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diff --git a/42437-0.txt b/42437-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df86b20 --- /dev/null +++ b/42437-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6404 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42437 *** + + AUNT JIMMY'S WILL + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + [Illustration: "_'Hem!' The lawyer cleared his throat._" + (See p. 52.)] + + + + + AUNT JIMMY'S WILL + + BY + + MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + + AUTHOR OF "BIRDCRAFT," "WABENO THE MAGICIAN," + ETC., ETC. + + _ILLUSTRATED BY + FLORENCE SCOVELL SHINN_ + + New York + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. + 1903 + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1903, + BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + + Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1903. + + Norwood Press + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. + Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + [Decoration] + + To my God-child + + MARY ELIZABETH MILLER + + [Decoration] + + "_Aim at the highest, and never mind the money._" + --L. M. ALCOTT. + + [Decoration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. RED PINEYS 1 + + II. HER UNCLE JOHN 23 + + III. AUNT JIMMY 38 + + IV. A CAGED BIRD 58 + + V. MRS. LANE PLAYS DETECTIVE 77 + + VI. BIRD'S COUSINS 103 + + VII. SUMMER IN NEW YORK 131 + + VIII. THE FLOWER MISSIONARY 146 + + IX. 'RAM SLOCUM'S TAUNT 162 + + X. LAMMY CONSULTS OLD LUCKY 181 + + XI. THE PEWTER TEA-POT 202 + + XII. THE TUG OF WAR 217 + + XIII. TELLTALE TROUSERS 225 + + XIV. THE FIRE-ESCAPE 242 + + XV. THE BIRD IS FREED 258 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "'Hem!' The lawyer cleared his throat" (p. 52) _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + "Bird crouched in a black heap" 8 + + Bird, Lammy, and Twinkle 13 + + "'Buy something to-day? Nice goots ver' cheap'" 99 + + Bird and Billy on the fire-escape 137 + + "'They ain't fer me, fer sure?'" 158 + + "'It means, Lammy Lane, that the Lord don't forget the orphan'" 230 + + "Bird was found at last" 267 + + + + +Aunt Jimmy's Will + + + + +I + +RED PINEYS + + +Bird O'More crouched in a little black heap in the corner of the sofa +that stood between the closed windows in the farmhouse sitting room. Her +eyes, that looked straight before her, yet without seeing anything, were +quite dry; but her feverish cheeks, that she pressed against the cool +haircloth, and the twisting of her fingers in the folds of her gown, +told of grief, as well as her black frock and the closed blinds. + +Outside the house, in the road, half a dozen country teams were hitched +to the rickety fence, while their owners roamed about the yard, talking +in low voices, and occasionally wondering aloud "when the women folks +would be ready to go home." + +But the women folks had no idea of going yet, and small wonder, for they +had come from a funeral that had made poor Bird an orphan; they had much +to discuss, and without them, also, she would be all alone at the farm +that lay on a straggling cross-road a mile from neighbours, as if it, +like its recent owners, had tried to hide from those who had known it in +better days. + +The little girl had been christened Bertha, after her grandmother, but +as, from the time she could speak a word, she was always singing, her +father had called her "Bird." Yet this day the little bird in her throat +was mute and only made a strange fluttering; so that the neighbours, +talking in whispers as they drank the tea that a stout, rosy woman, who +seemed to be in charge, was serving in the kitchen, said, "Poor child, +if she'd only let go and cry it out natural, it would do her good; but +that dry sobbing is enough to break a body's heart." + +Then, as she gradually grew quiet, dulled by fatigue and the heat of the +room, her head sliding down on her arm in heavy sleep, they drew sighs +of relief and their voices arose in chat about the happenings of the +last few days and the natural question as to what was to become of Bird. + +"Hasn't she got any folks either side?" asked a young woman who had but +recently moved into Laurelville, and did not yet know the comings and +goings and kith and kin of her neighbours. + +"Only her father's half-brother," spoke up the rosy woman, Mrs. Lane by +name, "and he lives way down in New York City. Joshua wrote him ten days +back when Mr. More took sick; but he never answered, so two days ago +he wrote again. Joshua says he guesses maybe they've moved, for folks +are awful restless down in York, and shift around as often as every few +years--says he reckons you have to if you're anybody, cause there's +sudden fashions in buildings down there as well as in clothes, and they +get made over frequent to keep in style, likewise the streets. + +"Yes, I wouldn't even have known his name if Mis' More hadn't told me +about him before she died, two years back. You see," turning to Mrs. +Tilby, the newcomer, "she was Sarah Turner, born and raised over at the +Milltown, and, being an only child, was give her own head a good deal. I +must allow she was pretty, and had those big black eyes that you can't +guess what they're seeing, same as Bird's got. Her folks felt dreadful +bad when she wouldn't take up with any of the solid fellers who would +have taken pride in the farm and mill business, but married young O'More +that nobody knew a speck about, except that he claimed to be an artist, +but folks didn't buy his pictures, and I don't wonder, for there's some +up attic now, and you have to stand way back to even see a shape to 'em, +being not near as clear as those that come extry with the Sunday papers. + +"No, Mis' Slocum, I _don't_ take Sunday papers, on 'count of Joshua's +aunt's husband being deacon, and not desirin' to call trouble on the +family; but if he wasn't I would, for besides them pictures an' readin' +an' advertisements, that wonderful they'd raise curiosity in froze +dough, there's your money's worth o' paper for carpet linin' or kindlin' +over and above. + +"Where was I? Mis' Slocum, you shouldn't 'a' set me off the track, so's +I'm not giving Mis' Tilby a clear idee of how it was. + +"Ah, yes, I remember,--his wall pictures not sellin', he got a job +to paint posies and neat little views the size of your hand on the +inside covers of sewin'-machine boxes and trays and work-tables over in +Northboro. It paid first-rate, I guess, for a spell, so after the old +folks died, they sold out the farm and mill and moved into town. + +"When Bird here was five years old or so, O'More had a knock-down, for +they got some kind of a machine in the factory that could do pictures +quicker than he, and at the same time the folks that had bought the +place on a mortgage caved in, and, between havin' no sense themselves +and lawyers, most everything was ate up and mixed so's Mis' O'More lost +the mill and all, and they moved out here. + +"Mis' More--folks round here never could swaller the O', it being the +sign, as it were, of a furrin race and religion--just drew in like a +turtle in a shell, losin' hope altogether, and never went any place. +And as for Terence,--that was him, Bird always callin' him 'Terry' like +he was her brother,--I suppose he was always what bustlin' folks like +us would call slack; but after he came here, he seemed to grow happy in +spite of the fact that only one shop, the work-box and the picture-frame +one, gave him jobs. He painted out his flowers as careful, no two +pictures alike, and when I said, 'Why don't you do one and copy it--it +would be less trouble,' he looked up sort of reproachful and said, 'It +makes me happy to do good work, Mrs. Lane; a machine can do the other +kind.' + +"Mis' More fretted herself to death, dumblike, same as snow disappears, +and it's two years now that Bird and her father have made out to get +along alone. Once in a time old Dinah Lucky would come up and wash or +scrub a day, and he and Bird always was together, and he learned her +to be what I call a real lady, and never hurt anybody's feelin's, to +say poetry and write a fine hand, and draw out flowers so you'd know +'em right off. The s'lectmen went after him onct 'cause he'd never sent +the girl to school, but when they found she knew more'n the grammar +grade, they kept their hands off from her; and as for speakin',--since +she talked plain, she's spoke nicer, and chose her words better'n +anybody but story-books and the parson, which come natural, her mother +bein' well learned and her father havin' a tone of voice not belonging +in these parts. Never a cross word did he speak or a complaint, so I +guess it was true he was born a gentleman on one side, as poor Sarah +always claimed, and it stuck to him all through, too, for the day he +died he worried for troublin' me to draw him a cool drink, saying, 'The +well-sweep was out of repair,' which it was, Mis' Slocum, _awful_, 'and +too heavy for a woman to handle,' as if I wasn't always stronger than +two of him. But then I never was, and never will be, his kind of a lady, +for there's folks whose feelin's I'm just achin' to hurt if I knew a +sure way. And now to think of it, Bird left at only thirteen with no own +folks and little better'n nothing." + +"Less than nothin', _I_ should say," put in Mrs. Slocum, setting her cup +in its saucer with an unnecessary clash, "for what's here won't pay Mr. +Slocum his back rent on the place and the fence rails of the south lot +that they've seemingly used for firin'. _I_ should say that the clothes +on the girl's back didn't fairly belong to her, mournin' and all. + +"If she is only a little turned thirteen from what you say she has +schoolin' enough to pass for fourteen and get work in the factory. I'll +keep her if she'll help me evenings and she gets enough to pay full +board,--growin' girls eats hearty," and Mrs. Slocum settled back in her +chair, folding her arms as if she expected Mrs. Lane to be speechless at +her generosity. + +Speechless she was for a few moments, but for a different cause--a +struggle between prudence and a quick but just temper--then she said +very slowly and distinctly: "Mis' Slocum, the back rent is not for me +to deny you, but the fence rails is and the few clothes the poor lamb's +wearin' also. There hasn't been any fence to that south lot since the +summer before my Sammy was born and I was there berryin' and noticed +the rails was rotted and fell, and that's fifteen years! As to clothes, +they was give her outside of the family, which was me, ma'am, made out +of those that belonged to my Janey and for her sake, and besides which a +minor child isn't liable for her father's debts, 'it bein' the law,' as +Joshua says, and he knows. + +"I wouldn't have mentioned this in public, except some folks needs to +have witnesses around before they can take in things, Mis' Jedge o' +Probate Ricker bein' here makin' it quite suitable for me to testify. + +"As for who'll take her, there's those that'll ask no board, but Joshua +says 'no one's got a right until the uncle either turns up or else +doesn't,' which I'd much prefer. And there'll be no talk of factory and +passin' her for above her age, Mis' Slocum, I bein' the niece-in-law to +a deacon, as I've said before, should feel called upon to testify and +give the truth a full airing." + +Whatever action Mrs. Slocum would have taken, it was sidetracked by the +minister's wife, who, with a sharp warning cough and a hurried "s'h'ush, +she's awake," turned the attention toward the darkened room again. + +Bird rubbed her eyes drowsily, then started up murmuring, "Yes, Terry, +I'm coming, I didn't mean to fall asleep," as if she fancied herself +called, stumbled toward the door, saw the kitchen full of people, while +the bright light and lilac perfume of the May afternoon came through the +open door. Then she remembered. + +"Here, let me wash your face and freshen you up a bit," said Mrs. Lane, +whisking out a clean handkerchief and dipping it in the water bucket, +while at the same time she put her arm around Bird to cut off her +retreat. "Now, that is better. Just a sip of tea, dearie, and a bite, +and then go out and get a mouthful of air, while I open up the windows, +for it's sizzling in here if it does lack two days yet of almanac +summer." + +[Illustration: "_Bird crouched in a black heap._"] + +The child did as she was told, gave her friend one grateful look, and +slipped out the door without speaking, much to the relief of the others, +the minister's wife nodding caution to Mrs. Tilby who said: "Sakes +alive! she scart me silly, gropin' in that way. I do wonder how much she +heard." + +Meanwhile as Bird disappeared around the house a tall boy, carrying a +big bunch of red peonies, came up the track in the grass that served as +a path. It was Sammy, or Lammy Lane, as he was usually called, clad in +his best clothes and red with running, having only come to a full stop +as he reached the kitchen door, where he stood looking anxiously in, the +flowers clutched nervously in both hands. + +"Lammy Lane, where've you bin, to go and miss the funeral and all, when +I started you out close after breakfast?" asked his mother, fiercely, +yet with an air of relief. + +"Catchin' fish in the brook with his eyes, I reckon," said Mrs. Slocum, +with a glittering smile, which was very trying to Mrs. Lane, for Lammy, +the youngest of her three sons, was not esteemed over clever, in fact +a sort of village Johnny-Look-in-the-Air, always going to do something +that he never did, and lacking in courage to boot. In fact the twisting +of the name of Sammy into Lammy was really a slur upon his lack of sand +and the fighting spirit natural to the average boy. + +It is perfectly true that Lammy at this time was not a beauty with his +tousled reddish hair, freckles, and lean colt's legs, but no one who was +a judge of faces could look in his straightforward gray eyes and at the +firm line of his chin without feeling that here was the makings of a +man, if people did not meddle with the plan God had for his work. + +Lammy's eyes roved about, and, not seeing the object he wanted, answered +his mother slowly, as if it was hard to remember exactly where he had +been. + +"I've been at Aunt Jimmy's most all day until now," he answered. "When +I took the butter down after breakfast, she wanted me to help her +fix up cause she didn't feel smart, 'n' then there was the chickens +to feed, and Jake he didn't go yesterday to spread the grass under +the strawberries, and she said if it rained, they'd spoil, so I did +that; 'n' then I ate dinner, 'n' dressed up again and started. Then +I remembered I told Bird I'd cut her some o' Aunt Jimmy's red pineys +for her to take along up there," nodding his head backward toward the +hillside graveyard. + +"Aunt Jimmy's awful particular about those red pineys, and she wouldn't +let me cut 'em. She came out in the yard to do it herself, but it took +her a long while, and when she'd got them tied up, she said, 'Best go +to the house now for they'll be back, and tell your ma to come over +to-night, for somehow I feel all strange and worked up as if I was going +to have a spell,' and that's why I'm late, and where's Bird?" he ended +abruptly. + +"Lammy Lane, do you mean that aunt is threatened with a spell, and +you've took all this time to tell me?" said Mrs. Lane, hardly believing +her ears. + +"Neighbours, I'll have to close up here, Joshua bein' in charge, +as it were, as Mis' Jedge o' Probate Ricker understands, until a +'ministrator's fixed on, but we can meet to-morrow forenoon to wash up +and discuss the situation. Goodness me, I hope Aunt Jimmy's no more'n +overtired!" + +"'Twouldn't be surprisin' if you was resigned to the worst, seein' your +expectations through being the favourite nephew's wife," said Mrs. +Slocum, slyly. + +"Expectations, fiddlesticks!" snorted Mrs. Lane, "you know perfectly +well, Mis' Slocum, that the Lord and I are working together as hard as +we can to give Aunt Jimmy every breath of life that's coming to her, +and seein' that she enjoys it too, her ownin' the best southslope fruit +garden between Milltown and Northboro having nothing to do with it. + +"Lammy, do you go round, and I guess you'll find Bird back of the shed, +and you can take her a walk to fetch the posies up yonder, and then +bring her down to our house for supper; and if I don't get back first, +the butt'ry key is in the kitchen clock, and you and pa can set out a +full table. + +"Young company's best for the young in sorrow," she added to the group +as Lammy shot off. + +"Yes, Mis' Slocum, those spoons is real silver, but biting 'em 'll +injure them new teeth o' yourn, and not profit you anything, for they're +_my_ spoons I fetched up for the funeral, minding how well the Turners +always set out things at such times in the old days." + +With this parting shot Mrs. Lane shooed the women out and locked +the door, called Joshua from the group of men who were examining a +broken-down grindstone for lack of better occupation, climbed into the +old buggy, and disappeared in a cloud of dust, the others following +until they scattered at the four corners. + + * * * * * + +As Mrs. Lane had said, Bird was behind the shed. She was sitting on an +old log, her face between her hands, as she looked across the fresh +green grass to where the ragged spiræas and purple and white lilacs +waved against the sky. Leaning against her knees was a queer little +rough-haired, brown terrier with unkempt, lopping ears, his keen eyes +intent on her face as if he knew that she was in trouble, and only +waited for some signal that he might understand to go to her aid, while +he vainly licked her hands to attract her attention. + +As Lammy came around the corner suddenly, at first the dog gave a growl, +and then bounding toward the boy fairly leaped into his arms in joy, +for Twinkle, named for his keen twitching eyes, had once been Lammy's +best-beloved pup, that he had given to Bird for a companion. + +"Hello, Twinkle, where've you been these days?" said the boy, holding +the flowers at arm's-length with one hand, while he tucked the little +dog between his shoulder and neck with the other. "Seems to me you've +got pretty thin wherever you've tramped to." + +[Illustration: _Bird, Lammy, and Twinkle._] + +"He hasn't been away," answered Bird, looking up; "he was hiding all the +time in Terry's--I mean father's room, and to-day, after they took _him_ +away, he knew it wasn't any use waiting any longer, and he came out, +and Lammy, you--know--he's--all--I've--got--now," and, burying her face +in the terrier's ragged coat, she broke into a perfect storm of crying. + +Lammy felt like crying, too, and in fact a tear rolled so far down on +his cheek that he had to struggle hard to lick it up, for Bird was his +dear friend, the only girl in the village who had never laughed at him +or called him "Nose-in-the-Air," or "Look-up-Lammy," and seemed to +understand the way in which he saw things. At first he looked around +helplessly, and then remembering that his mother had gone, and that he +must get Bird down to his home before supper-time, he blurted out: "Say, +don't you reckon Twinkle's pretty hungry by this? I guess we'd better +get him some feed down to my house, and you can leave these red pineys +over yonder as we go along if you like." + +Lammy could not have done better, for Bird sprang up instantly, all the +pity aroused for the dog, and, turning toward the house, said: "How +selfish of me; we'll go in and get him something right away. Do you +think the people have gone yet? 'They mean kindly,' Terry used to say. I +must never forget that, but they talked so much I couldn't seem to bear +it." + +"Yes, they've gone; mother wouldn't leave them behind 'cause of Mis' +Slocum," and he began to tell her about his Aunt Jimmy's ill turn and of +his delay in getting back with the flowers. + +Bird listened quietly, and as they stood before the door of the silent, +empty house, a strange look crossed the girl's face that frightened poor +gentle Lammy, as she gazed straight before her and said: "Now I know +that I was not asleep this afternoon, only dull and faint, and that +what I thought was a dream was partly true. Terry _did_ owe rent to +Mrs. Slocum, and that was what he tried to tell me and couldn't when he +said there was only a little bit of money in the Centre bank to pay for +things, so that I must be sure and keep his paint-box and the pictures +in the big portfolio. The Slocums might try to take them. That's why +your mother made the people go and locked the door. Oh, Lammy, I haven't +any home or anything of my very own but Twinkle, but I could work and +learn to paint. Terry said I could and if everything gave out, I can +open the keepsake bag. See, I've got it now," and Bird pulled out a +small, flat, leather case, strongly sewed together, that hung close +around her neck on a thin gold chain. + +"Do you know what's in it?" asked Lammy, fingering it curiously. + +"No, but I think it's a piece of gold money; for it's round, though one +side is thicker than the other. Mother wore it, and then father put it +about my neck for me to keep, and he said his mother gave it to him when +he came away from home long ago." + +As Bird stood looking at the house, the afternoon shadows began to +fall and a change came over her. That morning the thought of leaving +the place frightened her, but now the thing she most wanted was to get +away. "Lammy," she cried presently, "we must get those pictures and the +paint-box _now_; to-morrow the people may come back." + +"But mother's taken the key." + +"That doesn't matter, the cellar-door flap doesn't fasten--it never has +since I can remember--we can go in that way," and then Lammy, quaking +mightily, though he didn't know why, followed Bird into the house. + +Love lights up many a dark, shabby room, and Bird had never been lonely +with her father for a companion, and in spite of his own shiftlessness +and poverty he had taught her much that she never would forget; but now +love had gone, and as she crept down the rickety stairs hugging the box, +Lammy stumbling after with the portfolio, her only desire was to go +somewhere, anywhere to get away, lingering only a moment in the kitchen +to collect some scraps of food for the dog. When they reached the porch, +they stopped to fasten the things together with some twine from Lammy's +pocket. The portfolio was full of flower pictures and some designs such +as wall-papers are made from. Bird turned them over lovingly, explaining +as she did so that a man in New York had written to Terry that if he +could do these well, he could earn money, and that he was only waiting +for spring flowers to begin. The letter was still in the portfolio. + +"See," she said, "here is one of red peonies all ready to put the last +color in, and father was only waiting for them to bloom, but it is too +late now, so we will take them to him," and she took the bouquet from +Lammy, gently kissing each of the glowing flowers; and then they went +out of the yard in silence, Twinkle first, then Lammy with the bundle, +while Bird hesitated a moment; lifting the sagging gate she dragged it +to, fastened it to the post with the old barrel hoop that had replaced +the latch, and with one parting look shook the tears from her long +lashes and walked straight down the road. At the gate of the little +graveyard Lammy put down the bundle, and they went in together. + +"See, I've made it look nice until dad can turf it over," said Lammy, +"and put a little Christmas tree for a head-mark," and sure enough the +mound that a few hours before was a heap of rough gravel was green +with young bayberry twigs and spruce branches, for on the upper side +of the hill had once been a great nursery of evergreens, the seed had +scattered, and the fragrant little Christmas trees had run all down the +hill and clustered in groups around the fence posts. + +Kneeling very carefully, Bird arranged the crimson peonies. The country +folk thought only white flowers proper for such a place, but Bird loved +colour and Lammy's gift cheered her more than any words. + +"Janey's close by here and grandma," said Lammy, presently, "so it +won't be a bit lonesome for your father, and I was hoping to-day that +he'd remember to tell Janey that you're going to be my sister now and +come down and live at our house, for she'll be glad that mother and I +won't be so lonesome as we've been at our home since she went to heaven. +'Cause you will stop with us, won't you?" he added earnestly as he saw +Bird hesitate. "Mother's going to fix it just as soon as she gets word +from your uncle. She didn't want to write, only dad said she'd ought to +because of the law or something." + +"I'll always love you, Lammy," said Bird, slowly, the tears gathering +again, "and I never can like any place so much as this, and I'll never +forget to-day and the red peonies and your covering up the ugly stones, +but I've got to earn my living and I can't be a drag on anybody. I +thought, you know, if there was enough left to get to a city,--New York, +perhaps,--I might learn to paint quicker, and perhaps the man that +wanted Terry to make pictures for wall-paper might tell me how," and +then the poor child, tired and overcome with the long strain and the +new loneliness, could keep up no longer, and, throwing her arms about +Lammy's neck, sobbed, "Oh, take me somewhere out of sight, for I feel as +if I was all falling--way down a--deep--well." + +Poor little Bird! All that she knew of the great city was from the +pictures in the papers and an occasional magazine, and it seemed to her +so big and gay and busy that there must be some place in it for her, +and now that night was coming, the country felt so empty and lonely to +the little girl, faint from weariness, and with the door of all the +home she had known closed upon her. For no one but Lammy had had time +to really comfort her, and in her unhappiness God seemed to have taken +her parents away and then hidden Himself. If only Aunt Jimmy had not +had the spell just then and she could have laid her head on Mrs. Lane's +motherly bosom, how different it might all have been. A carriage passed +as they turned into the highway, and the clanking of the harness made +Bird lift her head from Lammy's shoulder where she had hidden it, and +looking up she met the eyes of a young girl who was sitting alone on +the back seat of the handsome victoria. She was perhaps sixteen, or a +little over,--the braids of pale golden hair were fastened up loosely +behind,--and she was beautifully dressed; but it was not the clothes but +her sweet face and wistful big gray eyes that made Bird look a second +time, and then the carriage had passed by. + +"How happy she must be," thought Bird. + +"I'd rather walk than ride, and wear stubby shoes, or go barefoot, if I +only had a brother so that I need not go alone," was what the other girl +thought. + +"That's Miss Marion Clarke that lives in the big stone house on the hill +before you come to Northboro," quoth Lammy. "There's only one of her, +and she can have everything she wants." Then he straightway forgot her. +Bird did not, however, for there was something in the gray eyes that +would not let themselves be forgotten. + +By the time they reached the Lane farmhouse Bird was quiet again, +though her eyes drooped with sleep, and Lammy was telling eagerly how +next autumn they could perhaps go over to Northboro to school, for +drawing was taught there, and, he confided to Bird what had never before +taken the form of words, that he too longed to learn to draw, not +flowers, but machinery and engines, such as pulled the trains over at +the Centre. + +As they came in sight of the house Lammy noticed that there was a +strange team at the gate, a buggy from the livery-stable at the Centre, +for quiet Lammy kept his eyes open, and knew almost every horse in the +county. On the stoop a short, thick-set man, with a fat, clean-shaven +face, and clad in smart black clothes, stood talking to Lammy's father. + +Both men glanced up the road from time to time, and then Lammy noticed +that the stranger held his watch in his hand, and he kept fidgeting and +looking at it as if in a great hurry. + +As the children entered the gate they heard Mr. Lane say, "Here she is +now, but you can't catch that evenin' train from the Centre; you'll have +to put over here until morning." + +Bird gave a gasp and instinctively clutched Lammy's hand. Could this +be some one from her uncle? Of course it was not he himself, for her +father had been youngish, tall and slight, with fair hair, small feet +and hands, while this man was all of fifty, and had a rough and common +look in spite of his clothes that did not match his heavy boots and +clumsy grimy hands. + +For a moment Bird forgot the story of her father's boyhood that he had +so often told her, forgot that fifteen years and a different mother +separated him from his half-brothers, and when Mr. Lane called her, as +she tried to slip in at the side door after Lammy, saying, "Come here, +Bird, this is your Uncle John O'More come from New York," she could only +keep from falling by an effort, and stood still, nervously twisting her +hands in the skirt of her black frock without being able to speak a +word, while Twinkle seated himself at her feet looking anxiously, first +at the stranger, then at Mr. Lane, with his head cocked on one side. + + + + +II + +HER UNCLE JOHN + + +"Got a start? Didn't expect to see me here, did you? else maybe you +never knew you had an Uncle John," said the stranger, by way of +greeting, taking Bird roughly, but not unkindly, by the shoulders and +looking her full in the face. Then, noticing how pale she was and that +her eyes were red with crying, he let her go with a pat of his heavy +hand that shook her through and through, saying, half to her and half +to Mr. Lane, "Go along in now and get your supper. You look done up, +and I wouldn't object to a bite myself since I've got to hang around +over night; been chasing round after you since morning, and those +sandwiches I got at that tumble-down ranch at what they call the Centre +were made up of last year's mule-heel. They ain't gone further'n here +yet," he added, striking his chest that was covered by a showy scarf, +emphatically. + +Bird began to breathe more freely to know he was going away in the +morning. Her father had told her in one of the long sleepless nights +of his illness about his two half-brothers, one in Australia, as far +as he knew, and the other in New York. Their mother had been a strong, +black-eyed, south-country lass, but his mother, the wife of his father's +later years, was a gentle, fair-haired, English girl, the governess in +the family to which his father was steward. At her death when he was a +lad of about fifteen, family differences arose, and he had gone to his +mother's people until he finally came to America with this brother John. + +John was sturdy and coarse-grained; Terence delicate and sensitive. +They soon parted, and in the years between the artist had written +occasionally to his brother, but kept him in ignorance of his poverty. +Yet, in spite of knowing it all, Bird was bitterly disappointed in her +uncle. She built hopes about him, for did he not live in New York, and +there were schools where painting was taught in that magical city, also +the man lived there who wanted the wall-papers. Ah, if her uncle had +only been different, he might have asked her to visit him or perhaps +even have known the wall-paper man himself. + +But this uncle seemed an impossibility and fairly repelled her, so that +to get out of his sight was all she desired. Presently she went into the +house, and, after carefully dusting her plain, little, black straw hat +and laying it on the sofa in the best room, she covered her new dress +with Mrs. Lane's gingham apron that hung on its usual peg and fell to +work at helping Lammy with the supper. + +Now Bird was a clever little housewife while Lammy was very clumsy at +the work, so that in a few minutes they were both absorbed and chatting +quite cheerfully, never dreaming of the conversation that was going on +in the north porch. Only the white-curtained windows of the best room +could hear it, and they were shut tight. + +"Now, Mr. Lane, since the youngster's gone in, I guess we might as well +get right down to business. I've shown you my papers and proofs, and +there's no special use rubbing it into her that her father was a dead +failure clear from the start, and that the sticks of furniture he left +and the few dollars banked or coming from his work 'll only square up +his accounts and leave the kid on the world, so to speak. I own I'm +clean flabbergasted myself, for I thought he was a man of some property +through his wife, for when he wrote, his letters were chuck full of high +ideas for the girl here." + +Joshua Lane fidgeted miserably on the edge of his chair, and if ever a +man longed for the presence and ready tongue of his wife, it was he. + +"I suppose that's one way o' lookin' at it," he assented after a while, +"but mebbe in some way he didn't flat out so much as it looks. He never +gave an ill word to any one, and Bird here's as smart and talkable and +writes a fist as good as the seminary principal over to Northboro, all +through his teachin', so no wonder she set a store by him. As to leavin' +the child on the world, she'll never feel the hurtin' edge of it while +mother and Joshua Lane's got roof and bite. I told O'More so, and I +reckon it eased him considerable." + +"Smart, is she?" echoed the other; "that's a mercy. Girls have to get +a move on them nowadays in the city, and if they can't start in at +type-writing or something when they're sixteen or so, they get shoved +out of the race as leftovers by a new lot before they've earned their +ten a week. I've got a good job now, but I've had to hustle for it and +keep a lively step, too. That's why it goes hard to lose two days' +time on this business. I was mighty afraid when I saw what a forsaken +hole this was that the girl might be green as the grass, and n. g. +altogether. No, I didn't mean any offence," he said, as he noticed +Joshua's face flush at his reference to the pretty hillside village, +"but I've never had a use for the country. Give me streets with a push +of people and a lively noise and trolleys going by at night to remind +you yer alive, if you don't sleep straight through. + +"Of course, knowing nothing of the circumstances before I left, I +couldn't quite fix a plan,--might have had to wait around and see to +that mill property if it hadn't vamoosed, but as it is, I don't see why +Bird shouldn't go right back with me to-morrow morning. I've got three +lively boys besides a poor little crippled feller,--them and the city +sights 'll cheer her up. It's different from what I thought to find, and +I don't owe Terry any favours of purse or tongue, but I've no girls, and +blood's thicker 'n water even though the English streak is heatin' to +an all-through Irishman,--but let that go. I'll give her some schooling +until she's fit age to choose her trade, or if she's tasty looking, get +in some good shop, and she can ease her way along meantime in minding +little Billy or helping the woman out. For I'd have you know that though +I've a good job, and there's always meat in the pot, we're plain people +of no pretence. I've money in a land company, though, that'll soon give +us our own home and not so far out either but what a gun would shoot +into the Bowery." + +John O'More's speech poured out so rapidly that it almost stunned Joshua +Lane. When he pulled himself together, he gasped: "Did you say that you +calkerlate to take Bird away from us and to-morrow at that? I'll have +to go down to Aunt Jimmy's, I reckon, and call mother to onct," but as +he started from his chair "mother" appeared, coming up the road in the +buggy clucking vigorously to the old gray horse, excitement written in +every line of her homely, lovable face. + +As she pulled up the horse at the gate, an entirely unnecessary labour +as for the past ten years he had never willingly gone past it, Joshua, +wearing a white, scared look upon his usually placid face, greeted +her with: "Sakes alive, Lauretta Ann, I'm wonderful put out; it never +rains but it pours; an' 's if there wasn't enough trouble for one +day, Bird's uncle, John O'More, has turned up. He's a rough, drivin', +quick-tongued sort o' chap, like the travellin' man that sold us the +horse-rake that had fits of balking and tearin' up the medder, and when +I complained, he said, says he, 'Why, certainly, I forgot it had the +plough combination,--I had oughter asked you an extry five on it.'" + +"Nonsense, Joshua Lane, nobody's going to carry Bird off under our very +noses, uncle or no uncle; I'll soon settle that! But talking of pourin' +rain,--it's certainly let drive on us this day, for your Aunt Jimmy's +had a stroke; and though she can't move she can speak her mind still, +and isn't for lettin' folks in or havin' things done for her as she +ought. I've left Dinah Lucky with her, and I've stopped at Doctor Jedd's +and told him to hurry down, but the time has come when you've just got +to assert yourself willy-nilly. It's you, not me, as is her eldest +nephew and kin, and while I'm more'n willing to do the work, you've got +to show some spunk. Now jist you git into a biled shirt and your good +coat and go down and stand off the neighbours that, now she can't stir, +'ll all be wrigglin' and slippin' through that door like eels in the +mill sluice when the gate's up. I'll soon settle that O'More." + +Joshua, much relieved, obediently went into the house, while Mrs. Lane, +after looking into the kitchen to be sure that supper was progressing, +smoothed her Sunday dress that she had donned that morning for the +funeral, opened the windows of the best room to impress her visitor with +its green carpet and cabinet organ, and asked John O'More to come in. + +"Thanks, Mrs. Lane I take it, but I guess I'll stay out here,--had +enough of shut-up places in that train to-day, besides some ladies +object to smoke in the house." + +Before she could speak a word or even notice the long cigar that was +sticking out of his mouth in the direction of his left eye, he had +plunged into the subject at the exact point where it had been dropped. +"Now as to Bird, Mrs. Lane; your husband and I have tongue-threshed +things out, and he can repeat the same to you. I know just how things +stand, so nuff said about what's past. I travel in the west and Canada +for a steady house, and I'm away a good deal; now Bird can be company +for my wife as my kids are all boys. I'll give her schoolin', a trade, +and a shove along on the road in a couple of years. I wouldn't do less +for any kin of my own, and I kind o' take to her." + +"But we don't want you to take her, and I reckon she don't either, +for--" put in Mrs. Lane, almost bursting with suppressed speech. + +"Excuse me, one moment more, madam," he continued, removing his cigar +and speaking rather more slowly, "I judge that you object to her going +to-morrow; now I can't stop around here, and it's an expensive trip. +Seein' the city 'll be a change, and she'll soon settle down all right." + +"But we don't want her to go at all," Mrs. Lane almost shrieked; "we +want her to live with us!" + +"As what, for instance?" queried O'More, growing more Irish in his +speech, "a kind of a charity help, or had you intentions of adopting +her by the law? If so, and she wishes, I'll stand in the way of nothing +but a change of her name, to which I'd object." + +Mrs. Lane was struck dumb. She had no idea of making a servant of Bird, +but on the other hand she knew that legal adoption would mean to give +Bird a like share with her own boys, and as what little they had, or +might expect, came from her husband's people, this she could not promise +at once. + +"I meant--to treat her just like my little girl that died--but"--poor +Mrs. Lane got more and more mixed up--"I haven't asked Joshua about the +adoptin' business--it's so lately happened, we'd not got that far, you +see." + +"Yes, mum, I see," said the fat man, drawing his lips together shrewdly, +"yourself has a warm heart, but others, yer own boys likely, may give +it a chill some day, and then where's Bird? No, mum, the girl 'll have +an easier berth with her own, I fancy, and not have to bend her back +drawin' and fetchin' water, either,--we've it set quite handy." + +This was said with withering sarcasm for, unfortunately, at that moment, +Bird could be seen lugging in a heavy water bucket from the well, +something she had been warned not to do, and yet did unthinkingly, for +to-day she walked as in a dream. + +Mrs. Lane saw that in reality she was helpless, unless she appealed to +Bird herself, and to rouse the child's sensitive spirit she knew would +be not only foolish but wicked, so for once Lauretta Ann Lane sat silent +and with bowed head, only saying with a choking voice, "I will tell her +after--supper--and you'll let--us write--to her, I suppose, and have +her--back to visit if she gets piney for Lammy,--they've been like twin +brother and sister ever since Janey died." + +"I will that, ma'am, and I'll say more; if within the year she don't +content herself and settle down and grieves for yer, and yer see it +clear in that time to adopt her fair and square, and guarantee to do by +her as I will,--you'll get the chance." + +O'More stretched his legs, stiff with sitting, and jerked his +half-burned cigar into the bushes, while at the same moment Oliver and +Nellis, Lammy's big brothers who worked in Milltown, rode up on their +wheels and the bell rang for supper. + + * * * * * + +No one but Bird ever knew what Mrs. Lane said to her that night, +during the sad hours that she held the child in her arms in the great +rocking-chair that had soothed to sleep three generations of Lane +babies. Perhaps it soothed poor Bird, too, only she did not know it +then; yet she fell asleep, after a storm of crying, with her arms around +Twinkle, the terrier, as soon as Mrs. Lane had put her to bed, promising +to come back from Aunt Jimmy's early in the morning to awaken her, for +her uncle was to take the nine o'clock train from the Centre. + +As Mrs. Lane collected, in a valise, the few clothes that made up +Bird's wardrobe, she felt broken-hearted indeed, but she could not but +realize that if the little girl must go, the quicker the better, and who +knew what might turn up, for Mrs. Lane was always hopeful. But Lammy, +poor boy, could not see one bright spot in the darkness. It was with +difficulty that his father could keep the child, usually so gentle, +from flying at O'More; he stormed and begged and finally, completely +exhausted, fled to the stuffy attic where he fell asleep, pillowed by +some hard ears of seed corn. + +Next morning when Bird awoke, she had forgotten and felt much better for +her long sleep, but when she sat up and looked at the strange room, it +all came back. One thought mingled with the dread of parting,--she was +going to New York; there was where the wall-paper man lived and people +learned things. Hope was strong in her also, and never did she doubt +for a moment but what she could win her way and come back some day to +her friends if she could only find the right path. + +Downstairs all was confusion. Joshua Lane had come from Aunt Jimmy's to +take O'More over to the judge's house to sign some papers. A man had +followed him up to say Dr. Jedd felt the old lady was worse. Mrs. Lane +was giving Bird a thousand directions and warnings that she couldn't +possibly remember, and in the middle of it all Lammy, looking straight +before him and dumb as an owl, his eyes nearly closed from last night's +crying, drove around in the business wagon to take the travellers to the +station, four good miles away. + +"Here's my card, so you'll know where I hang out," said John O'More, as +he stepped into the wagon, holding out a bit of printed pasteboard to +Joshua Lane, "and if you need anything in my line, I'll let you in on +the square." On one corner was the picture of a horse's head, on the +other a wagon, and the letters read, "John O'More with Brush & Burr, +Dealers in Horses, Vehicles of all Kinds, Harness & Stable Fixings." +Then they drove away, Bird keeping her eyes fixed on Twinkle who Lammy +had settled in the straw at their feet. + +"To think she was going and I was so put about I never asked the +address," sighed Mrs. Lane, adjusting her glasses and looking at the +card. "For goodness sakes, Joshua, _do_ you suppose he's a horse-jockey? +I sort of hoped he might be in groceries, or coal or lumber,--something +solid and respectable. What would poor Terry say?" + +"I really don't know, Lauretta Ann," sighed Joshua, whose slow nature +was showing the wear, tear, and hurry of the last few days; "but he's +Terry's brother, not ourn. It takes all kinds of fellers to make up a +world, and I _hev_ met honest horse-jockeys, and then again I haven't. I +wished I'd thought to ask him the bottom price for a new chaise; ourn is +so weak every time you cross the ford I'm afeared you'll spill through +the bottom into the water," and Joshua turned on his heel and went in to +a belated breakfast, while his wife jerked remarks at the chickens she +made haste to feed, about the heartlessness of all men, which she didn't +in the least mean. + + * * * * * + +They had ten minutes or so to wait for the train when they reached +the Centre, and, after taking her valise to be checked and buying the +ticket, O'More returned to the wagon for Bird. For the first time +she remembered that she had not asked about Twinkle and perhaps he +might need a ticket. Making a brave effort to get out the name that +choked her, yet too considerate to use the plain Mr., she said: "Uncle +John,--you won't mind if I take Twinkle with me, will you? He's very +clean and clever; I love him dearly and he was so good to Terry when he +was sick." + +O'More was the bustling city man now, and whatever sentiment had swayed +him the night before was slept away. He gave a glance at the dog and +shook his head in the negative. + +"That's a no account little yaller cur. If your aunt will let you keep a +pup, there's always a litter around the stable you can pick from, though +they're more'n likely to fall off the fire-escape." + +The tears came to Bird's eyes, but she blinked them back; but not before +Lammy saw them. "I'll keep Twinkle all safe for you--till--you come +a-visiting," he said in a shaky voice, reading her wish. + +Then the train came around the curve and stopped at the big tank to +drink. + +"Come along," called O'More. + +"Oh, I've forgotten my paint-box and bundle!" said Bird, running back to +get the precious portfolio that had been wrapped in the horse blanket. + +"Your what?" said O'More, "paint-box! Just you leave that nonsense to +your chum along with the dog. You've had enough of paints and painting +for your vittles; I'm going to see you stick to bread and meat," and, +waving his hand good-by to Lammy, he flung him a silver dollar, that +missing the wagon rolled in the dirt. + +For a moment the sickening disappointment tempted Bird to turn and run +down the track, anywhere so long as she got away; then her pride came to +her aid, and, stretching out her hands to her playmate, she cried, "Keep +them safe for me, oh, Lammy, please do!" + +"You bet I will, don't you fret!" he called back. + +Then she followed her uncle quietly to the cars, and her last glimpse, +as the train entered the cut, was of Lammy, seated in the old wagon with +Twinkle at his side, the box and the portfolio clasped in his arms, and +a brave smile on his face. + + + + +III + +AUNT JIMMY + + +For a few minutes Lammy sat looking after the vanishing train. Then he +carefully wrapped the paint-box and portfolio in the blanket again, and, +patting Twinkle, who was quivering with excitement and looking into his +face with a pitiful, pleading glance, he put the dog down in the straw +again, saying, "We can't help it, old fellow; we've just got to stand it +until we can fix up some way to get her back." + +As he turned the wagon about, with much backing and rasping of cramped +wheels, the bright silver dollar that was lying in the dirt caught his +eye. It seemed like a slap in the face when O'More threw it, though in +his rough way he meant well enough, and Lammy's first impulse was to +drive home and leave it where it had fallen. + +Still, after all, it was money, and to earn money vaguely seemed to +him the only way by which he could get Bird back again, for though +Lammy had a comfortable home, enough clothing, and plenty to eat, whole +dollars were as rare in his pockets as white robins in the orchard. + +So he picked up the shining bit of silver, wiped it carefully on his +sleeve, and, wrapping it in a scrap of paper, opened the precious +paint-box, and tucked the coin into one of the small compartments. It +never occurred to him to spend the money for any of the little things +a boy of fourteen always wants, and he quite forgot that his knife had +only half of one blade left. The money was for Bird, and from that +moment the paint-box, which was to spend some months in his lower bureau +drawer in company with his best jacket and two prizes won at school, +became a savings bank. + +Lammy stopped at the "Centre" druggist's for some medicine for Aunt +Jimmy, and while he was waiting for the mixture, he had to undergo a +running fire of questions concerning his aunt's "spell" from the people +who came in from all sections for their mail, as this store was also +the post-office and there was as yet no rural free-delivery system to +deprive the community of its daily trade in news. + +Now Aunt Jimmy, otherwise Jemima Lane, occupied an unusual position in +the neighbourhood and was a personage of more than common importance. +In the first place she was a miser, which is always interesting, as a +miser is thought to be a sort of magician whose money is supposed to +lie hidden in the chimney and yet increase as by double cube root; then +she owned ten acres of the best land for small fruits--strawberries, +raspberries, currants, and peaches--in the state. The ground was on the +southern slope of Laurel Ridge, and though it was shielded in such a way +that the March sun did not tempt the peach blossoms out before their +time, yet Aunt Jimmy's strawberries were always in the Northboro market +a full week ahead of the other native fruit. + +Of course there was nothing particularly strange in this interest, as +many people coveted the land. The odd part that concerned the gossips +was that Aunt Jimmy had three able-bodied nephews, of which Joshua Lane +was eldest, all farmers struggling along on poorish land, while she, +though seventy-five years old, insisted upon running her fruit farm +and house entirely alone, hiring Poles or Hungarians, who could speak +no English, to till and gather the crops, instead of going shares with +her own kin. In fact, until a few years back, no one, man, woman, or +child, except little Janey Lane, had ever got beyond the kitchen door. +Then when she died, Aunt Jimmy had opened her house and heart to Joshua +Lane's wife, and ever since, that dear, motherly soul had done all that +she could for the queer, lonely old woman, in spite of the fact that the +gossips said she did it from selfish motives. + +Joshua Lane was very sensitive about this talk and would have held aloof +like his two brothers, who lived beyond the Centre, one of whom had a +sick wife and was too lazy to more than scratch half rations from his +land, while the other had once given the old lady some unwise advice +about pruning peach trees, and had been forbidden inside the gate under +pain of being cut off with a "china button," Aunt Jimmy's pet simile for +nothing. + +Mrs. Joshua, however, was gossip proof, and, tossing her head, had +publicly declared, "I'm a-going to keep the old lady from freezin', +burnin', or starvin' herself to death jest so far 's I'm able, accordin' +to scripture and the feelings that's in me, and if that's 'undue +influence,' so be it! I shan't discuss the subject with anybody but the +Lord," and she never did. + +Many a meal of hot cooked food she took to the old woman to replace the +crackers and cheese of her own providing. It was not that Aunt Jimmy +meant to be mean, but she had lived so long alone that she had gotten +out of the habits of human beings. She certainly looked like a lunatic +when she went about the place superintending her men, clad in a short +skirt, a straw sunbonnet, and rubber boots, merely adding in the winter +a man's army overcoat and cape that she had picked up cheap; but the +lawyer who had come down from Northboro a year before to make her will +said he had never met a clearer mind outside of the profession, for she +had Dr. Jedd testify that she was of sound mind, and a second physician +from Northboro swear that Dr. Jedd's wits were also in good order. + +Shortly after this she had given it out quietly that, though Joshua Lane +was the only one of her kin that was worth a box of matches, yet they +would share and share alike, as she didn't believe in stirring up strife +among brothers by showing favour. + +Then everybody expected Mrs. Lane would lessen her attentions, but as +often happens everybody was mistaken. + +Of course the good woman could not help thinking once in a while what +a fine thing it would be if some day her elder boys could work the +fruit farm (Lammy she never thought of as working at anything) instead +of delving in a shop at Milltown, but she put the idea quickly from +her. However, it would keep coming back all that night after Terence +O'More's funeral when she watched with the old lady, while poor Bird +slept her grief-spent sleep before her journey. + +If the fruit farm could ever be hers, she would adopt Bird without +hesitation, for the little lady-child had crept into the empty spot +that Janey had left in her big mother heart and filled it in a way that +greatly astonished her. + + * * * * * + +Lammy finally secured the medicine and jogged homeward, thinking, all +the time thinking about Bird. He knew that people said he was stupid, +and yet he also felt that he could learn as well as any one if they +would only let him pick his own way a little. His father wanted him to +be a carpenter, his mother thought that too rough, and that he was still +a baby and some day perhaps he might be a clerk. + +But Lammy himself, as he looked into the future, saw only the whirling +wheels of the machinery at Milltown, or the wonders of the locomotive +works that he had once visited at Northboro. That was why he was always +day-dreaming and looking in the air. Of course it was very stupid and +dumb of him not to tell his parents, but Bird's was the only ear that +had ever heard his thoughts. + +All that day he stayed about the place at home, keeping the fire in and +doing the chores, for his mother's time was divided between her aunt's +and straightening things at Bird's old home, and his father was up in +the back lots planting corn. Toward night, as he was sitting on the +steps having brought back Twinkle who had run to his old home in search +of his little mistress, Mrs. Lane bustled in, mystery and importance +written on her face. Spying Lammy, she beckoned him to follow her +into the kitchen, then, carefully closing the doors, putting Twinkle +in the closet and the cat out of the window, as if they could carry +tales, she unfastened her bonnet and collar and settled herself in the +rocking-chair. + +"Samuel Lane," she began solemnly, shaking her forefinger and making the +boy quake at the unused title, while his eyes opened wide in wonder, +"No, 'tain't _that_; Aunt Jimmy's _much_ more comfortable, and I suspect +she's going to pick up again after scaring us well, or I wouldn't be +home, but she said private words to me this afternoon that if I do keep +quite to myself, I'll burst, I know, and maybe get a headache spell +that'll lay me by a day and upset everything. Now, Samuel, I've found as +far as givin' messages you're told to carry, you're as good as nobody, +so I reckon you'll be tight sealed on something that you're bid to keep +close and forget maybe for some years." + +"Is it about Bird?" asked Lammy, suddenly jumping up and fixing his big, +gray eyes on his mother's face with a gaze that made her nervous, for +she well knew that there was something in this pet son of hers that was +a little beyond her comprehension. + +"No, not about Bird,--that is, not straight, though another way it may +have a lot to do with her; it all depends. Listen, Samuel! + +"This afternoon Aunt Jimmy waked up, and, seeing me sitting by the +window croshayin',--true I was making a bungle of the tidy, not feelin' +like workin' (but she hates, same 's I do, for watchers to set idle +looking ready to jump at a body like a cat does at a mouse hole),--she +says, says she, her voice comin' back steady, 'Set nearer, Lauretta Ann +Lane, I'm goin' to tell you somethin' no one else need ever know.' + +"I drew up all of a flutter, of course. 'You're a good woman, Lauretta +Ann,' says she, 'and you've never poked and pried, or shown desires for +what's another's, an' you've worked hard to keep me livin', which I've +done to my satisfaction beyond my expectations.' + +"I burst out cryin', I couldn't help it; for I never thought she set any +store by me, and I felt guilty about wishes I'd had last night and had +fed with thoughts inwardly. + +"'Hush up, now, and don't spoil all by pretendin',' she ran on; 'I +know you'd like to have my farm, though not a day before I'm done with +it. _I'll_ credit you that. It's natural and proper and I'm glad to +have interest took in it, likewise I've said I'd share and share alike +between my nephews, which I intend; but listen, Lauretta Ann, for +there's ways of circumventin' that suits me, _I've left you the farm for +your own_; moreover, I've fixed it so there'll be no talk and no one'll +know it but you. You think I'm crazy, I guess, and that you couldn't get +the farm unbeknown, nohow. Just wait and see!' + +"Then she asked me to draw her a cup of tea, and when I went to fetch +that battered old pewter tea-pot she's used I reckon these fifty years, +'twasn't in its place, but on her mantel-shelf, and when I reached up +to take it down she said, 'Leave that be and take the chiney one; its +work's over for me and we're both takin' a rest;' then she dozed off +after the very first sup." + +"Mother," said Lammy, who was now leaning on her knees with his hands +behind her head and drawing it close, while his eyes glowed like coals, +"if--if you ever get the farm--will--you--" + +"Bring Bird back?" she finished for him, hugging him close. "Yes, I +will, and you shall both go to school to Northboro, too; but mind you, +Samuel, no crowdin' Aunt Jimmy, and it may be years yet. + +"Now bustle round and help me cook up something, for I must go back to +Aunt Jimmy's before seven, as Mis' Jedge o' Probate Ricker is the only +one I'll trust to spell me, for Dinah Lucky's mush in a bowl when the +village folks smooth her down with their palarver." + +So Lammy flew about, sifting flour, skimming milk, or rattling cups +and saucers, and it was not quite dark, supper over, and every dish +washed, when he went back to the porch steps and whispered the precious +hope to Twinkle, who raised one ear and his lip together as much as if +he understood and cautioned silence. Then the boy began day-dreaming +anew, but this time his mind, instead of following flying wheels, was +busy weeding strawberry plants and carefully picking raspberries, so as +not to crush them, while Bird stood by and watched. "And," he startled +himself by saying aloud, "the first thing I'll do 'll be to divide off a +root of those red pineys and plant it up on the hill, so Bird 'll find +it next spring all in blow." + + * * * * * + +A few days later when Dr. Jedd and all the neighbours were convinced +that Aunt Jimmy would be out in the garden again by raspberry time, +with good chance of another ten years, and Mrs. Lane had made indoors +more comfortable than it had been for years by a thorough cleaning and +renovating, the strange old lady again upset all their calculations and +died. Then in due time the lawyer from Northboro sent letters to the +three nephews and their families, to Dr. Jedd, to the minister of the +First Congregational Church, and to the superintendent of the new School +of Industrial Art of Northboro, to meet on a certain Friday afternoon at +Aunt Jimmy's house to hear the will read. + +Once more was the entire community involved in a guessing match. The +summoning of the kin was a matter of course, and usually took place +immediately, so that the lawyer was evidently carrying out special +directions in delaying the matter for more than a week, but as to what +the doctor, the minister, and the teacher from Northboro could possibly +have to do in the matter was a mystery that not even the fertile brain +of Mrs. Slocum could settle, either for good nor evil. + +It couldn't be that Aunt Jimmy had left these three outside men +anything, for it was known that she only employed Dr. Jedd because she +couldn't help it, that she hadn't been to church for five years because +the minister had preached a sermon against avarice and the vanity of +hoarding money, and as to the Northboro teacher it was positively +certain that she had never even seen him, for he was a stranger in these +parts, having recently been sent from New York, to take charge of the +school, by a wealthy man who had been influential in founding it and +whose country place was on the farther edge of the town. + +Mrs. Lane was as much in the dark as any one and did not hesitate +to say so, while excitement ran so high that on this particular +Friday afternoon the women sat in their fore-room windows overlooking +the village street with the expectant air of waiting for a passing +procession. + +Mrs. Dr. Jedd, Mrs. Judge of Probate Ricker, and the minister's wife +were privileged to attend the reading by courtesy for reason of being +their husband's wives, and cakes had been baked and several plans +made to waylay them separately on their divers routes home to drink a +cup of tea, that every detail might be gleaned for comparing of notes +afterward. + +"We shall soon see whether Lauretta Ann Lane's cake is dough or fruit +loaf," sniffed Mrs. Slocum, angrily, drawing in her head suddenly from +the third fruitless inspection of the road that she had made in fifteen +minutes and giving it a smart bump against the sash as she did so. +"Either the folks is late, or they're gone around the back road, and if +so, why? I'd just like you to tell me," she snapped at Hope Snippin, the +meek little village dressmaker who, drawn over as if she had a perpetual +stitch in her side, was remaking a skirt for the lady of the house and +felt very much discouraged, as it had been turned once before, at the +possibility of making it look startlingly new. + +"Maybe they've stopped down to the Lane's and have walked around the +meadow path," ventured Hope Snippin. "The other day when I was fixin' +up Mis' Lane's black gown, changing the buttons and such like to turn +it from just Sunday best to mourning, I heard her tell Mis' Jedd that, +as there was no convenience for gettin' up a proper meal down to Aunt +Jimmy's, seein' as nothing must be touched until the will was read, +she'd asked all the folks concerned to dinner--a roast-beef dinner +with custards--at her house so's they could be comfortable and stable +their teams, and then walk right around short cut to the other house +after. You see the two farms meets the road separate, like the two +heels of a horseshoe, and then join by going back of the doctor's hill +woods. My father was sayin' last night if those two farms _and_ the +wood lot went together, they'd be something worth while," and Miss +Snippin smiled pleasantly as if she thought she had propitiated Mrs. +Slocum by her news. + +"Then you knew all the while they wouldn't come by here and never told +me, though seein' me slavin' over that cake," snapped Mrs. Slocum. "I +wish you'd mind your work closer; you're makin' that front breadth up +stain out." + +"But it runs clean through," pleaded the dressmaker, miserably. + +"Depend upon it," Mrs. Slocum muttered to herself, not heeding the +protest, "she's made sure of that farm, or she wouldn't risk the cost of +a roast dinner for a dozen folks if she wasn't." + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile this dinner had been eaten and the party, headed by the lawyer +and the teacher, had gone through the sweet June fields to Aunt Jimmy's +house and seated themselves upon the stiff-backed, fore-room chairs that +were ranged in a long row, as if the company expected to play "Go to +Jerusalem." + +Outside, the bees were humming in the syringa bushes while the cat-birds +and robins, unmolested, were holding a festival in the great strawberry +bed, for to-day there was no one to see that the birds "kept moving" +after the usual custom, as the hired man on returning from taking eggs +to market had gone to sleep in the hay barn, knowing that the stern +voice of the old lady in rubber boots and sunbonnet would not disturb +his dreams. + + * * * * * + +"Hem," the lawyer cleared his throat and read the usual preliminaries +about "last will and testament, sound mind," etc., "paying of just +debts," etc., in a clear but rapid voice that grew gradually solemn +and important, until, as the pith of the matter was reached, every +word was separated from its neighbour, and the buzzing of a fly on the +window-pane seemed an unbearable noise. + +"I give and bequeath to Amelia, the wife of William Jedd, doctor of +medicine in this town, the sum of two thousand dollars, because I think +she may need it owing to her husband's slack way of collecting bills." + +Mrs. Jedd, who had for a moment looked radiant, quickly cast down her +eyes after a frightened glance at her husband who was, with apparent +difficulty, refraining from laughter as he looked crosswise at the +minister. + +"I give and bequeath to Sarah Ann, wife of Joel Stevens, minister of the +First Congregational Church, a like sum of two thousand dollars because +she is sure to need it, this being twice the amount that he once desired +me to give to foreign missions. If he still holds to his views of +avarice and hoarding, he will doubtless be able to persuade her to share +his ideas as to its use." + +It was the minister's turn now to look red and confused, while his +wife's face expressed her views on the subject beyond a doubt. + +"I give and bequeath to the Trust Fund of the School of Industrial Art +in Northboro the sum of $10,000, the income therefrom to be applied to +the board and teaching of two girls each year who cannot afford to pay, +for the reason that I think a girl is usually worth two boys if she has +a chance, and I don't like to see our best girls running to the big +cities for schooling. + +"I direct that my fruit farm of ten acres, more or less, with the +adjoining one hundred acres of meadow and woodlands, and all buildings +and fixtures, other than household furniture, appertaining thereto, +shall be sold at public auction within six months of my death, and that +the cash proceeds be divided between my three nephews, share and share +alike, I holding the hope that one of them will be the purchaser. I also +direct that the pieces of household furniture mentioned in the enclosed +memorandum shall be divided between the wives of my three nephews by the +drawing of lots, and I charge that all other furnishings not mentioned +in this paper, being of no value except to myself, shall be destroyed +either by burning or burying in the swamp bog-hole according to their +character, as I don't wish them scattered about for the curiosity of the +idle, of which this town has its full share. + +"Making one exception to the above, I give to my dear niece by marriage, +Lauretta Ann, wife of Joshua Lane, in token of my respect for her, my +old pewter tea-pot that, as she knows, I have treasured as having laid +buried in the garden through the War of Independence and had in daily +use for years, hoping she will cherish it and by like daily use hold me +in constant remembrance by the sight of it." + +At this juncture no one dared look up, for all felt the cruelty of the +gift after Mrs. Lane's years of service, and the poor woman herself +merely tightened her grasp upon the chair arms, but she could not +prevent the sickening sense of disappointment that crept over her. + +"I hereby appoint my nephew, Joshua Lane, as my sole executor, directing +that he be paid the sum of $1000 from my estate for his services, +desiring him to carry on the fruit business for the current year, the +profits to be added to my estate. (Here followed special instructions.) +If there be any residue after paying to the before-named legacies, I +direct that he divide it equally between himself and his two brothers, +and I hope that all concerned may feel the same pleasure in hearing this +testament that I have had in making it." + +As the lawyer stopped reading there was a pause, and then a rush of +voices, congratulations and condolences mingled. That he had made an +error in summoning Dr. Jedd and the minister instead of their wives was +plain. + +The two brothers, who cared nothing for the fruit farm except its cash +price and had been too indolent to bother about the matter or go to see +their aunt except in fruit time, assumed importance and talked about +wounded pride and the injustice of having but one executor. The school +superintendent, an Englishman of fifty or so who had received his art +training at South Kensington and brought it to market in America, +confused by his surroundings, but of course pleased at the gift by +which his school benefited, made haste to leave, feeling that he was +intruding in a gathering where a family storm was brewing. + +"Mebbe there's something _in_ the tea-pot," suggested the minister's +wife, hopefully, "else I can't think she knew her own mind." + +"There's surely something in it," echoed Mrs. Dr. Jedd. + +The lawyer, who himself had thought this possible, went upstairs, and +took down the battered bit of pewter from the best bedroom shelf, where +it had remained since the day Mrs. Lane had placed it there at Aunt +Jimmy's request, opened it, shook it, and held it toward the eager +group,--it was absolutely empty! + +Mrs. Lane stretched out her hand for the legacy, but her husband grasped +her arm and asserting himself for the first time in his married life, +said: "Lauretta Ann, don't you tech it; it'll go down in the swamp hole +with the other trash for all of you. I'll not have you a-harbourin' a +viper. I'll do my lawful duty, but, by crickey, I'll not have you put +upon no more." + +This very ambiguous speech so impressed the hearers that it was reported +that "Joshua Lane wasn't tied to Lauretta's apron-strings and could +hold his own equal to anybody," which had been seriously doubted, while +the news was a surprise and disappointment to every one but Mrs. Slocum, +who said, "Dough! I told you so,"--and actually cut a big slice of cake +for Hope Snippin to take home for tea. + +As for Lammy he seemed dazed for a while, and then set to work daily +with his father on the fruit farm, so that he might earn the tickets +to send to Bird when hot weather and the time for her visit came. His +mother noticed that he did not gaze about as much as usual, and, while +he was picking berries for market, he said to himself, "I'll snake a +root of those red pineys for Bird anyhow before the auction, 'long in +November, and maybe before then something 'll turn up." + + + + +IV + +A CAGED BIRD + + +When the high banks of the cut shut off Lammy from Bird's sight, she +followed her uncle into the car, vainly trying to blink back her tears. +He, however, did not notice them; but, putting her valise on a seat, +told her she had better sit next to the window so that she could amuse +herself by looking out, as it would be two hours before they changed +cars at New Haven, and then, taking another seat for himself, pulled his +hat over his eyes and promptly fell asleep. + +At first the poor child was content to sit quite still and rest, trying +to realize who and where she was. The changes of the past two weeks had +been so sudden that she did not yet fully realize them. Beginning with +the day when her father, all full of hope, had been soaked by the rain +in walking back from Northboro, where he had gone to buy materials for +beginning his work for the wall-paper man, and caught the deadly cold, +until now when she was leaving the only friends she had ever known, +seemed either a whole lifetime or a dream from which she must awake. + +But as the train flew on and the familiar places one by one were lost in +the distance, little by little the bare cold truth came to her. Not only +was she going to a strange place to live among strangers, but the hope +that had comforted her the previous night had been swept away when her +uncle had refused to let her bring her paint-box, and she knew by the +contemptuous way he spoke that he was even more set against her father's +work than their farming neighbours had been. + +"Never mind," thought the brave, lonely little heart, "I simply _must_ +learn somehow, and perhaps my aunt and cousins may be different and +help me to persuade Uncle John to let me go on with drawing at the +school he sends me to, for I heard him tell Mrs. Lane that I should go +to school." Then Bird began to imagine what the aunt and cousins would +be like, and what sort of a house they would live in. She thought the +house would be brick or stone like some in Northboro, and she did not +expect that there would be a very big garden, perhaps only at the back +with a little strip at the sides and in front, but then that would hold +enough flowers for her to draw so that she need not forget the way in +which Terry had taught her to do it from life, and even if she had no +paints and only bits of paper and a pencil, she could work a little out +of the way up in her room so as not to annoy her uncle and yet not quite +give up. That she was determined she would never do, for Bird had, in +addition to a talent that was in every way greater than her father's, +something that came from her mother's family and that he had wholly +lacked,--perseverance, a thing that people are apt to call obstinacy +when they do not sympathize with its object. + +So busy was she with castle-building that she was quite surprised when +the brakeman called: "New Haven! Last stop. Change cars for New York and +Boston. Passengers all out!" and her uncle jumped up, flushed and stupid +with sleep and bundled her out of the train into the station restaurant +"to snatch a bite of dinner" before they went on. + +Now Bird, being a perfectly healthy child, even though overwrought +and tired, was hungry and gladly climbed up on one of the high stools +that flanked the lunch counter, while her uncle gathered a sandwich, +two enormous doughnuts, and a quarter of a mince pie on one plate and +pushed it toward her saying: "Tea or coffee? You'd better fill up snug, +for we won't be home until well after dinnertime," then John O'More +proceeded to cool his own coffee by pouring it from cup to saucer and +back again with much noise and slopping. + +"Please, I'd rather have milk," answered Bird, rescuing the sandwich +from under the pie and making a great effort not to stare at her uncle, +who had begun by stuffing half a doughnut into his mouth and pouring the +larger part of a cup of coffee after it before he swallowed, so that +his cheeks bulged, his eyes seemed about to pop from their sockets, +and beads of sweat stood on his forehead, while the next moment he was +shovelling up great mouthsful of baked beans and ramming them down with +cucumber pickles, very much as she had seen Lammy charging his father's +old muzzle-loading shot-gun when going to hunt woodchucks. + +Though sometimes the food at home had not been any too plentiful, Bird's +parents had always been particular about her manners at table. She had +had their example before her and was naturally dainty in her own ways, +so that her uncle's gorging gave her another shock, and unconsciously +she began to pick at her food like a veritable feathered bird. + +"The country ain't what it's cracked up to be," remarked O'More, when he +was able to speak. "I thought country girls was always fat and rosy and +ate hearty. Just wait until you get to New York and see my kids stoke in +the vittles; it'll learn you what it means to eat right." + +"Express train for New York, stopping at Bridgeport and Stamford only," +called a man through the open door. + +"Come along," shouted O'More, wedging in another doughnut, throwing +the pay to the waiter and seizing a handful of toothpicks from a glass +on the counter, and before Bird had but half finished the sandwich and +milk, she found herself on the train again. + +The second part of the journey passed more cheerfully, for all along +at the east side of the road were beautiful glimpses of the Sound and +silvery creeks and inlets came up to the track itself. + +Bird had never before seen the sea, or any river greater than the mill +stream, and she exclaimed in delight. + +"Like the looks of salt water, do you? Then you're going to an A 1 place +to see it. New York's an island, and you only have to go to the edge +anywhere to see water all round, not forsaken lookin' empty water like +this either, but full of ships and boats and push. Down at the far end +of the town is Battery Park, smash on to the water, and there's sea air +and seats in it and music summer nights, along with a building full of +live swimmin' fishes that little Billy's crazed over goin' to see. Oh, +you'll find sport in the city for sure." + +"Who is little Billy?" asked Bird, feeling that she was called upon to +say something, and now realizing that she knew nothing about the cousins +she was to meet. + +"Little Billy? Oh, he's the youngest of the four boys. Tom, he's the +eldest, and a wild hawk; he's got a rovin' job, and he seldom turns +up lest he's in trouble, but for all that his mother's crazed after +him. Jack, he's next, seventeen, and fine and sleek and smart with the +tongue, and keeps the clean coat of a gentleman; he's in a clerking job, +but he goes to night school, and he'll be somebody. Larry's fifteen, +and he's just quit school and got a place helping a trainer on the +race-track; he's minded to make money quick, and thinks that's the road, +which I don't. Then little Billy,--he's turning six, and he's worth +more'n the whole lot together to me, if he is only a four-year size and +hops with a crutch. Ah, but he's got the head for thinkin', and he's +every way off from the rest of us, pale and yellow-haired, while the +others are coloured like sloes and crows' wings in the eyes and hair." + +As O'More spoke his whole face softened and lightened up, and it was +plain to see that little Billy filled the soft spot that is in every +heart if people only have the eyes to see it. + +"Until little Billy was turned three he was as pretty as an angel," +he continued, "and sturdy as any other child. Then come a terrible +hot summer,--oh, I tell you it was fierce; you couldn't draw a breath +in the rooms, and so the missis she fixed a bed for Billy out on the +fire-escape and used to take him there to sleep." + +Bird was just about to ask what sort of a place a fire-escape was, for +this was the second time her uncle had mentioned it that day having said +that if she had a dog, it would likely fall from it, but he talked so +quickly that she forgot again. + +"As luck had it, one night the wind come up cool, and, the woman bein' +dead tired, never woke up to notice it, and in the morning little Billy +set up a terrible cry, for when he tried to get up he couldn't, for the +wind had checked the sweat and stiffened his left leg, as it were. +Of course we had a big time and had in full a dozen doctors, and some +said one thing and some another, but they all give it the one name 'the +infant paralysis.' + +"The doctors they wanted him to go to the 'ospital and have the leg shut +into a frame and all that, but I said 'twas a shame to torment him, and +I'd have him let be till he could say for himself. + +"The woman takes him awful hard, though, as if he was a reproach to her +for not wakin' up, which is no sense, for what be's to be, be's--that's +all," which shiftless argument Bird afterward found was her uncle's +answer to many things that could have been bettered. + +"I hope Billy will like me," said Bird, half to herself after a few +minutes' silence; "somehow I think I like him already." + +"If you do that and act well by him, I buy you a hat with the longest +feather on Broadway for your Christmas," said O'More, grasping her +slender fingers and almost crushing them in his burst of enthusiasm. +"But whist a minute, girl, for we're most home now. If the woman,--I +mean my missis, your Aunt Rosy,--is offish just at the start, don't get +down-hearted, for you see as she don't expect I'm bringing you, she may +be--well--a trifle startled like. She'll soon settle down and take what +be's to be straight enough," and with this rather discouraging remark +the train crossed the Harlem River and entered the long tunnel that is +apt to cast a gloom over every one's first entrance to New York, even +when they are bent on pleasure and not sad and lonely. + +"We're in now," said O'More in a few minutes, as the echo of the close +walls ceased and the train slid across a maze of tracks into an immense +building with a glass roof like a greenhouse. + +"Grand Central Station--all out," called a brakeman, and Bird found +herself part of a crowd of men, women, children, and red-capped porters +moving toward a paved street, full of carriages, wagons, trucks, +electric cars, besides many sort of vehicles that she had never seen +before, coming, going, dashing here and there in confusion, while on +every side there was a wall of houses, and below the earth was upturned +and trenched, not a bit of grass or tree to be seen anywhere, and the +sky, oh, so far away and small. Bird almost fell as she stumbled blindly +along toward a trolley car after the uncle, for what could seem more +unreal to this little wild thrush from the country lane, with song +in her throat, and love of beauty and colour born in her heart, than +Forty-second Street in the middle of the first warm summer afternoon? + + * * * * * + +The car they boarded went through another short tunnel, and on every +side could be heard the noise of hammers or drilling in the rock. + +"Is this a stone quarry?" asked Bird, innocently, not understanding, and +wondering why the near-by passengers smiled as her uncle replied: "Lord +bless yer! no; it's the subway, a road below ground they're building +to let out folks from where they work to where there's room to live; +there's such push here below town there's little room for sitting, let +alone sleeping. Oh, but it's a fine city is New York, all the same." + +Next a broad avenue with a jumble of old, low shops and fine new +buildings side by side; still Bird looked anxiously out for some place +where it seemed possible that people might live and found none. + +"Here's 2--th Street where we land," said O'More, presently looking +up, and when the car had stopped, Bird found herself walking along a +sidewalk between another wall of buildings without gardens, while the +heat of the first warm day rising from the pavement made her dizzy, and +she asked, "Is it far from here to where you live, Uncle John?" + +"No, right close by, only a few steps farther. We're facing east now and +down yonder half a dozen blocks is the river, the same as we crossed +coming in saving a turn in it. + +"Getting tired, ain't yer? Well, it's been a long day for us, and I'm +mighty glad to be gettin' to a homelike place myself." + +"Do you live right by the water, and is there any garden?" Bird +continued, a feeling of nameless dread creeping over her as she saw +nothing but buildings still closing in on all sides; even a blacksmith's +shop, from which a spirited pair of horses were coming with newly shod +polished hoofs, seemed strange and out of place. Then there were more +poor looking buildings, and a great stable with many men standing about +and horses being constantly driven in and out to show the people who +waited on the curbstone. + +"By the river, and do I have a garden," he echoed, laughing heartily. +"Do you think I'm one o' the millionnaires you read about in the papers, +my girl? Do I keep an automobile and eat at the Waldorf-Astoria?" and +then, seeing that Bird could not understand the comparison, he patted +her good-naturedly on the shoulder. + +As they passed the stable quite a number of the men spoke to her uncle, +but instead of resenting it as she expected, he joked and laughed and +seemed very glad to see them. + +"It's called the 'Horse's Head,' and it's out of there my job is," he +said to Bird, pointing over his shoulder at the stable, "for half the +time I'm over the country from Kentucky to Canada picking up horses, and +the other half of the time I'm helping to sell them out again, so I live +as near by as may be for convenience." + +At this Bird's heart sunk still farther, for in the prim New England +town where she was born and bred a Puritan, a horse-dealer meant either +some oversharp farmer who could outwit his neighbours or a roving +fellow, half gypsy, half tramp, of very ill repute, who went about from +town to town buying and selling animals who mostly had something the +matter with them that had to be concealed by lying. + +John O'More, striding on ahead, did not notice her expression, nor would +he have understood if he had read her thoughts, for he was perfectly +satisfied with himself and everything else in his surroundings, except +the fact of little Billy's lameness, and for a man of his class he was +roughly honest and good-hearted. + +"Here's where!" he said at last, turning into the doorway of a tall +building with one door and many windows. The square vestibule was +dusty and had a ragged mat in the centre, while on one side were ten +letter-boxes in a double row, with a bell knob and speaking-tube, as +O'More explained, over each. + +"Is this your house? It seems pretty big," said Bird, wearily. + +"One floor of it is," he answered, laughing again; "it's what's called +'a flat house,' because each tenant lives flat on one floor, with +conveniences at hand and no water to carry, which beats the country all +out," he added slyly. "See, I'll but touch the bell and the door 'll +open itself." + +And he suited the action to the word, the door opening to reveal a +narrow, dark hall with a flight of steep stairs covered with a shabby +red carpet. + +As Bird groped her way up, one, two, three flights, fairly gasping for +breath in the close, hot place, she stumbled against groups of children +who were sitting or playing school on the stairs. + +"It's lighter near the top; that's why I choose it," called her uncle, +himself puffing and blowing as he climbed. "Here we are," and he pushed +open a door into an inner hall, and then another into a sort of sitting +room where a tall, red-haired woman, clad in a collarless calico sack +was sewing on a machine, while a pile of showy summer silks and muslins +was lying on a chair beside her. + +"Hello, Rosie, old woman; here's Bird O'More, Terry's orphan, that I +brought back to stop a bit until we see where we're at," and he gave his +wife a knowing wink as much as to say, "I know it's sudden on you, but +let her down as easy as you can." + +The "old woman," who was perhaps forty, or at most forty-five, glanced +up, and then, either not understanding or pretending not to, her face +flushed as she jerked out, her eyes flashing, "Well, if you ain't the +aggravatment of men, John O'More, to bring company just when I've got +Mame Callahan's trou-sew to finish, and she gettin' married next week, +and Billy bein' that cantankerous with cryin' to go over to the park or +down to see them fishes that my head's ready to split," she whimpered. + +With all his will the man cowered before her tongue, and in spite of her +own pain Bird's womanly little heart pitied him. She saw the piled-up +garments and knew at once that her aunt was a dressmaker, and her +gentle breeding led her to say the one thing that could have averted an +explosion. + +"Aunt Rose, I could take Billy to see the fish or something if you'll +tell me the way." + +"That's what I figured on when I brought her," said O'More, greatly +relieved, and quickly following the lead; "I knew you'd often spoke of +gettin' a girl from the Sisters, and that's why I brought Bird instead +of leavin' her to slave fer strangers," he stammered. + +"Humph," answered Mrs. O'More, at least somewhat pacified, "Billy's +fastened in his chair on the fire-escape; she'd better go there and sit +with him a while until it's supper-time. It's too late for them to go +traipsing around the streets to-night. Can you do anything useful?" she +said, fixing her sharp, greenish eyes on Bird, who tried to gather her +wits together as she answered, "I can make coffee, and toast, and little +biscuits, and two kinds of cake, and--" then she hesitated and stopped, +for she was going to say "do fractions, write, read French a little, and +draw and paint," but she felt as if these last items would count against +her. + +"Humph," said her aunt again, this time more emphatically, "I guess +you done well to bring her, Johnny. Turned thirteen, you say. Of +course she'll have to make a show of goin' to school for another year +on account of the law, but they can't ask it before the fall term. I +suppose she'll have to sleep on this parlour lounge, though; there's no +other place." + +John O'More was now beaming as he led Bird through a couple of dark +bedrooms toward the kitchen, where the mysterious "fire-escape" seemed +to be located. + +Going to an open back window he looked out, motioning Bird to follow. +What she saw was a small platform, about three feet wide and ten feet +long, surrounded by an iron railing; one end was heaped with a litter +of boxes and broken flowerpots that partly hid a trap door from which +a ladder led to the balcony belonging to the floor below. At the other +end, fastened in a baby's chair by the tray in front, sat a dear little +fellow with great blue eyes and a curved, sensitive mouth, while tears +were making rivers of mud on his pale cheeks as he sobbed softly to +himself, "I want to go; oh, I want to get out and see the fishes." + +"So you shall," said O'More, undoing the barrier and lifting the child +on his strong arm while he tried awkwardly to wipe his face. + +"Let me," said Bird, wetting her handkerchief at the kitchen sink and +gently bathing eyes, nose, and mouth carefully, as Mrs. Lane had bathed +hers--only a day ago, was it? It seemed a lifetime. + +"Who are you?" said Billy, gazing at Bird over his father's shoulder, +as he wound his little arms around the thick neck. + +"She's your cousin Bird, come from the country to play with Billy and +take him to see the fishes. Go out there on the platform with him a +spell till the heat dies down; the doctor says he's to get plenty of air +you see." + +"Where do you get the air here?" asked Bird, wonderingly, looking at the +paved yards filled with rubbish, the tall clothes poles, and the backs +of the other buildings where more fire-escapes clung like dusty cobwebs. + +"Air? Oh, out here and down in the street mostly if there's no time fer +going across to any o' the parks. Get a bit acquainted now, youngsters, +for I've got to report at the stable before supper," said O'More, +putting Billy back into his chair and preparing to leave, wiping the +sweat from his face as if he had thus put the whole matter of Bird from +him. + +For a few minutes the pair were silent. "Is your name Bird?" asked +Billy, eying her solemnly, and, upon her nodding "Yes," he rambled on, +"There's a yellow bird in a cage downstairs at Mrs. Callahan's--it's +name is Canary and it can sing. Can you sing?" + +"Yes; that is, I used to last week," she said uncertainly, the tears +running between her fingers that she held before her face, for in the +past ten minutes her last hope had fled. No room where she could work +alone, not even a back-yard garden or a leaf to pick, and the bars of +the fire-escape seemed to be closing in like a cage. + +"Now you're crying, too," said Billy, prying open her hands with his +thin fingers, while his lip quivered; "do you want to get out and see +the fishes too?" + +"Yes, Billy, I do; but we can't go just now, so we must play we are +birds in a cage like the one downstairs," smiling through her tears. +"I'll sing for you," and she began in a low voice a song that Terry had +taught her:-- + + "When little birdie bye-bye goes, + Silent as mice in churches, + He puts his head where no one knows + And on one leg he perches." + +When she finished, the little arms stole around her neck also, and +Billy, his face all smiles, said, "That bird's me, cause I've only got +one good leg, and I'm going to have you for my canary, only," looking +at her gown and hair, "you're more black than yellow," and giving her a +feeble squeeze, "and some day you'll get me out to see the fishes, won't +you?" + +At his baby caress Love lit a new lamp in her dark path and Hope stole +back and led the way as she hugged Billy close and said, "Yes, some day +we'll surely get out of the cage together and fly far away." + + + + +V + +MRS. LANE PLAYS DETECTIVE + + +For several weeks after the reading of Aunt Jimmy's will, it was the +talk of the neighbourhood, the alternate topic of conversation being +the death of Terence O'More and the sudden disappearance of Bird. For +Bird's Uncle John had come and gone so suddenly that few knew of his +flying visit, and those who did turned it into an interesting mystery. +Some said that he was a very rich relation from the west, others that +he was not an uncle at all, but the agent of the State Orphan Asylum to +which the Lanes, afraid of being expected to care for Bird, had hurried +her off. It is needless to say that it was Mrs. Slocum, piqued at not +securing Bird as a maid of all work and no pay, who concocted this tale. + +In due time Probate Judge Ricker appointed Joshua Lane administrator, to +take charge of the furniture and few effects that O'More had left and +settle up his debts as far as possible. There was a little money left of +what his wife had inherited, in the Northboro Bank, but only enough to +pay his debts, it was feared, without so much as leaving a single dollar +for Bird. + +Since the homestead and Mill Farm property that belonged to Mrs. O'More +had been forfeited through some defect in the drawing up of a mortgage +coupled with O'More's slackness in attending to the matter, Joshua Lane +had felt there was something wrong and that a little good legal advice, +combined with common sense, might have at least saved something if not +the entire property. + +When, a year later, the mill had slipped into Abiram Slocum's hands, +Joshua's suspicions were again aroused, for Slocum's transactions in +real estate were usually adroit and to the cruel disadvantage of some +one, if not absolutely dishonest according to the letter of the law; but +when Joshua had spoken to O'More about the matter, he, feeling hopeful +about his painting, had put him off with a promise to "some day" show +him the "letters and papers" that bore upon the unfortunate business. + +The day had never come, and now that Joshua had the right he determined +to sift the affair thoroughly, but the papers were nowhere to be found. +The envelope containing O'More's bank-book held nothing else but the +certificate of his marriage with Sarah Turner, and some letters from +his mother in the old country. + +Joshua, though slow, was not without shrewdness, and he had not only +kept the old house where the O'Mores had lived securely locked by day, +until when, upon the selling of the furniture, it should again return to +the Slocums from whom it was rented, but at Mrs. Lane's suggestion he +had Nellis, his oldest son, sleep there at night, as she said, "To keep +folks whom I'll not name from prowlin'." + +Joshua looked to the sale of the furniture to at least pay the last +quarter's rent due. By a strange happening the afternoon before the +vendue was to take place, as he was about to drive up to the old house +at the cross-roads to make a final thorough search in closets, drawers, +and the old-time chimney nooks for the missing papers, a passer-by, +hurrying in the same direction, called out to him: "There's a fire +up cemetery hill way; smoke's comin' over the hickory woods. Maybe +Dr. Jedd's big hay barn or Slocum's old farm, both bein' in a plum +line from here." When, sharply whipping up the old mare, much to her +astonishment, he hurried to the place, he not only found that it was +the old farm-house hopelessly ablaze from roof to cellar, but Abiram +Slocum appearing a few moments later by the road that ran north of the +place, flew into either a real or well-acted rage, shaking his fist and +calling: "It's that there hulking boy, Nellis, o' yourn, that has done +me this mischief. Must 'a' smoked his pipe in bed or left his candle +lighted until it burned down, for it's plain to be seen by the way the +roof's ketched, the fire started upstairs and smouldered around all day +until it bust out everywheres to onct." + +"I reckon yer insured," said Joshua, dryly, taking little account of +what he said, as he began to realize that the fire had put an end +forever to the discovery of the papers that might have brought good luck +to Bird, as well as destroyed a part of the slender property. + +"A trifle--a mere trifle--not the cost of the wood in the house, let +alone the labour at present rates. I could hev rented the place tew +teachers for a summer cottage for twenty a month, and I intended buyin' +in the furniture so to do. If"--and he drew his mean features together, +and then spread them out again in a spasm of indignation--"law was just, +you'd ought to make it up to me, Joshua Lane,--that you had." + +But when he found that the few neighbours who had gathered were not +sympathetic, and only seemed to regret the fire on account of the O'More +furniture, he disappeared, and, strangely enough, later on no one could +tell in which direction he went or if he had gone afoot, on horseback, +or in the yellow buckboard in which he was wont to drive about to harry +his tenants and surprise his farm hands if they but paused to straighten +their backs. + +When Joshua told of the fire at the supper-table, Mrs. Lane fairly +snorted with indignation, saying, "Firstly, Nellis didn't smoke last +night, bein' out o' tobacco and leavin' his pipe on the chimneypiece, +where it is now, and secondly he asked me for a candle; and then, the +Lockwood boys comin' along, and offerin' to walk up with him, he went +off while I was lookin' for the store-closet key which had fallen off +its nail, and clean through the bottom of the clock"--(the inside of the +long body of the tall clock being the place where the Lane family's keys +lived, each on its own nail). + +"This morning when he came down home to breakfast he mentioned it, and +said it didn't matter because the moon was so bright he undressed by +light of it, Bill Lockwood stopping up there with him for company's +sake. + +"A trifle of insurance indeed! and all hope of Bird bein' righted gone! +Joshua Lane, do you know what I think and believe?" And Lauretta Ann +jumped up so suddenly that her ample proportions struck the tea-tray +edge and an avalanche of cups and saucers covered the floor. + +"Your thoughts and beliefs 'll soon fill a book, big as the dictionary +and doubtless be worth as much," said Joshua, pausing a second with a +potato speared on his fork, while he gave his wife a stern, silencing +look that was so rare that whenever she saw it, she gave heed at once, +"but in this here matter I'd advise you to keep 'em good and close to +yourself. We've got plenty ahead to shoulder this summer, besides which +if papers had been found, 'tain't likely any lawyer hereabouts would +risk taking the matter without money to back him, and 'Biram Slocum to +face." + +So saying, Joshua, having put himself outside of the potato, a final +piece of pie, and the tea that had been cooling in his saucer, pushed +back his chair and drew on his coat, saying as he went out: "The first +strawberries over ter Aunt Jimmy's 'll be ready for marketing on Monday, +and this is Thursday. I must look around and engage pickers. That acre +bed of the new-fangled kind is a week ahead of Lockwood's earliest. +Aunt Jimmy was no fool when it came to foresighted fruit raisin'." + +"I never said she was, nor in other things either if her meanin' could +be read. What time did you say the fire started?" she added in an +unconcerned sort of way, as she stooped to pick up the scattered cups, +which were so substantial that they had not been broken by their fall. + +"Let me see--it must hev been close to two o'clock when I drove out of +the yard; the mail carrier had just passed, and he's due at the corner +at two, and at the rate I went I wasn't fifteen minutes from the fire. +From the way it had holt, it must have been goin' all of half an hour. +Queer 'Biram didn't scent it sooner workin' in the corn patch back of +the wood lot as he appeared to be, leastways he came down the lane from +there. + +"Fire couldn't hev ketched before one o'clock, for the hands up at +Lockwood's go up that way before and after noon as well as of mornings, +and if Nellis had left anything smouldering, they'd have surely smelt +it, first or last." + +Joshua paused a moment, but, as Mrs. Lane asked no more questions, went +out, closing the door. No sooner did she hear the latch catch than she +jumped up, saying to herself: "Appeared to come from the corn patch, +did he? I wonder what he was doin' there? He planted late, so the corn +can't be set for hoeing; he _might_ be watchin' for crows or riggin' a +scarecrow." As she pronounced the last word she had reached the dresser +where hung a large square calendar that advertised one of the husky +sorts of breakfast foods that taste as if they might have been the +stuffing of Noah's pillow. + +Lifting this down she carried it to the table, and, after hunting in +the dresser drawer for the pencil with which she kept her various egg +and butter accounts, she proceeded to put a series of dots about the +particular day of the month (it was June 10th), and then reversing the +sheet, she covered the back with a collection of curiously spelled and, +to the casual observer, meaningless words. + +She had barely time to replace the calendar when the boys came in for +their supper, and she fell vigorously to rearranging the table and +brewing fresh tea. + +The elder boys spoke of the fire as a bit of "old Slocum's usual luck," +for it was known that the house would need a great deal of repairing +before any one but the artist, whose thoughts were always in the +clouds, would be willing to hire it. Lammy alone rejoiced in the fire +because, as he said, "When Bird comes back, the house won't be there for +her to see and make her sorry." + +"Better not say that outdoors," warned Nellis, "or Slocum 'll say you +fired it on purpose--he'd like nothing better. By the way, mother," he +continued, as Mrs. Lane glanced keenly at Lammy, "what do you think I +heard at the shop to-day?" + +"Concernin' what?" + +"The Mill Farm." + +"I can't think. Those Larkin folks hev worked the land these two years +past, but the mill hasn't run this long while,--not since the winter +Mis' O'More died and the ice bulged the dam; the fodder trade has all +gone away, and I don't know what 'Biram Slocum can turn it to 'nless he +can insure the water an' then let it loose somehow." + +"There is a party of engineer fellows, or something of the sort, just +come to camp out up by Rooster Lake,--sort of a summer school, I guess, +for there are some older men along that they call professors. They +scatter all over the country surveyin' and crackin' up the rocks with +little hammers to see what they are made of. + +"This afternoon half a dozen of them came down to the shop to see some +new kind of a boring tool that our foreman has designed, and Mr. Clarke +was with them,--you know he is the man who started the Art and Trade +School in Northboro, and has his finger in a dozen pies. Pretty soon +the superintendent called me and said, 'Here, Lane, you live out at +Laurelville; these gentlemen wish to see the old Turner Mill Farm place. +I'll let you off the rest of the day if you'll show them the way over.' + +"I got in the runabout with Mr. Clarke and the others followed in a +livery six-seater. The old gentleman asked me all sorts of questions +about the water-power, and how low the stream fell in summer, and if the +pond ever froze clear through, and one thing and another. + +"When we got to the Mill Farm, there was no one at home but the dogs and +hens; I suppose the folks had all gone to Northboro to the circus." + +"Sure enough, it is circus day! How did I forget it?" ejaculated Mrs. +Lane. "That accounts for why there were so few folks on the roads this +noon!" + +"Yes, everybody seems to have gone but ourselves, even Lockwood's +field-hands took a day off." + +"They did? Then they didn't go up and down the cemetery hill road this +noon?" + +"Of course not, why should they?" replied Nellis. + +"You didn't remember that it was circus day, did you, and I guess it is +the first time you ever forgot it," said Mrs. Lane to Lammy. + +"I knew--all right, but I'm savin' up for--you know," replied Lammy, +wriggling out of his chair and going to the door where he began crumbing +bread and throwing it to some little chickens that had strayed up out of +bounds. + +"I do wish you had mentioned it, anyhow; it would hev done us all good +to have a change, though to be sure I _do_ suppose some folks would +have turned our going into disrespect to Aunt Jimmy,--Mis' Slocum in +particular." + +"She went, and Ram, and Mr. Slocum, though he came home early. I saw him +down in the turnpike store back of the schoolhouse this noon; he was +sayin' he'd had to come back early on account of havin' a lot of things +to attend to over at the Mill Farm this afternoon," said Lammy. + +"The turnpike store? He doesn't trade there--it's a mile out of his +way," said Mrs. Lane, thoughtfully. + +"He didn't get to the Mill Farm, anyway," said Nellis, "because I was +there from after dinner until I came home just now. Where was I? You +got me all off the track." + +"You were sayin' that Mr. Clarke asked you all sorts of questions about +the mill stream," said Mrs. Lane, who now seemed to have lost interest +in Nellis's story. + +"Oh, yes,--well, Mr. Clarke and that Mr. Brotherton,--that is +superintendent of the engine shop in Northboro,--poked about a lot +together, measuring things and figuring in a little book he had in his +pocket. It looked as if they were going to make an afternoon of it, and +as I saw a fishin' pole inside one of the open sheds, I thought I'd go +down the sluice way and try for a mess of perch. I was lyin' quiet out +along a willow stump, thinkin' the folks were in the mill, when I heard +voices on the dam above. Mr. Clarke said: 'I tell you what, Brotherton, +I want you to negotiate this affair for me. That Slocum is a tricky +fellow. I saw him a month ago and told him I'd not touch the property +until that snarl about the mortgage foreclosure was untangled, the price +he asked was outrageous for two hundred acres, of course the buildings +are only fit for kindling. Now I want you to either buy me the farm and +water right, or else lease it for say twenty years; then I will run a +spur of the Northboro Valley railroad down here, move the locomotive +works and the paper-mill, and enlarge both plants. This is the right +place; plenty of room to build houses for the hands, and close enough to +my place to be under my eye without being annoying. + +"'It will suit my daughter Marion, too. She has all sorts of ideas about +building a model village. Of course this is between ourselves, for if +that old Slocum rat dreamed that I was behind you, he would ask a dollar +a blade for every spear of run-out wire-grass on the farm.'" + +"To think of it!" sighed Mrs. Lane, sitting down so suddenly in the big +rocking-chair that it nearly turned a somersault in surprise, "and it +was only a scrap of a mortgage, not more'n $2500, that was the cause of +workin' the O'Mores out of property that had been in her family near two +hundred years. Everybody knows there was crooked business if it could +only be proved. But your father can't find any papers, and now just as +he was going this afternoon to search through poor O'More's furniture +and things at the house, it had to go and burn down, and the hopes we +had that something might be worked out for Bird hev all gone up in +smoke," she said, addressing the stove solemnly. + +The boys went out together to take a stroll up to the scene of the +fire. Hardly had they disappeared when Mrs. Lane jumped from the chair +with such a bound that it completed the somersault and stood on its head +facing the wall. + +"I wonder!" she ejaculated, addressing the pump by the sink, and shaking +her finger at it as if the gayly painted bit of iron was her husband. +"Yes, it must be it. All along I allowed 'Biram Slocum fired that house +for the insurance. Now, by a new light I read he did it so in case there +was any papers or letters to and fro about that mortgage that they'd get +burned. + +"I've noticed he and she hev made plenty of excuses to get into the +house alone, but I never reckoned it was for anything else but for +general meddlin', and pa's keepin' everything so close, even nailing up +the cellar doors and winders, balked 'em. + +"He knew the auction was ter-morrow, and that he'd rather burn the +papers and furniture than risk Joshua or others finding 'em is my firm +belief, and I'd like to prove it. Not that it'll do Bird any good now, +but it would be a satisfaction, even though, as Joshua says, 'We've got +enough business of our own to shoulder before fall and settlin' time +comes.' I wonder if 'Biram 'll hev the cheek to ask for the rent now. + +"Yes, I'm going to do a little nosing on my own account,--yes I be!" +she continued, adding more mysterious words to the back of the calendar +and nodding determinedly at the pump as if it had contradicted. "Knowing +never does come amiss, even if it is salted down for a spell. Shoo!" she +cried presently, waving the dish towel at the chickens who had boldly +ventured in, and then the tumult, caused by Twinkle's chasing them back +to their yard with much barking and sundry nips, brought her back to the +present and the work of dish-washing and tidying the kitchen for the +evening. + +Even then her head and hands did not work together. She hung the biscuit +in a pail down the well and set away the butter in the bread-box, put +sugar instead of salt into the bread sponge she was setting; and, +finally, before she sat down to rest remembering that the pantry door +locked hard and creaked when it opened, she poured toothache drops +instead of oil upon both hinges and key, and presently began to sniff +about and wonder if Dinah Lucky, who had been in that day to do the +weekly laundry, was doctoring for "break-bone pains" again, and hoped +she had used the laudanum outside instead of in, otherwise nobody could +tell when she would turn up to do the ironing. + + * * * * * + +Next morning if Joshua Lane and Lammy had not been in such a hurry to +get down to the fruit farm to prepare the crates and small boxes for the +coming strawberry picking, they would have noticed that Lauretta Ann +seemed to be quite excited and anxious to get them out of the way. + +But Joshua was unusually absorbed and quiet--he was disappointed at +not finding the papers--but he had a hard summer's work ahead of him +with plenty of thinking in it; while as for Lammy,--he was trying to +calculate how many strawberries he must pick at a cent and a half a +quart to buy a round-trip ticket from Laurelville to New York, so that +he might invite Bird to come up for a Fourth of July visit; also as +to whether it would be possible to do this and have anything left to +buy fire-crackers. Yet, after all, crackers were of small account, for +Bird did not care much for noisy pleasure, and if she didn't come, he +wouldn't care for even cannon crackers himself. + +"I suppose 'Biram Slocum will go over to Northboro smart and early to +collect his insurance," Mrs. Lane remarked, apparently looking out of +the window, but stealing a side glance at her husband's face. + +"Mebbe he will; but when I turned the cows out an hour ago, I saw +him driving Milltown way in his ordinary clothes with a plough and a +dinner-pail along, so I reckoned he was goin' to work on that patch of +early corn he's got down at the Mill Farm." + +At this Mrs. Lane's eyes glistened, and she plunged some dishes into the +tub of suds with a splash that was an unmistakable signal that breakfast +was over and all but lazy people should be out. + +This morning she bustled so that a half hour did all the work of +"redding" up that usually took two at the very least, and when Dinah +Lucky came to do the ironing with no sniff of laudanum about her, though +the kitchen was still heavy with it, Mrs. Lane looked puzzled, then much +to that fat aunty's astonishment popped the batch of six plump loaves +into the oven and, leaving Dinah to tend the baking,--a thing that save +for illness she had never trusted to other hands in her twenty years of +housekeeping,--she took a small basket, a knife, and her crisp gingham +sunbonnet, and muttering something about trying to get one more mess of +dandelion greens, even if it was counted late, disappeared through the +woodshed door. + +Dandelions grew in plenty in the moist meadow below the cow barn, but +Mrs. Lane crossed the road and took a winding path through the woods. +After following this for some distance and crossing several fields +where she filled her basket with greens, cutting only the very youngest +tufts with the greatest deliberation, she turned into the highway +through the cemetery gate and walked rapidly past the "four corners," +never stopping until she stood in the enclosure that had once been Bird +O'More's garden. Then she set down the basket, and, seating herself on +the scorched chopping-block, looked about her. + +The house had burned down to the foundation; some of the heavy chestnut +beams had not been wholly consumed but lay in a heap on the hard dirt +floor of the cellar. Otherwise the only bits of woodwork remaining were +the frames of two cellar windows that had been protected by the deep +stone niches in which they rested. The great centre chimney, around +which so many old houses are built, held its own, and its various +openings, most of them long unused, marked the location of the different +rooms; several of these, such as the smoke closet and brick oven, being +closed by rusty iron doors. + +Presently Mrs. Lane set out on a tour of inspection. The half dozen +outbuildings were quickly explored, for, with the exception of the barn, +they were quite open to the weather and as rickety as card houses. Tall +weeds struggled with the straggling sweet-william and fiery, hardy +poppies in the strip before the lilac bushes that Bird had called her +garden, and the rusty wire of the henyard fence enclosed a crowd of +nettles that stretched toward the light like ill-favoured prisoners in +a pen. The grass and low bushes had been trampled by the people who had +gathered to watch the fire, as well as by the cows that had strayed in +through the latchless gate. + +Clearly there was nothing to be discovered here. Next Mrs. Lane walked +about the ruined foundation looking for a likely spot to get down into +the cellar. The old chimney with its nooks and crannies was the only +thing left to examine, and she had made up her mind to do it even if it +meant a rough climb, bruised knees, and scratched fingers. + +In some places little heaps of ashes were still smouldering, but by +picking her way carefully down the stone steps that had been under the +flap-door, she reached the base of the chimney and tried the first iron +door. It was warped with the heat, but after some difficulty she opened +it, only to find the ample closet absolutely empty. Talking to herself +and saying that it was not likely that anybody, even an artist, would +hide papers in a cellar, Mrs. Lane looked up to see how it would be +possible to reach what had been the kitchen level, where the chances +looked brighter; for there was the brick oven and a wide fireplace, +closed by sheet iron through which a stove-pipe had pierced. There was +no way up but to use the chinks between the big stones for stairs and +climb. True, she had seen an old ladder in the barn, but Lauretta Ann +was too practical a woman to trust a dozed rickety ladder--she preferred +to cling with her fingers and climb, and cling and climb she presently +did. + +To young people it seems a very small feat to climb the outside of a +broad, rough, stone chimney that slopes gradually from a wide base +toward the top. For Mrs. Lane--stout, thick of foot and nearer fifty +than forty--it was a terrible exertion, and she paused between every +step she took to catch her breath, muttering, "Lauretta Ann Lane, you +are a fool if ever there was one. Suppose folks should pass by and see +you creepin' up here like a squawkin' pigeon woodpecker hanging to a +tree?" + +She, however, did not in the least resemble even that heavy-bodied bird. +Did you ever see a woodchuck mount a low tree when cornered by dogs? +That was what Mrs. Lane looked like as she climbed. And did you ever see +the same woodchuck scramble, slip, and flop down, flatten himself, and +then amble to his hole, when he thought his pursuers had ceased their +hunt? Well, that was the way in which Mrs. Lane came down to the cellar +bottom, when she found that the brick oven had been used merely to hold +broken crockery and such litter. + +For a minute or two she sat flat on the floor, resting, nursing her +bruised hands, and gazing idly at the outline of the sky through one +of the window holes in the stone wall. Then, as she recovered herself, +a bit of something fluttering from a broken staple in the scorched +window-frame attracted her attention. She picked herself up and examined +it. The glass had broken and fallen in, while the bit of metal had +caught a narrow rag of woollen material some six inches in length. This +was singed at the edges, but enough remained to show that it was a +herring-bone pattern of brown and gray such as is often seen in men's +suitings. + +Mrs. Lane looked at the rag thoughtfully for a moment, then, detaching +it, pinned it carefully inside the lining of her waist, picked up her +basket of greens which were by this time rather withered, freshened +them with water from the well, and trudged home openly by the +highway, saying, as she walked, "'Tain't much, and most likely it's +nothin'--still maybe it's a stitch in the knittin', and if it is, +another 'll turn up sooner or later to loop on to it." + +At dinner Mr. Lane gave his wife an odd look saying: "Why, mother, +where've you been? You look as if you'd gone a berryin' on all fours! +You're scratched on the nose and chin, let alone your hands." + +"Be I?" answered "mother," so fiercely that Joshua quailed, and +remembered guiltily that he had forgotten her request to clear a tangle +of cat brier from over a tumble-down stone wall in the turkey pasture, +where his wife passed many times a day to herd this most contrary and +uncertain of the poultry tribe, so he said nothing more, but held his +quarter of dried apple pie before his face like a fan, while he slowly +reduced its size by taking furtive bites at the corners. + +About four o'clock Mrs. Lane seated herself on the front porch to sew. +She was dressed in a clean print gown, with her collar fastened by a +large photograph "miniature" pin of Janey when a baby, a sign that she +considered herself dressed for callers. True it was Saturday and Dinah +Lucky was still pounding the ironing board, but that was because she had +"disappointed" on the two first week-days sacred to such work, and not +through any slackness on Mrs. Lane's part. + +The weekly mending was always a knotty bit of business, and to-day +doubly so, for now that Lammy was working at the fruit farm, it +seemed as if he fairly moulted buttons and shed the knees and seats of +his trousers as crabs do their shells. Spreading a well-worn pair of +knickerbockers on the piazza floor, she trimmed the edges of the holes +and dived into a big piece bag for material for the patches. + +"Seems to me I can't find two bits alike and I do hate to speckle him up +all colours and kinds as if he was a grab-bag. I know what I'll do--I'll +put in what I've got and clip down to the store for some blue jean, and +run him up a couple o' pairs of long overalls to cover him, same as his +brother's and Joshua's. Wonder I didn't think of 'em before, only I +can't realize that Lammy is big enough to be at work." + +A man's shadow crossed the piazza. Mrs. Lane looked up quickly; she had +not heard the gate click, and Twinkle, who kept both eyes open as well +as ears cocked most of the time, was down at the fruit farm with Lammy. + +"Buy something to-day? Nice goots, ver' cheap," said a voice in broken +English, and a pedler stood on the broad step and swung two heavy packs +down to the floor, while he wiped his face and asked if he might get +some water from the well. + +[Illustration: "'_Buy something to-day? Nice goots ver' cheap._'"] + +"Certainly, 'nless you'd prefer milk," said Mrs. Lane, cheerfully, for +she was naturally cheerful and generous, unless she was imposed upon. +The pedler, a foreigner, had a full-moon face, that looked both young +and tired, two things that always appealed to her, besides which his +packs were temptingly fat, and she had a weakness for pedlers. So after +getting the milk, she leaned back in her rocker, folded her arms, and +prepared to enjoy the exhibition, saying in the same breath: "I don't +know as I care to buy. What have you got?" + +The packs contained a little of everything in addition to the usual +tinsel jewellery and cheap finery which she motioned aside, while she +selected half a dozen gingham shirts, the overalls, which the man +assured her truthfully were only what the goods would cost in the +village, and some stout red handkerchiefs. + +"You don'd need trouble vit him," he said, pointing to the tattered +trousers. "I sells you somedings vot you can make down schmall," said +the pedler, growing confidential and pulling a stout pair of long pants +from a separate compartment in his pack. "Only a dollar, and I give the +schentlemens ninety cents for him,--yes, I did. I keep dem for mineself +if I home vas going, but I joust stard out. Only von dollar, and only +von leetle place broke." + +"I don't like to trust to buy second-hand clothes; nobody knows what +kind of folks have wore 'em," objected Mrs. Lane, yet at the same time +fingering the substantial goods lovingly. "Where are they tore?" + +"Here it vas, joust by der side leg ver you can schmaller make him, and +so help me gracious it vas no dirdy peoples wore dem. It vas a rich mans +to sell so fine a pants for ninety cents for such a break. Maybe you +knows him alretty, for he live"--pointing eastward--"in a big what you +call red house by the road there farther." + +"Slocum's!" ejaculated Mrs. Lane, her hands trembling with excitement. + +"Yes, dat vas his name. You take de pants, hein?" + +For a moment Mrs. Lane was silent, examining the rent, for the trousers +though bright and new were of the same brown and gray herring-bone +pattern as the dingy rag she had brought from the cellar window of the +burned house. + +"Yes, I'll take 'em. They _could_ be cut to advantage, and you may leave +me a box of that machine cotton, too; I'm clean out. Now, pack up and +move on, my man; I've got to see to supper." + +"She vas very glad of dose pants," thought the pedler to himself, as he +trudged away, smiling at the sales he had made. + +Up in the attic Mrs. Lane presently stood by a gigantic cedar chest, the +lid of which she lifted with difficulty, next the top tray. In the one +below she spread the pair of pants to the torn leg of which was pinned +_the_ rag. + +"It does seem a shame to lay away a pair of 'Biram Slocum's pants +so near my weddin' shawl, but so must it be. Well, now, there's two +stitches in the garter I've set up to knit for the hobbling of 'Bi +Slocum's pace; the third stitch will be to show why he crawled in that +cellar window before the fire for he surely didn't do it after, and why +he was afeared to let his wife mend his torn pants." + + + + +VI + +BIRD'S COUSINS + + +On the night of Bird's arrival in New York Jack and Larry O'More were +late for supper. In fact they did not come in until she had gone to bed +on the "extension" lounge in the parlour, where she was lying with her +teeth clenched in an effort to keep her eyes shut and to choke down the +nervousness to which crying would have brought the quickest relief. If +Bird could only have been alone in the dark and quiet for a few hours, +it would have been much easier for her to have overcome her great +disappointment. But in the corner of the family sitting room, amid a +litter of sewing and the smell of pipe smoke, with the glare and noise +of a busy street coming in the two small windows, sleep was impossible. +Finally her aunt closed the lid of the sewing-machine with a bang, +tossed her work into a heap in the corner, and, turning out the gas, +went into the kitchen. + +There were six rooms in the flat, all quite small. The sitting room in +front and the kitchen in the rear had windows that opened out, above +the three bedrooms clustered round an air-shaft that was like a great +chimney having small windows let into it, through which even at noon +only a gray, sunless light entered, and the air had no freshness but was +full of odours and noises from the flats above and below. + +Mr. and Mrs. O'More occupied the room next to the sitting room, Billy +sleeping beside them on a small mattress that was propped up nightly +upon two chairs; for when the bed was thus made, there was no room to +move about. Jack and Larry slept in the middle room which had a door +into the hallway, while the third room, opening out of the kitchen, had +been used by the oldest boy, Tom, before he had taken wholly to wild +ways and drifted off. Now it was more than a year since he had slept +there and it was tightly packed with broken furniture, old boxes, and +various kinds of trash that it had been easier to throw in there than to +dispose of in any other way. A small bath-room at the end of the hall +was littered up in much the same way, and it was evident that no one +cared for bathing, as the tub was used as a cubby hole for pails, a mop, +broom, and the wash boiler and board, for which there was no room on the +overloaded fire-escape. Still Mrs. O'More felt the dignity of having a +bath-room, for it stamped her home as a "flat," tenements so called +having no such luxuries. + +Presently Bird gave up all idea of going to sleep or even of closing her +eyes, and do her best she could not keep from hearing the conversation +that passed between her aunt and uncle in the kitchen, for they made no +effort to lower their voices, and she dared not close the door as the +only breath of air that reached little Billy, who was tossing about and +muttering in his sleep, came through the front windows. + +After hearing herself thoroughly discussed until her cheeks burned, her +uncle closed with the remark, "Well, of course Terry was all kinds of a +helpless fool, but he shouldn't be blamed for it, his mother was a lady +out of our class, and his wife too, judging from the looks and ways of +the kid, and don't you forget it, and it must come rough to her to be +shoved about, anyhow." + +Then a new resolve came to Bird from the rough but well-meaning words. +Her grandmother and her mother had been ladies,--she would not forget +that any more than she would forget her father's wish that she should +learn to paint and win the success that had been denied to him. + +Presently the subject changed and she heard her aunt speak of Tom and +say that it was three months since she had heard from him, and she +feared he was dead. + +"I hope it will be three months more, then," O'More had cried with an +oath that made Bird quiver and pull the pillow over her head, but she +was obliged to take it off again because of the heat. "He never minds us +unless he's in a scrape, or there's something to pay. But he's not dead, +if that's any comfort, for he wrote to me two weeks gone, saying he must +have fifty dollars or leave his job, and I wrote him that he'd leave it +for all of me." + +"And you never told me! I could have sent him a trifle; God knows what +he's done by this," and Mrs. O'More covered her red head with her apron +and began to whimper. + +"Look here, Rose O'More," answered her husband, while Bird judged by the +jar that he had brought his fist down on the table with a bang, "that +scoundrel has bled you long enough; now we are saving up to have little +Billy doctored, and I'll not see you rob yourself and him for that other +that we gave the best of everything, and he's turned it to the worst, +even if he is the eldest born. If I were you, I'd bank the bit o' money +that comes in from the sewin' and not keep it about ye." + +"The top drawer of the bureau is bank enough for me. The sum is near +complete to buy the frame for his leg, and it will be wanted next week +when I take Billy to the doctor, for it's to his own house he shall go, +and not to the thing they call the "clink" at the hospital, to be stood +up and twisted before a crowd o' dunce heads." + +So Billy was to go to a doctor. That was good news, and Bird began to +take an interest in life again, for Billy, in a single hour had crept +quickly into her sensitive, motherly little heart, and with her to love +and to serve were one and the same impulse. + +Presently two new voices joined the conversation, knives and forks +rattled, and amid pauses she heard scraps of conversation muffled by +food-filled mouths, and knew that they were talking of her. Jack and +Larry had come home and were having supper. Jack, who worked in an +office by day, was attending an evening school of type-writing and +bookkeeping, while Larry, who was of slight build and whose ambition was +to be a jockey and ride races, was kept late on the track where he was +serving an apprenticeship as handy man to a well-known trainer. + +"Where is she? Let's have a peek at her. I hope she's pretty if I've got +to look at her steady," said Larry, who prided himself on his eye for +beauty, and wore plaid clothes and wonderful pink and green neckties, +the colours of the stable to which he was attached, and thought it the +finest thing in the world, for jockeys are often as loyal to their +racing colours as college men are to theirs. + +"She isn't so handsome but what it'll keep until morning, and she's dead +asleep by this. Quit yer noise, all of ye; ye'll wake little Billy, and +he's been that fretful to-day that the rasp of his voice would wear +through an iron bar," Mrs. O'More added, as the three burst into loud +laughter over some tale of track happenings that Larry told. + +Then the voices dropped to a hum, and then turned to the song of the +bees in Mrs. Lane's hives, and Bird drifted away into that sleep that +God sends to make our tired bodies and minds able to live together +without quarrelling. + + * * * * * + +Bird slept heavily for many hours, yet to her it seemed only a few +minutes when she awoke again, a streak of light shining directly across +her face and the same noises coming from every side. This time, however, +the light was from the sun, not from the gas, and the noises were +fourfold, for there is nothing so varied, penetrating, and stunning as +the sound of the awakening of a great city to unaccustomed ears. + +For a few moments she lay quite still, gazing about, and trying to +realize where she was, and whether awake or asleep, for so many things +had happened during the past week, that it all seemed like a bad dream. + +Not many days before, morning light brought the hope to Bird that this +day her father might be better; only the day before she had waked in +Mrs. Lane's big white bed, to see that kind soul watching beside her and +Twinkle had come racing upstairs. + +Presently it all came back to her, and, getting up, she raised the shade +quietly, for no one else was awake, and looked down into the street +in which wagons of all kinds were passing, while the sidewalks were +already, at six o'clock, swarming with children, driven into the air as +early as possible by the heat of the night. Then she looked about for +her clothes and a place where she might go to bathe and dress, for the +small rooms were all open through, and the lack of privacy and the sight +of the flushed disordered sleepers was a fresh jar to her. + +Finally she tiptoed into the kitchen where a friendly clothes-horse +offered shelter, and managed to make herself neat, and arranged her hair +at a mirror hung over the kitchen sink, which she afterward found was +the family toilet place; then she stepped out on to the fire-escape +where there was the possibility of a breeze. + +At that moment she heard Billy's querulous little voice wail, "Oh, I'm +so tired--tireder than last night, and I hurt all over," and she slipped +back through the hallway into the front room again to meet her aunt who +stood in the middle of the parlour, gazing at the empty sofa and open +window in some alarm. + +"Oh, so yer up and dressed betimes and not fallen out of the winder +through sleep-walkin'," she said, not unkindly. "Jack has turns of it at +the coming of every hot weather, and he's been down the escape to the +ground, up to the roof and every place he could get, so it gave me a +turn when I missed yer. Here, I'll just throw a few clothes on Billy and +you can take him down to the street for a mouthful of air, while I get +the breakfast. I'll fetch him to the doctor to-day if it does put back +my sewin', and see if I can't get some ease for him." + +"Shall I wash him first?" Bird asked quickly, as his mother began to +pull and jerk at his clothes, and then stopped short as she saw a flash +in her aunt's eyes that told her that she must be careful what she said. + +"Wash him this time of the morning when he's scarce awake, and have +him all tired before he has a bite of breakfast? I guess not. You can +clean him up this noon, before I take him to the doctor's," and Billy, +now hopping, now stumbling along on his little crutch, led the way down +the three flights of dark stairs, moving carefully from step to step so +that he should not trip in the holes in the carpet with which they were +covered. + +Once in the street Bird was at the same time interested and confused by +what was going on about her. A Jewish fish pedler, with much wagging +of head and hands, was trying to sell some stale-smelling flat-fish to +a woman who had preceded them downstairs. Another pedler, with a push +cart, piled high with cabbages, radishes, and greens, went into one of +the houses with a basketful of his wares at the very moment that a big, +roan truck-horse halted with his soft, inquisitive nose dangerously near +the green stuff. First he sampled a bunch of radishes, but these were +too hot for his taste, so he tried a carrot or two, and mangled fully +a peck of spinach before he sniffed the cabbages. At these he gave a +whinny of delight and nosed among them so vigorously that half a dozen +rolled into the gutter, and when the man returned, the horse had started +back a yard or so in fright and looked guiltless of the mischief, and +the pedler ran down the street after some suspicious-looking boys. +Meanwhile the horse stepped forward and nibbled the biggest cabbage with +great relish, while Billy clapped his hands, half a dozen other children +cheered, and Bird herself laughed and felt glad to see the horse, who +did not look overfat, have such a good breakfast. + +For if Bird loved flowers and all outdoors, she loved animals still more +even if she did not know it, but the other children did not think of the +horse at all; they were only glad because it had outwitted the pedler, +for between the people of poorer New York and the push-cart people there +is everlasting war. This lesson Bird learned that morning before the +various factories in the neighbourhood had blown their seven-o'clock +whistles. + +Another thing that struck her sensitive ear was the different languages +that were spoken by the passers-by,--the various mixtures of slang +and foreign idioms that the speakers used for English being almost as +difficult for her to understand as the German and Italian. + +At Laurelville, to be sure, people spoke in two ways. The real country +folk had a vigorous, if homely, dialect, such as the Lanes spoke, while +Dr. Jedd, the minister, and her father and mother used a purer speech, +though her father alone had the soft, distinct way of pronouncing the +words that was one of Bird's great attractions. + +Little Billy, however, was quite at home with this street language, as +far as understanding it went, but no word of it came from his baby lips, +strangely enough, and though he was really over six years old, he had +the slight frame and innocent, open-eyed gaze of a child of four, and he +was entirely "different like" from the rest of his family, as his mother +said, and it provoked her as if the fact of the child's being apart from +her own rudeness was a personal reproach. + +"Hullo, Billy," called a freckled, lanky-looking girl of perhaps +fifteen,--reading by her face, though she was no taller than Bird,--who +was coming across the street from a grocer's carefully carrying a bottle +of milk as if it was a rare possession. + +"Hello, Mattie," he answered cheerfully, hopping to the curb to meet +her. "Where've you been? I thinked you moved away." + +"I've been working all of two weeks, and we moved right in back of your +house yesterday. We've got two fine rooms now, and I buy Tessie a bottle +of milk every morning now my own self," she said proudly. + +"Tessie's legs are very bad again, and I can't get her out except +Sundays when mother's at home to help, but she's got a rocking-chair and +she can pull it all round the room an' see up out the winder to your +'scape. We seen you sittin' up there last night. Who's the girl?" she +added, dropping her voice as Bird drew near to Billy, not knowing how he +went about alone and fearful lest he should fall. + +"It's Bird, my cousin; she came last night from the far-away country," +he answered, clinging to Bird's hand, while the two girls looked at each +other, one shyly and the other--city bred and quick-witted--curiously, +noticing at once the plain black gown. + +"Come to visit or stop?" she asked presently. + +"I've come to stay," said Bird, slowly, only half realizing the truth of +the words. + +"Father dead?" + +"Yes." + +"Mother living?" + +"No." + +"Any brothers and sisters?" + +"No." + +"Well, that's tough luck," said Mattie, her tone full of sympathy. As +she set the precious bottle on a damp spot on the sidewalk, so that her +hands need not heat the milk, she noticed the tears in Bird's eyes and +changed the subject quickly. + +"Ain't you going to work soon? I've got a good job--cash-girl--$3.50 a +week, Saturday afternoons off all summer; 'n, if I'm smart in a year, +I can get to be an assistant stock-girl. How old are you, anyhow? I'm +fifteen and over." + +"I'm thirteen and Uncle John is going to send me to school by and by; he +says that it closes too soon to make it worth while this term." + +"Yes, you'll have to go until you're fourteen or they'll chase you up, +even if you do live in a flat with stair carpet. It's too bad, though; +you'd have lots more fun working." + +"But I want to go to school as long as I can," said Bird, smiling at +Mattie's mistake. + +"Oh, then you want to begin in an office type-writing or keeping sales +books. I don't like that; it's too slow and you can't see the crowd. +You'll have a daisy time this summer, though, with nothin' to do but +takin' Billy riding in trolleys and seein' the town. I'll tell you all +the parks where they have music. Billy's pa is free with dimes for +trolley rides. Last year, before my pa's falling accident, we lived down +this street, and when Tessie's legs were well enough, Mr. O'More 'd +often give me a quarter to take Billy along fer a ride. You can ride +near all day fer that, if you know how to work the transfers and stick +up fer yer rights." + +"Was your father badly hurt?" asked Bird, drawn to this stranger by a +common chord. + +"Yes, hurt dead," she answered, in a matter-of-fact tone without the +trace of a tremble, "and then pretty soon we had to move, and we've +been doin' it most ever since, so I kinder lost track o' Billy. You see +mother worried sick and we all got down on our luck, but now she's got a +steady job to do scrubbin' at the Police Court, and I've got a job, and +we've got two rooms and everything is all hunky; that is 'cept Tessie's +legs, but some's worse than her and can't even sit up." + +"You say you live behind us; which house is it? Perhaps I could see your +sister through the window," said Bird, somehow feeling reproached at +Mattie's cheerfulness. + +"It's the little low house down in the yard, back of yours, that's got +winders that stick out of the roof. Ours is the top middle and it's got +blinds to it,--all the winders haven't,--and they're fine to draw-to +if it rains, 'cause you don't have to shut the window. It's a rear +building, and some don't like 'em, and of course Tessie would rather +see out to the street, but rents come so high and rear buildings are +stiller at night; that is, when there's not too many cats. Were rents +high a month where you came from?" + +"I don't exactly know," said Bird, trying to remember. "I think we paid +ten dollars, but we had a whole house, though it was old, and a garden, +and a woodshed, and a barn, and chickens. Everybody lived in whole +houses in Laurelville, even though some had only two or three rooms." + +"Ten dollars for all that, and we pay eight for two rooms!" ejaculated +Mattie, looking hard at Bird to see if she was in earnest, and, seeing +that she was, quickly grew confidential, and, coming close, whispered: +"Would you, may be, sometime come in and tell Tessie about it and the +garden and chickens? She's read about the country in a book she's +got,--oh, yes, she can read; she's twelve and went to school up to last +year, for all she isn't much bigger 'n Billy--but she can't seem to +understand what it's just like and she's cracked after flowers; the man +in the corner market gave her one in a pot last year, but it didn't live +long because we hadn't a real window that opened out then. Maybe your +aunt won't let you come 'cause we live in a rear; my mother says she's +awful proud; but then, most anybody would be, living in a whole flat +with bells and a stair carpet. + +"Say, Bird," she continued, after a moment's silence,--during which the +pedler had given up chasing the boys, rearranged his scattered wares, +and plodded patiently on,--this time dropping her voice to a whisper and +putting her lips to the other's ear, "if yer aunt won't let yer come +over, maybe you'd wave to Tessie when you and Billy's takin' the air on +the 'scape. I'll tie a rag to our blind so's you'll know the winder. +It would be an awful lot of company fer her daytimes when we're out to +have somebody to wave to. Yer will? I believe ye; somehow I could tell +in a minute ye'd be different from the rest," and giving Bird a thump on +the back expressive of gratitude, Mattie picked up her milk bottle and +hurried round the corner. + +A shout from above next attracted Bird, and looking up she saw her uncle +leaning out of the window and calling to them to come up for breakfast. +Billy could hop downstairs quite easily, but in going up he was obliged +to crawl, baby fashion, on his hands and knees, so Bird followed, slowly +carrying his crutch. + +Her uncle and cousins were already seated at the table when the pair +came up, both rather out of breath. Of the two boys, Larry made no +attempt to rise and shake hands, but stared hard at Bird's pale, +clear-cut face and neatly brushed almost blue-black hair and lashes +that made her violet-black eyes darker yet, then gave a quick nod in +which recognition and approval were combined, and continued his meal; +while Jack got up, came forward pleasantly, if with the very flourishy +sort of manner that somehow always reminds one of the pigeon wings +and squirrels in old fashioned writing-books, and waved her to a seat +between himself and his father and began to collect the dishes about her +plate. + +"Go on with yer eatin'," said Mrs. O'More, rather sharply, as if +resenting the attention. "Bird can wait on herself,--she's got all day +to do it in and it's time you were off. Come round this side by Billy's +chair so's you can spread his bread; he's always cuttin' himself," she +added. + +The food was plentiful enough, if rather coarse in quality,--a dish of +oatmeal, slices of head-cheese and corn-beef on the same dish, potatoes +sliced cold with pickled cabbage, a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, a huge +plate of bread with a big pot of coffee, still further heating the close +room from its perch on the gas range. But the table-cloth was soiled and +tumbled, and Bird saw with horror that her uncle wiped his mouth on the +edge of it, using it as a napkin, while the dishes seemed to have been +thrown on without any sort of arrangement. + +Not feeling hungry herself, she began to cut up some meat for Billy, +who fed himself awkwardly using his knife instead of a fork; but Bird +did not dare say anything, and in a few minutes his appetite failed +and he sat picking holes in a piece of bread, while Bird looked at the +heaped-up plate her uncle pushed toward her with dismay, yet forced +herself to eat from inbred politeness. + +Larry and Jack, having finished, pushed back their chairs, and hastily +filling their lunch-boxes with bread, meat, and eggs, took their coats +from the rack in the narrow hall and went out, Larry calling, "So long," +as he went downstairs, but Jack turned back and said pleasantly to Bird, +"Good-by till night, and don't get homesick, Ladybird!" + +"Ladybird, indeed," snapped Mrs. O'More, "you needn't bother; she can't +well sicken long over what she ain't got," at which unnecessarily cruel +remark, that made Bird stoop lower over her plate and swallow some +coffee so quickly that coughing hid her tears, O'More looked up and +said: "What's wrong with yer to-day, Rosy? You've no call to hit out +when nobody's touchin' yer." + +"What's wrong? What's right, I'd like you to tell me?" she flashed; "me +with a lot uv sewin' to do, and to get Billy up-town to the doctor's by +ten." + +"You don't do that tomfool dressmakin' with my leave and consent. I can +keep my family and well, too, if you weren't so set on robbin' yerself +fer Tom, who'll land himself in prison yet for all of you, if, please +God, he doesn't drag the rest of us along with him." + +"I can wash the dishes and dress Billy if I may," said Bird, timidly, +feeling the tension of a bitter quarrel in the air. + +"Well, you may try it for onct, but look to it you neither smash them +nor make him cry; there's days he near takes fits at the sight of water. +Here's his clean suit, and I'll just go and finish up that silk skirt," +and Mrs. O'More pulled some clothes from a corner bureau and left Bird +and Billy alone. + +"Don't you worry with what she says," said O'More, in a gruff whisper, +pressing Bird's shoulder with his kindly grasp. "Just you be good to the +little feller and yer Uncle John 'll stand by yer, and maybe ye'll see +some way to chirk things up a bit. I've been thinkin' some of puttin' +a bit uv an awning out on the 'scape to keep the sun off him while +he's takin' the air, only travellin' so much I've not got to it. I'd +do it to-day, only I must go to the yards to unload a car o' horses. +To-morrer, maybe, I'll stay around home." + +"Don't you want any breakfast, Billy?" Bird asked, as her uncle clumped +downstairs. + +"No,--yes,--I'm hungry, but I'm tired more," he answered, laying his +head on the table. + +"Suppose I wash and dress you first, and then you can go out on the +piazza and eat something and see if you can spy Tessie." + +"Will you hurt Billy's bones when you wash him? Ma always does," he +added, his lower lip beginning to quiver. He always called himself by +name and often spoke in short sentences as very young children do. + +"I'll try not to; and if I do, you must tell me and I'll stop right +away." + +Bird looked about the room to see what she could find without calling +her aunt, whose very presence seemed to irritate Billy. There were two +stationary wash-tubs beside the range; one of these being empty, she +proceeded to fill it half full of water, making it comfortably warm by +aid of the tea-kettle. Next she hunted up a piece of soap and found a +towel with much difficulty, for the roller towel on the kitchen door was +for general use. + +"Come and play duck and go in swimming," she said to Billy, who had been +watching her with interest as she overturned a pail and put it in the +corner of the tub for a seat. + +The idea struck the child's fancy so completely that he could hardly +wait to slip out of his few clothes and be helped up on a chair and then +into the tub, where he sat comfortably pouring the water over himself +with a tea-cup, and chuckling in a way that would have warmed his +father's heart. + +Meanwhile, Bird gathered the dishes together in the sink, wiping off +the plates with bits of bread,--as she had done ever since she could +remember and had seen her mother do in the short "better days" when they +had a pretty home and her mother had always herself washed the best +china in the inside pantry,--and straightened the furniture and hung up +various articles that littered the floor so that there was room to move +about. By this time Billy was ready for drying, which Bird did so gently +that he did not even wince, for she had ministered to her father, seen +her father care for her mother, and God had given her the best gift that +a girl, be she child or woman, can have,--the gift of loving touch, of +doing the right thing almost unconsciously for the weak or helpless. + +Billy, clean, refreshed, with his bright hair brushed into a wreath +around his forehead, sitting in his little chair on the fire-escape, +and being fed with bread and milk by Bird, who talked to him as he ate, +was a different being from the crumpled little figure that had only a +few moments before looked so pathetic sitting in his high-chair, head on +table. + +As Bird gave him the last morsel and wiped his mouth, he leaned backward +to where she knelt behind him and, clasping his arms around her neck, +pulled her head down to him, and, nestling there, whispered, "Billy +loves Bird very much, and she must stay close by him forever 'n' ever, +won't she?" + +"See, that must be Tessie's window down there," she said, not trusting +herself to answer and catching sight of a white rag hanging from the +blind of a low building that stood in the rear of a shop that fronted on +the next street. It was an old-fashioned, two-story, wooden house, with +dormer windows in a roof that had been once shingled. There were a dozen +such in Laurelville, and as Bird looked at it she wondered how it came +to be there, built in on all sides, and if it didn't miss the garden +that must have once surrounded it. + +Then as she looked she saw the outline of a face inside the window. +It was so far down and across that she could not distinguish the +features, but she waved the towel she held, and Billy shook his hand. +Presently something white waved back, and thus a telegraph of love +and sympathy crossed the dreary waste of brick and clothes-lines, and +put the three in touch, and the Bird, who had been taken from the +country wilds and put in a city cage, and the two little cripples were +no longer alone, for even at these back windows there was some one to +wave to and respond. + +Mrs. O'More was in a better mood when, an hour later, having finished +the gown, she came back to the kitchen to find the dishes washed and set +away, and Billy sitting contentedly in his chair throwing crumbs to try +to coax some pigeons that lived in the stable next door from the roof to +the fire-escape. + +"I'll take him up to the doctor's now," she said to Bird, without +vouchsafing any remarks upon the improved appearance of the kitchen, +though she saw it all. "You can come along with me if you like, or you +can stop here and look about and rest yourself a bit. There's plenty of +passing to be seen from the front room." + +Bird said she thought she would rather stay at home. + +"Mind, now, and lock the inside hall door as soon as we've gone and +don't let anybody in, for, in spite of the catch on the door below, +there's always pedlers and one thing and another pushing up." + +After Mrs. O'More had left, Bird went through into the sitting room. +Seating herself by the window with her arms on the sill, she looked +down into the street. It was an intensely hot day in spite of a breeze +that blew from the East River; down by the pavement the mercury was +climbing up into the nineties--summer had come with a jump. Could it be +only a week ago that she had been picking long-stemmed, purple violets +by the brook beyond the wood lot at Laurelville? Was it only day before +yesterday that Lammy had brought her the red peonies, and they had +walked up the hill road together? + +She had stayed by the window for some time, perhaps half an hour, +watching the horses that were led out from the stable to be cooled by +spray from the hose attached to the hydrant in front, when a slight +noise in the kitchen caused her to turn. The light from the window +opening on the fire-escape was darkened, and a man's figure showed for +a second in outline against the sky and then swung noiselessly into the +kitchen. + +Bird's first impulse was to scream, but, checking it, she shrank +trembling behind a tall rocking-chair and watched. The man glanced about +the kitchen and came directly through to the room where her uncle and +aunt slept. It did not seem to occur to him that there was anybody at +home, though Bird did not think of this until afterward. + +Pausing before the bureau, he opened the upper drawer, and, after +passing his hand rapidly through the clothing it contained, drew out a +long wallet, which Bird recognized as the one from which her aunt had +taken some money before going to the doctor's. Without thinking of the +result or counting the cost, she rushed forward and caught the wallet +tight in both hands, crying, "You mustn't take it, you shan't; for it's +the money to pay for mending poor Billy's leg." + +The man, taken utterly by surprise, fell back, but only for a moment, +and, muttering a string of such words as Bird had never before heard, +seized her by the shoulder with one hand while he tried to wrench the +pocket-book from her with the other; but, strong as he was, this took +several minutes, for Bird hung on desperately, clinging to his arm after +he had secured the wallet, until finally he picked her up bodily and +threw her on to the bed, and before she could recover herself, locked +the door into the sitting room, and, taking out the key, did the same to +the door into the boys' room, through which he retreated, leaving her a +prisoner, for the window into the air-shaft was high out of reach. + +As Bird sat on the edge of the bed sobbing with fright and the thought +of what the loss of the money might mean to Billy, noise of a scuffle +reached her ears from the kitchen and the locked door burst open +suddenly as it had closed, pushed by a strong shoulder, but it was the +face of a perspiring policeman that peered through the crack. + +"Catch him, oh, do catch him!" she implored; "he's got the money from +Aunt Rose's drawer that's to pay for mending Billy's leg!" + +"He's caught safe enough, my girl,--me mate has him in the kitchen and +the money, too, though he did try to throw it over the yards when we +grappled him. You see there's been a slew of these daylight thieves +around these parts lately, sneaking over roofs and down escapes when +folks are at work. We spotted this one goin' through the saloon on the +corner and in among the skylights, and we followed but lost track, for +he has another wallet lifted besides this one, and if he'd slid out a +minute sooner, we'd have lost him." + +"Then holding on did some good, after all," Bird gasped, still standing +with tightly clasped hands as if she were holding the precious money in +them. + +"An' did yer grab him, now? Look at that fer pluck,--it's a wonder he +didn't smash yer entirely. Come out and take a look at him; maybe ye +can tell did ye see him before." + +Bird looked, but the young man was a stranger to her. He did not appear +to be more than twenty, and, as they led him away, handcuffed to an +officer, he pulled his hat so low over his face that the crowd that +gathered and followed as soon as the street was reached could not see +his features, or if he was old or young. + +Bird gave the officer her uncle's name, and he said: "When he comes in, +tell him to come round to the station-house and he'll get his money +all right. I've got to take it in as evidence." The street was hardly +clear again of the curious crowd when the twelve-o'clock whistle sounded +and workmen appeared from all quarters, either with pails to eat their +dinners in the shade of the house fronts, or on the way to their various +homes. + +Mrs. O'More and her husband--for he had been watching for their +car--came up the street together, little Billy between them, and it was +strange that they did not meet the policemen with their prisoner. Bird +was watching eagerly for them, and, after hearing their news,--that the +doctor said it was possible to help the lame leg, only that Billy must +grow stronger before it could be done,--told them hers. + +Both listened eagerly. Her uncle said, "Yer pluck does credit to the +O'Mores, but did ye mind the villain's face what it was like?" + +"Oh, yes," Bird answered excitedly, "it was smooth and fair, and he had +very blue eyes with a long scar over one, and his hair was quite red." +Glancing at her aunt, she saw that she had turned deadly pale, and a +certain resemblance struck her for the first time. + +"God help us,--it's Tom come back to rob his own mother," gasped poor +John O'More. + +"But you'll not appear against him, John," cried his wife, throwing her +arms around him as he seized his hat and turned to go out. + +"I can't, woman, I can't; but maybe it'll do no good. I must go round to +the station and get the wallet and see to this, anyway." + +And Bird, after laying Billy on the lounge for a nap, sat by her +aunt,--who, while waiting to hear the outcome, had collapsed and was +crying noisily,--and tried to take off her tight waist and bathe her +face, and she realized that there were even worse griefs than leaving +one's home and father, for surely dear Terry was safe beyond all harm +now. + + + + +VII + +SUMMER IN NEW YORK + + +The arrest of Tom O'More threw the matter of little Billy's leg into +the background for a time. When the father had gone to the court where +his son was arraigned, he found that not only was there another charge +against him, but that all unknown to his family he had committed petty +thefts in other places, and had already what the police call "a record," +so that he had to go to the penitentiary for a year, and John O'More, +feeling his disgrace keenly, for though he was a rough man and coarse in +many ways he was as honest as the day, turned doubly to little Billy, +and could not bear to have him out of his sight when he was at home. + +The doctor's orders concerning Billy had been short and clear, but it +was fully a week after the visit before his mother could pull herself +together or even think of carrying them out, and then when O'More took a +day at home and had leisure to ask for details, she began by saying that +what the doctor had ordered to get the child in condition for treatment +was nonsense, and only to be had by rich folks. + +"Well, well, woman, let's hear and get to the core o' the matter," said +John O'More, tired of the continual word warfare. + +"He's to have a real bed and no shake-down, so's he can stretch out and +roll about, and it's to be in a room opening to the light where he can +lie quieter by himself an hour or so every day. Then he's to get a full +bath every morning and a light meal, and fresh meat at noon, and a bite +and sup between that at supper, and the between times filled in with air +and a bottle o' tonic, and the saints knows what else. + +"'Do yer think I keep a 'ospital to do all them things,' sez I to the +doctor. + +"'No,' he answers quick like, 'and for that reason I think it will pay +you best to send him to the 'ospital to get him built up.' + +"'His father will not hear to it,' I said. + +"'Very well, then,' said he, 'you know what _I_ think; go home and talk +it over.'" + +So John O'More sat and thought and blinked at the ground, and thought +some more, but it was Bird who first spoke, though very hesitatingly, +for her aunt resented almost everything she said, and in her ignorance +and prejudice seemed to owe poor Bird a grudge as being partially +responsible for Tom's arrest, rather than showing any gratitude toward +her for trying to prevent the theft of the money. + +"Couldn't Billy have a bed in the little room that was--that is shut +up?" she asked finally. "The door is close to the kitchen window, and a +good deal of air would come in." + +"It's packed solid full, and besides the room is off from me, so's I +couldn't hear the child to tend him in the night if needs," objected +Mrs. O'More, somewhat hotly. + +"Couldn't the things be put in the attic or somewhere?" persisted Bird, +seeing a flash of approval cross her uncle's face, "and then there would +be room for two beds, and I could stay with Billy and give him his bath +every morning." + +"Attic! do you hear her?" mocked the aunt, "and a fine slop there'd be +in me kitchen, and a nice place for folks to eat breakfast, with the +bath." + +"If the things were taken out of the bath-tub we could use that," +continued Bird, waxing bold at the prospects, "and I'm sure, Aunt Rose, +it would be much nicer for you to have the parlour to yourself, and not +have to make me a bed there every night." + +"That last is true; I've been greatly put out these days when company +called," the company being the slipshod factory girls for whom she did +sewing, but, as often happened, Bird had unconsciously said the one +thing that could have appeased her aunt, for only when something was +suggested that would benefit herself was she willing to have others +considered. + +"The tub is full of holes, and the agent he won't mend it, saying that I +made them with the ice-pick, when for convenience I used that same tub +for an ice-box, me own givin' out." + +"If that's all, a bit o' solder is cheap," said O'More, springing to his +feet, and preparing to take action. + +"I've the day on me hands, and a few extry dollars in me pocket, and if +something can't be worked out o' this, 'twon't be my fault; and while +I recommember it, I think you'd be the better of a new hat, Rosie, and +while yer out buyin' it, jest step in the store, round on Third Avenue +and get two o' them light-lookin', white iron beds; they're cheap, for I +saw yesterday when passin' that they be havin' a bargain sale of them," +and John, with the quick-witted diplomacy of his race, handed his wife +some money which she took, and, half mollified, at once prepared to go +out, instructing Bird to "do up the rooms" while she was gone. + +The door had not fairly closed when O'More gave a shout that almost +frightened Bird, and said: "Now we'll do some hustlin'; there's no +attic, me girl, but there's the coal-closet in the cellar which is +empty, now that we use gas in the range. Half the stuff is but fit for +the ashman, and the rest I'll bundle down there quick as I get a man +from the stable to help. Now watch sharp whilst I put the truck out and +see if there's aught yer can use." + +When the room was finally cleared, a mirror, a chair, and a small chest +of drawers were the only useful assets, and these Bird pulled into the +kitchen, while she dusted and wiped away at them until they looked +clean, even if somewhat shabby. + +Returning from the cellar O'More (in his youth a handy man in a stable) +attacked the dust in the little room with broom, mop, and finally a +scrubbing-brush to such good purpose that in an hour it was quite +another place, for the walls fortunately had been painted a light cream +and were in fairly good condition. + +If John O'More had been asked to go down on his knees and scrub a room, +he would have resented the work as an insult to his manhood, but love +had set the task. Little Billy, sitting there in his chair, his face all +eagerness, needed the room, and so he did the work as nonchalantly as he +would have stepped into the stable and curried a horse in a hurry time. +It was only when Bird clapped her hands in admiration and said, "Why, +uncle, how nice and quick you did that; Dinah Lucky would have taken a +whole day," that he became embarrassed, and, giving her an apologetic +wink, said with lowered voice, "It's a job well done, but whist! 'tis +not for the good of my health to be repeated," and Bird understood and +wondered, as she did a hundred times during that long summer, why she +always understood her uncle and he her, while life with her aunt seemed +one long misunderstanding. + +A plumber, living in the flat below, came up in the noon hour and +soldered the holes in the tub, which O'More declared to be too black +even for a pig's trough, so he sped out around one of those many +"corners," of which at first Bird thought the city must be made, for a +quart of boat paint and a brush. + +"Yer aunt must be havin' a hard time with her tradin'," he remarked on +his return, seeing that his wife had not come back to prepare dinner. +But just as Bird had spread the table with various articles of cold +food, whose abiding-places she very well knew, and was making Billy some +little sandwiches to coax him to eat meat for which he had a distaste, +Mrs. O'More came in, talkative and almost pleasant as the result of her +morning's bargaining. + +Before night two narrow beds were carefully fitted into opposite sides +of the little room, with the chest of drawers set between, in front of +the now-closed door that led to the boys' room, with the looking-glass +hung above it. It was only a bit of a place and still very close and +stuffy, but Billy and Bird had at least beds of their very own, if only +in a niche apart, and Bird's heart took fresh courage. + +The next step was to coax her uncle to fill some long boxes with earth +and set them inside the outer railing of the fire-escape. There is a law +against filling up these little balconies with boxes or furniture of any +kind, but Bird knew nothing about it, and her uncle regarded it as a +sort of tyranny that he, a free-born citizen, should disregard. All Bird +thought of was that she might plant morning-glory seeds in the earth +so they would climb up the strings she fastened to the next story, and +later on there was, in truth, a little bower blooming above that arid +waste of bricks and ashes. + +[Illustration: _Bird and Billy on the Fire-escape._] + +After the new room was arranged, and permission given to Bird to see +that Billy had what the doctor ordered that he should eat, and to +take him out whenever he wanted to go, everything began to move more +regularly and in some respects more comfortably, then Bird, to her +dismay, saw the city summer, like a long roadway without a tree or bit +of shade, stretching out before her. + +There was not a book in the house and no one to tell her of the free +library where she might get them, and school, where she hoped to find +a sympathetic teacher for a friend, belonged to September three months +away. No one who has always lived in the city can possibly understand +what this change, with its confinement and lack of refined surroundings, +meant to this young soul. To be poor, in the sense of having little to +spend and plain food, she was accustomed,--in fact, she had much more +to eat now, and through her uncle's careless kindness she was seldom +without dimes for the trolley rides to Battery Park "where the fishes +lived," or Central Park with the swan-boats that were to "make a man" of +Billy. But to be shut away from the woods, the sky, the beauty of the +sunsets, to have no flowers to gather and love, and to be brought face +to face daily with all the ugliness of the life that is merely of the +body, was almost too much for her courage. + +How could she keep her head above the street level, how remember what +her father had taught her?--already the memory of the past was becoming +confused. Sometimes she was on the verge of ceasing to try and settling +down into a silent drudge, content to take what came, and falling +into the habits and commonplace pleasures of the girls of her cousins' +acquaintance with whom she was thrown in the parks and on the stoop and +streets. It would have been much easier in some respects,--her aunt +would have been better pleased to see her go off with the others, to +some noisy if harmless excursion, arrayed in a cheap, flower-wreathed +hat and gay waist, shrieking with laughter, and chewing gum, than to +see her always neat amid disorderly surroundings and ever willing +to do the endless little tasks that her own mismanagement piled up, +and Ladybird--Jack's name for her--strangely enough seemed a term of +reproach, not compliment. + +At first Bird had hoped that Sunday might bring better things; but no, +Sunday in the quiet, peaceful, Protestant sense that Bird understood +it,--there was none. The family straggled to early mass one by one, for +Mrs. O'More and her sons were Romanists, though O'More was not, being +from the north of Ireland, and the rest of the day was spent by the men +either lying in bed and smoking, or standing in groups about the street. + +In these hard days little Billy was Bird's only ray of light. The two, +being of equally sensitive natures, clung together, and the child was +so happy in his new-found friend and ceased his incessant fretting +whenever he was with her, that Mrs. O'More at last gave him completely +to Bird's charge with a sigh of relief, for her youngest child was as +much a puzzle to her as her niece, and she felt that he also was of a +different breed, as it were, and it annoyed her. + +All the fierce scorching summer days Bird and Billy wandered about +together, sometimes going over to Madison Square, sometimes riding in +the trolley to Central Park, but more often down to the Battery where +the air tasted salt and good, where the wonderful fishes lived in the +round house and the big ships went past out to that unknown sea of which +Bird was so fond of telling Billy stories. + +Bird, too, soon learned to find her way about, for six-year-old Billy +had all the New York gamin's knowledge of his whereabouts coupled with a +cripple's acute senses. He hopped along with his crutch quite well, and +many a lesson in human nature and life did Bird learn these days in the +treeless streets of poorer New York. + +After a time she found that her uncle had seemed to forget his hatred +of anything like drawing or painting, so one day she ventured to buy a +good-sized pad and pencil, and then watching Bird "make pictures" became +Billy's great joy, while she to her surprise found that she could draw +other things besides flowers. + +Oftentimes the children would go down to sit on the steps and watch +the horses from the great sales stable being exercised up and down the +street. Bird tried to draw these too, and one day succeeded so well that +her uncle, passing in at the door, stopped and looked down, and then +said, "Bully! any one would know it for a horse, sure!" After that she +worked at every odd minute. + +She loved horses dearly, but she and Billy were forbidden to go into +the stables, which were almost underneath the flat, and Bird really +had no wish to, for the men there were so rough and there was so much +noise and confusion; but a few doors away was a fire-engine house where +lived three great, gentle, gray horses that ran abreast, and had soft +noses that quivered responsively when they saw their driver even in the +distance. Bird made friends with these, taking them bits of bread or +green stuff, until the firemen came to expect the daily visit and "Bird" +and "Billy" became familiar names in the engine-house; and there was a +little dog there that ran with the engine and reminded her of Twinkle. + +Dan was the heaviest of the three horses and Bird's favourite, and +one day, after many attempts, seated on the stoop of the next house, +she succeeded in drawing a small head of him that was really a good +likeness, at least so the firemen thought, for they put it in a frame +and hung it in the engine-house, and the next day big Dave Murray, Dan's +driver, gave her a small box of paints "with the boys' compliments." + +Ah, if the big, bluff fellow only knew what the gift meant to poor +little Ladybird struggling not to forget and to still keep the heavenly +vision in sight. + +Bird had written a short note to Mrs. Lane telling of her safe arrival +in the city, and giving her address, but more than that she could not +say. If she said that she was happy and gilded the account of her +surroundings, it would have been false. If she told the truth, her +Laurelville friends would be distressed, and it would seem like begging +them to take her back when it evidently was not convenient, for she did +not know that her Uncle John had refused to let her stay with Mrs. Lane +unless she was legally adopted. + +Neither was Bird worldly wise enough to act a part and simply write of +her visits to the park and the little excursions with Billy which in +themselves were pleasant enough. She was crystal clear, and knew of but +two ways, either to speak the whole truth or keep silent. She was too +loyal to those whose bread she was eating to do the first, and so she +did not write. + +In due time a long letter came from Lammy written with great pains and +all the copy-book flourishes he could master, telling of Aunt Jimmy's +strange will, of how he was going to work all summer at the fruit farm, +and ended up by telling her of the preparations he had made for the +Fourth, never dreaming it possible that, the matter of tickets disposed +of, Bird should refuse his invitation. + +At first the thought of getting away from the city, and being among +friends again quite overcame her. She began to wonder if Twinkle would +be glad to see her, and if the ferns met over the brook as they did last +year, and if Mrs. Lane would have the white quilt on the best-room bed, +or the blue-and-white patch with the rosebuds. Then she realized that +if she met the Laurelville people face to face, she would surely break +down, while the saying "good-by" again would be harder than not going. +Then, too, there was little Billy. How could she leave him at the very +time when, in spite of continued hot weather, he seemed to be gaining? + +No--she sat down resolutely and wrote a short note that wrung her heart +and kissed it passionately before she mailed it, for was it not going to +the place that now seemed like heaven to her? + +But the letter that arrived as the Lanes sat on porch after supper said +no word of all this, and seemed but a stiff, offish little note to +warm-hearted Mrs. Lane and Lammy who, having now quite earned the ticket +money, was cut to the quick when he found that it was all in vain. + +"She's gone to the city and forgotten us," he gulped in a quavering +voice, as he read the letter, coming as near to letting a tear run down +his nose as a sturdy New England boy of fourteen could without losing +his self-respect. + +"It doos _appear_ that way," said Mrs. Lane, who was gazing straight +before her out of the window with an abstracted air; "but, after all, +what's in appearances, Lammy Lane? Don't your copy-book say that they +are deceitful? Well, that's what I think of 'em. Likely 'nough it +appears to Bird that I didn't want to keep her, 'cause owing to this +other mix-up, I couldn't divide the share of you boys without thinking +it over, and 'dopt her then and there. But my intentions and them +appearances is teetotally different. + +"No, Lammy, I'm goin' straight on lovin' Bird and trustin' her and +keepin' a place in my heart for her, besides havin' the best-room bed +always aired and ready, and jest you keep on lovin' and trustin' her, +too, and like as not the Lord will let her know it somehow, for I do +believe kind feelings is as well able to travel without wires to slide +on as this here telegram lightnin' that hollers to the ships that's +passin' by in the dark. 'Think well and most things 'll come well,' say +I." + +"How about Aunt Jimmy's will? Yer always thought well enough o' her," +said Joshua, who had laid down his paper and folded his spectacles to +listen to the reading of the letter. + +"An' I do still," Mrs. Lane averred stoutly; "it doos _appear_ +disappointing, but I allers allowed that if we was only able to read +her meanin', 'twould be a fair and kindly one." + + + + +VIII + +THE FLOWER MISSIONARY + + +It was the last day of June when one morning, before the sun had a +chance to turn the pavements into ovens, Bird, having finished some +marketing for her aunt, was leading Billy slowly in and out along the +shady sides of the streets toward Madison Square, where they were +watching the lotus plants in the fountain for the first sign of an open +flower, for already buds were pushing their stately way through the +great masses of leaves. + +Chancing to glance at the window of a newly finished store that was not +yet rented, Bird read the words, "Flower Mission." As she paused to look +at the sign, wondering what it might mean, an express wagon stopped at +the curb and several slat boxes and baskets filled with flowers, for +sprays peeped from the openings, were carried into the building, a wave +of moist coolness and perfume following them. + +Bird's heart gave a bound of longing, for the fragrance of the flowers +painted a picture of her little straggling garden and held it before her +eyes for a brief moment. + +"Oh, look, Bird, come quick and look; it's all full of pretty flowers in +there! Do you think they would let Billy go in and smell close?" Billy +was standing by the open door, and, as Bird glanced over his shoulder, +she saw that one side of the store was filled by a long counter, +improvised by placing boards upon packing cases, which was already +heaped with flowers of every description in addition to those that the +expressman had just brought. + +An elderly lady, with a big, white apron tied over a cool, gray, summer +gown, was sorting the flowers from the mass, while a tall, slender young +girl, of not more than sixteen, dressed all in white, was making them +into small bouquets and laying them in neat rows in an empty hamper. + +It was the young girl who overheard Billy's question to Bird and +answered it, saying, "Of course Billy may come in and smell the flowers +as much as he pleases, and have as many as he can carry home." + +"Oh, can we?" said Bird, clasping her hands involuntarily with her old +gesture that expressed more joy than she could speak. + +At the sound of the second voice, the young girl pushed back the brim +of her drooping, rose-trimmed hat and looked up with clear, gray eyes. +As she did so Bird recognized her as Marion Clarke, the daughter of the +man who spent his summers in the stone house on the hillside beyond +Northboro, and it was she who had passed Bird and Lammy on the roadside +the day when she had left her old home and, carrying Twinkle, was going +to Mrs. Lane's. + +But if Bird recognized Marion, the memory was on one side, as it is apt +to be where one sees but few faces and the other many. This however +did not prevent Marion from holding out her free hand to the younger +girl, as she made room for her to pass between the boxes, saying, in a +charming voice, low-keyed and softly modulated, yet without a touch of +affectation: "If you are fond of flowers and can spare the time, perhaps +you would help us this morning; so many of our friends have left the +city that we are short-handed. Here is a little box your brother can sit +on if he is tired." Oh, that welcome touch of companionship, and that +voice,--it made Bird almost choke, as she said:-- + +"Billy is my cousin, and I should love to tie the flowers, for Aunt Rose +does not expect us back until noon." + +It was one of Marion Clarke's strong points, young as she was, that she +had insight as well as tact. She saw at a glance that these children +were not of the ordinary class that play about the streets, interested +in every passing novelty, merely because it is new, so she had given +Bird a friendly greeting and asked her to help, instead of merely +offering the children a bouquet and letting them pass on as objects of +charity, no matter how light the gift. + +When Bird replied in direct and courteous speech, Marion knew that she +had read aright. An ordinary street child of that region would have +said, "I dunno 's I will," or "What 'll ye give me 'f I do?" or perhaps +declined wholly to answer and bolted off after grabbing a handful of +flowers. + +"Aunt Laura, will you let us have some string? There, see, it is cut in +lengths, so that you can twist it around twice and tie it so. I do wish +people would tie up their flowers before they send them, they would keep +so much better; but as they do not, we have to manage as best we may. + +"Oh, how nicely you do it," she continued, as Bird held up her first +effort for approval,--a dainty bouquet of mignonette, a white rose, and +some pink sweet-william, with a curved spray of honeysuckle to break the +stiffness. + +"So many people put the wrong colours together, and tie the flowers +so tight that it seems as if it must choke the dear things,--see, like +this," and Marion held up a bunch in which scarlet poppies and crimson +roses were packed closely together without a leaf of green. + +"Yes, I understand; those colours--hurt," Bird answered, groping for a +word and finding exactly the right one. + +"You must have lived in the country and been a great deal with flowers +to touch them so deftly and know so well about the colours." + +"I always lived in the country until this summer, and Terry taught me +all about the colours and how to mix them." + +"Who was Terry?" asked Marion, much interested, and not knowing that she +was treading upon dangerous ground. + +"He was father," and Bird, remembering where she was, stopped abruptly, +and Marion, who had noticed the rusty black gown, understood that there +was a story in its shabby folds and forbore to intrude. + +Miss Laura Clarke, who was the lady in gray, gave Billy a pasteboard box +lid of short-stemmed blossoms to play with, and he sat quite content, +while the others kept on tying the flowers until only one basketful was +left. + +"The flowers come in every Wednesday morning, and I ask people to send +them in as early as possible, so that they may be sorted and tied +up by ten o'clock when the ladies come to distribute them," Marion +explained as they worked. "They are Miss Vorse, the deaconess from the +mission, beside two workers from the College Settlement, and half a +dozen district visitors. Those two hampers go direct to hospitals, but +the ladies take the flowers about to the sick in the tenements and to +special cases. + +"I have come here from the country place where I live every week all +through May and June, but this is my last day this season, because I'm +going to Europe next week with my aunt, and Miss Vorse will take my +place." + +Another disappointment for Bird. At last she had met some one to whom +she had felt drawn, and whom she thought she might see occasionally, and +almost in the same breath learned that she was going away. + +"Do you know of any children who would like some flowers, or any one who +is ill?" she added, as she noticed that Bird was silent and loath to go, +even though all the bouquets were ready and Miss Laura was packing them +in the baskets and boxes for distribution. + +"There's Tessie; oh, I know that Tessie would love to have some!" cried +Bird, eagerly; "she has not waved to us for nearly a week, and I was +going to see her this afternoon when Billy takes his nap, if Aunt Rose +will let me," and Bird told what she knew of the little cripple who +"kept house" by herself while her mother and sister worked. + +Then a happy idea came to Marion Clarke. Handing out a flat wicker +basket, that held perhaps twenty-five bouquets, to Bird, she said: +"Would you like to be one of the Flower Missionaries this summer and +carry bouquets? Yes?" as she saw the glad look in her eyes; "then you +may fill this basket, and here is a big bouquet for you and something +extra sweet to add to the basket,--see, a bunch of real wallflowers, +such as grow over seas, some foreign-born body will go wild with joy +over it, and here is a fruit bouquet a youngster has evidently put +together,--big strawberries on their stalks set in their own leaves. + +"Miss Vorse is coming now. I will introduce you and tell her to give +you the flowers. What is your name? Bird O'More. I'm glad of that; it +seems to fit you. I should have been disappointed if it had been Jane +Jones," she continued, as a sweet-faced, tall young woman, dressed in a +dark blue gown and bonnet, entered, saying: "I'm afraid that I am late, +but there is so much illness among the little children in the district +now that I could not get away. A new Flower Missionary! That is good; +children can reach those whom we cannot." + +Presently Bird found herself walking along the street, Billy's hand in +one of hers, and the basket of flowers in the other. Billy was prattling +happily, but for once she scarcely heard what he said, the flower voices +were whispering so gently and saying such beautiful things. + +"Take us to Tessie," whispered one. "God lets us bring sunlight to +dark places," said another--"You can do the same." "Be happy, you have +something to give away," breathed another, and this flower was a spray +of cheerful honeysuckle that blooms freely for every one alike. + +Yes, Bird was happy, for Marion Clarke had held her by the hand and +called her a Flower Missionary; she had flowers to give away and flowers +to take home. Oh, joy! she could try to paint them, and she pushed the +bouquet that held the old garden flowers, the mignonette, sweet brier +and honeysuckle under the others to keep for her own. + +If she waited to go home first, the flowers might fade, so an impulse +seized her to give Tessie her flowers first, and then turned into the +street below their own, trying to remember Mattie's directions--"Count +six houses from the butcher's, and then go through the arch, and up two +pairs of stairs to the top." + +Before she had gone a block, two little girls had begged her for +flowers, one rosy and sturdy chose red and yellow zenias; the other, +who, like Billy, had a "bad leg" and hopped, chose delicate-hued sweet +peas. Bird had never seen a lame child in Laurelville, but now she met +them daily, for such little cripples are one of the frequent sights of +poorer New York. + +At the first corner a blind woman, selling the mats she herself +crocheted, begged for "a posy that she could tell by the smell was +passing." To her Bird gave the bunch of mignonette. A burly truckman, +who thought she was selling the flowers, threw her a dime and asked for +a "good-smellin' bokay for the missis who was done up with the heat," +so she tossed him back the coin and a bouquet of spicy garden pinks and +roses together, while Billy called in his piping voice, "We're a Flower +Mission--we gives 'em away," so that the man drove off laughing, his fat +face buried in the flowers. + +When Bird had counted the "six houses from the butcher's" and found the +archway, which was really the entrance to a dismal alley, her basket was +almost empty. She hesitated about taking Billy into such a place, and in +fact but for her great desire to give Tessie the flowers, she would have +turned back herself. As she looked up and down the street, a policeman +passing noticed her hesitation and stopped. + +"Sure it's the plucky girl from Johnny O'More's beyond that tried to +catch the thief,--and what do you be wantin' here?" + +Bird recognized the policeman and explained, and he said, "Ye do right +not to be pokin' in back buildings heedless; it's not fit fer girls like +you, but this same is a dacent place, though poor, and as I'm not on me +beat, only passin' by chance, I'll go through to the buildin' with ye, +and the kid can stay below with me while ye go up, for stairs isn't the +easiest fer the loikes av him." + +So through they went, the big policeman leading the way, and entering +the back building Bird began to grope upward. When the house had stood +by itself in the middle of an old garden, the sun had shone through and +through it, but now the windows on two sides were closed, and the halls +were dark, and the bannister rails half gone. + +At the first floor landing she paused a moment. What was that tap, +tapping? It came from a small room made by boarding off one end of the +broad, old-fashioned hallway. The door was open and a single ray of sun +shot across from an oval window that had originally lighted the stairs +and was high in the wall. + +In the streak of sun was a cobbler's bench and on it sat a man busily at +work fastening a sole to a shoe, so old that it scarcely seemed worth +the mending. + +Then she went on again and, after knocking at two wrong doors, finally +found the right one. + +"Come in," piped a shrill, cheery voice; "I can't come to open it," and +in Bird went. + +"I hoped that you would come to-day," said the small figure, sitting +bolstered up in a wooden rocking-chair with her feet on a box covered +with an end of rag carpet, by way of greeting. No introduction was +necessary, for the two girls knew each other perfectly well, although +their previous acquaintance had merely been by waving rags across the +yards. + +"My legs haven't felt as if they had bones in 'em in a week," Tessie +continued, "so's I couldn't reach up high enough to wave, and it seemed +real lonesome, but I've got a new pattern for lace, and there's a man in +the store where Mattie works who says he'll give me half-a-dollar for +every yard I make of it,--what do you think of that?" and she spread +out proudly a handsome bit of Irish crocheted lace upon which she was +working. It was four inches wide, a combination of clover leaves, and +very elaborate, of the kind that is so much sought now and costs many +dollars a yard in the shops. + +"It is beautiful," explained Bird; "how do you know how to do it?" + +"My mother learned long ago in the Convent in the old country, but her +hands are too stiff to make it now, and besides she says it wouldn't pay +her. So she showed me the stitch and some of the old patterns, and one +night last week, when I couldn't sleep very good, I was thinkin' of the +lace work, and I guess I must have dreamed the new pattern, for the next +morning I worked it right out. Those leaves is like some that came in a +pocketful of grass Mattie fetched me home; one day they were cutting it +over in the square, and the man let her take it. I just love the smell +o' grass, don't you? And now's I can't get out, Mattie brings me some in +her pocket every time she can. I guess she will to-night if they've cut +it to-day." + +All this time Bird held her basket behind her, but now she wheeled +about and rested it on the arm of Tessie's chair. The joy of the child +was wonderful, almost startling. Her dark eyes dilated and she looked +first at Bird and then at the flowers, as she almost whispered in the +excitement of her surprise, "Ye ain't got 'em to keep, have ye?" Then as +Bird tipped them into her lap, "They ain't fer me, fer sure?" + +[Illustration: "'_They ain't fer me, fer sure?_'"] + +"Yes, they are, and I'm going to bring you some every Wednesday," said +Bird, joyfully, and then she told about Marion Clarke and the Flower +Mission. + +"Ain't it jest heavenly to think of,--me with a whole winder to myself +that opens out and the crochet to do and real flowers, new ones that +ain't been used at all," and Tessie leaned back and closed her eyes in +perfect content. + +Then suddenly Bird's sorrow seemed to grow lighter and life a little +brighter, and the sunlight as it were crept in to sweeten them both--she +had something to give away, and lo, it was good. + +Tessie was down handling the blossoms again and discovered the berry +bouquet beneath. "Oh, but here's growing strawberries on a bush like! +Well, I never, never! But they're handsome! Maybe I could make a pattern +from them, too. Oh, surely there's angels about somewhere doin' things. +You know Father John, he says I've got a Guardian Angel looking out +after me, and St. Theresa my name saint chose her, and that everybody +has, though for a long spell I didn't know it. You see it's been easier +for her to look after me since we've got a room with an opened-out +winder. I reckon if I was an angel, I wouldn't care to poke around +air-shafts much. Oh, what's these browny-yeller flowers that smell so +elegant?" and Tessie held up the wallflowers. + +When Bird told their name, Tessie gave a little cry and said, "They're +what mother talks about that grew up in the wall below the big house +at home where her father was a keeper, and the smell of them came in +the cottage windows in the night air right to her, and she's often said +she'd cross the sea again to smell them if she had the price, and now +she won't have to take that trouble. That angel has found our winder for +sure. Would you get me the little pitcher and some water in it yonder?" + +The larger of the two rooms, the one with the window, had two clean +beds in it, over which a newspaper picture of the Madonna and Child was +pinned to the wall, two chairs, and an old bureau, while the smaller +room, little more than a closet, held a table, a few dishes, and an oil +cooking-stove, all as neat as wax. A pail of water stood on the table, +from which Bird filled the pitcher, and set it on a chair by Tessie +that she might herself arrange the flowers. Then, remembering that the +policeman and Billy were waiting, she picked up her basket and her own +flowers, and, promising to come the next week, groped her way downstairs +again. + +Bird did not see the tired mother, when she returned from her day's +scrubbing, enter the dark room and drawing a quick breath say, in an +awe-struck voice, "I smell them--I smell the wallflowers! Sure, am I +dreaming or dying?" or see the way in which she buried her face in the +mass, laughing and crying together, when the lamp was lit and Tessie had +told her the how and why of it. + +There were dreary days often after this, when her uncle was away on long +trips and her aunt was cross, but though Bird did not yet give up all +hope of going back some day among her friends, or studying, as she had +promised her father, she was learning the lesson of patience, which, +after all, is the first and last one to know by heart. + +Now the morning-glories had reached the window tops, and in the little +bower above the clothes-lines she and Billy often sat as she told him +stories of the real country, of Lammy and Twinkle, the old white horse, +and the red peonies, and flew there in imagination. Then the child's big +eyes would flash as he gazed at her, and he always ended by asking, +"When we stop being birds in this cage, we'll fly right up there to +your country and be real birds and see Lammy and Twinkle, won't we?" +And Bird always answered, "Yes," to please him, but it was a word that +meant nothing to her. So the summer wore on, and Bird did not go back to +Laurelville. + + + + +IX + +'RAM SLOCUM'S TAUNT + + +While Bird was putting away from her all thought of going back to +Laurelville for a summer visit, Lammy Lane was trying in every way to +bring about her return. + +His mother was the only person in the family or village who really read +Lammy aright and valued him at his worth. She never laughed at his +various contrivances and mechanical inventions, and when he appeared to +be star-gazing, she firmly believed that it was not idleness, but that +he was interested in things other than the mere jog-trot work on the +farm. + +His brothers had all taken up other occupations in factory and shop, +and Joshua Lane had expected that easy-going Lammy, the youngest by +several years, would naturally drift along into farm work; but the boy +had said, when his father had spoken upon the subject, "Farming is all +right, only this one isn't big enough for mo'n two, and I like to live +in the country for pleasure; but for a trade I'm going into making +somethin' that bugs can't eat, and that won't get dried up, nor drowned +out neither." To Joshua this remark savoured of feeble-mindedness; but +when he repeated it to Dr. Jedd, that keen-eyed person laughed, saying +they need not worry about Lammy, for that some day he might surprise +them all. + +All through June he worked diligently at strawberry picking; then +currants and raspberries followed in quick succession, so that it was +nearly August, when, with twenty dollars to his credit in the Northboro +Savings Bank, he took a vacation and went to his old haunts with the +other boys. + +Lammy had been bitterly disappointed when he found that Bird could not +return to spend the Fourth of July, but he was not in the least daunted; +for, after all, what was a whole summer even, when some day Bird would +come back for good? The boy firmly believed that something would turn up +to enable his father to buy the fruit farm, or if that was impossible, +he would try to coax his father and mother to get her back without. +There was always plenty to eat, and his home seemed so pleasant to him +that he did not realize how hard his parents had to struggle to make +both ends meet in the bad seasons when the bugs ate and the drought +dried. He did not, of course, know of John O'More's requirement that +if Bird ever returned she must be legally adopted, and share and share +alike with his brothers and himself; but if he had, it would have made +no difference. + +Lammy was very fond of prowling in the deep woods and along the +river. He had intimate acquaintances among the gray squirrels, always +knew where fox cubs could be found, and had once reared a litter of +skunk pups under an abandoned barn. Their mother had evidently been +trapped,--for he never saw her,--and he fed the young with milk and +scraps, in the childish belief that they were some sort of half-wild +kittens, and was very much disgusted, when they were old enough to +follow him home, that his father declined to have them about, and that +they disappeared the very same night. + +But the river interested him the most, and he not only knew every +swimming and pike hole, perch run and spawning shallow, along its +ten-mile course from Northboro down to the Mill Farm at Milltown, and +the windings of every trout brook that fed it, but he understood all +that went on in the half dozen mills or shops along the route. He could +explain exactly how the water was turned on and off and the gearing +adjusted in the gristmill, the stamping and perforating done at the +button factory, or the sand moulds prepared at the forge where scrap +iron was turned into cheap ploughshares and other cast implements. + +One very hot day the last part of July when Lammy, together with +'Ram Slocum and Bob Jedd, was going to the pet swimming-hole of the +Laurelville boys, a clear pebble-lined pool with a shelving rock on +one side that approached the water by easy steps, they heard voices +in the woods and came suddenly upon a party of young fellows from the +Engineers' Summer School, which had its camp farther down the ridge of +hills. + +"Hullo!" shouted the foremost, addressing Lammy, who also chanced to +be in the lead; "can you tell us if there is any decent place to swim +hereabouts? The pond at the Mill Farm is posted 'No Trespassing,' most +of the river bed is either too rocky or too shallow, and the only good +place we've struck below here has a mud bottom, and looked too much like +an eel hole to suit me." + +"Yes, 'tis an eel hole, this side of the course," Lammy answered +readily, "and t'other side there's pickerel could bite yer toes if they +was minded to. I'll show yer a bully place. We're going there now, and +it isn't much further up." + +"Charge him a quarter for the steer," said 'Ram Slocum, in a loud +whisper, kicking Lammy's bare shins to stop him, for he had stepped +forward eagerly to lead the way. + +"Shan't either," Lammy replied spicily, to 'Ram's astonishment; "water's +free up here, even if your pop won't let us swim in the mill-pond, and +does charge folks three cents a barrel for taking water when their wells +are dry." + +'Ram, a strong boy of sixteen, with bright red hair, who usually +domineered over all the boys of his age and under,--particularly +under,--had never before been so answered by any of his companions, much +less Lammy, to whom he often referred as "softy," and his temper rose +accordingly. His nickname "'Ram," short for Abiram, referred to his +fighting proclivities and the way in which he frequently used his bullet +head to knock out an antagonist instead of his fists; and though he did +not see fit to follow the matter then and there, in his mind he put down +Lammy for punishment when he should next catch him alone. + +Meanwhile Lammy, silently threading through the dense underbrush, +followed by Bob Jedd, reached the swimming-hole, while 'Ram slowly +brought up the rear, crashing along sullenly, kicking the dead branches +right and left so that the little ground beasts fled before him, now and +then pausing either to pound a luckless land turtle with a stone, or +shake from its perch some bird who, silent and dejected, had sought deep +cover for its moulting time. + +When he reached the others, he found not only that Lammy had made +friends with the students, who, by the way, were a new lot who had +recently come to camp, but that they were asking him all sorts of +questions to draw out his knowledge of the neighbourhood, and were +actually making Lammy a good offer if he would come to the camp daily +during their stay, be "chainboy" on their surveying expeditions, and +show them many things about the country that it would be a waste of time +for them to search out for themselves. + +Now Mr. and Mrs. Slocum had been very much stirred up by these same +surveyors, and being suspicious, as shifty people usually are, wondered +very much if the men were only practising as they claimed, or if they +were in the pay of some land company, and prospecting, that they might +see where land could be bought in large blocks. They had tried all +summer to have 'Ram employed about the camp, that he might keep his eyes +and ears open, but so far to no avail. Consequently, when the boy heard +the coveted position offered to Lammy, his rage and disappointment got +the better of his usually shrewd discretion, and pushing into the group, +he almost shouted, his voice pitched high with eagerness:-- + +"Lammy ain't the one you want; he ain't strong, and he's got no go. I'm +two years older and worth twice as much, but I'll take the job at the +same price and get pop to let you swim in the mill-pond if you'll hire +me." + +"I rather think not," said the spokesman, a bronzed, broad-shouldered +young fellow of about nineteen. "I'm afraid you might charge us for the +air we breathed while we were in swimming; besides, I never employ a +sneak if I know it." + +Then 'Ram knew that he had been overheard, and he slunk away toward +home, owing Lammy a double grudge, and the sounds of shouts of merriment +and the splashing of water did not tend to cool his wrath. + +As for Lammy, he sat on the edge of the rock, trailing his brown toes +in the water in the seventh heaven of content; for he was to help carry +those mysterious instruments about for a whole month, and go in and out +of the Summer School camp, knowing what was said and done there, instead +of gazing at it across the fields. Then, too, perhaps he might some day +meet Mr. Clarke, and possibly, though it was a daring thought, get leave +to go into the mysterious building in his locomotive works at Northboro +that bore the sign "Strictly Private--No Admittance." + +Bird and he had often talked of such a possibility. How glad she would +be to know! He would write to her all about it. + +He did, but had no reply; for the letter reached Bird at one of the +times when her uncle was away. Billy had been suffering more than usual, +and his mother was consequently very cross and difficult to bear with. +Bird put the letter by to answer "to-morrow"; but every day bore its own +burden, and the days piled up into weeks. + + * * * * * + +Joshua worked steadily on the fruit farm all the season, preparing for +future crops as conscientiously as if he himself was to be the owner. +Of this, however, he had no hope; it was impossible for him to bid on +the place, as he had little or no ready money, and the only way to raise +this would be to mortgage his own little farm. + +This several of his neighbours had suggested, offering to loan him the +money; but Joshua had struggled along some fifteen years under the +weight of a mortgage, and now that he was freed he did not wish to +pick up the burden again. Then, too, his farm with its old ramshackle +outbuildings was not worth more than three thousand dollars, while the +fruit farm with its rich land, good barn, poultry house, and newly +shingled dwelling was valued by good judges at any figure from five to +six thousand dollars. For though Aunt Jimmy had scrimped herself in many +ways, she was too good a business woman to let her property get out of +repair. + +Neither of the Lane brothers were as well off as Joshua, so by the last +of October the community had decided that the fruit farm must go out of +the family, and attention was divided between who would buy it and what +Joshua would do with his third of the proceeds,--better his house, or +buy more land. + +The Slocums were considered to be the most likely purchasers; for Abiram +Slocum was known to have much money stored away in various paying farms +as well as in the Northboro bank, though the way in which he came by +it was not approved, even by the most close-fisted of his neighbours, +for 'Biram was what was called a "land shark." He sold worthless +parcels of land that would grow nothing but docks and mullein to the +hard-working Poles and Hungarians who were fast colonizing the outskirts +of Northboro, taking part cash payment, the rest on mortgage, and +encouraging them to build. Then when the interest became overdue, owing +to inevitable poor crops, he foreclosed, put out the family, and sold +the place anew. + +So sure did Mrs. Slocum appear to be that she would own the fruit +farm, that she took it upon herself to watch the place to see, as she +explained when caught by Joshua Lane peeking in at the kitchen window, +"that nothing properly belonging to it was took off." He told her in +very plain language that whoever bought the farm would buy what there +was on it at the time, and no more, as his aunt had trusted him with the +management until the final settlement, and that what he did was no man's +business save that of the heirs. + +In the interval, before it was time to tie up vines and bed the various +berries with their winter covering of manure, he turned his attention to +Aunt Jimmy's flower garden, a strip of ground enclosed by a neat picket +fence, where a box-edged path starting under a rose trellis ran down +the middle and disappeared in a grape arbour at the farther end, and +everything that was fragrant and hardy and worth growing flanked the +walk, while behind, the sweet peas and nasturtiums climbed up to the +very fence top in their effort to see and be seen. + +This garden had been the apple of Aunt Jimmy's eye, and in spite of all +"spells" and oddities, she had tended it wholly herself, her one gentle +feminine impulse, as far as the outside world knew, having been giving +nosegays to the children that passed the house on their way home from +school. If they handled the flowers carelessly, they never received a +second bunch, but if they cherished them, slips, seeds, and bulbs were +sure to follow, so that Aunt Jimmy's flowers lived long after her in +childish garden plots. + +Prompted by Lauretta Ann,--for Joshua was too hard-headed and practical +to have learned anything about flowers, except that they must be fed and +watered like other stock, whether animal or vegetable,--he regulated the +various borders, dividing and resetting the roots of hardy plants under +his wife's direction, as Aunt Jimmy had done each autumn, while Lammy +stood by, eagerly waiting for the "weedings," which he carried home with +great care and set out in a corner south of the barn, "to make," as he +said, "a little garden for Bird, in case we don't get the fruit farm." +His mother encouraged him in this and praised his efforts, giving him +some strips of chicken wire to make a trellis, so that his vines might +in time cover the end of the old, gray-shingled barn. Even she, however, +did not know of another little garden strip on a far-away hillside that +he had tended all summer for the sake of his little friend. + + * * * * * + +In spite of Joshua Lane's rebuke to Mrs. Slocum, she continued spying +and insinuating, and not many days later, chancing to drive by the fruit +farm half an hour after school was out, and seeing Lammy going up the +road, carrying a basket, spade, and water can, followed by faithful +Twinkle, she hurried home and bade 'Ram "step lively and follow that +Lane boy up, an' see where he's goin', and what he's got, and what he's +agoin' to do with it." + +Mrs. Slocum was more than usually determined upon annoying the Lanes, +since Joshua, as administrator for Terence O'More, had refused payment +of the rent owed for the little cottage, until the insurance company +had satisfied themselves as to the cause of the fire and paid Abiram's +claim. The furniture destroyed, at the lowest estimate, would have been +more than enough to cancel the debt. + +'Ram, only too glad to do his mother's errand, after the manner of all +bullies, waited until Lammy was out of reach of protection and well +up on the sheltered "hill road" before he overtook him, asking in a +"you've-got-to-tell" tone what he had in the basket and where he was +going. Upon Lammy's declining to tell, he announced his intention of +following until he found out for himself. + +Now it must be remembered that Lammy had the name of being girlish, if +not exactly cowardly, that he was only fourteen, and though tall, was of +a slender build; while 'Ram was not only broad-shouldered and sixteen, +but the village braggart to boot, so that it really took some pluck for +Lammy to continue up that houseless road with 'Ram muttering threats +and marching close behind. Still Lammy walked straight on past all the +farms, to where the runaway Christmas trees stood sentinels around +the hillside graveyard. There is no denying that his hand shook as he +unlatched the gate, but he did not falter or look back, but went to the +corner where were the mounds that marked the graves of Bird O'More's +father and mother. + +Why the turf was so much greener and smoother than anywhere else in the +enclosure no one but Lammy knew, and for a moment 'Ram paused outside +the fence in sheer surprise; but as Lammy, kneeling down, took a couple +of roots of the red peony from his basket, and prepared to plant one at +the top of each flowery mound, his surprise vanished in derision. + +"Ain't you a fool for sure!" he shouted, not coming in the enclosure, +for, stupid and superstitious like all real cowards, he thought it +bad luck to cross a graveyard,--"a fool for sure, planting posies yer +stole; top of paupers, too, when even that stuck-up girl that was yer +sweetheart's gone off to live with rich folks and has clean forgotten +them and you!" + +Lammy's trembling fingers fumbled with the earth and his head swam. The +first part of 'Ram's jeer made his blood boil, but after all it was a +lie, and lies do not sting for long; for poor though O'More was, his +debts would be paid to a penny, and Lammy had _bought_ the peony roots +from his father as executor by doing extra weeding on the fruit farm. + +The last sentence, however, hurt cruelly; for though Lammy did not +believe it, he had no way of disproving it even to himself, and so could +not say a word to 'Ram in reply; for during the five months since Bird +went away only two brief notes had come from her, and these told about +city streets and sights, and little or nothing of herself. While, to +make it the more strange, when, in the hot August weather, Mrs. Lane had +sent her an invitation to come up for the promised visit, enclosing the +tickets, which represented some weeks of egg money, and offered herself +to go down to New Haven to meet the child, a stiff little note returning +the tickets had come by way of reply, and though it was grateful in +wording and said something vague about going with Billy for sea air, +etc., he could not guess the disappointment that it covered, and that +the sea air was merely a chance ferry ride, or the breeze that blew over +Battery Park, where they herded daily with hundreds of other children +of poorer New York. Lammy had been cut to the heart, and 'Ram's taunt +rankled indeed. + +Mrs. Lane, however, had read between the lines, her keen insight, +confidence in Bird, and motherly love serving as spectacles. She still +felt, as she always had done, that Bird was unhappy, and yet too proud +to confess it, and that she did not dare write often or come among them, +for fear that they should discover what they could not as yet better. +For Mrs. Lane remembered O'More's conditional promise only too well, +and the possibility of fulfilling her part of adopting the little girl +within the year seemed to grow more and more remote. + +Silently Lammy finished his work, picking up every dead leaf that lay on +the mounds, and then taking his spade and basket, turned to go home, but +there stood his tormentor by the gate. + +If anything angers a bully, it is silence. If Lammy had engaged in a war +of words, the chances are that 'Ram would have gone away, having had, +as he considered it, his fun out. As it was, he really felt that he had +been neglected and affronted, so, making believe open the gate as Lammy +closed it, he said, "I can dig up them posies twict as quick as you +planted 'em." + +"Maybe you can, but you won't," cried Lammy, suddenly growing pale and +rigid, while he stood outside the gate, but square in front of it. + +"Oh, ho, and who 'll stop me?" sneered 'Ram, in amused surprise, +standing with his arms akimbo. + +Without saying another word, Lammy, the meek, the boy-girl in name, flew +at 'Ram with such suddenness, beating and buffetting him, that the big +boy was knocked down before he knew it. Recovering his feet quickly, he +tried to grapple with the lanky little lad, but Lammy twisted and turned +with the litheness of a cat, landing rapid if rather wild blows at each +plunge, while Twinkle nipped at 'Ram's heels, until finally 'Ram, seeing +that he was outmatched in agility, and determined to conquer without +more ado, lowered his head for the celebrated "butt" that generally +winded his antagonist. + +Lammy's fighting Yankee ancestors must have left the lower end of the +graveyard and marched up to encourage him on this occasion; for he was +nearly spent and was pausing to get breath when the lunge came, so that +his final effort was to give a side twist, and the blow of the red +bullet head was received square and full by the locust gate post instead +of by Lammy's stomach. + +'Ram dropped to the ground, where he lay for several minutes seeing +stars, planets, and comets, while a bump as big as an apple appeared in +the middle of his forehead and the cords of his neck ached like teeth. +Meanwhile Lammy, his nervous strength gone, ran all the way home, and +throwing himself on his bed, whither he was followed by his mother, +who saw his livid face as he dashed through the kitchen, sobbed as if +his heart would break, not from fear, but because in the reaction he +remembered what Bird had said of people who fought either with their +tongues or fists. + +It was not until long afterward that he thought it strange, and wondered +why his mother had not scolded him, only hugged him to her comfortable, +pillowy breast, when he told his story, and put nearly all of her +precious bottle of Northboro cologne on his head to soothe it, and gave +him buttered toast, when, after having his cry out, he came down to +supper, which dainty was generally regarded as only for the minister +or else a "sick-a-bed" luxury. His father meanwhile actually broke +into a laugh and said, "Hear yer've been doin' a leetle Declaration o' +Independencing on yer own account. Wal, it's sometimes a necessary act +fer folks same as countries; Lauretta Ann, I reckon Lammy and me could +relish a pot of coffee to-night"--coffee being a Sunday-morning treat. + +When it came to the part of his story concerning 'Ram's taunt and his +fear that Bird had forgotten them, his mother reassured him for the +hundredth time with her own ample faith, but he quite startled her by +saying emphatically:-- + +"That is all right, mother, as far as it goes, but we've just _got_ to +buy that fruit farm somehow." And he fell asleep that night, happy in +making impossible plans for the purchase. + +It was perhaps as well for Lammy's self-conceit that he did not hear +his mother talk with Mrs. Slocum, who came in about nine o'clock, +tearful, yet at the same time in a threatening rage, demanding that +he be "whipped thoro' for half murdering her harmless boy when he was +taking an innercent walk, and that if he didn't get the whippin', she'd +get a warrant immedjet." + +Mrs. Lane waited until she had finished her tirade, and then calling +Joshua, who had retreated to the wood-shed, said: "Mis' Slocum here +needs a warrant writ hasty; jest you escort her down to the Squire's, +as her husband don't seem intrested to go with her. I hate to see a +neighbour obleeged to play the man and risk goin' out in the dark +alone." + +Then as her adversary, seeing herself outflanked, rose to go, she added +with apparent sympathy: "Of course I know it's hard for you to feel +'Ram's beat by one half his size, even if the gate post did help Lammy, +and folks 'll be surprised to hear it, but you mustn't blame him too +much; it was maybe me, his mother, in him worked Lammy's fists so good." +And Lauretta Ann looked her visitor straight in the eyes. Some weeks +later Mrs. Slocum had reason to remember that look. + + + + +X + +LAMMY CONSULTS OLD LUCKY + + +When November came, Joshua Lane had completed his work of preparing +the fruit farm for the auction, according to Aunt Jimmy's wish that it +should be in full running order when sold. + +The old fowls were mostly sold off, and the henhouse was full of the +vigorous laying pullets that mean so much in early winter. The fall cow +had calved, and the two or three yearlings were as sleek as does. + +When the time came for the division of the furniture between the wives +of the three Lane brothers by drawing lots, public interest again +awakened, and Mrs. Slocum expressed great anxiety lest it should not be +done fairly, saying to her husband: "It's a fussy, mixed-up business +anyway. Why didn't they auction off the stuff and let folks in to see +it done fair? They do say, for all Miss Jemima lived so plain, she had +stores of good stuff shut up in those top rooms that even Dinah Lucky +never's had a peek at when she went to houseclean. Those old mahogany +pieces are worth money at Northboro, and Lauretta Ann's cute enough to +know it, but I don't believe those other slab-sided Lane women do; so do +you watch your chance and make them an offer so soon as it's divided. +There's a wardrobe there, solid mahogany, twice as big as one they ask +fifty dollars for in the 'curious' shop. Most likely they'd value cheap, +new stuff better." + +If it had not been rather pathetic to Mrs. Lane, this breaking up of a +house where she had been so much at home, the day of the division would +have been one of unalloyed merriment. + +In the first place, owing to the way in which Aunt Jimmy had directed +the drawing should be managed, the articles were not valued in the +usual way and divided so that each of the three women shared alike, but +merely numbered, the duplicate slips being shaken up in a basket and +drawn by Probate Judge Ricker for Lauretta Ann, the others drawing for +themselves, as Joshua preferred that there should be no possible chance +of his wife being criticised. While she, cheerful and thoughtful as +ever of the comfort of others, prepared a nice lunch on the afternoon +appointed, which she and Lammy carried to the fruit farm, and had a +cheerful fire in the kitchen stove, with a big pot of fragrant coffee +purring away on top of it, when Jason and Henry Lane, the younger +brothers, following each other closely, drove into the yard with their +wives. + +Mrs. Henry Lane was a delicate, sad-looking little woman, quite above +the average. She had been one of the teachers in the Milltown public +school at the time of her marriage, but the struggle to wrest a living +from a small hillside farm, coupled with ill health, had broken her +spirit, and she sank into a rocking-chair and began to jiggle the baby +that she carried to and fro. + +Mrs. Jason, on the contrary, was tall and gaunt, with high cheek-bones. +Life had not been very kind to her either, but still she looked as if +she could hold her own; and her husband, who only reached her shoulder, +fairly quaked and fell away before her like ill-made jelly. + +"Do draw up to the table, sisters-in-law both," cried Lauretta Ann, +after greeting each heartily. "You must have hurried dinner to get down +here by now, and I always do feel hungrier the first cool days than when +winter has set square in." + +"I _should_ feel better for a cup of coffee," said Mrs. Henry, in a +plaintive voice; "we haven't had any for more than two weeks. Henry +forgot it when he went to the store, and he doesn't get there as often +as he used, now that the mail is delivered around the country by wagon. +I've been using tea right along, and I think it's made me nervous; +besides, the last I bought from the travelling spice-and-sugar man +tasted more like buckwheat shucks and musty hay than anything else." + +At this Henry Lane's head sank still farther into the collar of his +coat, which was three sizes too big anyway, and he began whittling +recklessly at a hard-wood clothespin with a broken knife, which quickly +caused a deeply cut finger and much consternation, as the sight of +blood always made his wife faint away, and the present occasion was no +exception to the rule. + +After Lauretta Ann had bathed and bound up the finger, and sent Lammy +home for a little of the cherry cordial for which she was famous, +she made another effort to serve the lunch, and finally succeeded in +cheering the mournful company by sheer force of good temper. + +"I do hope you'll draw Grandma Lane's canopy-top cradle and the big +rocker that matches, they'd be such comforts to you as you are fixed," +Mrs. Joshua said to Mrs. Henry, as putting a friendly arm about her, +they went into the sitting room, where Judge Ricker was busy kneading +up the numbered papers in the basket as carefully as if he was working +lard into flour for tea biscuits, and seated themselves in a semicircle. + +"Do you begin, sister-in-law Jason, and you follow next, sister-in-law +Henry," said Mrs. Joshua, laying her hand, which would tremble in spite +of herself, on Lammy's shoulder. Lammy, by the way, had grown broader +and stronger and lost much of his timidity of manner during the two +months past. Whether it was the sense of responsibility that working +with the college men had given him, or his determination to have Bird +come back, his mother could not decide, while his father chuckled +whenever the matter was referred to, saying, "'Tain't neither; it was +squarin' up at 'Ram Slocum that made a man of him;" and though Lauretta +always said, "Sho, pa! ain't you ashamed of aidin' and abettin' a +fight?" her smiling expression belied her words. + +Mrs. Jason stepped forward and drew--the canopy cradle! A roar of +laughter greeted her venture, in which she joined grimly, for her +youngest offspring was a six-foot youth of seventeen, while Mrs. Henry +sighed and felt secretly injured, though she said nothing. + +Next came her turn, and she drew a worked motto in a gilt frame, +which read, "The Lord Will Provide," whereat she smiled feebly and +whimpered, "I've tried to think so, but I do wish Henry Lane would help +Him out better." Mrs. Joshua drew the best china, Mrs. Henry the tall +clock, which she straightway declared to be a foot higher than any of +her rooms,--she finally traded it with Mrs. Jason for the cradle and +rocking-chair,--until at the end of two hours the last number left the +basket and three tired and confused women wandered about trying to +collect their property. + +The great wardrobe had fallen to Mrs. Jason's share, but upon close +inspection it proved to be merely stained cherry and not mahogany at +all, and its owner remarked that she wished some one would take it off +her hands, as it was too big to go in her door, and more than it was +worth to truck it home, much less get it in to Northboro, where it would +be possible to sell it. Her husband, however, ventured to say it would +make a good harness closet for the barn and keep the rats from gnawing +the leather; and so with much stretching of muscles and groans of "now +heave together" it was loaded with the other articles upon the wagon. + +There was quite a lively interchange of articles between the women +before the rooms were finally cleared, but in the end, owing to Mrs. +Joshua's good sense, they all declared themselves well satisfied. Mrs. +Jason had secured a good sewing-machine, and Mrs. Henry a parlour organ +for which her melancholy spirit pined; while Mrs. Joshua, who had a +machine and inwardly detested parlour organs, saying that when needful +she could do her own groaning, was made happy by the best parlour set, +her own chairs and lounge having been fatally collapsed by her family of +men folks of assorted ages. + +One thing they all regretted, which was that Aunt Jimmy had ordered all +articles of every kind not mentioned in her list should be either burned +or buried, according to their kind, and there were many things dear to +their feminine hearts in the mass of rubbish that had been accumulating +in garret and cellar, barn and loft, these many years as well as much +that was salable as junk. It was of no use to object; for Joshua was +determined to carry out the will in both spirit and letter, and though +it had amused the eccentric old lady to collect and hoard the stuff, she +was equally determined that it should never be exposed to the gaze of +the curious. Joshua knew that though she thought him slow and without +ambition, she trusted him, and he was not going to disappoint her. + + * * * * * + +As the loaded wagons filed out of the yard, a lean figure might have +been seen peering through the branches of a small maple tree in the +wood lot just above. It was Abiram Slocum, who, goaded by his wife, was +trying to see which cart contained the wardrobe; for she had come back +from Northboro the day before all eagerness to get possession of it, for +the owner of the "curious shop" had said if the wardrobe was of the size +and quality she described, he would pay her fifty dollars for it. Now +if the owner would let it go for fifteen or even twenty-five dollars, +the profit would give her new paper and a carpet for her best room; for +rich as Slocum was reputed to be, he was close-fisted with his wife, and +she was obliged to pick up her own pin money like her poorer neighbours, +with the exception that she had not succeeded in the egg business, owing +to her tendency, whenever possible, to give eleven to the dozen, and +sell limed eggs at a high price to ignorant people who desired them for +setting. + +Abiram presently spied the wardrobe on Jason Lane's load. He was sorry +for this, for Mrs. Jason was one of the few people who had ever got +the better of him in trade, and a horse trade at that, so he feared she +would never sell the furniture, or if she did, would extort full value. + +Nevertheless, he slipped hastily from the tree, cut across lots toward +the road they must take on their way home, and fifteen minutes later +met them when they stopped to rest the horse, as if he was merely +sauntering toward the pasture for his cows, and was soon engaged in +general conversation upon farm topics that gradually led up toward the +furniture. + +"Heavy load you've got there," he remarked; "ain't that there closet big +for your haouse?" + +Jason was about to say that it was, and that they were going to put it +in the barn, when he felt his wife looking daggers, and refrained. + +"'Tis big, but we can use it," she answered dryly, starting up the +horse. + +"How about selling it and buying somethin' handier?" + +"I ain't anxious. Get along, Whiteface," she said, touching the horse +with the whip. + +"I'll give yer fifteen dollars for it, here and now, if you'll leave it +to my house," Abiram shouted as the wagon began to move away. + +"'Twouldn't pay me to turn back." + +"Twenty dollars then." + +"Nope, I'm in a hurry, and there's a pile of good seasoned wood in the +thing." + +"She knows its value, sure enough," he said to himself, as the wagon +began to climb the hill. + +"Give yer twenty-five, and yer can leave it here by the road." + +"I reckon you might unpack, pa," the gaunt woman said, a smile hovering +about her mouth, adding to Abiram, "Hand up the money, and down she +goes." + +In five seconds two ten-dollar bills and a five, after a searching +scrutiny, found their way into Mrs. Jason's pocket, and the clumsy piece +of furniture leaned tipsily against the pasture fence exposed to the +full glare of the sun. + +Just as Jason Lane had remounted the seat and the wagon had begun to +move again, a shout made them look round. There stood Abiram in the +middle of the road, stamping and choking with rage so that he could +barely speak. + +"Stop! hey, stop!" he yelled; "it ain't mahogany; it's only stained +wood. Hey, give me my money back or I'll hev ye arrested." + +"Who said it was mahogany?" called Mrs. Jason, stopping the horse and +fairly beaming with the pleasure of the contention. + +Abiram hesitated a moment, felt himself caught, stammered, and said, +"Mis' Slocum did." + +"Well, go ahead and arrest Mrs. Slocum, then," chimed in Jason, his +speech for once meeting his wife's approval. + +"Oh, Lordy, Lordy, what 'll she say, 'n' what 'll I do with it?" he +moaned to himself, completely caught in the trap set by his own greed. + +"I dunno," shouted Mrs. Jason as she moved away, "'nless you put wheels +on it to make a wagon and hitch that sorrel mare I sold you to it." + + * * * * * + +The day of the sale drew near. All that remained to be done was the +destroying of the rubbish, and this was no small task. + +One entire day a bonfire had raged in the back lot, and what would not +burn was the next day taken in the ox-cart thrice filled by Joshua +himself and dumped carefully in the great bog-hole. + +This quaking bog was one of the wonders of the neighbourhood and its +common dumping ground, even though it could only be reached by fording +the river above the mill-pond. To the eye it was merely an oozy-looking +swamp tract, such as are plentiful near the back-water of rivers, but +this particular bit was an ogre that swallowed up everything that was +cast in it, only a few hours being necessary to engulf, without leaving +a sign, an unlucky cow that had once strayed into it. So that now it was +securely fenced about except at one spot, used for dumping, which was +protected with logs secured to driven piles. + +Mrs. Lane watched the loading of the wagon very ruefully, for she now +fully realized that all her hopes concerning the fruit farm had come to +as complete an end as the load of broken china and rusty tinware. When +she saw the old pewter tea-pot, the dents supplemented by a crack, go by +on top of a basket of broken flower pots, she begged her husband to let +her keep it, saying:-- + +"Even if it's worth nothin' now, even for drawin' tea, Aunt Jimmy must +hev meant somethin' kind when she left it to me, and I'd like it to mind +me of the idea, only she got fogged up some way and didn't plan right; +fer if she set store by anything, it was by that pot on account of its +bein' buried half of the Revolution with great-grandmother Cuddy's best +teaspoons and twenty gold guineas all safe inside." + +"Lauretta Ann," said Joshua, pausing to rest the heavy basket on the +tail-board of the cart, "'tain't often I put my foot down, but now +they've set, heel and toe, sock and leather, both of 'em. I'm goin' to +do my work legal, but you've been treated shabby, and I ain't a-goin' +to hev that tea-pot set up on a shelf for a moniment to that same. If +you're too Christian to resent, I'm goin' to do it for yer, which she, +bein' my aunt, the quarrel is for me to take upon me, so there!" + +Joshua had never before made such a long speech in all their married +life, and his wife, fairly awed by his earnestness, said no more, but +turning away, took the private pathway homeward that led through the +meadow and garden, closing the gap in the wall with brush as she went, +for soon now she would have no longer any right to come and go. + +That afternoon as Lammy came home from school he saw in the distance his +father and the ox-team taking the last load along the highway, and as +he realized how soon the auction would take place, his heart sank and +his feet dragged heavily along. Turning to take a short cut through the +lane, he came face to face with an old coloured man with snow-white, +woolly hair, who was scratching up the leaves with his cane, in search +of chestnuts. + +His name was Nebuchadnezzar Lucky, or Old Lucky, as he was called for +short, and he was the husband of Dinah, who was general factotum of the +village, and supported her man, who was double her age, by cooking, +nursing, or housecleaning, as the season or circumstances demanded, +absolutely taking pride in the fact, as if it was his right and his due. +For was not Old Lucky a superior being who made charms, brewed herb +medicines, and told fortunes, in addition to having turns of "seeing +things," which caused him to be regarded with awe by children and the +credulous of all ages, even in this prim New England town where witches +were once burned? + +"Howdy, Massa Lammy? 'Pears like the squir'ls and chippin monkeys has +got all the chestnuts this season, and dey ain't left one for old Uncle +Lucky to bile soft so's him can eat 'em. You ain't got a handful laid +up you could spare 'thout missin', I reckon now?" And the old man gave +a persuasive, yet terrifying leer with eyes that were so badly crossed +that they fairly seemed tangled. + +An idea struck Lammy, as the tales of Lucky's power came back to +him, for even the practical folk who scoffed, allowed that there was +something queer in it. He would consult the old man as to what he could +do to get the fruit farm and Bird back at the same time. But stop! Where +was the money to come from? For it was well known among his customers +that Lucky could not "see things" until he had rubbed his eyelids with a +piece of silver. Lammy's money was all in the bank. Ah! he had it! John +O'More's silver dollar that was hidden away in Bird's paint-box! + +Away he flew like a scurrying rabbit, leaving Old Lucky muttering in +amazement, and in a half-hour returned, carrying a salt-bag full of +chestnuts in one hand and the coin wrapped in paper in the other. + +The old man, by this time having grown tired of his useless hunt for +nuts, had gone home, and Lammy followed him to his cabin that was +perched on the edge of the bank overhanging the mill stream. Lucky was +sitting in an arm-chair by the window when Lammy entered and stammered +out his wish and request for advice, at the same time offering his bag +of nuts and the coin which he first polished on his trousers. + +If Lucky was surprised at the size of the offering, his usual fee being +a quarter, while he never refused a dime, he did not show it, but felt +the money carefully, passed it across his dim eyes, munched a nut or +two, and falling back in his chair, covered his head with a red and +yellow handkerchief and began to mutter, beckoning Lammy to come near +and listen, which he did, scarcely daring to breathe. The mutterings +went on for several minutes, and then took the form of words. + +"Take--a--shotgun," said the voice in a tone meant to be hollow, but +which stopped at being cracked, "load him wif bullets you make umsself, +go up on de churchyard hill and shoot der shadder of a Christmas tree on +a--black,--dark night,--an' den,--an' den--" + +"Then what?" besought Lammy, in an agony of suspense. + +"Den you'll hear sumpfin'!" shouted Lucky, suddenly pulling the +handkerchief from his face and fixing Lammy with a cross-eyed stare that +was paralyzing. + +"But recommember," Lucky added, shaking his forefinger ominously, "make +dem bullets out o' sumpfin' yo' find, not bought nor lead uns, but +sumpfin' white like silver, or dis year charm hit won't work." + +"But _where_ shall I find it?" gasped Lammy, so much in earnest that he +did not realize the absurdity of what the old man said. + +This question seemed to take the magician out of his depth, and annoyed +him not a little. After casting his eyes helplessly about, they chanced +to rest on the stream below the window, when he quickly closed them +and whispered, "Yo' must look in water--not in a pond, but in running +water!" after which he refused to say another word. + +When Lammy reached home, his mother was setting the supper on the table, +while his father and brothers were going over the same old arguments +as to the possibility or impossibility of buying the fruit farm. Lammy +smiled to himself as he lifted Twinkle to his shoulder and then put +the dog on a chair beside him, his usual place at meal-times, where he +waited, one ear up and one down, until it was time to be fed. + +No one noticed how red the boy's cheeks were and how his eyes shone, as +he hurried from supper to learn his lessons, that he might have time in +the morning to begin his search for metal for the magic bullets before +going to school. He thought if he had the material, all else would be +easy, for there was an old bullet-mould in the workroom in the barn, +where mending was done, also an iron pot that had been used for melting +solder. + +He did not tell his mother of his plan, not that he meant in any way to +deceive her; but if she knew nothing, the surprise at the result would +be all the greater. + +For the next two or three days Lammy went up and down the river banks +from the Mill Farm to the upper fork, apparently as aimlessly as in the +time that he was dubbed "Look-out Johnny," and the neighbours nodded, +and said, "The brace he got fightin' didn't last,--he's trampin' again," +while his mother took it to heart and thought it was because he was +grieving for Bird, as they had heard nothing definite or satisfactory +from her for more than a month, and then only a few words on a card +inquiring for Twinkle. + +When Saturday came, Lammy started off in the morning early, asking +his mother for a lunch to carry with him, which was nothing unusual. +This day, instead of heading downstream, he started above the mill and +followed the river up toward the woods. All the forenoon he looked here +and there, and after eating his luncheon came out of the woods near +where the highway branched and crossed the ford on the way to the bog +dumping ground. + +He stood there a few minutes, idly watching the dead leaves swirl +along, and an occasional fish dart by, when his eyes became fixed upon +an object lying close under a big stone in mid-stream; it glistened +as the sun shone upon it, and then turned dull again. Whatever it was, +it fascinated him strangely, and jumping from stone to stone, he soon +reached it. "Only an old tin pan," he muttered in disgust; "that won't +make bullets." + +As luck would have it, the stone upon which he stood turned, making +him jump splash into the water, kicking the pan as he went. When he +recovered himself, he looked about for footing, and there where the pan +had been, to his amazement, lying almost at his feet, was the pewter +tea-pot! + +"However did that get here?" he exclaimed; but the answer was so simple +that he guessed it at once. The tea-pot, in company with the pan, had +been jolted from the ox-cart in crossing the ford on its way to the +dump, and so escaped being swallowed. + +"Hurrah!" cried Lammy, picking up the treasure and making his way to +land, where he danced about in glee. "This 'll melt into bullets first +rate, and it's kind of white like silver if it's cleaned. When it's +melted, pop can't call it 'an eyesore' or a 'moniment,' so it's no harm +for me to take it home." + +He could not tell why, but he took off his coat and wrapped it +carefully around the tea-pot, and then slipped from the highway into +the woods again. + +When he reached home, it was still early afternoon. His father was +cutting wood in the upper lot, and his mother had gone to Northboro with +eggs for her Saturday customers, so Lammy had the place to himself. + +First he buried the tea-pot deep in the feed bin, and taking the key +of the house from its hiding-place under the door-mat, stole up to his +room for dry shoes and socks, as it was a cold day and his sopping feet +were already making him shiver and feel tight in the throat. Somehow +the possession of the tea-pot gave him an uneasy feeling. Did it really +belong to him? He hung about the house for a time, then walked straight +out the gate and down to the Squire's office in the town house. This +same "Squire" was a man of education as well as a lawyer, and Lammy's +knock was answered by a cheery "Come in!" which he did, saying, all +in one breath and quite reckless of grammar, "Please, sir, if I find +anything that's been took to the dump, but fell off and not been +swallowed, would it be mine to make bullets of?" + +The Squire looked up from under his bushy eyebrows and smiled at +the lad encouragingly. "Certainly it would be yours, my boy; what is +intentionally thrown away is fair plunder for any one." And with a hasty +"Thank you, sir," Lammy was off again with an easy conscience, to find +an old axe, break up the tea-pot, and melt it if possible before his +parents' return. Ah, but Lucky's charm was surely working. + +"Strange child that," said the Squire, looking after him; "he'll either +turn out a fool or a genius. There is no middle path for such as he. I +must keep my eye on him." + + + + +XI + +THE PEWTER TEA-POT + + +When Lammy reached home he hurried into the barn, carefully closing both +door and windows. In looking about for an old axe whose edge would not +be hurt by chopping metal, he stumbled over a rusty anvil that was half +buried in litter. This he managed to drag into the light; then digging +the tea-pot from the feed bin, he began his work. + +First he wrenched off the cover and battered it into small pieces, which +he put into the solder pot. Chop, chop! the handle gave way next, then +the queer sprawling legs. He made several blows at the thick, clumsy, +curved spout without hitting it, for his hands trembled with excitement +combined with the chill of his wet feet. + +Finally he landed a square blow a little above where the spout joined +the body, but instead of cutting the metal quite through, the blade +wedged, so he dropped the axe and seizing the tea-pot, proceeded to +wrench off the spout. + +"It's got tea leaves stuck in it," he said to himself, as he pulled and +twisted at it. "Nope, brown paper," as a small roll of paper, the size, +thickness, and length of a cigarette fell to the floor. To this he paid +no attention, but continued to chop at the tea-pot until it was all in +bits, tightly packed in the solder pot, and covered with an old plate. + +As he went to push back the anvil he stepped on the little bit of +rolled-up paper and idly picking it up, turned it between his fingers, +but with his mind wholly filled with the making of the magic bullets. It +was too late to melt the pewter now; he would have to wait until Monday +afternoon. How could he ever eat two more breakfasts, dinners, and +suppers with the precious stuff in his possession? + +As his hands worked, the stout oiled paper between his fingers unrolled +by their warmth, as a leaf unfolds in the heat, and showed something +green inside. + +Lammy looked, and his heart almost stopped beating, while the sun, moon, +and stars seemed to be floating past, trailing cloud petticoats and +dancing, for the green stuff was money,--clean, crisp banknotes rolled +as hard as a pencil! + +Lammy sank down all in a heap on a pile of straw, his eyes closed +and his fist clutching the little bundle like a vice. It was several +minutes before he could steady himself sufficiently to part the tightly +twisted roll and count his treasure, which was so compact that he had +to use great care. Fortunately the oil paper had kept the money dry in +spite of the bath in the river, in addition to a bit of cork that had +been rammed tightly into the spout, but which Lammy had not noticed as +it dropped out at the first chop. + +At last a bill peeled from the roll. Lammy smoothed it out, and rubbed +his eyes. Could it be? He had never seen a bank bill for a larger sum +than twenty dollars before, but five hundred was printed on this. Then +he fell to work in earnest, and after many stops to moisten his fingers, +twelve of the green, damp-smelling bits of paper lay spread upon the +barn floor, while Lammy was saying over to himself, "Twelve times five +are sixty--sixty hundred dollars--ten into sixty six times--six thousand +dollars! Oh, mother--Bird--the fruit farm!" he fairly shouted. This then +was what Aunt Jimmy's will had meant, after all. + +Gathering the bills into his grimy handkerchief, blackened by polishing +the tea-pot, he buttoned them inside his shirt and rushed into the house +at the moment his mother was getting out of the chaise and bringing in +the week's supply of groceries, for which she had traded her eggs. + +His father having come home from the wood lot, took the horse to the +barn, fed and bedded him immediately,--for old Graylocks never went fast +enough to become heated,--and then came to the kitchen sink to make his +toilet for supper. + +Lammy sat waiting his time by the stove with his feet in the oven door, +trying to suppress the shivers that ran through him. Would his mother +ever put the things away and stop bustling? They could not have supper +until late that night, for the shop where his brothers worked was +running over time, and they would not be home before seven. + +Mrs. Lane put the potatoes on to fry, arranged the steak in the broiler +(she was the only woman in Laurelville who did not fry her meat), and +then sat down to rest, keeping one eye upon the clock. Presently she +caught sight of Lammy's face, and promptly jumped up again to grab one +of his hands and ask anxiously: "Be you feelin' sick, Lammy Lane? Your +hands is frogs and your cheeks hot coals. I do hope and pray it ain't +goin' to be a fever spell o' any kind." + +"Spell be blowed!" said Joshua, who was now seated by the lamp, enjoying +his weekly paper. "He's been a-traipsin' round all day among them soggy +marshes that fairly belches chills in fall o' the year, on a snack o' +cold food. What he needs is a lining o' hot vittles; likewise do I." + +But Lammy had left the stove and stood by the table, his hands clasped +tightly, and such a strange expression on his face that both his parents +were startled. + +"I ain't sick--that is, not much," he began, "though I'm awfully hungry, +but I've got something to tell out first." + +Then he began slowly, and told about his visit to Old Lucky and his +search for bullet material. + +Here his father interrupted him with, "Shucks, Lammy Lane, ain't you got +better sense than to throw away dollars?" but his mother gave Joshua a +look, and said: "Don't you shet him off the track until he's through. I +knew he wasn't working in his mind like he's done lately for nothing." + +When he told of chopping up the tea-pot, his father chuckled, but his +mother shivered and broke in with, "How could you ever set an axe in it? +It seems to me 'bout as bad as cuttin' up poor Aunt Jimmy for sausages!" + +When he came to the end, and pulling out his handkerchief, spread the +contents before his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lane stood grasping the table +edge and staring white and wide eyed, until Joshua broke the silence +with "Jehosophat! Nancy Hanks! but I'm kneesprung dumbfounded!" + +"And you'd better be!" snapped Lauretta Ann, as nearly as she _could_ +snap at her husband; "after all you've said against the memory of +sainted Aunt Jimmy, and sneered and snipped at her will and meanings! +Don't you see now how she fixed things so's I'd get the farm by biddin' +it in fair without bein' hashed over in public for gettin' more'n my +equal share? _She_ trusted me to fetch that pot home and, by usin' it +daily, find it wouldn't pour out, as I would have did and diskiver the +money. Oh, Joshua, Joshua, let this be a lesson to you an' all husbands +not to browbeat their trustin' wives, as women's allers the furthest +seein' sect." + +"Fur seein', shucks!" snorted Joshua, who had enjoyed his recent +authority too well to part with it; "between you and Aunt Jimmy yer'd +made a fine mess o' it, and it took a male, though not a full-grown one, +to pull yer out of it, for yer allowed yer'd only stick up the pot for +a moniment an' not use it on account o' its taste tainting the tea. It +sartinly took us men folks to dig yer out o' it; didn't it, Lammy? + +"Now as we know Aunt Jimmy's intentions was that this be kept close, +close it'll be kept, and we'd better pack up them bills until we can +bank 'em Monday, in case Mis'is Slocum should be drawd to look in the +winder to see if we are havin' a hot or cold supper, and real or crust +coffee." + +"But mother," said Lammy, as soon as he could be heard, "when shall we +get Bird back? Need we wait until the auction?" + +"Sakes alive, child, I'll write as soon as I get my head, but there's +two letters unanswered now, and I'm afeared they've moved again. +Somehow, with all we've got to face just now, I think 'twould be better +waitin' until everything's settled up certain and we've got the place +safe and sound. Then pa and me and you could kind er celebrate, and +take a trip to N'York and get her. I ain't never been there but onct +in my life, an' that was to a funeral when it wasn't seemin' fer me to +look about to see things, and it rained and I spoiled my best bunnit. +I reckon, now we can afford it, 'twould set us all up to go on a good +lively errand o' mercy, and maybe see a circus too if there's any there, +and eat a dinner bought ready made. Seems to me I should relish some +vittles I hadn't cooked, and to step off without washing the dishes." + +"Say, Lauretta Ann," drawled Joshua, presently, when Lammy, hugging +Twinkle and telling him the news, had gone upstairs to look at Bird's +paint-box, and sit in the dark and think of the bliss of going to New +York and surprising her his very self, "who do you calkerlate owns them +_six thousand dollars_?" rolling the words about in his mouth like a +dainty morsel. + +"Why, me,--that is we, of course!" she gasped. "You don't think there's +anything wrong in takin' it? Ah, Joshua, you _don't_ think there's any +wrong in takin' it?" + +"Yes and no, not that egzactly; but as the Squire gave Lammy the law +about things that's been throwed out, it 'pears to me the find is hisn." + +"Well, if it is, I'm glad, and it's the Lord's doin' anyway. We can put +the deed in Lammy's name, and earn him good schoolin' out o' it along o' +little Bird, for nobody knows how I've missed that youngster a runnin' +in and out these last months and feeling her head on my shoulder times +when she was lonesome, and I mothered her in the rocker before the fire. +What with the high school, and the painting school, and the female +college over at Northboro, there's all the eddication she'll need for +years close handy, and it's no wrong to the others, for there's this +place for them to divide, and they're strong and likely." + +"Remember the auction ain't took place yet, Lauretta Ann, and don't set +too sure." + +"Joshua, the Lord has planned this out; it can't go astray now." + +"Amen," said Joshua; "but how about Old Lucky's spell? and supposin' Mr. +Clarke takes a fancy to bid on the fruit farm. I hear he's been for land +hereabout." + +"Father, I'm _shocked_ at you, and you nephew-in-law to a deacon!" + +Mrs. Lane went upstairs to look for Lammy and found him lying across +his bed in an uneasy sleep, with Twinkle keeping guard by him, while +his fatigue and the soaked boots in the corner told the cause for the +illness that was creeping over him. + +"Pa," called Mrs. Lane down the backstairs, in a husky whisper, "do you +go for Dr. Jedd without waiting for the boys to come in. Lammy's chilled +and fevered and sweatin' all to onct, and I can't read nothing out of +such crossway sinktoms. Dear me suz, it does never rain but it pours! +Say, Joshua, you'd best fetch that money up here to be put in the iron +maple-sugar pot afore you go." + +By the time Dr. Jedd arrived Lammy was in a heavy sleep, from which he +roused at the physician's firm touch on his pulse, and began to talk +wildly. + +At first he seemed to think that Dr. Jedd was Old Lucky, for he cried, +"I gave you the silver dollar and I made the bullets, but when I went +to shoot them, they turned into polliwogs and went downstream." Then +raising himself, he shook his pillow violently, saying, "You were a bad +man to tell me lies. How could I shoot the shadow of a Christmas tree on +a dark night? Cause when it's dark there are'nt any shadows." + +Next he seemed to imagine that he was tramping over the hills with the +surveyors, and he had an argument with himself, as to whether feet made +rods or rods feet, and then mumbled something about _a_ + _b_ that they +could not understand for they did not know that one of his new friends +had started him in Algebra. + +"He is tired out," said Dr. Jedd, presently, "and in his mind more +than his body. The professor over at the camp told me that he had a +great head for mathematics, and was always asking questions and working +out sums and things on every scrap of paper he came across, and that +when paper gave out he'd smooth a place in the dirt and scratch away +on that with a nail. Said that it was a pity that he couldn't go to +the Institute at Northboro and be fitted for the School of Mines in +New York. Told me if he ever did, he could put him in the way of free +tuition at least." + +"The pewter tea-pot! Take Bird out of the pewter tea-pot; she's stuck in +the spout, and when you chop it off, it will kill her!" shrieked Lammy, +jumping out of bed. + +Dr. Jedd gave him some quieting medicine, and he soon sank back among +the pillows, with a burning red spot of fever on each cheek. + +"Is it typhoid?" asked Mrs. Lane, her face white and drawn; "Janey died +of that." + +"It is a fever, but I cannot be quite sure of exactly which one," said +the doctor, opening a little case he carried and taking out a fine +needlelike instrument and a bottle of alcohol. "If I wait to know until +it develops, we shall be losing time; if I prick his finger and send +a drop of blood to Dr. Devlin in Northboro, who makes a study of such +things, he will look at it through his microscope and tell me in the +morning exactly where we stand." So after washing a spot clean with +alcohol he took the little red drop that tells so much to the really +wise physician and prevents all the mistakes of guess-work, and then +began to prepare some medicines and write his directions for the night. + +"Is there any one you would like me to send up to stay with you, Mrs. +Lane?" the doctor asked as he prepared to leave. "This may be a tedious +illness, and it won't do for you to wear yourself out in the beginning." + +"Byme-by, perhaps," Mrs. Lane replied "but not jest now while he talks +so wild. You know, doctor, how the best of folks will repeat and spy. +Joshua ain't overbusy, and he'll help me out." + +"What is that thing hanging round Lammy's neck by a string under his +shirt that he has such a tight hold of?" + +"It's the key of the lower one of his chest of drawers; he keeps odds +and ends in it that he sets store by, and I guess he's lost it so many +times that he's took to hanging it on safe by a string." + +The next afternoon when Dr. Jedd came, the smile on his face reassured +Mrs. Lane even before he said: "No, it isn't typhoid--merely plain +malaria, and his worrying so much about Bird has made him light-headed. +What has become of the child? Tired as she was in the spring, I would +not answer for her little wild-wood ladyship after a hot summer in the +city." + +Then Mrs. Lane told sadly of the frequent invitations and the unanswered +letters. + +"I'm going to town for a little vacation after the holidays, and I will +look her up myself," said the doctor, cheerily. + + * * * * * + +It was many weeks after the night that Lammy chopped up the pewter +tea-pot and made his wonderful discovery before the fever left him, +and then he felt so limp and weak that after sitting up a few minutes +he was glad to crawl into bed again. His mind had only wandered during +the first two or three days, but frequently he would wake up with a +start from troubled sleep and ask his mother anxiously if it was really +true about the tea-pot or only a dream. He was bitterly disappointed +when the night before the auction came and the doctor told him that he +must not go, even though his big brother Nellis had offered to put the +great arm-chair in the cart and take him down in that way, all wrapped +in comfortables. For the doctor said the excitement of thinking of the +matter was enough without being there. + +On his way out, Dr. Jedd spent a few moments before he went home, +chatting to Joshua in the kitchen. + +"To-morrow the tug of war is coming, Joshua," said the doctor; "all of +your neighbours wish you well and set great store by your wife, and we +hate to think of seeing strangers in the fruit farm. If you can think up +any way that we could accommodate or help you out to buy it, why, just +speak out. If the two thousand dollars Miss Jemima left my wife would +make any difference to you, she bid me say that, as she knows your dread +of mortgages, she would loan it on your note of hand," at the same time +holding out his own toward Joshua as if it already held the proffered +money. + +Joshua's honest face flushed with pleasure at the implied trust, yet +he could hardly keep the smile from his lips and a mysterious twinkle +from his eyes as he shook the doctor's hand heartily and answered: +"We're much obleeged, and we'll never forget that you and Mis'is Jedd +held us well enough in esteem to make the offer, but I reckon the only +way we could come to own the fruit farm would be by buying it out fair +and square. I don't say but I'd be downhearted to see it go by me, +especially to 'Biram Slocum, for they've been days, doc, when I've even +kind o' pictured out the two farms, ourn and it, joined fast by your +sellin' me that wood bluff that runs in between from the highway. But +you know the sayin', doc, 'Man proposes, woman disposes,' and all that." + +This time the doctor caught the wink that Joshua's near eye gave +in spite of itself, but thought that it referred to Aunt Jimmy's +peculiarities. + +"Well," said the doctor, deliberately, a genial smile spreading over his +features, "one thing I'll do to help out your picturing, as you call +it. If luck should turn so that you buy the fruit farm, I'll sell you +the wood knoll for what I gave for it, and that's the first time I ever +considered parting with it, though I've had no end of good offers." + +"Here's the boys jest come home in time to witness that there remark o' +yourn. Ain't yer gettin' kind er rash 'n' hasty, doc?" + +"No, Joshua, the more witnesses, the better," and the two men went out +the door, toward the fence where the doctor's chaise was tied, laughing +heartily. + +As to the boys, they were completely bewildered, for not a word did they +know, or would until after the auction, and they had not the remotest +idea that their father even dreamed of bidding on the fruit farm. + + + + +XII + +THE TUG OF WAR + + +The strain that Lammy had been under ever since the reading of Aunt +Jimmy's will had told on him in a way that only his mother understood, +and after the stubborn malarial fever itself was routed, he felt, as he +said, "like the bones in my legs is willer whistles," so Dinah Lucky was +engaged to stay with him on the morning of the long talked of auction +sale. He would have preferred some one else, for Dinah was a great +talker, and his head still felt tired, but she was the only trustworthy +person in the entire neighbourhood who for either friendship or money +would consent to miss the auction. + +According to the terms of the notice that had appeared in the local +papers and been posted in a ten-mile circuit from Milltown to Northboro, +the sale conducted by Joel Hill, auctioneer, was to be held on the fruit +farm itself at ten o'clock on the morning of Thursday, December the +ninth, "by order of Joshua Lane, Executor." + +When the day came, it was bitterly cold, though clear; a two-days old +snow-storm followed by sleet had crusted well, and the walking and +sleighing were both good, yet Joshua Lane was surprised when he went +down to the fruit farm at nine o'clock in the morning to sweep off the +porch and light a fire in the kitchen stove, which still remained on the +premises for cooking chickens' food, to see many teams already hitched +to the fence, the horses well muffled in blankets. People afoot were +also going toward the barn, where a Hungarian, who was retained to tend +the stock and act as watchman, had a room and fire which, together with +what information they could extract from him, was what they sought. + +As the man said, "Yah! ha!" equally loud to every question, Joshua +thought no harm could come from that quarter, and proceeded to open the +blinds of the kitchen windows and make such preparations as he could for +protecting the audience from the cold. + +By half-past nine the kitchen, sitting room, north parlours, all bare of +furniture, and the stairs were packed with standing people, and when, +at a few minutes before ten, the auctioneer and the Northboro lawyer, +Mr. Cole, who had made Aunt Jimmy's will, appeared together, they had to +push their way into the house. + +Mrs. Slocum had been on hand early, of course,--she always was,--and +kept dropping mysterious remarks and pursing up her lips. She began by +cheapening the entire place, saying the house was not in as good repair +as she had been led to think, that the wall papers were frights, and +that everything needed paint, that four thousand dollars would be a high +price for the property, and she didn't know who'd buy it anyway. Then +the next minute she was requesting those about her not to crowd up the +stairs, as they might bend the hand rail, which would be just so much +out of the pocket of whoever bought the house, adding that red Brussels +carpet was her choice for the north room. + +To the surprise of all, the two out-of-town Lane brothers, Jason and +Henry, were not there. The "all in due time" policy that had always, and +would always, keep Henry poor, caused them to start for the auction so +late that the delay on the road caused by a broken trace detained them +until nearly eleven, when they turned about and went home again so as +not to be late for dinner. + +After reading the description of the property and the cash terms of +the sale, Joel Hill stood up on a soap-box that he might overlook the +assembly and called out, "What am I bid, to start?" + +There was complete silence for a few moments. Then the door opened, and +Mr. Brotherton, one of Mr. Clarke's agents from Northboro, entered, +causing a flutter of speculation as to what his presence might mean +and making Mrs. Lane's heart thump painfully. Dr. Jedd and his wife, +the minister and his lady, together with Mrs. Lane, who were occupying +a bench that had been brought from the barn, and were the only people +seated, looked at the stove in front of them, so that those who expected +a bid from that quarter were disappointed. + +Joshua Lane, hands behind him, leaned against the chimney front and +gazed steadily at a wire that held the stove-pipe in place. + +"What am I bid, to start?" repeated the auctioneer. Abiram Slocum, +scanning the various groups with his ferret eyes, moved uneasily, +moistened his lips, and, as his wife gave him a prod with her umbrella +that exactly hit the "funny bone" of his elbow, jerked out, "Five +hundred dollars." + +"One thousand," said a clear, distinct, but unfamiliar, voice at the +back of the room. There was a unanimous turning of heads and twisting +of bodies toward the bidder, who proved to be Mr. Cole the lawyer from +Northboro, who made a very impressive appearance, clad as he was in a +handsome fur-lined overcoat and a shiny silk hat. As he was also often +employed by Mr. Clarke, the mystery deepened. + +Abiram Slocum gasped as if some one had poured a pail of water over +him at this unexpected competitor, and then called, "One thousand two +hundred and fifty." + +"Two thousand," from the lawyer. + +"Two thousand and fifty," shrieked Abiram. + +"Why waste time with small change a cold morning like this?" called the +auctioneer. + +"Three thousand," said the lawyer. + +"Three thousand three hundred," snapped Abiram, vainly endeavouring to +get out of range of the faces and gestures his wife was making at him. + +"Four thousand five hundred," jumped the lawyer, beginning to button his +coat and draw on his gloves, as if the end were well in sight. + +Abiram Slocum seemed bewildered, and glancing at his wife, failed to +read her signal aright, and resorted to a hoarse whispering in the +middle of which she shook him off and shouted with an air of triumph, +"Five thousand dollars!" + +Mrs. Lane was seen to moisten her lips nervously, and the colour in her +cheeks deepened, but then by this time the wood-stove was sending forth +red-hot air as only a sheet-iron stove working full blast knows how. + +"Five thousand two hundred and fifty," bid the lawyer. Then followed +an altercation between Mr. and Mrs. Slocum. Vainly the auctioneer +rapped; they paid no attention, and upon the lawyer saying that any +further delay would cause a withdrawal of his bid, the final "Going, +going, gone, at five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars" was +called, and it was not until fully twenty seconds after the final bang +of the hammer that the Slocums came to, and Abiram fairly yelled, +"Six--thousand--dollars!" + +Of course it was too late, and the fault was nobody's but his own. +He tried to protest and was actually hissed down, Laurelville folk +preferring to see the property go anywhere so long as Mrs. Slocum was +not mistress of the fruit farm. + +"Name of buyer?" asked the auctioneer; "self or client?" + +"Client," said the lawyer, slowly adjusting his eyeglasses and glancing +at a slip of paper, while dead silence again prevailed, and the Slocums +glared forked lightning at each other and the world in general. + +"The purchase is made by Lauretta Ann Lane, as guardian for her son, +Samuel Lane, and she is prepared to deposit the price in cash, pending +searching of the title and transfer of deed." + +There was a shuffle as the people, released from the strain, shifted +from one numb foot to the other, and then cheers broke out, for above +curiosity and all other feeling was one of joy that their kind, +hard-working neighbour had in some mysterious way received what they +firmly believed to be her due. + +When the applause had subsided and the general handshaking ceased, +Lauretta Ann Lane pulled a large new wallet from some mysterious place +in her dress, and counting out eleven clean five-hundred-dollar bills +held them toward the auctioneer, saying, "I'll trouble you for the +change, please," adding in a low yet perfectly distinct voice to an +irate figure who was elbowing her way out, and meeting many obstacles in +so doing, "That change 'll come in right handy for new papers, paint, +and furnishings that you said was needful, and I think a red Brussels +carpet _would_ liven up that north room wonderful. That same was your +choice, waren't it, Mis'is Slocum?" + +How it all came about the village never discovered; for whatever the +lawyer knew or _thought_, he kept it to himself and said the opposite, +which is, of course, what lawyers are for. + +Dr. Jedd was the only one who suspected in the right direction; for +soon after the Lanes had moved into their new home, and curiosity had +subsided, he was looking on the parlour mantel-shelf for the matches, +and discovered the chopped remains of the pewter tea-pot reposing in +a handsome china jar that was bought in New York. But Dr. Jedd only +chuckled as the whole thing flashed across him, and he said to himself, +"Surely enough, man proposes and woman disposes, and there's a various +lot of human nature in woman, especially Aunt Jimmy, who was a blessed, +good, spunky, old fool." + +One final sensation was given the neighbourhood when it was found that, +after the payment of the legacies and other charges against the estate, +there was enough surplus to give the three Lane brothers over three +thousand dollars each, legal allotment. + + + + +XIII + +TELLTALE TROUSERS + + +As Mrs. Lane was hurrying home from the auction, that Lammy need not be +kept in suspense a moment longer than was necessary, she bumped into +Abiram Slocum, who was trudging moodily along the road. His wife had +left the house first, and in her anger appropriated the cutter and gone +home, leaving him to walk. + +Mrs. Lane intended to go by without speaking, and merely gave a civil +nod, but he would not allow it; his ugly mood must find vent in words, +and as she passed he squared about, saying:-- + +"You've no cause to feel so hoity toity if yer _hev_ got the fruit +farm; _there's underhand business been goin' on here in Laurelville, +if the light o' truth was let in_. Moreover, it's time that husband o' +yourn as Minstrator of that Irish O'More's debts should pay me the rent +due; the fact of the furniture being burned don't release him a copper +cent's worth, as he well knows. Tell him from me he'd best come down +and settle up; ter-morrow I reckon to be at the tax office all forenoon, +or"--with an evil sneer--"mebbe, as you seem to hold the purse, you'd +like to pay the debt out of charity to the girl you bragged o' being +fond of, to save her the name of pauper." + +Mrs. Lane grew hot and cold by turns, and a torrent of words rose to +her lips, but the thought of Lammy waiting so patiently checked her in +time, and she merely said, "Yes, Abiram Slocum, you'll hear from us +to-morrer." + +As she reached the home gate, she saw Dinah Lucky, who was stationed at +the window to give the first word of her return, and at the same time a +wild-looking tawny head and a pair of big questioning gray eyes appeared +above her fat shoulder, as Lammy steadied himself by the window-frame. +Quick as a flash she pulled off her red knitted shawl and waved it +joyfully, so that Lammy knew at least two minutes before she could have +reached his room to tell him. + +Once upstairs, she was obliged to begin at the beginning and tell him +the story of the morning in every detail, holding his hand the while as +if to convince him that she was real and what she told the plain truth. + +Presently Dinah slipped downstairs, saying she would get the dinner and +bring them both some upstairs, for she was sure "Missy Lane" must be +clear tuckered out. + +And so she was, though she had not realized it until that moment and +sinking back in the homemade arm-chair, she closed her eyes in a state +of perfect peace, and must have dozed, for she awoke with a start to +hear Lammy say, "This sort of makes up for the Thanksgiving dinner I +missed," and there upon the various chairs and the bedstand Dinah had +spread a dinner tempting as only a coloured "born cook" knows how to +make it, while the clashing of knives and forks below told her that +Joshua and the boys were provided for (they had all staid at home from +the shop to attend the auction) and that this afternoon at least was her +own. + +After dinner Lammy lay for a long time, looking at the wood fire +flickering through the open front of the stove, planning how they would +fix Aunt Jimmy's--or rather _his_--house, as his mother called it, and +when they would move. Of course, Lammy wished to go at once--even a +week seemed a long delay. Mrs. Lane hesitated, for she had thoughts +of waiting until spring; yet, on the other hand, she could not well +leave the house empty or travel up and down to tend the chickens. +Aunt Jimmy's house was by far the easier to heat, and now as they must +keep a hired man permanently, he could be put into their present house +and everything settle down for a comfortable winter of work, rest, and +planning, so she said, much to Lammy's joy, that she thought they could +be in by Christmas and then make the improvements at their leisure. + +"Yes, we can wait to paper the rooms--that is, all except Bird's," he +added. "I'd like to have hers fixed up for her when she comes, white and +a paper with wild roses--that's what she likes, and she made a pattern +for one once and was going to send it to the wall-paper man when her +father finished the red piney pattern, only he never did." And Lammy +told his mother of Bird's hopes about her work, ending by taking the +string that held the key from about his neck and saying:-- + +"Please unlock my lower drawer and give me Bird's bundle that her uncle +would not let her take with her; if I can't see her, I can look at her +things. I know she wouldn't mind, because I went back in through the +cellar with her that last day and tied them up; only I didn't do it very +well because there was no good paper and string. I'd like to fix them +better and put up the paint-box by itself," he said, fumbling with the +knots, as his mother, much interested, took a fresh sheet of paper from +the press closet behind the bed. + +As she reseated herself, the string broke, and the contents of the +hastily made bundle were scattered about the bed. Lammy picked up the +water-colour drawings carefully, one by one, and smoothed them out +with the greatest care. There were a couple of dozen of them, besides +those of the wild roses and the peony design, which Mrs. Lane at once +recognized from its spirit, even though it was unfinished. + +Suddenly Lammy cried out in delight, for there before him was a +pen-and-ink sketch of Bird herself, much younger and happier than when +he had last seen her, but still his little friend to the life. + +"Oh, mother," he said, as soon as he had feasted his eyes on it, "do you +think there could be any harm in putting this up on the mantel-shelf +where I could look at it--just for a few days until we go to get +Bird back?" And of course his mother assured him that there could be +no possible harm. Then, completely satisfied, he laid the sheets of +drawing-paper together again and prepared to make them into a neat, flat +package. + +"You've dropped this out," said his mother, reaching across the bed +to pick up something that had slid down between the coverlid and the +wall, and laid what seemed to be a letter in a long, heavy, brown manila +envelope tied with pink tape in front of Lammy. + +"I don't know what that is," he said, looking it over; "it must have +been between the pictures when we pulled them out of her father's box, +because those were all I saw when I made the bundle up. See, there's +writing on this side," and holding it up to the light, for the winter +twilight was setting in, he read slowly:-- + +"'Papers concerning the Turner Mill Farm Property,--to be recorded.' I +wonder what that means." + +Mrs. Lane's eyes fairly bulged, and great drops of sweat stood on her +forehead as she answered: "Means? It means, Lammy Lane, that the Lord +don't forget the orphan, and if Bird O'More _is_ in New York, he's +lookin' after her business right here in Laurelville. + +[Illustration: "'_It means, Lammy Lane, that the Lord don't forget the +orphan._'"] + +"The meaning of that letter is what Abiram Slocum burnt up his +cross-road house to conceal, which he wouldn't hev done if it was of no +account." And Mrs. Lane poured out her suspicions and ideas concerning +the matter. + + * * * * * + +At the supper-table that night Mrs. Lane repeated Abiram Slocum's +message to her husband, and he, rubbing his chin with a troubled air, +replied, "Truth be told, Lauretta Ann, owin' to the burnin' of that +furniture there isn't a cent left to pay that claim, and I do hate to +have poor O'More held up as an insolvent around here for sixty dollars, +'count o' Bird. He was a good-natured, harmless sort o' feller, enjoyin' +of himself as he went, very much like I'd be if you hadn't taken up with +me, Mis'is Lane." + +At this compliment Mrs. Lane blushed like a girl and murmured something +about all men bein' the better for women's handling, provided it was the +right woman, which Mis'is Slocum wasn't. + +"Now as far as that sixty dollars goes, if it wasn't owed to 'Biram +Slocum, I'd undertake ter pay it myself, so as to get the receipt and +settle everything square up and clean billed, but, by jinks, it sticks +me to pay that low-down swindler." + +"Joshua Lane!" cried his wife, in a tragic tone, standing up and +pointing her pudgy finger at him with such a jerk that it made him start +as if it had been a bayonet, while she used the most grandiloquent +language she could muster: "The estate of the late lamented Terence +O'More does not owe Abiram Slocum a bent penny, and as to the receipt +for the same, I'll hand it to you this time to-morrow night, leastwise +if it doesn't blow a blizzard 'twixt now and then, or Mis'is Slocum turn +'Biram into pickled peppers by the sight of the face she wore home from +the auction." + +"Come now, Lauretta Ann," wheedled Joshua, "you ain't minded of paying +it, be ye? I'd think twice--that I would." + +"Pay!" snorted Lauretta. "Don't I tell you there's nothin' owed?" + +"You're talkin' an' actin' enigmas and charades. Not thet it's anything +new, but if I was you, I'd be mighty keerful how I baited 'Biram Slocum; +he is too cute for most men, and he would take to the law for a heedless +word jest now, he's that riled about the wardrobe story leakin' out and +losing the fruit farm." + +"That's all right, and don't you fret, Joshua; if there is any law +called in, it'll be by me." And pump and quiz as he might, not another +word could he extract from his wife upon the subject. + + * * * * * + +Early the next morning Mrs. Lane harnessed the "colt," which, though +ten years old, still bore his youthful name, to the cutter, and after +putting her egg-basket deep under the robe and depositing her satchel +on top of it, turned up the hill road toward Northboro, waving her whip +good-by to Lammy, who, seated in the big chair in his window, smiled at +her, with his finger pressed to his lips, as if cautioning silence. + +As the sleigh bells jingled and the "colt" loped easily along, Mrs. Lane +leaned back as if the motion and jolly sound expressed her own feelings +admirably, and the miles flew swiftly by. + +When Northboro was reached, she drove to the stable where she always +left her horse in unseasonable weather, but instead of carrying the +familiar egg-basket into town, she stowed it away under the sleigh seat, +and hanging her satchel securely on her arm, drew on her best gloves +that she had brought in her pocket, and started up the main street at +a vigorous trot. Coming to a gray stone building next the court-house, +where many lawyers had offices, she read the various signs anxiously, +and then spying that of Mr. Cole, opened the swinging outside door and +climbed the two flights of stairs that led to it. + +Mr. Cole greeted her pleasantly, for he had a very kindly feeling +toward this generous-hearted woman; but when he heard her story and saw +the legal-looking envelope, he became doubly interested. Untying the +tape, he read the various papers through, one after the other, while +Mrs. Lane watched his eagerness with evident satisfaction. When he had +finished, he replaced the papers and tied them up deliberately before he +said: "These papers appear to me to be of great importance to O'More's +daughter, though exactly what they amount to I cannot tell until I see +the dates of certain mortgages and transfers on record in Milltown. +Fortunately the attorney, Mr. King, who drew up the papers before he +went to California four years ago, has returned on a visit, and I am to +meet him in court this afternoon." + +"I suppose you know Bird hasn't anything to pay what Joshua says they +call the retainment fee, but if a little money 'll help her get her +rights, you may hold me good for it." + +"That will not be necessary," said the lawyer, smiling, "for my client, +Mr. Clarke, is as anxious to have the title to the Mill Farm cleared +as you are, so in serving him I may be able to aid Bird. Slocum, the +present owner, seems a slippery man at best. You know that the insurance +company, for which I also happen to be the agent, withholds his claim +because he gave the date of June 9 for his fire when it took place the +10th." + +At this Mrs. Lane's eyes grew steelly bright, and she moistened her +lips nervously. Then Mr. Cole put the papers in his safe and closed the +door with its mysterious lock, and Mrs. Lane breathed a sigh of relief +and, asking him to write as soon as he had news, either good or bad, +went carefully down the shallow marble stairs of the office building, +for elevators she would have none of. + +Once more in the street, she spied a bakery and, going in, ordered a cup +of coffee and half a custard pie, which she ate with relish and then +returned to the stable for the "colt" without doing any of her usual +market-day trading. + +It was only half-past eleven when Mrs. Lane, coming down the hill road, +saw Laurelville lying before her in the valley, and five minutes later +when she hitched the colt in front of the town-house, throwing the coon +lap-robe over him in addition to his blanket. + +The selectmen had been in consultation, and were now standing outside, +making holes in the snow with their boot toes and finding it difficult +to break away, after the usual manner of rural communities. Mrs. Lane +nodded pleasantly and asked if every one else had gone home to dinner. + +"Mostly," replied First Selectman Penfield, "but Judge Ricker's in his +office, I reckon, and Slocum, he's in the end room as 'cessor, waitin' +for folks to swear their taxes, for which they appear to be in no +hurry." + +This was exactly the information Mrs. Lane wanted, and she walked +directly down the corridor, this time firmly grasping the egg-basket and +leaving the satchel outside. + +Opening the door without knocking, she had entered, closed it, and +seated herself opposite Abiram Slocum before he was aware of her +presence, and do what he could, he was not able to control the slight +start that her appearance gave him. + +"Morning, marm," he said formally, putting his thumbs in the armholes of +his vest and puffing out his cheeks with importance; "want to swear your +taxes?" + +"Not to-day; Joshua always attends to that. I've jest dropped in ter get +that receipt for the O'More rent, as Joshua intends settling the matter +up with Judge Ricker this afternoon." + +"Very glad to hear it, Mrs. Joshua Lane; it saves me lots of trouble, +and I hate to go to law unless required." And he drew a blank form from +a desk, which he filled in, signed, and was about to hand across the +table, when he suddenly withdrew it, saying, "Well, where are the sixty +dollars?" + +"They was paid you June the 10th." + +"What!" shouted Abiram, really believing the woman to be crazy, and +retreating behind the table. + +"Just so; by that I mean all that good furniture you set fire to along +with your house." + +Slocum turned ghastly white and almost staggered, but quickly recovering +himself, he sprang forward furiously, and for a moment Mrs. Lane thought +he was going to strike her, but glancing out the window she saw that +Selectman Penfield was below, and this reassured her. + +"I'll have you arrested for slander as sure as my name's Abiram Slocum," +he gasped, trying to get out the door in front of which she stood. + +"I wouldn't be too hasty; if you wait, you will hear more to get up +that slander claim on, mostlike. Jest you go back and set down while I +have my say, and if you want witnesses to it, Judge Ricker will step +in, I'm sure, or Mr. Penfield either; they are both real handy. As you +said yesterday, _there's underhand business been goin' on in town if the +light o' truth could be let in_, which I'm now doin'." + +So Abiram hesitated, and sank back into the chair, casting an uneasy +look at his visitor, who proceeded to state her case both rapidly and +clearly. + +"'Twas Friday, the 10th of June, you fired that house, though you did +give into the insurance company 'twas the 9th." (Here again Slocum +jumped, and his hands worked nervously.) + +"The 10th was circus day, and most all the town had gone to Northboro. +Likewise Lockwood's field-hands went, and so there were no men folks +working up beyond four corners; this gave you a clear coast. + +"You started for the circus with Mis'is Slocum and 'Ram; you turned +back, giving it out you'd got important business at the Mill Farm. But +you didn't go, and turned up before noon at the turnpike store, where +you never trade. There you bought a new gallon can of kerosene, saying +you was going up to the north lots to make a wash of it fer tent-worms +in the apple trees. Now there ain't even a wild crab tree in the north +lots--only corn-fields. + +"You went up that way all right, and a-spookin' around the house. +Everything was tight fast, and so the only place you could get in was by +crawlin' through the cellar winder, which you did, tearin' a new pair o' +herrin'-bone pattern trousers so doin'." + +Again Slocum started, and his face wore a look of intense wonder mixed +with fear. + +"After you looked about for what you didn't find, you spilled the +kerosene about and set fire so's nobody could get what maybe you'd +overlooked. + +"Then you scooted back in the corn lot and hid the can in the big +blasted chestnut stump, and when a hue and cry was raised walked down as +innercent as May, from hoein' corn that wasn't yet above ground!" + +By this time Slocum had pulled himself together, and his defiance +returned. + +"Woman, you are crazy, and what you say is perfectully redeclous; I'll +have you behind asylum bars, if not in jail. Mere talk! You can't prove +a word you say, and what is this 'thing' that I couldn't find and wanted +to burn? Just tell me that!" + +"Prove? Oh, yes, I can; Lauretta Ann Lane is no random talker. + +"Here's the pants you wore, and that you sold the pedler the same +afternoon--they smell yet o' kerosene, and here's the piece ye tore out +on the winder-catch!" And Mrs. Lane whipped the telltale trousers out of +her egg-basket. + +"The kerosene can's in the stump yet, but I've got it all straight; that +poor Polack woman you turned out of house and home seen you hide it. Now +what else was there?" And Mrs. Lane affected a lapse of memory. + +"Oh, yes; you wanted to know what you was a-lookin' for. Why, don't +you know? It was a big lawyer's envelope marked 'Papers concerning the +Turner Mill Farm Property,--to be recorded.'" + +Slocum breathed hard and grasped the table edge to steady himself. + +"Jest why you wanted them papers I don't know, but Lawyer Cole in +Northboro, who's got 'em, is goin' to find out." + +"Lawyer Cole has them?" Slocum whispered hoarsely; "Lawyer Cole, did you +say?" + +"Yes, I did!" repeated Mrs. Lane; "and if you don't think the testimony +I've been givin' you is true, and consider it a slander, I've got it +writ out, and I'll have him search that out too." + +"No, no," said Slocum, speaking as if to himself. "How did you ever +find--" and then he remembered and stopped. Mrs. Lane waited a few +minutes, and then said:-- + +"It's full noon now, and I must get home to dinner, so I'll trouble +you for that rent receipt. Thanks, and I'll give you a word of advice +in return. The Lord mostly finds out evil-doers, and not infrequent He +trusts women to help Him, and I want you to consider that if I don't +give this matter a public airin', it isn't from either pity or fear of +you, but because I don't want the county to know that we harboured such +a skunk among us so long; my last word being that you'd better get away +from my neighbourhood before I change my mind!" + +So it came about that before Christmas Abiram Slocum gave it out that +his wife's health was poor and he had been advised to go to California, +where he intended to buy a vineyard, hinting at the same time that as +he expected to sell a large tract of land to Mr. Clarke, he had no +further interest in Laurelville; and though only four people knew the +real reason, the whole village rejoiced without the slightest effort at +concealment. + +At the same time Joshua Lane found that his work as administrator of the +O'More property had only begun instead of being closed. + + + + +XIV + +THE FIRE-ESCAPE + + +What had Bird O'More been doing these many days? It did not need the +skill of a magician to tell why even her notes to her Laurelville +friends had been brief at best and then finally ceased. A single peep at +her surroundings would have told the tale, and the more completely she +became merged in them, the more hopeless she felt them to be. + +Her weekly work in distributing the flowers was a bright spot indeed, as +well as her visits to Tessie; but as she looked forward to the time when +frost would kill the blossoms, the Flower Mission be closed, and the +liberty of streets and parks cut off for confinement in the dark flat, +her heart sank indeed. + +All her hopes were centred about going to school, and the possibilities +of meeting teachers who would understand her desire to learn, and +help her with sympathy. Meanwhile, the city summer had told upon her +country-bred body even more than on her sensitive temperament, and she +grew thinner every day, until finally her aunt was compelled to see +it in spite of herself, and promised to take her down to Coney Island +or Rockaway Beach "some day" when she was not busy, to freshen her up +a bit; but that day never came, and as little Billy was constantly +improving, her uncle had eyes only for him. In fact, the change in the +little cripple was little short of marvellous. Of course his lameness +remained, but his cheeks were round, his lips had lost their blue tint, +and to hear him cry or complain was a rare sound indeed. That all this +came of Bird's devoted care her uncle was quite convinced; for it was +she who gave Billy his morning bath, and managed,--no easy task,--that +the battered tub should not again be used for a cupboard. It was Bird +who took his food into the fire-escape bower, and coaxed and tempted +him until he had eaten sufficient, and it was she who put him nightly +into the little bed opposite her own and taught him to say, as a little +prayer, the verse of the hymn her own mother had sung to her in the +misty long ago:-- + + "Jesus, gentle Shepherd, hear me; + Bless thy little lamb to-night: + Through the darkness be thou near me; + Keep me safe till morning light." + +But for Billy, Bird could not have endured through that dreadful summer. +As it was, she often fingered her "keepsake," still hanging about her +neck, the thought comforting her that with the mysterious coin in it she +could get back once more to the little village that seemed like heaven +to her, no matter what happened after. Often, in fact, the only thing +that kept her from running away was the belief that if her good friends +could take her permanently, they would have sent for her, and pride, +heroic pride, born of Old and New England, was still strong in Ladybird. + +"She'll perk up when school begins and she gets acquainted with girls +her own age," said O'More, cheerfully, as his attention was called to +her pale cheeks by his wife. "I'm owin' her good will for what she's +done for Billy, else I most wish I'd left her up there with those +hayseeds that wanted her. Somehow she don't fit in here, for all +that she never complains. She's different from us, and she makes me +uncomfortable, lookin' so solemn at me if I chance to take off my coat +and collar of a night at supper to ease up a bit. Terence was different +from us, too, and it's bred in the bone." + +"Let well enough alone," said Mrs. O'More, glad to have Billy so +completely taken off her hands; "folks can't afford to be different to +their own, unless they've got the price. I've made her a good dress out +of a remnant of bright plaid I bought, so next week she can shell off +them shabby black duds that give me the shivers every time I see them. +Maybe fixin' up like other girls 'll bring her to and liven her. She's +queer though, sure enough, don't give no sass, and it ain't natural; I +never seen a girl her age before that didn't talk back, and sometimes it +riles me to see her keep so close shet when I up and let fly." + +In September school began, but this brought further disappointment, +for Bird had hoped to find a friend at least in the teacher. She was, +however, graded according to her size and age, not ability, as if she +had been a wooden box, and found herself in an overcrowded room, a +weak-eyed little Italian, with brass earrings, seated on one side of +her, and the Polish sausage-seller's daughter on the other, her dirty +hands heavy with glass rings, which caused her to keep whispering +behind Bird's back as to her lack of jewellery and style; while at the +first recess this little Slav told the astonished Bird, "If yer tink +to get in vid us, you'll got to pomp you 'air; dis crowt, we's stylish +barticular--ve iss." + +As to the teacher in trim shirt-waist, with pretty hands and hair, to +whom the class recited in chorus, Bird longed to speak to her, to touch +her, but she fled to a purer atmosphere as soon as school was out, and +was remote as the stars. + +As the weather grew cool, the fire-escape arbour was abandoned; they +could spend less time out of doors, and Bird felt caged indeed. The +engine-house now was the limit of their walks, for it grew dark very +soon after school was out. Still they never tired of seeing the horses +dash out, and Billy called Big Dave "my fireman," and used to shout to +him as he passed in the street. So the autumn passed. + + * * * * * + +It was a clear, cold afternoon a little before Christmas; the shops were +gay with pretty things, and the streets with people. Billy was in a +fever of excitement because his father, who had left home on a business +trip a few days before, had promised him a Christmas tree, and Bird had +gone out to buy the candles and some little toys to put on it, at a +street stall. Billy, however, did not go, for he was not to see the toys +until Christmas Eve. + +Bird wandered across to Broadway at 23rd Street, and then followed the +stream of shoppers southward. Was it only a year since last Christmas +when she had helped trim the tree at Sunday-school in Laurelville and +had sung the treble-solo part in-- + + "Watchman! tell us of the night; + What the signs of promise are." + +Would there ever again be any signs of promise for her? Somehow she +had never before felt so lonely for her father as in that merry crowd. +She wondered if he saw and was disappointed in her, and what Lammy was +doing. Going up on the hill probably with the other village children to +cut the Christmas tree and greens for church. + +Not minding where she went, she followed the crowd on past and around +Union Square and down town again. Then realizing that she was facing +away from home and had not bought her candles, she looked up and saw on +the opposite side of the street a beautiful gray stone church. At one +side and joined to it was what looked like a house set well back from +the street, from which it was separated by a wide garden. People were +going in and out of the church by twos and threes. + +A voice seemed to call Bird, and she too crossed Broadway and timidly +pushed open the swinging door. + +At first she could see nothing, as the only lights in the church were +near the chancel. Then different objects began to outline themselves. +There was no service going on, the people having come in merely for a +few quiet moments. + +Bird stood quite still in the little open space by a side door back of +the pews; it was the first really peaceful time she had known since +the day that she and Lammy carried the red peonies to the hillside +graveyard, and as she thought of it, she seemed to smell the sweet +spruce fragrance of those runaway Christmas trees that watched where her +parents slept. + +A flock of little choir boys trooped in from an opposite door for the +final practice of their Christmas carols and grouped themselves in +the stalls. Next a quiver of sound rushed through the church as the +great organ drew its breath and swelled its lungs, as if humming the +melody before breaking into voice. Then above its tones rang a clear +boy-soprano. + + "Watchman! tell us of the night + What the signs of promise are." + +and the chorus answered-- + + "Traveller! o'er yon mountain height, + See that glory-beaming star." + +The answering echo quivered in Bird's throat, suffocating her, and as, +unable to stand, she knelt trembling upon the floor the odour of spruce +again enveloped her, and groping, she found that she was really leaning +against a pile of small trees that had been brought there to decorate +the church for Christmas Eve, and as the door opened, men came in +bringing more--dozens and dozens of them, it seemed. + +Bird picked up a broken twig, and in spite of its sharpness pressed it +against her face, kissing it passionately, never noticing that she was +directly in the passage between the door and aisle, where presently a +gentleman coming hurriedly in stumbled over her. + +He was about to pass on with a curt apology, but glancing down, he saw +that it was a little girl, and that though comfortably dressed and +not actually poor, her face showed signs of distress and tears, so he +stopped. + +"What is it, my child?" he said. "Have you lost your way, or what? Come +here and sit in this pew while you tell me about it. I've a daughter at +home only a couple of years older than you, and she doesn't like to have +any one sad at Christmas time." + +It was months since any one had spoken to Bird in the gentle tongue that +had been her father's and was her own, and though the tears started +anew, she made haste to obey, lest he should suddenly disappear like all +her pleasant dreams. + +He was an alert, middle-aged man of affairs. He had a fine presence and +keen eyes and, without making her feel that he was prying, succeeded in +drawing out the bare facts of her story, nothing more, so that he had no +idea that the trouble was more than a country-bred child's homesickness +at being shut up in the city, and having to go to school instead of +reading all day long and trying to paint flowers. + +"So you used to live in Laurelville?" he said; "why, I have a country +place near there, not far from Northboro, my native town, where I +built an Art School, and I have little city girls come to us there +every summer for a playtime. If you will remember and write, or come +to me when the next summer vacation begins, you shall be one of them. +Meanwhile keep this, my address." He handed her a card and passed on, +for he was a good man and rich, with many people to make happy at +Christmas time, and to be both rich and good in New York one must work +very hard indeed. + +Going out into the street again, Bird read the name on the card before +slipping it into her pocket. Wonder of wonders! it was Clarke, the same +as that of the wall-paper manufacturer whose manager had asked Terry to +make designs for him. Of course he must be Marion Clarke's father. The +address was different from the one of the factory, but Bird knew enough +of the city now to guess that this number on the card was of his house, +and she now remembered that people had said that he conducted many +various manufactories. + +So he had built the School of Design at Northboro that she had dreamed +about ever since she went there with her father to look at an exhibition +of drawings! Could it be that this card was the Christmas sign of hope +and promise to her? She almost flew homeward after buying the candles +and little toys, and laughed and chatted so cheerfully with Billy when +she gave him his supper, that her cousin Larry, who had always teased +her for being set up, remarked to his mother, "Ladybird is coming down +from her perch some; maybe she'll get to be like us, after all." But it +was upward, not downward, that the brave, clipped wings were struggling. + + * * * * * + +Between Christmas and New Year there came a snow-storm, and then +bitterly cold weather. In Laurelville snow meant sleighing, coasting, +bracing air, and rosy cheeks; in East 24th Street it signified soaked +skirts, sodden shoes, and sore throats, while for Billy it brought +unhappy shut-in days, for his crutch slipped dangerously in icy weather. + +One evening Mrs. O'More was called out to sit with a sick neighbour. She +told Bird not to wait up as she might be late, and she would take the +key with her, as the boys had keys of their own if they came in first. + +Bird was used to thus staying shut into the flat alone, and so after +she heard the key turn in the door of their narrow hallway, she amused +herself for perhaps an hour by drawing, and then went to bed. She had +been dragging Billy about on his sled up and down the street all the +afternoon, so she soon fell into a heavy sleep. + +It must have been a couple of hours after when she waked up suddenly +and tried vainly to think where she was. The room felt hot and airless, +and a strange smell of scorched leather filled the air. She managed +to get on her feet, pulled on a few clothes, and tried to open a side +window, but it stuck fast. Going to the front, she raised the sash, and +as she did so, a cloud of smoke poured into the room, while the shouts +and clashing of gongs in the street told what it was that had wakened +her--the fire-engines! The great sales stables with their tons of hay +and straw were on fire, and the house also, while in the street all was +in an uproar of frightened horses and men. + +Rushing back to her room, she shook Billy awake and, wrapping a few +clothes about him, dragged him toward the hall door. It was locked of +course, as Mrs. O'More had taken the key. By this time the smoke and +flames were pouring in the front windows. Ah, the fire-escape! Through +the kitchen she struggled, and out on to the icy balcony, having the +sense to close the window behind her. + +The back yards were full of firemen, and excited people hung from the +windows of opposite buildings. Bird tried to raise the trap in the floor +door, but the boxes of frozen earth that had held the morning-glories +bore it down, making it useless, and the one below was hopelessly heaped +with litter. + +Would nobody see her? Billy clung to her, sobbing pitifully, for he +was lightly covered, and shivered with cold as well as fear. The +window-frame inside was catching, and heat also came up from below. Was +this the end? Must the wild bird die in her cage? + +Suddenly a great shout arose in the rear; people had seen and were +pointing them out. Up came the firemen, climbing, clinging, battering +down the obstructions before them. Ah, those wonderful firemen that +keep our faith in old-time valour! + +A moment more, and an axe struck open the prisoned trap-door, a head +came through, and a voice cried, "Good God, it's Bird and little Billy!" + +"Dave, my fireman!" sobbed the boy, flinging himself into the strong +arms. "Take him," commanded Bird, as the man hesitated an instant; "I +can follow." Down the ladder they went step by step until the flames +from the lower story crept through and stopped them again, and the +slender fire ladder, held by strong arms, shot up to them, and Dave's +mate grasped Bird and carried her down to safety. Then the firemen +cheered, and tears rolled down Big Dave's cheeks unchecked. + +Kind, if rough, people took them in and warmed and fed them, and more +kind people guided Mrs. O'More to them when she rushed frantically home. +But little Billy had suffered a nervous shock, and lay there moaning and +seeming to think that the fire still pursued him. + +"He will need great care and nursing to pull him through, for he is +naturally delicate," said the doctor the next day when they had moved +into a couple of furnished rooms that were rented to Mrs. O'More by a +friend in a near-by street until she could pull herself together, as +they had lost everything. "He must either go to a hospital or have a +nurse," continued the doctor, gravely. But Mrs. O'More could not be made +to see it. + +"His father'd never forgive me if I put him out o' me hands," she said; +"he'll pick up from the fright after a bit, and what with John away, +and never saving a cent of cash no more than the boys, and the business +all burned out along with us, I've not money in hand for the wasting on +nurses." + +Bird knew better,--knew that Billy was very sick, and she could not let +him die so. Ah! the keepsake, the precious coin! Now was the time to +spend it, for there could be no greater necessity than this. What if it +was not enough? Even if it was not much, it might do until her uncle got +back, and then she knew Billy would have care if his father begged in +the street for it. + +Going away in a corner, she unfastened the silver chain and detached the +little bag from it. With difficulty she ripped the thong stitches, but +instead of a coin, out of many wrappings fell a slender band of gold +set with one large diamond. As she turned the ring over in surprise, +some letters within caught her eye--"Bertha Rawley, from her godfather, +J. S." + +This was the name of Terence O'More's mother, and the ring had been a +wedding gift from her godfather, and the one valuable possession that +she had clung to all her troubled life. But Bird knew nothing of this. + +What could Bird do with it? She pondered--her city life had made her +shrewd; she knew the miseries of the poor who went to the pawn shops, +and guessed that any one in the neighbourhood might undervalue the ring, +or likely enough say that she stole it. + +Mr. Clarke--she would go to him! Now was the time! She borrowed a hat +and wrap from the woman of whom the rooms were rented and stole out. In +an hour she came back with a triumphant look upon her face, and laying a +roll of bills before her aunt, said, "I've sold my keepsake; now we will +have a nurse for Billy right away." + +After she understood about the money, and found that it was one hundred +dollars, Mrs. O'More broke down and cried like a baby, telling Bird +that she was a real lady and no mistake. And then adding, to Bird's +indignation, "I wonder did you get the value o' the ring, or did he +cheat you, the old skin!" But, nevertheless, the nurse came, and not an +hour too soon. + +Meanwhile a certain rich man sat at his library desk, holding a diamond +ring in his hand, saying, half aloud: "I believe the girl's story, +though I suppose most people would say she stole the ring, or was given +it by those who did. It is healthier to believe than to doubt. I shall +investigate the matter to-morrow and keep the ring for the child. It +is a fine stone worth four times the sum I gave her, but she would not +take any more than the one hundred dollars, nor was it wise for me to +press her. Ah! letters inside! Bertha Rawley! She said her grandmother +was an Englishwoman. That new superintendent of the Northboro Art School +is named Rawley. He studied at South Kensington. I wonder if they could +be related. O'More. I think that name comes into that Mill Farm deed +mix-up. I will write to Rawley at once and see what is known about the +girl in Laurelville, for something tells me that child is 'one of these +little ones' who should be helped." + + + + +XV + +THE BIRD IS FREED + + +January was half over before it was possible for the Lanes to take their +long-promised trip to New York to look up Bird and bring her back, as +her uncle had exacted, a legal sister to Lammy. + +Moving from the small house into the large one, even though the +necessary repairs were to be made by degrees, was more of an undertaking +than Mrs. Lane had bargained for. Also it took Lammy a long time to get +"the bones back in his legs," though happiness and Dr. Jedd's tonics +worked wonders. + +Dr. Jedd had suggested that a furnace required much less care than three +or four stoves, and so one had been put in. Mrs. Jedd, who had very +good taste, and a tactful way of expressing it that never gave offence, +suggested to Mrs. Lane that, instead of covering the mahogany parlour +set with red plush, the floor with a red-figured tapestry brussels, +replacing the small window-panes with great sheets of glass, bricking +up the wide fireplace, and then closing the whole room up except, +as Joshua said, for funerals, it should be turned into a comfortable +living-room. + +This suited Joshua, the older boys, and Lammy exactly, and though +Lauretta Ann demurred at first, saying, "It didn't seem hardly +respectable not to hev a best room," she quickly yielded, and said that +it "would be a real comfort to have a separate place to eat in when +there was a lot of baking on hand and the kitchen all of a tousle, +likewise to set in after meals." + +So the old furniture was recovered with a suitable dull green corduroy, +and some comfortable Morris chairs added, "that pa and the boys +wouldn't be tempted to set back on the hind legs of the mahogany, which +is brittle." A deep red rug, that would not have to be untacked at +housecleaning times, covered the centre of the floor, with Grandmother +Lane's long Thanksgiving dinner-table in the centre, and a smaller +round one with folding leaves in the corner, for the entertaining of +the friends who were constantly dropping in for a chat and a cup of tea +and crullers or a cut of mince pie, for no one in the county had such a +reputation for crullers and mince meat, combined with a lavish use of +them, as Lauretta Ann Lane. + +Next Mrs. Jedd ventured to suggest that the fireplace be left open and +some of the big logs, with which Aunt Jimmy had always kept the woodshed +filled, simply because her mother had done so before her, used for a +nightly hearth fire. + +Mrs. Lane said she hadn't any andirons and the ashes would make dust, +but Joshua was so pleased with the idea of returning to old ways that +she yielded; and when, on the old fire-board being removed to clean +the chimney of soot and swallows' nests, a pair of tall andirons and a +fender were found, the matter settled itself, and Mrs. Lane soon came +to take pride in the cheerful blaze, while the best dishes, which were +of really handsome blue and white India porcelain, were ranged in racks +over the mantel-shelf. + +Then there was a sunny southwest window, and Joshua fastened a long +shelf in front of this for his wife's geraniums, wax-plant, and +wandering Jew that had shut out the light from the best window in the +kitchen, and these brought in the welcome touch of greenery in spite of +the particoloured crimped paper with which she insisted upon decorating +the pots. + +"How Bird will love this room!" Lammy said a dozen times a day, as he +remembered how prettily she had arranged the scanty furnishings at the +house above the crossroads, and disliked everything that savoured of +show or cheap finery, and it seemed to him that Bird's companionship +was the only thing necessary to prove that heaven, instead of being a +far-away region, at least had a branch at the fruit farm in Laurelville. + +The doctor said that Lammy must not return to school until the midwinter +term, and so he spent his time in the shop back of the barn, making many +little knickknacks for the house, not a few of them being intended for +Bird's room, for which he also designed a low book-shelf that made a +seat in the dormer window, and a table with a hinge that she could use +when she wished to draw or paint, and then close against the wall. + +This room was next to Mrs. Lane's, and had two dormer windows and a deep +press closet lighted by a high window, under which the washstand stood. +It was furnished with a white enamelled bed and a plain white painted +dresser, upon which, Lammy said, Bird could paint whatever flowers she +chose. There were frilled curtains of striped dimity at the windows, +and a quilt and bed valance of the same, for Mrs. Lane despised any +ornamental fabric that would not wash and "bile." The floor was covered +with matting, but three sheepskin rugs of home raising and dyed fox +colour were placed, one at the side of the bed, one before the bureau, +and one under the wall table, upon which Bird's paint-box stood close +to the leather-paper portfolio that Lammy had made to hold the precious +sketches. + +He had tried his best to find a wall paper with a red "piney" border, +but they told him at the great paper warehouse at Northboro that they +had never seen such a paper, so he took wild-rose sprays instead. + +Lammy had also filled a small bark-covered box with Christmas ferns, +ebony spleenwort, wintergreen, partridge-berries, and moss, for the +window-ledge, while fresh festoons of ground-pine topped the windows +even though Christmas was long past. In fact, Lammy could hardly keep +away from the room, and often when he went in, he met his mother, for +whom it had the same attraction, and then they would both laugh happily +and, closing the door, come away hand in hand. + +It never occurred to a single member of this simple, warm-hearted +family, that there was any possibility of there being a slip between cup +and lip, and in this faith they presently set out upon their pilgrimage +to New York, for which event Lammy wore a high collar and a new suit, +his first to have long trousers. + +The minister's wife and Dinah Lucky took joint charge of the house while +the Lanes were in New York, for they intended staying several days, +perhaps a week, as Dr. Jedd said the change was exactly what they all +needed after the doings and anxieties of the past eight months, and Mr. +Cole, the lawyer from Northboro, gave them the card of a good hotel +close to the Grand Central Station, where they would be well treated and +neither snubbed nor overcharged. For he well knew that in a New York +hotel, Laurelville's Sunday-best clothes looked as strangely out of +place as Dr. Jedd's carryall would on Fifth Avenue. + +During the past few weeks, Alfred Rawley, the new superintendent of +the Northboro School of Industrial Art, had made several visits to the +Lanes, at first upon business connected with Aunt Jimmy's legacy, and +then because he seemed to like to come. He was a fine-looking man of +fifty, and not only a stranger in Northboro, but a bachelor without home +ties. He seemed greatly interested in Bird, about whom Lammy talked so +constantly that the visitor could not but hear of her, and asked to see +the portfolio of drawings in which were some of hers, and he praised +them very highly for their promise. + +The Lanes arrived in New York just before dark of a Tuesday afternoon, +and spent the rest of the evening in looking out of their windows at the +remarkable and confused thoroughfare below them that was made still more +of a spectacle by the glare of electric lights. Lammy wished to go and +look for Bird at once, but his father wouldn't hear of doing so until +broad daylight, saying:-- + +"Sakes alive, it ain't safe. I've been across Hill's swamp without a +lantern on a foggy night a-callin' up lost sheep, but that down there +with them queer kind o' two-wheel carts that bob along in narrow places +like teeter snipe crossin' the mill-dam, I'll not venture it, leastwise +not with mother along." So Lammy went to bed to kill time, but a little +later curiosity got the better of Joshua, and he spent an hour in the +lobby, where he learned, besides several other things, that the "teeter +snipe" carts were called "hansome cabs." + +To the surprise of the early-rising country folk, it was eleven +o'clock the next morning before they found themselves ready to take a +south-bound Fourth Avenue car, for the visit to Bird, and Joshua told +the conductor four times in ten blocks where they wished to get off, +and what they were going for, while Mrs. Lane sat still, smiling and +quivering all over from the shiney tips of her first boots (other than +Congress gaiters) to the jet fandango atop of a real Northboro store +bonnet, and the smile was so infectious that it soon spread through the +entire car. + +When they got off at 24th Street and made the sidewalk in tremulous +safety, they marched east in silence, counting the numbers as they went. + +"'Tain't much of a neighbourhood," sniffed Mrs. Lane, wondering at the +ash barrels and pails of swill that lined the way. + +"Don't jedge hasty, mother," said Joshua; "we mustn't be hard on +city folks that ain't got our advantages in the way o' pigs to turn +swill into meat, and bog-holes ter swaller ashes what don't go to +road-makin'." + +"We must be near there," gasped Lauretta Ann, presently. She had been +persuaded to have her new gown made a "stylish length" by Hope Snippin, +the village dressmaker, in consequence of which she was grasping her +skirts on both sides, floundering and plunging along very much like an +old-style market schooner, with its sails fouled in the rigging. + +"Oh, mother, look there!" said Lammy, with white, trembling lips. He +had been running on ahead and keeping track of the numbers, but he now +stood still, pointing to a half block of burned and ruined buildings, +walled in ice and draped with cruel icicles that seemed to pierce his +very flesh as he gazed at them. + +For a minute they were all fairly speechless and stood open-mouthed, +then Joshua, recovering first, settled his teeth firmly back in place, +and laughing feebly, said: "Been a fire, I reckon; thet's nothing. I've +heard somethin' gets afire as often as every week in N'York. They must +be somewhere, and we'll jest calm down and ask the neighbours over the +way--in course they'll know." + +But to Joshua's wonder they didn't, at least not definitely, and all he +could learn was that the O'Mores had moved somewhere a couple of blocks +"over." + +"Gosh, but ain't N'York a heathen town," muttered Joshua; "jest think, +folks burned out an' their neighbours don't take no trouble about +'em; we might even get knocked down, and I bet they wouldn't be a bit +surprised. I'd like to strike fer home." + +As they wandered helplessly along block after block, the crowd of +workmen and children in the streets coming home to dinner told that it +was noon. + +There was no use in going they did not know where, and they had not met +a single policeman whom they could question. As they stood upon a corner +consulting as to what they had best do, a group of girls coming up and +dividing passed on either side of them, one bold-looking chit in a red +plush hat and soiled gown singing out something about "When Reuben comes +to town," and giving Lammy a push at the same time. + +As he turned to avoid her, he heard his name called, and breaking from +her mates, a slender little figure with big black eyes dropped her +satchel and flung her arms around his neck, heedless of the merriment +and jeers of her companions. Bird was found at last! + +[Illustration: "_Bird was found at last._"] + +There was no longer any use in trying to keep up the barrier of pride, +or of pretending she was happy, and Bird led her friends home to the new +flat, wherein O'More had established his family on his return. + +That afternoon there was a long powwow in which Mrs. O'More made herself +very disagreeable, as she had come to rely upon Bird and did not wish +to have Billy back upon her hands, but John O'More stood firm by his +promise, saying, even if he'd never made it, Bird should have her choice +after the way she'd stood by Billy in time of need. "She stuck by her +blood kin, and she's a lady through and through, and we're different, +and it's neither's fault that we're a reproach to each other," was +O'More's summing up. "If you can keep her, you can take her, but God +help little Billy! The doctor says good care a couple o' years more, an' +he'll have a chance for his leg. I can pay for care, but it's not to be +bought around here." + +Mrs. Lane saw the tears in the rough man's eyes, and her big +mother-heart throbbed, and to some purpose, as usual. + +"Our doctor's wife would take him to board, I guess," she said, after +thinking a minute. "She took a little boy from Northboro last summer, +and did real well by him, her children bein' grown now and out of hand. +Dr. Jedd, he'd give him care besides. I'll take him along with us if you +think he'll grieve, and you can write or come up and settle it." + +It was only then that Bird's happiness was complete, and little Billy +hugged and hugged her, and cried in his piping voice, "Now we're going +to fly away out of the cage to your country for _sure_ this time," and +Bird answered joyfully and truthfully, "Yes." + +"And the sooner we'll fly, the better I'll like it," added Joshua. +"This very afternoon would suit me." + +But Lauretta Ann had determined upon two things: she was going to buy +the material for a black silk gown in New York, also a handsome china +jar to contain the remains of the pewter tea-pot and be "a moniment +to Aunt Jimmy," in the centre of the India china on the living-room +mantel-shelf. Mrs. O'More, sullenly accepting her defeat, and now in her +element, which was buying dress goods, offered to conduct the stranger +through the mazes of Sixth Avenue department stores; so after a hasty +lunch they set out, while her husband and Joshua Lane talked matters +over, and the children were in a seventh heaven of anticipation. + +"One thing's on me mind,--that ring the girl sold to buy doctorin' for +Billy. I only hope she got the worth of it, and that the man's on the +square, for she won't give me the name of the gent that bought it, and +when I'm picked a bit out o' me trouble, I'd like to buy back the same, +for the keepsake is her only fortune. Maybe some day you can coax the +name out o' her." + +"Likely I can--plenty o' time for that," drawled Joshua, who usually +knew more than he appeared to. + + * * * * * + +The next afternoon five tired but happy people arrived at the Centre +and electrified the neighbourhood by hiring a hack to take them to +Laurelville, Joshua having only been persuaded to stay two days of the +proposed week's excursion. + +"I'm goin' to have Hope Snippin up to-morrow morning to shorten my +gown," was Mrs. Lane's greeting to the minister's wife when she opened +the door in alarm at the unexpected return, while Twinkle leaped into +Bird's arms, fairly screaming with dog joy. + +It was evident, however, that the sudden return was not wholly a +surprise. Somebody had sent a telegram to somebody, and Joshua's manner +in the interval before supper cast the suspicion upon him. After Bird +had seen her pretty room and coaxed Billy, who was nodding drowsily, to +eat his bread and milk and go to bed before the real supper, she came +down to the living-room, where the table was spread for the first time +instead of in the kitchen, for Dinah Lucky came in a few hours every day +now to do the heavy work and give Mrs. Lane more leisure. A stranger +was sitting by the fire. He rose and took Bird by the hand very gently +and drew her to the lounge beside him, at the same time handing her a +letter. She was too much surprised to notice that no one introduced her +or told his name. She opened the letter; her keepsake ring rolled into +her lap as she read:-- + + "DEAR BERTHA O'MORE: I know all about you now, and I believed in + you from the first. Here is your ring; wear it about your neck as + before for a keepsake, until some day, ten years or so hence--then + ask the one you love best to put it upon your left hand. With the + respect of your friend, + + "MARION CLARKE'S FATHER. + + "P.S. The bearer of this letter is Alfred Rawley, your + grandmother's youngest brother!" + +In spite of her bewilderment, her first thought was, "So he was really +Marion's father!" Next spring she would beg him to give Tessie the +holiday that he had offered her that Christmastide in the twilight of +the church. + +Joshua Lane capered about like a young kid as his wife tried to chase +him into a corner, exclaiming, "Now you jest up and tell me how long +you've known all this, and not told your lawful wife!" + +"Wal, let me see," he said, counting on his fingers; "considerable +longer than it'll take us to eat supper," was all the answer she +received. + + * * * * * + +That night Bird opened her bedroom window and looked out into the frosty +moonlight, where far away in the distance the runaway Christmas trees +were outlined against the sky and the roots of red peony that Lammy +planted were waiting under the ground for their spring blooming time to +come. Stretching out her arms as she drew in great reviving breaths of +the clear, frosty air, then clasping her hands together, she whispered, +"Terry, dear, you know it all; you know your Bird is free again, and +that she remembers, and now you must help her to fly the right way." + +[Illustration] + + + + +DOGTOWN + +_Being some Chapters from the Annals of the Waddles Family, set down in +the Language of the House People_ + +By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +Author of "Tommy Anne," "Birdcraft," etc., etc. + +_Illustrated by Portraits from Life by the Author_ + + =Cloth= =12mo= =$1.50, net= + + "The dogs are entirely delightful, made alive and personal as + only the closest intimacy of knowledge and understanding could make + them."--_The Nation._ + + "It is a book you want for a Christmas present for the child or + grown-up dog-lover."--_American Sportsman._ + + +FLOWERS AND FERNS IN THEIR HAUNTS + +By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +_With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author and_ J. HORACE +MCFARLAND + + =Cloth= =12mo= =$2.50, net= + + "The reader of Mrs. Wright's handsome volume will wend his way + into a fairy world of loveliness, and find not only serious wildwood + lore, but poetry also, and sentiment and pictures of the pen that + will stay with him through winter days of snow and ice.... A careful + and interesting companion, its many illustrations being particularly + useful."--_New York Tribune._ + + +THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE + +_A New England Chronicle of Birds and Flowers_ + +By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + + =18mo= =Cloth, 75 cts.= =Large Paper, $3.00= + + "A dainty little volume, exhaling the perfume and radiating + the hues of both cultivated and wild flowers, echoing the songs + of birds, and illustrated with exquisite pen pictures of bits of + garden, field, and woodland scenery. The author is an intimate of + nature. She relishes its beauties with the keenest delight, and + describes them with a musical flow of language that carries us + along from a 'May Day' to a 'Winter Mood' in a thoroughly sustained + effort: and as we drift with the current of her fancy and her + tribute to nature, we gather much that is informatory, for she + has made a close study of the habits of birds and the legendry of + flowers."--_Richmond Dispatch._ + + +Four-Footed Americans and Their Kin + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Illustrated by ERNEST SETON-THOMPSON + + =Cloth.= =Crown 8vo.= =$1.50, net= + + "It deserves commendation for its fascinating style, and for the + fund of information which it contains regarding the familiar and + many unfamiliar animals of this country. It is an ideal book for + children, and doubtless older folk will find in its pages much of + interest."--_The Dial._ + + "Books like this are cups of delight to wide-awake and inquisitive + girls and boys. Here is a gossipy history of American quadrupeds, + bright, entertaining, and thoroughly instructive. The text, by Mrs. + Wright, has all the fascination that distinguishes her other outdoor + books."--_The Independent._ + + +Citizen Bird + +_Scenes from Bird-life in Plain English for a Beginner_ + +By MABEL O. WRIGHT and DR. ELLIOTT COUES + +Profusely illustrated by LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES + + =Cloth.= =Crown 8vo.= =$1.50, net= + + "When two writers of marked ability in both literature and + natural history write to produce a work giving scope to their + special talents, the public has reason to expect a masterpiece + of its kind. In the 'Citizen Bird,' by Mabel O. Wright and Dr. + Elliott Coues, this expectation is realized--seldom is the plan of + a book so admirably conceived, and in every detail so excellently + fulfilled."--_The Dial._ + + "There is no other book in existence so well fitted for arousing + and directing the interest that all children feel toward the + birds."--_Tribune_, Chicago. + + +Birdcraft + +_A Field-Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds_ + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +With eighty full-page plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes + + "One of the best books that amateurs in the study of ornithology + can find ... direct, forcible, plain, and pleasing."--_Chautauquan._ + + "Of books on birds there are many, all more or less valuable, + but 'Birdcraft,' by MABEL O. WRIGHT, has peculiar merits that will + endear it to amateur ornithologists.... A large number of excellent + illustrations throw light on the text and help to make a book that + will arouse the delight and win the gratitude of every lover of + birds."--_Saturday Evening Gazette_, Boston. + + +Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +With many illustrations by ALBERT D. BLASHFIELD + + =Cloth.= =Crown 8vo.= =$1.50= + + "This book is calculated to interest children in nature, and grown + folks, too, will find themselves catching the author's enthusiasm. + As for Tommy-Anne herself, she is bound to make friends wherever + she is known. The more of such books as these, the better for the + children. One Tommy-Anne is worth a whole shelf of the average + juvenile literature."--_The Critic._ + + +Wabeno, the Magician + +_The Sequel to Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts_ + +By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +Fully illustrated by JOSEPH M. GLEESON + + =Cloth.= =Crown 8vo.= =$1.50= + + "Mrs. Wright's book teaches her young readers to use their eyes + and ears, but it does more in that it cultivates in them a genuine + love for nature and for every member of the animal kingdom. The best + of the book is that it is never dull."--_Boston Budget._ + + +The Dream Fox Story Book + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +With eighty drawings by OLIVER HERFORD + + =Cloth.= =Small quarto.= =$1.50, net= + + Mrs. Wright's new book for young people recounts the marvellous + adventures of Billy Benton, his acquaintance with the Dream Fox and + the Night Mare, and what came of it. It differs from the author's + previous stories, as it is purely imaginative and somewhat similar + to "Alice in Wonderland." + + There are eight full-page illustrations, showing Billy at moments + of greatest interest, and also seventy drawings scattered throughout + the text. These illustrations are by Oliver Herford, who has entered + thoroughly into the spirit of the text, so that the pictures seem an + integral part of the story. + + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + + + +Transcriber's note + + +Text in italics has been surrounded by _underscores_ and small capitals +have been replaced with all capitals. + +A few punctuation errors have been corrected. Otherwise the original has +been preserved, including inconsistent spelling and hyphenation. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Aunt Jimmy's Will, by Mabel Osgood Wright + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42437 *** |