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Good Knight Stories © 1967

A Busy Day

Story Fifteen

Ardath and Arthur were awakened by the sun streaming into their bedroom window. They knew exactly what they should do and were eager to get it done so they could join Grandfather who always got up to greet the sunrise.

When they went downstairs, Grandfather was walking across the lawn in his bare feet, to meet them.

"Good-morning, to both of you", he greeted. "It is good to see you up so early and ready for your run on the dewy lawn.

The children greeted him and Ardath knew what Grandfather meant the night before when he had told them that "meeting loved ones in the morning is very important". Grandfather put an arm around each of them because he loved them and he knew they would miss the affection of their parent even if he kept them very busy.

"Did you get up a long time ago?" Ardath asked Grandfather. She looked at the sun and noticed that it was not just just peeping over the hill as she had seen it do the morning before. It was already above the hill.

"Yes, I have been up for two hours and working in the gardens", Grandfather told her.

"Did the sun come over the hill so long ago or did you get awake when it was dark." Ardath wondered.

"At this time in June here in Pennsylvania, the sun comes up at thirty minutes past six o'clock, just time for us to have a little game on the lawn before breakfast. Shall we play leap frog?"

The children were both delighted at the thought of Grandfather playing leapfrog with then and answered with excited "yeses" and hand clapping.

"You are big", Ardath paused a moment wondering if she could really jump over Grandfather, but she need no have wondered because Grandfather got down on the grass real flat so they cold take turns leaping over him, then he jumped up and stepped over them. The children laughed and shouted as they romped and Grandfather listened to them enjoying their fun. He knew by the tone of their shouts that it was time to change activity, so he showed them how to make patterns on the dewy lawn. He ran in a figure eight. Where he walked, the grass was darker and did not sparkle because he hade collected the dew on his feet.

Arthur ran in a big circle, but Ardath made a figure-eight like Grandfather had done. Her design was bigger than the one grandfather had made. While the children were running in the dew, grandfather did some squatting exercises. Arthur tried to do them, too, when he was tired of his circle, but kept toppling over.

At breakfast, Arthur ate three big muffins and drank two glasses of milk. Ardath are two muffins and one glass of milk. Grandfather asked Arthur what he was going to work that day and Arthur remembered that he was going to feed the puppies, get the mail, help to get the weeds out of the gardens and try to balance the wheelbarrow.

"Very good", Grandfather praised, as Arthur repeated all he would do. "There will be time to play, too, if you ‘work when you work'. Did you ever hear the little rhyme, ‘Work when you work and play when you play. That is the way to be happy and gay'?"

The children hadn't heard it. Ardath quickly learned it and kept singing it to a little tune she made up. Arthur sang it, too, but without a tune, in his little boy voice.

"Miss Mary has some work for you this morning. I believe you will like to do it." Grandfather told Ardath. "Arthur and I will be working out-of-doors."

Arthur went out the door with Grandfather and took big steps to keep besides him, as they went to the barn. Mary told ardath she could play awhile before she started the work grandfather had mentioned. When she called Ardath from play, it was to the sewing room.

Mary had very beautiful blue silk material on the sewing machine, cut into pieces with the pattern still pinned to it. ‘These are going to be pajamas for you and Arthur," Mary told her as she held up one of the pieces to see if it was the right measurement.

Ardath was very interested although she did not know how she could help Mary to make them. "Are we going to sleep in these pajamas?"she asked. ""They are very pretty, but Mother put two pairs of pajamas in our suit case for us to wear, here, so we don't need them."

"No, they are not to sleep in. Your Grandfather will tell you when to wear them." Mary replied, but gave no other hint of when they would be worn.

Here was a mystery - blue silk pajamas and not to sleep in. Ardath was very eager to help make them so they would soon be finished and she would know why they were being made.

Mary sewed up the seams that she had basted together. As she finished, she handed them to Ardath and asked her to take the bastings out. The bastings were long, running threads that Mary had put into the sections of material she had cut out so the seams could be kept straight in sewing on the machine.

Ardath pulled out the long threads and hung them over a knob on the sewing machine drawer. Mary said she could use them again for basting if Ardath did not tear them. Sometimes Ardath pulled too fast and tore a thread, then she would need to put it in the waste basket. But she was very careful to keep the threads as long as possible.

When Grandfather and Arthur came to lunch Ardath told Arthur about the blue silk pajamas she was helping to make for both of them. Arthur did not seem pleased with the project.

"Whey is Miss Mary making us blue silk pajamas if they are not to sleep in?" Arthur wanted to know. "I wouldn't want anyone to see me in blue silk pajamas." He crawled under the table as though he were trying to get away from the idea.

"They can't be as bad as all that." Grandfather laughed. "When they are finished, we'll talk about them. Forget all about the pajamas now and enjoy your lunch."

Arthur ate his lunch along with everyone else and when lunch was over Grandfather said, "This is the time we pick up the mail at the mail box. Today, I will go with you. After this time, you can go alone."

Grandfather picked up a deep, brown basket from a hall closer hook, and give it ot Arthur. "This is what we take to the mail box, everyday, so we do not drop the mail. Sometimes there are small pieces that slip from between papers or large pieces of mail and may get lost."

Ardath had not been out of the house for several hours, so Grandfather suggested she come along for a walk. They went across the drive and along the garden will where the mail box was fastened to a post. Grandfather said Arthur should see if he could reach it. Arthur had to stand on his tiptoes to open the little door and get the mail out of the box. He put it in the deep, brown basket so none of it would be lost. It was as Grandfather had said, there were small pieces of mail inside some papers, but they did not look at it until they were back in the house.

"You may take the basket to my Study desk," grandfather told Arthur. Grandfather looked through the mail as the children watched. "Ah, here we are", he said as he took a letter and two cards from among the other mail. "This is good news from your parents."

"One for you." he said, as he handed a card to Ardath, "and one for you, too, Arthur. The letter is for me. I'll read that when you are resting. Would you like me to read your card to you?" Grandfather asked the children.

Both cards had pictures of Watkins Glen in New York State. There was a beautiful waterfall on Ardath's card. Grandfather read it.

"We saw this waterfall and know you will enjoy it, too, sometime. Keep happy. We will see you soon."

Ardath looked at the picture and said it was a very pretty place to visit. As she kept her head down, a tiny tear splashed on the card. Grandfather patted her shoulder because he understood that little girls always miss their mother when they are not with them, but when they think about it, they feel more sad than when they are busy.

Arthur's card had steps leading besides the waterfall with a hand rail on one side of them. Grandfather read it. "You would like to climb these steps. Someday, we will do it together. Help Grandfather and learn a lot everyday. We will soon be taking you home.

When Grandfather said it was time for them to rest, neither of the children objected, because they had been very busy all the forenoon. They both took their cards with them and read them over and over to themselves before they went to sleep. Arthur said different things each time to himself and not what Grandfather had read. It was all right even if Arthur did not remember the words in the card. He was imagining Father and Mother were talking to him and that was a very secure feeling.
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