CHAPTER V DICK'S BUTTONS

 Before Sister could say anything, in pranced¹ Brother, very pink and clean from his hot bath and treading on his gray bathrobe at every other step.

 

"Have you been meddling² with my things again?" demanded Dick. "Mother, I've an engagement at eight o'clock and it's quarter past now; every blessed collar button is gone from my chiffonier!"

 

Mother Morrison, who had followed Brother into the room, looked anxiously at him.

 

"Brother, you haven't been in Dick's room today, have you?" she asked him.

 

Then Sister, whose memory had been waking up, spoke³.

 

"Please, Dick," she said in a very little voice. "Please, I had the buttons."

 

"Oh, you did!" Dick quite forgot to smile at her. "What did you want 'em for? Where are they now?"

 

"You see, I was playing jackstones with Nellie Yarrow, and afterward⁴ I—I left them in my pocket—" Sister's voice trailed off.

 

She recollected⁵ that the dress she had been wearing was now down the laundry chute.

 

"Mother, something's got to be done!" fumed⁶ Dick. "I can't have the kids going through my stuff and helping⁷ themselves to whatever they want; those buttons were my solid gold ones and my good studs were in the same box. There's the telephone!—Nina will be furious! Sister, where did you say that dress was?"

 

Dick rushed downstairs to answer the telephone, leaving a sorrowful Sister curled up in a forlorn little heap on the bed.

 

"My blue dress is way down in the laundry," she wailed⁸. "The buttons are in the pocket. Oh, Mother, it's awful far down there, and it's dark on the stairs!"

 

"What's all the racket about?" inquired Ralph, coming to the door. "Is Sister crying? And Dick is trying to smooth down Nina Carson, who seems to be in a bad way. Want any help with these young ones, Mother? Anyway, tell a fellow the cause of the excitement."

 

Sister smiled through her tears. "Young ones" was what Molly's country sister had once called them, and Ralph always said it when he meant to make her laugh.

 

"I really think Sister should go down and get the buttons from her dress pocket," said dear Mother Morrison decidedly. "I have forbidden her, time and again, to touch anything in Dick's room. Take your kimona and slippers⁹, Sister, and hurry; I'll have your bath ready for you when you come back."

 

More tears ran down Sister's round cheeks. Her eyes were so full of salt water she couldn't find the armholes of her pink kimona, and Ralph had to help her.

 

"I'll go with her, Mother," he offered. "I'll sit on the stairs and wait while she hunts for the buttons; and after this you—will leave Dick's things alone, won't you, Sister?"

 

Sister promised joyfully¹⁰, and paddled off downstairs with Ralph. The dark stairs that led to the laundry didn't frighten her one bit, and while Ralph sat on the last step and held the door open, Sister snapped on the light and found the blue dress on top of the basket that stood under the chute. Surely enough, the buttons were in the pocket just as she had left them. She took the box and hurried back to Ralph. "Where's Dick going?" she asked him, as they went upstairs.

 

"Oh, out somewhere, to see some girl," replied Ralph, who seldom went to call on a girl. "Scoot now, Sister—I'm going out on the porch and read. You've made poor old Dick half an hour late as it is."

 

Ralph went out on the screened front porch, where Daddy Morrison was reading beside the electric lamp, and had just picked up his magazine, when there was a patter of little feet and Sister threw her arms around him breathlessly.

 

"I love you, Ralph!" she said quickly, hugging him and then turning to run.

 

"Here, here!" cried Daddy Morrison in surprise. "Thought you were in bed long ago. Don't I get any kissing?"

 

"Mother is waiting to bathe me," explained Sister hurriedly, "and Dick wants his collar buttons, so I have to go, Daddy."

 

Her father caught her as she rushed past him and gave her a quick kiss.

 

"Sister!" called Mother Morrison. "Sister, are you coming?"

 

Sister, the box of buttons clutched tightly in her hand, ran upstairs. Dick, glowering¹¹, met her at the top.

 

"For goodness' sake!" he ejaculated. "I'd about given up hope—and if you ever touch one of my things again—"

 

"I won't!" promised Sister hastily. "Honest Injun, I won't. You aren't mad, are you, Dick?"

 

Dick was wrestling with a stiff collar before the glass in the hall.

 

"No, I'm not mad, but I shall be in a minute," he announced grimly. "Don't stand there and watch me, please; you make me nervous."

 

"Come and take your bath, dear," called Mother Morrison.

 

"Don't you hear Mother? What are you waiting for?" demanded Dick.

 

"Waiting for you to kiss me good-night," answered Sister composedly.

 

Dick stared at her. Then he laughed.

 

"There!" he said, picking Sister up and kissing her soundly. "Now will you leave me in peace, you monkey?"

 

Sister was satisfied and hurried off to her bathing. When she came out of the bathroom, she found Brother sleepily waiting for her, sitting up, in his bed.

 

"If you hear Ralph in the morning," he told her earnestly, "you call me, 'cause I want to see my own birthday present before you do."

 

"Can't I look at it if you're not awake?" asked Sister hopefully.

 

"No, you mustn't," said Brother firmly. "It's my birthday present, and I want to see it first. Now you remember!"

 

Mother Morrison kissed them both, put a screen in another window, for the night was warm, and snapped off the light. It was time for Brother and Sister to be asleep.

 

"Roddy!" whispered Sister softly.

 

"Uh-huh?" came sleepily from Brother.

 

"Suppose I can't help looking when Ralph opens the door?"

 

Brother roused himself.

 

"You mustn't," he repeated. "It's my birthday. I wouldn't look first if it was your birthday present. You can shut your eyes, can't you?"

 

Sister sighed, and a big yawn came and surprised the sigh.

 

"Maybe he'll have it tied in a paper," she murmured hopefully. "Then I can't see it."

 

1 pranced   

v.（马）腾跃( prance的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their horses pranced and whinnied. 他们的马奔腾着、嘶鸣着。 来自辞典例句
• The little girl pranced about the room in her new clothes. 小女孩穿着新衣在屋里雀跃。 来自辞典例句

2 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

5 recollected   

adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I recollected that she had red hair. 我记得她有一头红发。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His efforts, the Duke recollected many years later, were distinctly half-hearted. 据公爵许多年之后的回忆，他当时明显只是敷衍了事。 来自辞典例句

6 fumed   

愤怒( fume的过去式和过去分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• He fumed with rage because she did not appear. 因为她没出现，所以他大发雷霆。
• He fumed and fretted and did not know what was the matter. 他烦躁，气恼，不知是怎么回事。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 wailed   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句

9 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

10 joyfully   

adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地

参考例句：

• She tripped along joyfully as if treading on air. 她高兴地走着，脚底下轻飘飘的。
• During these first weeks she slaved joyfully. 在最初的几周里，她干得很高兴。

11 glowering   

v.怒视( glower的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The boy would not go, but stood at the door glowering at his father. 那男孩不肯走，他站在门口对他父亲怒目而视。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then he withdrew to a corner and sat glowering at his wife. 然后他溜到一个角落外，坐在那怒视着他的妻子。 来自辞典例句