2 What Katy Did Next - Bedtime Tales Stephanie Poppins

What Katy Did Next takes place a few years after What Katy Did and has Katy traveling to London, France, and Italy after receiving a once-in-a-lifetime offer to tour Europe.

In this episode, Katy receives an unexpected proposition.

Transcript

Hello.

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph.

A romantic bedtime podcast guaranteed to help you drift off into a calm relaxing sleep.

Come with me as we go back in time to visit Katie Carr.

She is all grown up now but she still has the same trials and tribulations she had as a child.

But before we begin let's take the time to focus on where we are now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

That's it.

Then let it out on a long sigh.

It is time to relax and really let go.

Feel yourself sink into the support beneath you.

And let the pressures of the day seep away.

Happy listening.

What Katie Did Next by Susan Coolidge Read and abridged by Stephanie Poppins Chapter Two An Invitation It is a curious fact and makes life very interesting that generally speaking none of us have any expectation that things are going to happen till the very moment when they do.

We wake up some morning with no idea a great happiness is at hand and before night it is calm and all the world is changed for us.

Or we wake bright and cheerful with never a guess clouds of sorrow are lowering in our sky to put all the sunshine out for a while and before noon all is dark.

Nothing whispers of either the joy or the grief.

No instinct bids us to delay or to hasten the opening of the letter or telegram or the lifting of the latch of the door at which stands the messenger of good or ill.

And because it may be and often is happy tidings that come and joyful things which happen each fresh day as it dawns upon us is like an unread story full of possible interest and adventure to be made ours as soon as we've cut the pages and began to read.

Nothing whispered to Katie Carr as she sat at the window mending a long renting johnny school coat and saw Mrs.

Ash come in at the side gate and ring the office bell.

Mrs.

Ash often did come to the office to consult Dr.

Carr.

Amy might not be quite well,

Katie thought,

Or there might be a letter with something about water in it or perhaps matters had gone wrong at the house where paperers and painters were still at work.

So she went calmly on with her darning,

Drawing the raveling with which her needle was threaded in and out and taking sneat even stitches without one prophetic thrill or tremor.

While if only she could have looked through the two walls and two doors which separated the room which separated the room in which she sat and heard what Mrs.

Ash was saying,

The school coat would have been thrown to the winds and for all her tall stature and propriety,

Katie would have been skipping with delight and astonishment.

For Mrs.

Ash was asking Papa to let her do the very thing of all others she most longed to do.

She was asking him to let Katie go with her to Europe.

I am not very well,

She told the doctor.

I get tired and run down and I don't seem to throw it all off as I hoped I should.

I feel as if a change would do me good.

Don't you think so yourself?

Yes,

I do,

Dr.

Carr admitted.

This idea of Europe is not altogether a new one,

Continued Mrs.

Ash.

I always meant to go sometime and I put it off because I dreaded going alone and I didn't know anybody whom I exactly wanted to take with me.

But if you will let me have Katie,

Dr.

Carr,

It'll settle my difficulties.

Amy loves her dearly and so do I.

She's just the companion I need.

If I have her with me,

I shan't be afraid of anything.

I do hope you will consent.

How long do you mean to be away?

Asked Dr.

Carr,

Divided between pleasure in those compliments to Katie and dismay at the idea of losing her.

About a year,

I think.

My plans are rather vague as yet,

But my idea was to spend a few weeks in Scotland and England first.

I have some cousins in London who will be good to us and an old friend of mine married a gentleman who lives on the Isle of Wight.

Perhaps we might go there.

Then we could cross over to France and visit Paris and a few other places before it gets too cold.

Then go down to Nice and from there to Italy.

Katie would like to see Italy,

Don't you think?

I dare say she would,

Said Dr.

Carr with a smile.

She would be a queer girl if she didn't.

There is one reason why I thought Italy would be pleasant this winter for me too,

Went on Mrs.

Ash,

And that is because my brother will be there.

He's a lieutenant in the Navy,

You know.

His ship is one of the Mediterranean Squadron.

They will be in Naples by and by and if we were there at the same time,

We should have Ned to go about with.

He would take us to the reception on the frigate and all that would be a nice chance for Katie.

Towards spring,

I'd like to go to Florence and Venice and visit the Italian lakes,

Then Switzerland in early summer.

But this depends on your letting Katie go.

If you decide against it,

I'll give the whole thing up.

But you won't decide against it,

Will you?

You will be kinder than that,

Dr.

Carr.

I'll take the best possible care of Katie and do all I can to make her happy.

If only you would consent to lend her to me,

And I shall consider it such a favor.

It will cost you nothing,

Of course.

She is to be my guest all the way through.

I want to make that point clear in the outset,

For she goes for my sake and I cannot take her on any other condition.

Now,

Dr.

Carr,

Please,

I'm sure you won't deny me when I've so set my heart upon having her.

Mrs.

Ashe was very pretty and persuasive,

But still Dr.

Carr hesitated.

To send his daughter for a year's pleasuring in Europe was a thing he'd never occurred to him.

The cost alone would have prevented him doing it.

For country doctors with six children are not apt to be rich men,

Even in the limited and old-fashioned construction of the word wealth.

But,

At the same time,

The chance was such a good one,

And Mrs.

Ashe was so much in earnest and so urgent,

It was difficult to refuse point blank.

I will talk it over with Katie,

He said at last.

The child ought to have a say in the matter,

And whatever we decide,

You must let me thank you in her name as well as in my own,

For your great kindness in proposing it.

Doctor,

I'm not kind at all,

Said Mrs.

Ashe weakly,

And I don't want to be thanked.

My desire to take Katie with me to Europe is purely selfish.

I am a lonely person,

She continued.

I have no mother or sister and no cousins.

My brother's profession keeps him at sea.

I scarcely ever see him.

I have no one but a couple of old aunts,

Too feeble in health to travel with me,

And I need somebody with me,

For I am not well.

Mrs.

Ashe's brown eyes were dim with tears as she ended her little appeal.

Doctor Carr,

Who was soft-hearted where women were concerned,

Was touched.

When the plan was proposed to Katie,

Without need of further explanation,

Katie cried with delight.

To go to Europe for a year with Mrs.

Ashe and Amy seems simply too delightful to be true.

All the things she'd heard and read about,

Cathedrals,

Pictures,

Alpine peaks,

Famous places,

Famous people,

Came rushing into her mind in a sort of bewildering tide as dazzling as it was overwhelming.

Doctor Carr's reluctance to part with her melted before the radiance of her satisfaction.

He had no idea Katie would care so much about it.

After all,

It was a great chance,

Perhaps the only one of that sort she would ever have.

Mrs.

Ashe could well afford to give Katie this treat,

He knew,

And it was quite true,

She said.

It was a favour to her as well as to Katie.

Doctor Carr began to waver in his mind.

But then,

The first excitement over,

Katie's second thoughts were more sober ones.

How could Papa manage without her for a whole year?

He would miss her,

She knew,

And might not the charge of the house be too much for Clover.

The preserves were almost all made,

That was one comfort.

But then there were the winter clothes to be seen to.

Dory needed new flannels,

Elsie's dress must be altered over for Johnny.

There were cucumbers to pickle,

The coal to order.

A host of housewifely cares began to troop through Katie's mind.

And a little pucker came into her forehead,

And a worried look across the face,

Which had been so bright just a few moments before.

She's only twenty-one,

Doctor Carr reflected,

Watching her.

Hardly out of childhood.

I don't want her to settle into an anxious,

Drudging state and lose her youth while caring for us all.

She must go.

Though how we are to manage without her,

I don't see.

Little Clover will have to come to the fore and show what sort of stuff there is in her.

Little Clover did indeed come gallantly to the fore,

When the first shock of surprise was over,

And she'd relieved her mind with one long private cry over having to do without Katie for a year.

She wiped her eyes and began to revel unselfishly in the idea of her sisters having so great a treat.

Anything and everything seemed possible to secure it for her,

And she made light of all Katie's many anxieties and apprehensions.

My dear child,

I know a flannel undershirt when I see one,

Just as well as you do,

She declared.

The tucks in Johnny's dress.

Forsooth,

Why of course.

Ripping out a tuck doesn't require any superhuman ingenuity.

Give me your scissors and I'll show you at once.

Quince marmalade?

Debbie can make that.

Hers is about as good as yours.

And if it wasn't,

What should we care as long as you're ascending Mont Blanc and hobnobbing with Michelangelo in the crowded heads of Europe?

I'll make the spice peaches.

I'll order the kindling.

And if there ever comes a time when I feel lost and can't manage without advice,

I'll just go across to Mrs Hall.

Don't worry about us.

We shall get on happily and easily.

In fact,

I shouldn't be surprised if I develop such a turn for housekeeping,

That when you come back,

The family refuse to change and you just have to sit for the rest of your life and twirl your thumbs and watch me do it.

Wouldn't that be fine,

Said Clover,

Laughing merrily.

So Katie darling,

Cast that shadow from your brow and look as a girl ought to look who's about to go to Europe.

Why,

If it were I who were going,

I should simply stand on my head every moment of the time.

Not a very convenient position for packing,

Said Katie,

Smiling.

Yes,

It is,

If you just turn your trunk upside down,

Laughed Clover.

I can hardly sit still myself.

I love Mrs Ash for inviting you.

So do I,

Said Katie soberly.

It's the kindest thing.

I can't think why she did it.

Well,

I can,

Replied Clover,

Always ready to defend Katie,

Even against herself.

She did it because she wanted you and she wanted you because you're the dearest old thing in the world and the nicest to have about.

You needn't say you're not,

For you are.

Now,

Katie,

Don't waste another thought on such miserable things as pickles and undershirts.

We'll get along perfectly well,

I assure you.

Just fix your mind instead on the dome of St Peter's.

There will be a moment.

I feel a faulty horsepower of housekeeping developing within me.

And what fun it will be to get your letters.

We shall fetch out the encyclopedia and read all about everything you see and all the places you go to.

And so it was.

Night after night,

Katie and Papa and the children pored over maps and made out schemes for travel and sightseeing,

Every one of which was likely to be discarded as soon as the real journey began.

But they didn't know that.

And it made no real difference.

Katie learned a great deal while talking over what she was to see and do.

She read every scrap she could lay her hand on relating to Rome or Florence or Venice or London.

The driest details had a charm for her now that she was likely to see the real places.

And all Burnett took an interest in Katie's plans,

Too.

Almost everybody had some sort of advice or help.

Debbie's sister-in-law brought a bundle of dried chamomile for seasickness.

Someone told her it was the handiest thing in the world to take along with you.

Ceci sent a wonderful old golden scarlet contrivance to hang on the wall of the state room.

There were pockets for watches and medicines.

In short,

There were pockets for everything.

Mrs.

Hall's gift was a warm and very pretty woolen wrapper of dark blue flannel with a pair of soft-knitted slippers to match.

Old Mr.

Warwick sent a note of advice,

Recommending Katie to take a quinine pill every day she was away and never to come back.

And never to stay up late,

Because the Jews over there were said to be unwholesome.

From Cousin Helen came a delightful travelling bag,

Light and strong.

Miss Inches sent a history of Europe in five fat volumes,

Which was so heavy it had to be left at home.

In fact,

A good many of Katie's presents had to be left at home.

Clover's gift was a set of blank books for notes,

Journals,

Etc.

In one of these,

Katie made a list of things I must see,

Things I must do,

Things I would like to see,

And things I would like to do.

Another she devoted to various good shopping addresses which had been given to her.

She did not expect to do any shopping herself,

But she thought Mrs.

Ash might find them useful.

Katie's ideas,

Indeed,

Were so simple and unworldly,

And her experience of life so small.

It had not occurred to her how very tantalising it might be to stand in front of shop windows full of delightful things and not be able to buy any of them.

She was accordingly overpowered with surprise,

Gratitude,

And the sense of sudden wealth.

When about a week before the start of her trip,

Her father gave her three little presents.

Those are for immediate use,

He said.

Put the notes away carefully,

And don't lose them.

He also gave her five English sovereigns.

Those are for immediate use,

He said.

Put the notes away carefully,

And don't lose them.

You'd better have them cashed out one at a time as you require them.

Mrs.

Ash will explain how.

You will need a gown or two before you come back,

And you'll want to buy some photographs and so on,

And of course there will be fees.

But Papa,

Protested Katie,

I didn't expect you to give me any money.

I'm afraid you're giving me too much.

Do you think you can afford it?

Then her father laughed.

You'll be wiser and greedier before the year is out,

My dear,

He replied.

Three hundred dollars won't go far,

But it's all I can spare and I trust you to keep within it and not come home with any long bills for me to pay.

Papa,

I should think not,

Cried Katie with unsophisticated horror.

At last the day came,

As last day's will.

And Katie's trunk,

Most carefully and exactly packed by the united efforts of the family,

Stood in the hall,

Locked and strapped,

Not to be opened again until she reached London.

She kissed everybody quietly and went on board with her father,

With a smile on her face.

Her parting from him was the hardest of all.

It took place in the midst of a crowd of people.

And then he left her and the wheels began to revolve and she went on the side deck to have a last glimpse of the home faces.

There they were,

Elsie crying tumultuously,

Johnny trying to laugh,

With tears running down her cheeks.

Katie leaving her handkerchief encouragingly,

But with a very sober look on her face.

Katie's heart went out to the little group with a sudden passion of regret and yearning.

Why had she said she would go?

What was all Europe in comparison with what she was leaving behind?

Life was so short,

How could she take a whole year out of it to spend away from the people she loved best?

If she had been allowed to choose,

I think she would probably have flown back to the shore there and then and given up the journey.

I also think she would have been heartily sorry a little later,

Had she done so.

But it was not left for Katie to choose.

Already the throb of the engines was growing more regular and the distance widening between the great boat and the wharf.

Gradually the dear faces faded into the distance,

And after watching till the flutter of Clover's handkerchief became an indistinguishable speck,

Katie went to the cabin with a heavy heart.

But there were Mrs Ash and Amy,

Inclined to be homesick also and in need of cheering.

And Katie,

As she tried to brighten them,

Gradually grew brighter herself.

And recovered the hopeful spirits.

Burnett pulled less strongly as it got further away,

And Europe beckoned more brilliantly now they were fairly embarked on their journey.

The sun shone,

The lake was a beautiful dazzling blue,

And Katie said to herself,

After all,

A year is not very long,

But I am going to be.

Reviews

"How happy I am going to be." Brilliant. Easing me through my evening. So very well.😘🧡🦋🙏
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