Chapter 57
anxious about her rights, having had to fight for some of them.
'Oh, please don't begin on that. People always quarrel over that
question, and call names, and never agree. Do let us be quiet and
happy tonight,' pleaded Daisy, who hated discussion as much as Nan
loved it.
'You shall vote as much as you like in our new town, Nan; be mayor
and aldermen, and run the whole concern. It's going to be as free as
air, or I can't live in it,' said Dan, adding, with a laugh, 'I see
Mrs Giddygaddy and Mrs Shakespeare Smith don't agree any better than
they used to.'
'If everyone agreed, we should never get on. Daisy is a dear, but
inclined to be an old fogy; so I stir her up; and next fall she will
go and vote with me. Demi will escort us to do the one thing we are
allowed to do as yet.'
'Will you take 'em, Deacon?' asked Dan, using the old name as if he
liked it. 'It works capitally in Wyoming.'
'I shall be proud to do it. Mother and the aunts go every year, and
Daisy will come with me. She is my better half still; and I don't
mean to leave her behind in anything,' said Demi, with an arm round
his sister of whom he was fonder than ever.
Dan looked at them wistfully, thinking how sweet it must be to have
such a tie; and his lonely youth seemed sadder than ever as he
recalled its struggles. A gusty sigh from Tom made sentiment
impossible, as he said pensively:
'I always wanted to be a twin. It's so sociable and so cosy to have
someone glad to lean on a fellow and comfort him, if other girls are
cruel.'
As Tom's unrequited passion was the standing joke of the family, this
allusion produced a laugh, which Nan increased by whipping out a
bottle of Nux, saying, with her professional air:
'I knew you ate too much lobster for tea. Take four pellets, and your
dyspepsia will be all right. Tom always sighs and is silly when he's
overeaten.'
'I'll take 'em. These are the only sweet things you ever give me.'
And Tom gloomily crunched his dose.
'"Who can minister to a mind diseased, or pluck out a rooted sorrow?"