feed the dogs first."
"Let 'em wait," pleaded Juliet. "Please do!"
"Don't be so selfish! They're worse off than we are, for they haven't
even had tea."
While the pack fought, outside, for rib bones and raw steak, Juliet
opened a can of salmon, fried some potatoes, put a clean spoon into a
jar of jam, and cut a loaf of bread into thick slices. When Romeo came
in, he set the table, made coffee, and opened a can of condensed milk.
They disdained to wash dishes, but cleared off the table, after supper,
lighted the lamp, and talked automobile until almost midnight.
In less than an hour, Romeo had completed the plans for remodelling the
barn. They had no horse, but as a few bits of harness remained from the
last equine incumbent, they usually alluded to the barn as "the bridle
chamber."
"We'll have to name the barn again," mused Juliet, "and we can name the
automobile, too."
"Wait until we get it. What colour shall we have?"
"They're usually red or black, aren't they?" she asked, doubtfully.
"I guess so. We want ours different, don't we?"
"Sure. We want something that nobody ever had before--something bright
and cheerful. Oh, Romie," she continued, jumping up and down in
excitement, "let's have it bright yellow and call it 'The Yellow
Peril'!"
Her twin offered her a friendly hand. "Jule," he said solemnly, "you're
a genius!"
"We'll have brown leather inside, and get brown clothes to match. Brown
hats with yellow bands on 'em--won't it be perfectly scrumptious?"
"Scrumptious is no word for it. Shall we have two seats or four?"
"Four, of course. A two-seated automobile looks terribly selfish."
"Stingy, too," murmured Romeo, "and we can afford the best."
"Do you know," Juliet suggested, after deep thought, "I think it would
be nice of us if we waited to take our first ride until we celebrate for
Uncle?"
"It would," admitted Romeo, gloomily, "but it's such a long time to
wait."
"We can learn to run it here in the yard--there's plenty of room. And on
the thirtieth of June, we'll take our first real ride in it. Be a sport,
Romie," she urged, as he maintained an unhappy silence.
"All right--I will," he said, grudgingly. "But I hope Uncle appreciates
what we're doing for him."
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