



Produced by Mardi Desjardins, Waverley Dovey & the online
Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at
http://www.pgdpcanada.net





                          MARJORIE IN COMMAND

                 *        *        *        *        *

[Illustration: MARJORIE WAS WORKING AWAY AT HER “BIRTHDAY CAKE.”]

                 *        *        *        *        *

                                MARJORIE
                               IN COMMAND

                                   BY
                             CAROLYN WELLS

                               AUTHOR OF
                           THE “PATTY” BOOKS

                             [Illustration]


                            GROSSET & DUNLAP
                      PUBLISHERS         NEW YORK

                  Made in the United States of America

                 *        *        *        *        *

                          COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
                         DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

                       Published, September, 1910

                 *        *        *        *        *




                                CONTENTS


                                  CHAPTER                  PAGE
                I. A FAMILY CONFAB                            1
               II. A FLORAL WELCOME                          15
              III. THE LADY ARRIVES                          27
               IV. THE IDES OF MARCH                         41
                V. REMORSEFUL ROMANS                         54
               VI. LETTERS AND CARDS                         68
              VII. A JINKS PARTY                             81
             VIII. ROMPS AND RHYMES                          95
               IX. WILLING HELPERS                          110
                X. ON THE WAY HOME                          121
               XI. A FRIEND IN NEED                         133
              XII. THE HOUSE ON SPRUCE STREET               146
             XIII. A BIRTHDAY PLAN                          160
              XIV. HENDERSON PALACE                         174
               XV. A FINE CELEBRATION                       189
              XVI. WINDOW BOXES                             203
             XVII. DELIGHTFUL ANTICIPATIONS                 216
            XVIII. THE ARBOR DAY FESTIVAL                   230
              XIX. THE CONTEST                              244
               XX. A SPRING RAMBLE                          258

       Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook.




                          MARJORIE IN COMMAND




                               CHAPTER I
                            A FAMILY CONFAB


“WELL,” said Marjorie, “I think it’s too perfectly, awfully, horribly
dreadful for anything in all this world!”

“I do, too,” agreed King. “It’s a calamity, and a catastrophe and a
cat,—a cata—cataclysm!”

“Of course it is,” said Kitty, who was philosophical. “But as it’s all
settled, and we’ve got to live through it, we may as well make the best
of it.”

“The best of it!” grumbled King; “there isn’t any best! It’s all
outrageously horrid, and that’s all there is about it! I don’t see how
we can stand it.”

“S’pose we say we just _won’t_ stand it,” suggested Marjorie; “do you
think they’d stay home?”

“No, indeedy!” declared King. “You know as well as I do, the tickets are
bought, and everything is arranged for.”

“Even us,” said Kitty, sadly.

“Yes; even us,” repeated her brother. “And how are we arranged for? Left
in charge of Larkin! Old <DW38> Larkin!”

“Hush, King, that’s disrespectful,” said Marjorie, laughing in spite of
herself.

“Well, she is old; and she is Larkin; and _I_ think she’s <DW38>!”

“But you mustn’t say so, if you do,” persisted Marjorie.

“Indeed you mustn’t,” said Mrs. Maynard, coming into the living room
where the three children were holding an indignation meeting. “I’m
ashamed of you, King!”

“Aw, Mother, forgive me this once, and I won’t ever say such a thing
again till next time.”

Kingdon sidled up to his mother, and nestled his cheek against hers in
such a cajoling way, that Mrs. Maynard smiled, and forbore further
reproof just then.

“But, dearies all,” she went on, “you mustn’t take such an attitude
toward Miss Larkin; she’s good and kind and will look after you nicely
till I return.”

        “Larkin, Larkin,
         All the time a-barkin’,”

chanted King, pinching his mother’s lips together, so she couldn’t
reprimand him.

The whole tale of the Maynard children’s tribulations may be told in a
few words.

Mrs. Maynard’s health was not quite up to its usual standard