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diff --git a/18654.txt b/18654.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9caf473 --- /dev/null +++ b/18654.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6559 @@ +Project Gutenberg's What Might Have Been Expected, by Frank R. Stockton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Might Have Been Expected + +Author: Frank R. Stockton + +Release Date: June 22, 2006 [EBook #18654] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +WHAT MIGHT HAVE +BEEN EXPECTED + +By +Frank R. Stockton + +New York +Dodd, Mead and Company + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Copyright, 1874, by Dodd & Mead +Copyright, 1902, by Marian E. Stockton + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE +I. Harry Loudon Makes Up His Mind. 9 +II. The Adoption. 15 +III. Commencing Business. 21 +IV. Kate, very naturally, is Anxious. 30 +V. The Turkey-Hunter. 38 +VI. Tony Strikes Out. 47 +VII. Aunt Matilda's Christmas. 58 +VIII. A Lively Team. 71 +IX. Business in Earnest. 85 +X. A Meeting on the Road. 97 +XI. Rob. 103 +XII. Tony on the War-path. 112 +XIII. Cousin Maria. 118 +XIV. Harry's Grand Scheme. 124 +XV. The Council. 135 +XVI. Company Business. 143 +XVII. Principally Concerning Kate. 154 +XVIII. The Arrival. 164 +XIX. Constructing the Line. 172 +XX. An Important Meeting of the Board. 181 +XXI. A Last Resort. 189 +XXII. A Quandary. 194 +XXIII. Crossing the Creek. 202 +XXIV. The First Business Telegrams. 210 +XXV. Profits and Projects. 225 +XXVI. A Grand Proposition. 237 +XXVII. How Something Came to an End. 246 +XXVIII. A Meeting. 253 +XXIX. Once more in the Woods. 257 +XXX. A Girl and a Gun. 264 +XXXI. A Man in a Boat. 271 +XXXII. Aunt Matilda's Letter. 277 +XXXIII. Time to Stop. 286 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED. + +CHAPTER I. + +HARRY LOUDON MAKES UP HIS MIND. + + +On a wooden bench under a great catalpa-tree, in the front yard of a +comfortable country-house in Virginia, sat Harry and Kate Loudon +worrying their minds. It was all about old Aunt Matilda. + +Aunt Matilda was no relation of these children. She was an old colored +woman, who lived in a cabin about a quarter of a mile from their house, +but they considered her one of their best friends. Her old log cabin was +their favorite resort, and many a fine time they had there. When they +caught some fish, or Harry shot a bird or two, or when they could get +some sweet potatoes or apples to roast, and some corn-meal for +ash-cakes, they would take their provisions to Aunt Matilda and she +would cook them. Sometimes an ash-cake would be baked rather harder than +it was convenient to bite, and it had happened that a fish or two had +been cooked entirely away, but such mishaps were not common. Aunt +Matilda was indeed a most wonderful cook--and a cook, too, who liked to +have a boy and a girl by her while she was at work; and who would tell +them stories--as queer old stories as ever were told--while the things +were cooking. The stories were really the cause of the ash-cakes and +fish sometimes being forgotten. + +And it is no wonder that these children were troubled in their minds. +They had just heard that Aunt Matilda was to go to the alms-house. + +Harry and Kate were silent. They had mourned over the news, and Kate had +cried. There was nothing more to be done about it, so far as she could +see. + +But all of a sudden Harry jumped up. "I tell you what it is Kate," he +exclaimed; "I've made up my mind! Aunt Matilda is not going to the +alms-house. I will support her myself!" + +"Oh, that will be splendid!" cried Kate; "but you can never do it!" + +"Yes, I can," said Harry. "There are ever so many ways in which I can +earn money." + +"What are you going to do?" said Kate; "will you let me help?" + +"Yes," said her brother; "you may help if you can, but I don't think you +will be of much use. As for me, I shall do plenty of things. I shall go +out with my gun--" + +"But there is nothing to shoot, now in the summer-time," said Kate. + +"No, there isn't much yet, to be sure," said her brother, "but before +very long there will be partridges and hares, plenty of them; and father +and Captain Caseby will buy all I shoot. And you see, until it is time +for game I'm going to gather sumac." + +"Oh! I can help you in that," cried Kate. + +"Yes, I believe you can," said her brother. "And now, suppose we go down +and see Aunt Matilda, and have a talk with her about it." + +"Just wait until I get my bonnet," said Kate. And she dashed into the +house, and then, with a pink calico sun-bonnet on her head, she came +down the steps in two jumps, and the brother and sister, together, +hurried through the woods to Aunt Matilda's cabin. + +Harry and Kate Loudon were well-educated children, and, in many +respects, knew more than most girls and boys who were older than they. +Harry had been taught by his father to ride and to swim and to shoot as +carefully as his school-teacher had taught him to spell and to parse. +And he was not only taught to be skillful in these outdoor pursuits, but +to be prudent, and kind-hearted. When he went gunning, he shot birds and +game that were fit for the table; and when he rode, he remembered that +his horse had feelings as well as himself. Being a boy of good natural +impulses, he might have found out these things for himself; but, for +fear that he might be too long about it, his father carefully taught him +that it was possible to shoot and to hunt and to ride without being +either careless or cruel. It must not be supposed that Harry was so +extremely particular that there was no fun in him, for he had discovered +that there is just as much fun in doing things right as in doing them +wrong; and as there was not a boy in all the country round about who +could ride or swim or shoot so well as Harry, so there was none who had +a more generally jolly time than he. + +His sister Kate was a sharp, bright, intelligent girl, rather inclined +to be wild when opportunity offered; but very affectionate, and always +as ready for outdoor sports as any boy. She could not shoot--at least, +she never tried--and she did not ride much on horseback, but she +enjoyed fishing, and rambles through the woods were to her a constant +delight. When anything was to be done, especially if it was anything +novel, Kate was always ready to help. If anybody had a plan on hand, it +was very hard to keep her finger out of it; and if there were +calculations to be made, it was all the better. Kate had a fine head for +mathematics, and, on the whole, she rather preferred a slate and pencil +to needles and spool-cotton. + +As to Aunt Matilda, there could be no doubt about her case being a +pretty hard one. She was quite old and decrepit when the war set her +free, and, at the time of our story, she was still older and stiffer. +Her former master had gone to the North to live, and as she had no +family to support her, the poor old woman was compelled to depend upon +the charity of her neighbors. For a time she managed to get along +tolerably well, but it was soon found that she would suffer if she +depended upon occasional charity, especially after she became unable to +go after food or help. Mr. and Mrs. Loudon were very willing to give her +what they could, but they had several poor people entirely dependent +upon them, and they found it impossible to add to the number of their +pensioners. So it was finally determined among the neighbors that Aunt +Matilda would have to go to the alms-house, which place was provided for +just such poor persons as she. Neither Harry nor Kate knew much about +the alms-house, but they thought it must be some sort of a horrible +place; and, at any rate, it was too hard that Aunt Matilda should have +to leave her old home where she had spent so many, many years. + +And they did not intend she should do it. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ADOPTION. + + +When the children reached Aunt Matilda's cabin, they found the old woman +seated by a very small fire, which was burning in one corner of the +hearth. + +"Are you cold, Aunt Matilda?" asked Kate. + +"Lor' bless you, no, honey! But you see there wasn't hardly any coals +left, and I was tryin' to keep the fire alive till somebody would come +along and gather me up some wood." + +"Then you were going to cook your breakfast, I suppose," said Harry. + +"Yes, child, if somebody 'ud come along and fetch me something to eat." + +"Haven't you anything at all in the house?" asked Kate. + +"Not a pinch o' meal, nor nothin' else," said the old woman; "but I +'spected somebody 'ud be along." + +"Did you know, Aunt Matilda," said Harry, "that they are going to send +you to the alms-house?" + +"Yes; I heerd 'em talk about it," said Aunt Matilda, shaking her head; +"but the alms-house ain't no place for me." + +"That's so!" said Kate, quickly. "And you're not going there, either!" + +"No," said Harry: "Kate and I intend to take care of you for the rest of +your life." + +"Lor', children, you can't do it!" said the old woman, looking in +astonishment from one to the other of these youngsters who proposed to +adopt her. + +"Yes; but we can," said Harry. "Just you wait and see." + +"It'll take a good deal o' money," said the old woman, who did not seem +to be altogether satisfied with the prospects held out before her. +"More'n you all will ever be able to git." + +"How much money would be enough for you to live on, Aunt Matilda?" asked +Harry. + +"Dunno. Takes a heap o' money to keep a person." + +"Well, now," said Kate, "let's see exactly how much it will take. Have +you a pencil, Harry? I have a piece of paper in my pocket, I think. Yes; +here it is. Now, let's set down everything, and see what it comes to." + +So saying, she sat down on a low stool with her paper on her knees, and +her pencil in her hand. + +"What shall we begin with?" said she. + +"We'll begin with corn-meal," said Harry. "How much corn-meal do you eat +in a week, Aunt Matilda?" + +"Dunno," said she, "'spect about a couple o' pecks." + +"Oh, Aunt Matilda!" cried Kate, "our whole family wouldn't eat two pecks +in a week." + +"Well, then, a half-peck," said she; "'pends a good deal on how many is +living in a house." + +"Yes; but we only mean this for you, Aunt Matilda. We don't mean it for +anybody else." + +"Well, then, I reckon a quarter of a peck would do, for jest me." + +"We will allow you a peck," said Harry, "and that will be twenty-five +cents a week. Set that down, Kate." + +"All right," said Kate. And she set down at the top of the paper, "Meal, +25 cents." + +The children proceeded in this way to calculate how much bacon, +molasses, coffee, and sugar would suffice for Aunt Matilda's support; +and they found that the cost, per week, at the rates of the country +stores, with which they were both familiar, would be seventy-seven and +three-quarter cents. + +"Is there anything else, Aunt Matilda?" asked Kate. + +"Nuffin I can think on," said Aunt Matilda, "'cept milk." + +"Oh, I can get that for nothing," said Kate. "I will bring it to you +from home; and I will bring you some butter too, when I can get it." + +"And I'll pick up wood for you," said Harry. "I can gather enough in the +woods in a couple of hours to last you for a week." + +"Lor' bless you, chil'en," said Aunt Matilda, "I hope you'll be able to +do all dat." + +Harry stood quiet a few minutes, reflecting. + +"How much would seventy-seven and three quarter cents a week amount to +in a year, Kate?" said he. + +Kate rapidly worked out the problem, and answered: "Forty dollars and +forty-three cents." + +"Lor'! but that's a heap o' money!" said Aunt Matilda. "That's more'n I +'spect to have all the rest of my life." + +"How old are you, Aunt Matilda?" said Harry. + +"I 'spect about fifty," said the old woman. + +"Oh, Aunt Matilda!" cried Harry, "you're certainly more than fifty. When +I was a very little fellow, I remember that you were very old--at +least, sixty or seventy." + +"Well, then, I 'spects I'se about ninety," said Aunt Matilda. + +"But you can't be ninety!" said Kate. "The Bible says that seventy years +is the common length of a person's life." + +"Them was Jews," said Aunt Matilda. "It didn't mean no cull'd people. +Cull'd people live longer than that. But p'raps a cull'd Jew wouldn't +live very long." + +"Well," said Harry, "it makes no difference how old you are. We're going +to take care of you for the rest of your life." + +Kate was again busy with her paper. + +"In five years, Harry," she said, "It will be two hundred and two +dollars and fifteen cents." + +"Lor'!" cried Aunt Matilda, "you chil'en will nebber git dat." + +"But we don't have to get it all at once, Aunt Matilda," said Harry, +laughing; "and you needn't be afraid that we can't do it. Come, Kate, +it's time for us to be off." + +And then the conference broke up. The question of Aunt Matilda's future +support was settled. They had forgotten clothes, to be sure; but it is +very difficult to remember everything. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +COMMENCING BUSINESS. + + +When they reached home, Harry and Kate put together what little money +they had, and found that they could buy food enough to last Aunt Matilda +for several days. This Harry procured and carried down to the old woman +that day. He also gathered and piled up inside of her cabin a good +supply of wood. Fortunately, there was a spring very near her door, so +that she could get water without much trouble. + +Harry and Kate determined that they would commence business in earnest +the next morning, and, as this was not the season for game, they +determined to go to work to gather sumac-leaves. + +Most of us are familiar with the sumac-bush, which grows nearly all over +the United States. Of course we do not mean the poisonous swamp-sumac, +but that which grows along the fences and on the edges of the woods. Of +late years the leaves of this bush have been greatly in demand for +tanning purposes, and, in some States, especially in Virginia, sumac +gathering has become a very important branch of industry, particularly +with the negroes; many of whom, during the sumac season, prefer +gathering these leaves to doing any other kind of work. The sumac-bush +is quite low, and the leaves are easily stripped off. They are then +carefully dried, and packed in bags, and carried to the nearest place of +sale, generally a country store. + +The next morning, Harry and Kate made preparations for a regular +expedition. They were to take their dinner, and stay all day. Kate was +enraptured--even more so, perhaps, than Harry. Each of them had a large +bag, and Harry carried his gun, for who could tell what they might meet +with? A mink, perhaps, or a fox, or even a beaver! They had a long walk, +but it was through the woods, and there was always something to see in +the woods. In a couple of hours, for they stopped very often, they +reached a little valley, through which ran Crooked Creek. And on the +banks of Crooked Creek were plenty of sumac-bushes. This place was at +some distance from any settlement, and apparently had not been visited +by sumac gatherers. + +"Hurra!" cried Kate, "here is enough to fill a thousand bags!" + +Harry leaned his gun against a tree, and hung up his shot and powder +flasks, and they both went to work gathering sumac. There was plenty of +it, but Kate soon found that what they saw would not fill a thousand +bags. There were a good many bushes, but they were small; and, when all +the leaves were stripped off one, and squeezed into a bag, they did not +make a very great show. However, they did very well, and, for an hour or +so, they worked on merrily. Then they had dinner. Harry built a fire. He +easily found dry branches, and he had brought matches and paper with +him. At a little distance under a great pine-tree, Kate selected a level +place, and cleared away the dead leaves and the twigs, leaving a smooth +table of dry and fragrant pine-needles. On this she spread the cloth, +which was a napkin. Then she took from the little basket she had brought +with her a cake of corn-meal, several thick and well-buttered slices of +wheat bread, some hard-boiled eggs, a little paper of pepper and salt, a +piece of cheese, and some fried chicken. When this was spread out (and +it would not all go on the cloth), Harry came, and looked at the repast. + +"What is there to cook?" said he. + +Kate glanced over her table, with a perplexed look upon her countenance, +and said, "I don't believe there is anything to cook." + +"But we ought to cook something," said Harry. "Here is a splendid fire. +What's the good of camping out if you don't cook things?" + +"But everything is cooked," said Kate. + +"So it seems," said Harry, in a somewhat discouraged tone. Had he built +that beautiful fire for nothing? "We ought to have brought along +something raw," said he. "It is ridiculous eating a cold dinner, with a +splendid fire like that." + +"We might catch some fish," said Kate; "we should have to cook _them_." + +"Yes," said Harry, "but I brought no lines." + +So, as there was nothing else to be done, they ate their dinner cold, +and when they had finished, Kate cleared off the table by giving the +napkin a flirt, and they were ready for work again. But first they went +to look for a spring, where they could get a drink. In about half an +hour they found a spring, and some wild plums, and some blackberries, +and a grape-vine (which would surely be full of grapes in the fall, and +was therefore a vine to be remembered), and a stone, which Kate was +quite certain was an Indian arrow-head, and some tracks in the white +sand, which must have been made by some animal or other, although +neither of them was able to determine exactly what animal. + +When they returned to the pine-tree, Kate took up her bag. Harry +followed her example, but somewhat slowly, as if he were thinking of +something else. + +"I tell you, Harry," said Kate, "suppose you take your gun and go along +the creek and see what that was that made the tracks. If it was anything +with fur on it, it would come to more than the sumac. I will stay here, +and go on filling my bag." + +"Well," said Harry, after a moment's hesitation, "I might go a little +way up the creek. I needn't be gone long. I would certainly like to find +that creature, if I can." + +"All right," said Kate; "I think you'll find it." + +So Harry loaded his gun, and hurried off to find the tracks of the +mysterious, and probably fur-covered animal. + +Kate worked away cheerfully, singing a little song, and filling her bag +with the sumac-leaves. It was now much warmer, and she began to find +that sumac picking, all alone, was not very interesting, and she hoped +that Harry would soon find his animal, whatever it was. Then, after +picking a little longer, she thought she would sit down, and rest +awhile. So she dragged her bag to the pine-tree, and sat down, leaning +her back against the tall trunk. She took her bag of sumac in her arms, +and lifted it up, trying to estimate its weight. + +"There must be ten pounds here!" she said, "No--it don't feel very +heavy, but then there are so many of the leaves. It ought to weigh +fifteen pounds. And they will be a cent a pound if we take pay in trade, +and three-quarters of a cent if we want cash. But, of course, we will +take things in trade." + +And then she put down the bag, and began to calculate. + +"Fifteen pounds, fifteen cents, and at seventy-seven and three-quarter +cents per week, that would support Aunt Matilda nearly a day and a half; +and then, if Harry has as much more, that will keep her almost three +days; and if we pick for two hours longer, when Harry comes back, we may +get ten pounds more apiece, which will make it pretty heavy; but then we +won't have to come again for nearly five days; and if Harry shoots an +otter, I reckon he can get a dollar for the skin--or a pair of gloves +of it--kid gloves, and my pink dress--and we'll go in the +carriage--two horses--four horses--a prince with a feather--some +butterflies--" and Kate was asleep. + +When Kate awoke, she saw by the sun that she had been asleep for several +hours. She sprang to her feet. "Where is Harry?" she cried. But nobody +answered. Then she was frightened, for he might be lost. But soon she +reflected that that was very ridiculous, for neither of them could be +lost in that neighborhood which they knew so well. Then she sat down and +waited, quite anxiously, it must be admitted. But Harry did not come, +and the sun sank lower. Presently she rose with an air of determination. + +"I can't wait any longer," she said, "or it will be dark before I get +home. Harry has followed that thing up the creek ever so far, and there +is no knowing when he will get back, and it won't do for me to stay +here. I'll go home, and leave a note for him." + +She put her hand in her pocket, and there was Harry's pencil, which she +had borrowed in the morning and forgot to return, and also the piece of +paper on which she had made her calculation of the cost of Aunt +Matilda's board. The back of this would do very well for a note. So she +wrote on it: + + I am going home, for it is getting late. I shall go back by the same + road we came. Your sumac-bag is in the bushes between the tree and + the creek. Bring this piece of paper with you, as it has Aunt + Matilda's expenses on the outside. + + Kate. + +This note she pinned up against the pine tree, where Harry could not +fail to see it. Then she hid her brother's sumac-bag in the bushes and, +shouldering her own bag, which, by-the-way, did not weigh so many pounds +as she thought it did, set out for home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +KATE, VERY NATURALLY, IS ANXIOUS. + + +Kate hurried through the woods, for she was afraid she would not reach +home until after dark, and indeed it was then quite like twilight in the +shade of the great trees around her. The road on which she was walking +was, however, clear and open, and she was certain she knew the way. As +she hastened on, she could not help feeling that she was wasting this +delightful walk through the woods. Her old friends were around her, and +though she knew them all so well, she could not stop to spend any time +with them. There were the oaks--the black-oak with its shining +many-pointed leaves, the white-oak with its lighter green though +duller-hued foliage, and the chestnut-oak with its long and thickly +clustered leaves. Then there were the sweet-gums, fragrant and +star-leaved, and the black-gum, tough, dark, and unpretending. No little +girl in the county knew more about the trees of her native place than +Kate; for she had made good use of her long rides through the country +with her father. Here were the chincapin-bushes, like miniature +chestnut-trees, and here were the beautiful poplars. She knew them by +their bright leaves, which looked as though they had been snipped off at +the top with a pair of scissors. And here, right in front of her, was +Uncle Braddock. She knew him by his many-colored dressing-gown, without +which he never appeared in public. It was one of the most curious +dressing-gowns ever seen, as Uncle Braddock was one of the most curious +old colored men ever seen. The gown was not really as old as its wearer, +but it looked older. It was composed of about a hundred pieces of +different colors and patterns--red, green, blue, yellow, and brown; +striped, spotted, plain, and figured with flowers and vines. These +pieces, from year to year, had been put on as patches, and some of them +were quilted on, and some were sewed, and some were pinned. The gown was +very long and came down to Uncle Braddock's heels, which were also very +long and bobbed out under the bottom of the gown as if they were trying +to kick backward. But Uncle Braddock never kicked. He was very old and +he had all the different kinds of rheumatism, and walked bent over +nearly at right-angles, supporting himself by a long cane like a +bean-pole, which he grasped in the middle. There was probably no +particular reason why he should bend over so very much, but he seemed to +like to walk in that way, and nobody objected. He was a good old soul, +and Kate was delighted to see him. + +"Uncle Braddock!" she cried. + +The old man stopped and turned around, almost standing up straight in +his astonishment at seeing the young girl alone in the woods. + +"Why, Miss Kate!" he exclaimed, as she came up with him, "what in the +world is you doin' h'yar?" + +"I've been gathering sumac," said Kate, as they walked on together, "and +Harry's gone off, and I couldn't wait any longer and I'm just as glad as +I can be to see you, Uncle Braddock, for I was beginning to be afraid, +because its getting dark so fast, and your dressing-gown looked prettier +to me than all the trees when I first caught sight of it. But I think +you ought to have it washed, Uncle Braddock." + +"Wash him!" said Uncle Braddock, with a chuckle, as if the suggestion +was a very funny joke; "dat wouldn't do, no how. He'd wash all to bits, +and the pins would stick 'em in the hands. Couldn't wash him, Miss Kate; +it's too late for dat now. Might have washed him before de war, p'raps. +We was stronger, den. But what you getherin sumac for, Miss Kate? If you +white folks goes pickin it all, there won't be none lef' soon fur de +cull'ed people, dat's mighty certain." + +"Why, I'm picking it for the colored people," said Kate, "at least for +one colored person." + +"Why don't you let 'em pick it the'rselves?" asked the old man. + +"Because Aunt Matilda can't do it," said Kate. + +"Is dat sumac fur Aunt Matilda?" said Uncle Braddock. + +"Yes, it is," said Kate, "and Harry's been gathering some, and we're +going to pick enough to get her all she wants. Harry and I intend to +take care of her now. You know they were going to send her to the +alms-house." + +"Well, I declar!" exclaimed the old man. "I neber did hear de like o' +dat afore. Why, you all isn't done bein' tuk care of you'selves." Kate +laughed, and explained their plans, getting quite enthusiastic about it. + +"Lem me carry dat bag," said Uncle Braddock. "Oh no!" said Kate, "you're +too old to be carrying bags." + +"Jis lem me hab it," said he; "it's trouble enuf fur me to get along, +anyway, and a bag or two don't make no kind o' dif'rence." + +Kate found herself obliged to consent, and as the bag was beginning to +feel very heavy for her, and as it did not seem to make the slightest +difference, as he had said, to Uncle Braddock, she was very glad to be +rid of it. + +But when at last they reached the village, and Uncle Braddock went over +the fields to his cabin, Kate ran into the house, carrying her bag with +ease, for she was excited by the hope that Harry had come home by some +shorter way, and that she should find him in the house. + +But there was no Harry there. And soon it was night, and yet he did not +come. + +Matters now looked serious, and about nine o'clock Mr. Loudon, with two +of the neighbors, started out into the woods to look for Aunt Matilda's +young guardian. + +Kate's mother was away on a visit to her relations in another county, +and so the little girl passed the night on the sofa in the parlor, with +a colored woman asleep on the rug before the fireplace. Kate would not +go to bed. She determined to stay awake until Harry should come home. +But the sofa-cushions became more and more pleasant, and very soon she +was dreaming that Harry had shot a giraffe, and had skinned it, and had +stuffed the skin full of sumac-leaves, and that he and she were pulling +it through the woods, and that the legs caught in the trees and they +could not get it along, and then she woke up. It was bright daylight. +But Harry had not come! + +There was no news. Mr. Loudon and his friends were still absent. Poor +Kate was in despair, and could not touch the breakfast, which was +prepared at the usual hour. + +About nine o'clock a company of negro sumac gatherers appeared on the +road which passed Mr. Loudon's house. It was a curious party. On a rude +cart, drawn by two little oxen, was a pile of bags filled with +sumac-leaves, which were supported by poles stuck around the cart and +bound together by ropes. On the top of the pile sat a negro, plying a +long whip and shouting to the oxen. Behind the cart, and on each side of +it, were negroes, men and women, carrying huge bales of sumac on their +heads. Bags, pillow-cases, bed-ticks, sheets and coverlets had been +called into requisition to hold the precious leaves. Here was a woman +with a great bundle on her head, which sank down so as to almost +entirely conceal her face; and near her was an old man who supported on +his bare head a load that looked heavy enough for a horse. Even little +children carried bundles considerably larger than themselves, and all +were laughing and talking merrily as they made their way to the village +store at the cross-roads. + +Kate ran eagerly out to question these people. They must certainly have +seen Harry. + +The good-natured negroes readily stopped to talk with Kate. The +ox-driver halted his team, and every head-burdened man, woman, and child +clustered around her, until it seemed as if sumac clouds had spread +between her and the sky, and had obscured the sun. + +But no one had seen Harry. In fact, this company, with the accumulated +proceeds of a week's sumac gathering, had come from a portion of the +county many miles from Crooked Creek, and of course, they could bring no +news to Kate. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE TURKEY-HUNTER. + + +When Harry left Kate, he quietly walked by the side of Crooked Creek, +keeping his eyes fixed on the tracks of the strange animal, and his +thumb on the hammer of the right-hand barrel of his gun. Before long the +tracks disappeared, and disappeared, too, directly in front of a hole in +the bank; quite a large hole, big enough for a beaver or an otter. This +was capital luck! Harry got down on his hands and knees and examined the +tracks. Sure enough, the toes pointed toward the hole. It must be in +there! + +Harry cocked his gun and sat and waited. He was as still as a dead +mouse. There was no earthly reason why the creature should not come out, +except perhaps that it might not want to come out. At any rate, it could +not know that Harry was outside waiting for it. + +He waited a long time without ever thinking how the day was passing on; +and it began to be a little darkish, just a little, before he thought +that perhaps he had better go back to Kate. + +But it might be just coming out, and what a shame to move! A skin that +would bring five dollars was surely worth waiting for a little while +longer, and he might never have such another chance. He certainly had +never had such a one before. + +And so he still sat and waited, and pretty soon he heard something. But +it was not in the hole--not near him at all. It was farther along the +creek, and sounded like the footsteps of some one walking stealthily. + +Harry looked around quickly, and, about thirty yards from him, he saw a +man with a gun. The man was now standing still, looking steadily at him. +At least Harry thought he was, but there was so little light in the +woods by this time that he could not be sure about it. What was that man +after? Could he be watching him? + +Harry was afraid to move. Perhaps the man mistook him for some kind of +an animal. To be sure, he could not help thinking that boys were +animals, but he did not suppose the man would want to shoot a boy, if he +knew it. But how could any one tell that Harry was a boy at that +distance, and in that light. + +Poor Harry did not even dare to call out. He could not speak without +moving something, his lips any way, and the man might fire at the +slightest motion. He was so quiet that the musk-rat--it was a musk-rat +that lived in the hole--came out of his house, and seeing the boy so +still, supposed he was nothing of any consequence, and so trotted +noiselessly along to the water and slipped in for a swim. Harry never +saw him. His eyes were fixed on the man. + +For some minutes longer--they seemed like hours--he remained +motionless. And then he could bear it no longer. + +"Hel-low!" he cried. + +"Hel-low!" said the man. + +Then Harry got up trembling and pale, and the man came toward him. + +"Why, I didn't know what you were," said the man. + +"Tony Kirk!" exclaimed Harry. Yes, it was Tony Kirk, sure enough, a man +who would never shoot a boy--if he knew it. + +"What are you doing here," asked Tony, "a-squattin' in the dirt at +supper-time?" + +Harry told him what he was doing, and how he had been frightened, and +then the remark about supper-time made him think of his sister. "My +senses!" he cried, "there's Kate! she must think I'm lost." + +"Kate!" exclaimed Tony. "What Kate? You don't mean your sister!" + +"Yes, I do," said Harry; and away he ran down the shore of the creek. +Tony followed, and when he reached the big pine-tree, there was Harry +gazing blankly around him. + +"She's gone!" faltered the boy. + +"I should think so," said Tony, "if she knew what was good for her. +What's this?" His quick eyes had discovered the paper on the tree. + +Tony pulled the paper from the pine trunk and tried to read it, but +Harry was at his side in an instant, and saw it was Kate's writing. It +was almost too dark to read it, but he managed, by holding it toward the +west, to make it out. + +"She's gone home," he said, "and I must be after her;" and he prepared +to start. + +"Hold up!" cried Tony; "I'm going that way. And so you've been getherin' +sumac." Harry had read the paper aloud. "There's no use o' leavin' yer +bag. Git it out o' the bushes, and come along with me." + +Harry soon found his bag, and then he and Tony set out along the road. + +"What are you after?" asked Harry. + +"Turkeys," said Tony. + +Tony Kirk was always after turkeys. He was a wild-turkey hunter by +profession. It is true there were seasons of the year when he did not +shoot turkeys, but although at such times he worked a little at farming +and fished a little, he nearly always found it necessary to do something +that related to turkeys. He watched their haunts, he calculated their +increase, he worked out problems which proved to him where he would find +them most plentiful in the fall, and his mind was seldom free from the +consideration of the turkey question. + +"Isn't it rather early for turkeys?" asked Harry. + +"Well, yes," said Tony, "but I'm tired o' waitin." + +"I'm goin' to make a short cut," continued Tony, striking out of the +road into a narrow path in the woods. "You can save half a mile by +comin' this way." + +So Harry followed him. + +"I don't mind takin' you," said Tony, "fur I know you kin keep a secret. +My turkey-blind is over yander;" and as he said this he put his hand +into his coat pocket and pulled out a handful of shelled corn, which he +began to scatter along the path, a grain or two at a time. After ten or +fifteen minutes' walking, Tony scattering corn all the way, they came to +a mass of oak and chestnut boughs, piled up on one side of the path like +a barrier. This was the turkey-blind. It was four or five feet high, and +behind it Tony was accustomed to sit in the early gray of the morning, +waiting for the turkeys which he hoped to entice that way by means of +his long line of shelled corn. + +"You see I build my blind," said he to Harry, "and then I don't come +here till I've sprinkled my corn for about a week, and got the turkeys +used to comin' this way after it. Then I get back o' that thar at night +and wait till the airly mornin', when they're sartin to come gobblin' +along, till I can get a good crack at 'em." With this he sat down on a +log, which Harry could scarcely see, so dark was it in the woods by this +time. + +"Are you tired?" said Harry. + +"No," answered Tony; "I'm goin' to stop here. I want to be ready fur 'em +before it begins to be light." + +"But how am I to get home?" said Harry. + +"Oh, jist keep straight on in that track. It'll take yer straight to the +store, ef ye don't turn out uv it." + +"Can't you come along and show me?" said Harry. "I can't find the way +through these dark woods." + +"It's easy enough," said Tony, striking a match to light his pipe. "I +could find my way with my eyes shut. And it would not do fur me to go. +I'll make too much noise comin' back. There's no knowin' how soon the +turkeys will begin to stir about." + +"Then you oughtn't to have brought me here," said Harry, much provoked. + +"I wanted to show you a short way home," said Tony, puffing away at his +pipe. + +Harry answered not a word, but set out along the path. In a minute or +two he ran against a tree; then he turned to the right and stumbled over +a root, dropping his bag and nearly losing his hold of his gun. He was +soon convinced that it was all nonsense to try to get home by that path, +and he slowly made his way back to Tony. + +"I'll tell ye what it is," said the turkey-hunter, "ef you think you'd +hurt yerself findin' yer way home, and I thought you knew the woods +better than that, you might as well stay here with me. I'll take you +home bright an' airly. You needn't trouble yerself about yer sister. +She's home long ago. It must have been bright daylight when she wrote on +that paper, and she could keep the road easy enough." + +Harry said nothing, but sat down on the other end of the log. Tony did +not seem to notice his vexation, but talked to him, explaining the +mysteries of turkey-hunting and the delight of spending a night in the +woods, where everything was so cool and dry and still. "There's no +nonsense here," said Tony. "Ef there's any place where a feller kin have +peace and comfert, it's in the woods, at night." + +By degrees Harry became interested and forgot his annoyance. Kate was +certainly safe at home, and as it was impossible for him to find his way +out of the depths of the woods, he might as well be content. He could +not even hope to regain the road by the way they came. + +When Tony had finished his pipe he took Harry behind his blind. "All you +have to do," said he, "is jist to peep over here and level your gun +along that path, keepin' yer eye fixed straight in front of you, and +after awhile you can begin to see things. Suppose that dark lump down +yander was a turkey. Just look at it long enough and you kin make it +out. You see what I mean, don't you?" + +"Yes," said Harry, peeping over the blind; "I see it;" and then, with a +sudden jump, he whispered, "Tony! it's moving." Tony did not answer for +a moment, and then he hurriedly whispered back, "That's so! It _is_ +moving." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TONY STRIKES OUT. + + +There was no doubt about it, something _was_ moving. There was a rise in +the ground a short distance in front of the turkey-blind, and a little +patch of dark sky was visible between the trees. Across this bit of sky +something dark was slowly passing. + +"Ye kin see 'most anything in the darkest night," whispered Tony, "ef ye +kin only git the sky behind it. But that's no turkey." + +"What do you think it is?" said Harry, softly. "It's big enough for a +turkey." + +"Too big," said Tony. "Let's git after it. You slip along the path, and +I'll go round ahead of it. Feel yer way, and don't make no noise if ye +run agin anything. And mind this"--and here Tony spoke in one of the +most impressive of whispers--"don't you fire till yer _dead certain_ +what it is." + +With this Tony slipped away into the darkness, and Harry, grasping his +gun, set out to feel his way. He felt his way along the path for a short +time, and then he felt his way out of it. Then he crept into a low, soft +place, full of ferns, and out of that he carefully felt his way into a +big bush, where he knocked off his hat. When he found his hat, which +took him some time, he gradually worked himself out into a place where +the woods were a little more open, and there he caught another glimpse +of the sky just at the top of the ridge. There was something dark +against the sky, and Harry watched it for a long time. At last, as it +did not move at all, he came to the conclusion that it must be a bush, +and he was entirely correct. For an hour or two he quietly crept among +the trees, hoping he would either find the thing that was moving or get +back to the turkey-blind. Several times something that he was sure was +an "old har," as hares are often called in Virginia, rushed out of the +bushes near him; and once he heard a quick rustling among the dead +leaves that sounded as if it were made by a black snake, but it might as +well have been a Chinese pagoda on wheels, for all he could see of it. +At last he became very tired, and sat down to rest with his back against +a big tree. There he soon began to nod, and, without the slightest +intention of doing anything of the kind, he went to sleep just as +soundly as if he had been in his bed at home. And this was not at all +surprising, considering the amount of walking and creeping that he had +done that day and night. + +When he awoke it was daylight. He sprang to his feet and found he was +very stiff in the legs, but that did not prevent him from running this +way and that to try and find some place in the woods with which he was +familiar. Before long he heard what he thought was something splashing +in water, and, making his way toward the sound, he pushed out on the +bank of Crooked Creek. + +The creek was quite wide at this point, and out near the middle of it he +saw Tony's head. The turkey-hunter was swimming hand-overhand, +"dog-fashion," for the shore. Behind him was a boat, upside-down, which +seemed just on the point of sinking out of sight. + +"Hel-low, there!" cried Harry; "what's the matter, Tony?" + +Tony never answered a word, but spluttered and puffed, and struck out +slowly but vigorously for the bank. + +"Wait a minute," cried Harry, wildly excited, "I'll reach you a pole." + +But Tony did not wait, and Harry could find no pole. When he turned +around from his hurried search among the bushes, the turkey-hunter had +found bottom, and was standing with his head out of water. But the +bottom was soft and muddy, and he flopped about dolefully when he +attempted to walk to the bank. Harry reached his gun out toward him, but +Tony, with a quick jerk of his arm, motioned it away. + +"I'd rather be drownded than shot," he spluttered. "I don't want no +gun-muzzles pinted at me. Take a-hold of that little tree, and then +reach me your hand." + +Harry seized a young tree that grew on the very edge of the bank, and as +soon as Tony managed to flop himself near enough, Harry leaned over and +took hold of his outstretched hand and gave him a jerk forward with all +his strength. Over went Tony, splash on his face in the water, and Harry +came very near going in head-foremost on top of him. But he recovered +himself, and, not having loosed his grip of Tony's hand, he succeeded, +with a mighty effort, in dragging the turkey-hunter's head out of the +water; and, after a desperate struggle with the mud, Tony managed to get +on his feet again. + +"I don't know," said he, blowing the water out of his mouth and shaking +his dripping head, "but what I'd 'most as lieve be shot as ducked that +way. Don't you jerk so hard again. Hold steady, and let me pull." + +Harry took a still firmer grasp of the tree and "held steady," while +Tony gradually worked his feet through the sticky mud until he reached +the bank, and then he laboriously clambered on shore. + +"How did it happen?" said Harry. "How did you get in the water?" + +"Boat upsot," said Tony, seating himself, all dripping with water and +mud, upon the bank. + +"Why, you came near being drowned," said Harry, anxiously. + +"No I didn't," answered Tony, pulling a big bunch of weeds and rubbing +his legs with them "I kin swim well enough, but a fellar has a rough +time in the water with big boots on and his pockets full o' buck-shot." + +"Couldn't you empty the shot out?" asked Harry. + +"And lose it all?" asked Tony, with an aggrieved expression upon his +watery face. + +"But how did it happen?" Harry earnestly inquired. "What were you doing +in the boat?" + +Tony did not immediately answer. He rubbed at his legs, and then he +tried to wipe his face with his wet coat-sleeve, but finding that only +made matters worse, he accepted Harry's offer of his handkerchief, and +soon got his countenance into talking order. + +"Why, you see," said he, "I kept on up the creek till I got opposite +John Walker's cabin, where it's narrow, and there's a big tree a-lyin' +across--" + +"Still following that thing?" interrupted Harry. + +"Yes," said Tony; "an' then I got over on the tree and kep' down the +creek--" + +"Still following?" asked Harry. + +"Yes; and I got a long ways down, and had one bad tumble, too, in a +dirty little gully; and it was pretty nigh day when I turned to come +back. An' then when I got up here I thought I would look fur John +Walker's boat--fur I knew he kept it tied up somewhere down this +way--and save myself all that walk. I found the ole boat--" + +"And how did it upset?" said Harry. + +"Humph!" said Tony; "easy enough. I hadn't nuthin to row with but a bit +o' pole, and I got a sorter cross a-gettin' along so slow, and so I +stood up and gin a big push, and one foot slipped, an' over she went." + +"And in you went!" said Harry. + +"Yes--in I went. I don't see what ever put John Walker up to makin' +sich a boat as that. It's jist the meanest, lopsidedest, low-borndedst +boat I ever did see." + +"I don't wonder you think so," said Harry, laughing; "but if I were you, +I'd go home as soon as I could, and get some dry clothes." + +"That's so," said Tony, rising; "these feel like the inside of an +eelskin." + +"Oh, Tony!" said Harry as they walked along up the creek, "did you find +out what that thing was?" + +"Yes, I did," answered Tony. + +"And what was it?" + +"It was Captain Caseby." + +"Captain Caseby?" cried Harry. + +"Yes; jist him, and nuthin' else. It was his head we seen agin the sky, +as he was a-walkin' on the other side of that little ridge." + +"Captain Caseby!" again ejaculated Harry in his amazement. + +"Yes, sir!" said Tony; "an' I'm glad I found it out before I crossed the +creek, for my gun wasn't no further use, an' it was only in my way, so I +left it in the bushes up here. Ef it hadn't been for that, the ole rifle +would ha' been at the bottom of the creek." + +"But what was Captain Caseby doing here in the woods at night?" asked +Harry. + +"Dunno," said Tony; "I jist follered him till I made sure he wasn't +a-huntin for my turkey-blind, and then I let him go long. His business +wasn't no consarn o' mine." + +When Tony and Harry had nearly reached the village, who should they +meet, at a cross-road in the woods, but Mr. Loudon and Captain Caseby! + +"Ho, ho!" cried the captain "where on earth have you been? Here I've +been a-hunting you all night." + +"You have, have you?" said Tony, with a chuckle; "and Harry and I've +been a-huntin' you all night, too." + +Everybody now began to talk at once. Harry's father was so delighted to +find his boy again, that he did not care to explain anything, and he and +Harry walked off together. + +But Captain Caseby told Tony all about it. How he, Mr. Loudon, and old +Mr. Wagner, had set out to look for Harry; how Mr. Wagner soon became so +tired that he had to give up, and go home, and how Mr. Loudon had gone +through the woods to the north, while he kept down by the creek, +searching on both sides of the stream, and how they had both walked, and +walked, and walked all night, and had met at last down by the river. + +"How did you manage to meet Mr. Loudon?" asked Tony. + +"I heard him hollerin'," said the captain. + +"He hollered pretty near all night, he told me." + +"Why didn't you holler?" Tony asked. + +'Oh, I never exercise my voice in the night air,' said the captain. +"It's against my rules." + +"Well, you'd better break your rules next time you go out in the woods +where Harry is," said the turkey-hunter, "or he'll pop you over for a +turkey or a musk-rat. He's a sharp shot, I kin tell ye." + +"You don't really mean he was after me last night with a gun!" exclaimed +Captain Caseby. + +"He truly was," declared Tony; "he was a-trackin' you his Sunday best. +It was bad for you that it was so dark that he couldn't see what you +was; but it might have been worse for ye if it hadn't been so dark that +he couldn't find ye at all." + +"I'm glad I didn't know it," said the captain earnestly; "thoroughly and +completely glad I didn't know it. I should have yelled all the skin off +my throat, if I'd have known he was after me with a gun." + +After Harry had been home an hour or two, and Kate had somewhat +recovered from her transports of joy, and everybody in the village had +heard all about everything that had happened, and Captain Caseby had +declared, in the bosom of his family, that he would never go out into +the woods again at night without keeping up a steady "holler," Harry +remembered that he had left his sumac-bag somewhere in the woods. Hard +work for a whole day and a night, and nothing to show for it! Rather a +poor prospect for Aunt Matilda. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AUNT MATILDA'S CHRISTMAS. + + +When Harry and Kate held council that afternoon, their affairs looked a +little discouraging. Kate's sumac was weighed, and it was only seven +pounds! Seven whole cents, if they took it out in trade, or five and a +quarter cents, as Kate calculated, if they took cash. A woman as large +as Aunt Matilda could not be supported on that kind of an income, it was +plain enough. + +But our brave boy and girl were not discouraged. Harry went after his +bag the next day, and found it with about ten pounds of leaves in it. +Then, for a week or two, he and his sister worked hard and sometimes +gathered as much as twenty-five pounds of leaves in a day. But they had +their bad days, when there was a great deal of walking and very little +picking. + +And then, in due course of time, school began and the sumac season was +at an end, for the leaves are not merchantable after they begin to turn +red, although they are then a great deal prettier to look at. + +But then Harry went out early in the morning, and on Saturdays, and shot +hares and partridges, and Kate began to sell her chickens, of which she +had twenty-seven (eighteen died natural deaths, or were killed by +weasels during the summer), they found that they made more money than +they could have made by sumac gathering. + +"It's a good deal for you two to do for that old woman," said Captain +Caseby, one day. + +"But, didn't we promise to do it?" said Miss Kate, bravely. "We'd do +twice as much, if there were two of her." + +It was very fortunate, however, that there were not two of her. + +Sometimes they had extraordinary luck. Early one November morning Harry +was out in the woods and caught sight of a fat wild-turkey. + +Bang!--one dollar. + +That was enough to keep Aunt Matilda for a week. + +At least it ought to have kept her. But there was something wrong +somewhere. Every week it cost more and more to keep the old colored +woman in what Harry called "eating material." + +"Her appetite must be increasing," said Harry; "she's eaten two pecks of +meal this week." + +"I don't believe it," said Kate; "she couldn't do it. I believe she has +company." + +And this turned out to be true. + +On inquiry they found that Uncle Braddock was in the habit of taking his +meals with Aunt Matilda, sometimes three times a day. Now, Uncle +Braddock had a home of his own, where he could get his meals if he chose +to go after them, and Harry remonstrated with him on his conduct. + +"Why, ye see, Mah'sr Harry," said the old man, "she's so drefful +lonesome down dar all by sheself, and sometimes it's a-rainin' an' a +long way fur me to go home and git me wrapper all wet jist fur one +little meal o' wittles. And when I see what you all is a-doin' fur her, +I feels dat I oughter try and do somethin' fur her, too, as long as I +kin; an' I can't expect to go about much longer, Mah'sr Harry; de ole +wrapper's pretty nigh gin out." + +"I don't mind your taking your meals there, now and then," said Harry; +"but I don't want you to live there. We can't afford it." + +"All right, Mah'sr Harry," said Uncle Braddock, and after that he never +came to Aunt Matilda's to meals more than five or six times a week. + +And now Christmas, always a great holiday with the negroes of the South, +was approaching, and Harry and Kate determined to try and give Aunt +Matilda extra good living during Christmas week, and to let her have +company every day if she wanted it. + +Harry had a pig. He got it in the spring when it was very small, and +when its little tail was scarcely long enough to curl. There was a story +about his getting this pig. + +He and some other boys had been out walking, and several dogs went along +with them. The dogs chased a cat--a beautiful, smooth cat, that +belonged to old Mr. Truly Matthews. The cat put off at the top of her +speed, which was a good deal better than any speed the dogs could show, +and darted up a tree right in front of her master's house. The dogs +surrounded the tree and barked as if they expected to bark the tree +down. One little fuzzy dog, with short legs and hair all over his eyes, +actually jumped into a low crotch, and the boys thought he was going to +try to climb the tree. If he had ever reached the cat he would have been +very sorry he had not stayed at home, for she was a good deal bigger +than he was. Harry and his friends endeavored to drive the dogs away +from the tree, but it was of no use. Even kicks and blows only made them +bark the more. Directly out rushed Mr. Truly Matthews, as angry as he +could be. He shouted and scolded at the boys for setting their dogs on +his cat, and then he kicked the dogs out of his yard in less time than +you could count seventy-two. He was very angry, indeed, and talked about +the shocking conduct of the boys to everybody in the village. He would +listen to no explanations or excuses. + +Harry was extremely sorry that Mr. Matthews was so incensed against him, +especially as he knew there was no cause for it, and he was talking +about it to Kate one day, when she exclaimed: + +"I'll tell you what will be sure to pacify Mr. Matthews, Harry. He has +a lot of little pigs that he wants to sell. Just you go and buy one of +them, and see if he isn't as good-natured as ever, when he sees your +money." + +Harry took the advice. He had a couple of dollars, and with them he +bought a little pig, the smallest of the lot; and Mr. Matthews, who was +very much afraid he could not find purchasers for all his pigs, was as +completely pacified as Kate thought he would be. + +Harry took his property home, and all through the summer and fall the +little pig ran about the yard and the fields and the woods, and ate +acorns--and sweet potatoes and turnips when he could get a chance to +root them up with his funny little twitchy nose--and grunted and slept +in the sun; and about the middle of December he had grown so big that +Harry sold him for eleven dollars. Here was quite a capital for +Christmas. + +"I can't afford to spend it all on Aunt Matilda," said Harry to his +mother and Kate, "for I have other things to do with my money. But she's +bound to have a good Christmas, and we'll make her a present besides." + +Kate was delighted with his idea, and immediately began to suggest all +sorts of things for the present. If Harry chose to buy anything that she +could "make up," she would go right to work at it. But Harry could not +think of anything that would suit exactly, and neither could Kate, nor +their mother; and when Mr. Loudon was taken into council, at +dinner-time, he could suggest nothing but an army blanket--which +suggestion met with no favor at all. + +At last Mr. Loudon advised that they should ask Aunt Matilda what she +would like to have for a present. + +"There's no better way of suiting her than that," said he. + +So Harry and Kate went down to the old woman's cabin that afternoon, +after school, and asked her. + +Aunt Matilda did not hesitate an instant. + +"Ef you chil'en is really a-goin' to give me a present, there ain't +nothin' I'd rather have than a Chrismis tree." + +"A Christmas tree!" cried Harry and Kate both bursting out laughing. + +"Yes, indeed, chil'en. Ef ye give me anything, give me a good big fiery +Chrismis tree like you all had, year 'fore las'." + +Two years before, Harry and Kate had had their last Christmas tree. +There were no younger children, and these two were now considered to +have outgrown that method of celebrating Christmas. But they had missed +their tree last year--missed it very much. + +And now Aunt Matilda wanted one. It was the very thing! + +"Hurrah!" cried Harry; "you shall have it. Hurrah for Aunt Matilda's +Christmas tree!" + +"Hurrah!" cried Kate; "won't it be splendid? Hurrah!" + +"Hurrah!" said Uncle Braddock, who was just coming up to the cabin door, +but he did not shout very loud, and nobody heard him. + +"Hurrah! I wonder what dey's all hurrahin' about?" he said to himself. + +Harry and Kate had started off to run home with the news, but Aunt +Matilda told the old man all about it, and when he heard there was to be +a Christmas tree, he was just as glad as anybody. + +When it became generally known that Aunt Matilda was to have a Christmas +tree, the people of the neighborhood took a great interest in the +matter. John Walker and Dick Ford, two colored men of the vicinity, +volunteered to get the tree. But when they went out into the woods to +cut it, eighteen other colored people, big and little, followed them, +some to help and some to give advice. + +A very fine tree was selected. It was a pine, ten feet high, and when +they brought it into Aunt Matilda's cabin, they could not stand it +upright, for her ceiling was rather low. + +When Harry and Kate came home from school they were rather surprised to +see so big a tree, but it was such a fine one that they thought they +must have it. After some consideration it was determined to erect it in +a deserted cabin, near by, which had no upper floor, and was high enough +to allow the tree to stand up satisfactorily. This was, indeed, an +excellent arrangement, for it was better to keep the decoration of the +Christmas tree a secret from Aunt Matilda until all was completed. + +The next day was a holiday, and Harry and Kate went earnestly to work. A +hole was dug in the clay floor of the old cabin, and the tree planted +firmly therein. It was very firm, indeed, for a little colored boy named +Josephine's Bobby climbed nearly to the topmost branch, without shaking +it very much. For four or five days the work of decorating the tree went +on. Everybody talked about it, a great many laughed at it, and nearly +everybody seemed inclined to give something to hang upon its branches. +Kate brought a large box containing the decorations of her last +Christmas tree, and she and Harry hung sparkling balls, and golden +stars, and silver fishes, and red and blue paper angels, and candy +swans, and sugar pears, and glittering things of all sorts, shapes, and +sizes upon the boughs. Harry had a step-ladder, and Dick Ford and five +colored boys held it firmly while he stood on it and tied on the +ornaments. Very soon the neighbors began to send in their contributions. +Mrs. Loudon gave a stout woollen dress, which was draped over a lower +branch; while Mr. Loudon, who was not to be diverted from his original +idea, sent an army blanket, which Kate arranged around the root of the +tree, so as to look as much as possible like gray moss. Mr. Darby, who +kept the store, sent a large paper bag of sugar and a small bag of tea, +which were carefully hung on lower branches. Miss Jane Davis thought she +ought to do something, and she contributed a peck of sweet potatoes, +which, each tied to a string, were soon dangling from the branches. Then +Mr. Truly Matthews, who did not wish to be behind his neighbors in +generosity, sent a shoulder of bacon, which looked quite magnificent as +it hung about the middle of the tree. Other people sent bars of soap, +bags of meal, packages of smoking-tobacco, and flannel petticoats. A +pair of shoes was contributed, and several pairs of stockings, which +latter were filled with apples and hickory-nuts by the considerate Kate. +Several of the school children gave sticks of candy; and old Mrs. Sarah +Page, who had nothing else to spare, brought a jug of molasses, which +was suspended near the top of the tree. Kate did not fancy the +appearance of the jug, and she wreathed it with strings of glittering +glass balls; and the shoulder of bacon she stuck full of red berries and +holly-leaves. Harry contributed a bright red handkerchief for Aunt +Matilda's head, and Kate gave a shawl which was yellower than a +sunflower, if such a thing could be. And Harry bore the general expenses +of the "extras," which were not trifling. + +When Christmas eve arrived everybody came to see Aunt Matilda's +Christmas tree. Kate and Harry were inside superintending the final +arrangements, and about fifty or sixty persons, colored and white, were +gathered around the closed door of the old cabin. When all was ready +Aunt Matilda made her appearance, supported on either side by Dick Ford +and John Walker, while Uncle Braddock, in his many-colored +dressing-gown, followed close behind. Then the door was opened, and Aunt +Matilda entered, followed by as many of the crowd as could get in. It +was certainly a scene of splendor. A wood fire blazed in the fireplace +at one end of the cabin, while dozens of tallow candles lighted up the +tree. The gold and silver stars glistened, the many-colored glass balls +shone among the green pine boughs; the shoulder of bacon glowed like a +bed of flowers, while the jug of molasses hung calm and serene, +surrounded by its glittering beads. A universal buzz of approbation and +delight arose. No one had ever seen such a Christmas tree before. Every +bough and every branch bore something useful as well as ornamental. + +As for Aunt Matilda, for several moments she remained speechless with +delight. At last she exclaimed: + +"Laws-a-massey! It's wuth while being good for ninety-five years to git +such a tree at las'." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A LIVELY TEAM. + + +"I want you to understand, Harry," said Mr. Loudon, one day, "that I do +not disapprove of what you and Kate are doing for old Aunt Matilda. On +the contrary, I feel proud of you both. The idea was honorable to you, +and, so far, you have done very well; better than I expected; and I +believe I was a little more sanguine than any one else in the village. +But you must not forget that you have something else to think of besides +making money for Aunt Matilda." + +"But, don't I think of other things, father?" said Harry. "I'm sure I +get along well enough at school." + +"That may be, my boy; but I want you to get along better than well +enough." + +This little conversation made quite an impression on Harry, and he +talked to Kate about it. + +"I suppose father's right," said she; "but what's to be done about it? +Is that poor old woman to have only half enough to eat, so that you may +read twice as much Virgil?" + +Harry laughed. + +"But perhaps she will have five-eighths of enough to eat if I only read +nine-sixteenths as much Latin," said he. + +"Oh! you're always poking arithmetic fun at me," said Kate. "But I tell +you what you can do," she continued. "You can get up half an hour +earlier, every morning, and that will give you a good deal of extra time +to think about your lessons." + +"I can _think_ about them in bed," said Harry. + +"Humph!" said Kate; and she went on with her work. She was knitting a +"tidy," worth two pounds of sugar, or half a pound of tea, when it +should be finished. + +Harry did not get up any earlier; for, as he expressed it, "It was +dreadfully cold before breakfast," on those January mornings; but his +father and mother noticed that the subject of Aunt Matilda's maintenance +did not so entirely engross the conversation of the brother and sister +in the evenings; and they had their heads together almost as often over +slate and schoolbooks as over the little account-book in which Kate put +down receipts and expenditures. + +On a Thursday night, about the middle of January, there was a fall of +snow. Not a very heavy fall; the snow might have been deeper, but it was +deep enough for sledding. On the Friday, Harry, in connection with +another boy, Tom Selden, several years older than himself, concocted a +grand scheme. They would haul wood, on a sled, all day Saturday. + +It was not to be any trifling little "boy-play" wood-hauling. Harry's +father owned a woodsled--one of the very few sleds or sleighs in the +county--which was quite an imposing affair, as to size, at least. It +was about eight feet long and four feet wide; and although it was rough +enough,--being made of heavy boards, nailed transversely upon a couple +of solid runners, with upright poles to keep the load in its place--it +was a very good sled, as far as it went, which had not been very far of +late; for there had been no good sledding for several seasons. Old Mr. +Truly Matthews had a large pile of wood cut in a forest about a mile and +a half from the village, and the boys knew that he wanted it hauled to +the house, and that, by a good day's work, considerable money could be +made. + +All the arrangements were concluded on Friday, which was a half-holiday, +on account of the snow making travelling unpleasant for those scholars +who lived at a distance. Harry's father gave his consent to the plan, +and loaned his sled. Three negro men agreed to help for one-fourth of +the profits. Tom Selden went into the affair, heart and hand, agreeing +to take his share out in fun. What money was made, after paying +expenses, was to go into the Aunt Matilda Fund, which was tolerably low +about that time. + +Kate gave her earnest sanction to the scheme, which was quite +disinterested on her part, for, being a girl, she could not very well go +on a wood-hauling expedition, and she could expect to do little else but +stay at home and calculate the probable profits of the trips. + +The only difficulty was to procure a team; and nothing less than a +four-horse team would satisfy the boys. + +Mr. Loudon lent one horse, old Selim, a big brown fellow, who was very +good at pulling when he felt in the humor. Tom could bring no horse; for +his father did not care to lend his horses for such a purpose. He was +afraid they might get their legs broken; and, strange as it seemed to +the boys, most of the neighbors appeared to have similar notions. Horses +were very hard to borrow that Friday afternoon. But a negro man, named +Isaac Waddell, agreed to hire them his horse Hector, for fifty cents for +the day; and the storekeeper, after much persuasion, lent a big gray +mule, Grits by name. There was another mule in the village, which the +boys could have if they wanted her; but they did not want her--that is, +if they could get anything else with four legs that would do to go in +their team. This was Polly, a little mule, belonging to Mrs. Dabney, who +kept the post-office. Polly was not only very little in size, but she +was also very little given to going. She did not particularly object to +a walk, if it were not too long, and would pull a buggy or carry a man +with great complacency, but she seldom indulged in trotting. It was of +no use to whip her. Her skin was so thick, or so destitute of feeling, +that she did not seem to take any notice of a good hard crack. Polly was +not a favorite, but she doubtless had her merits, although no one knew +exactly what they were. Perhaps the best thing that could be said about +her was, that she did not take up much room. + +But, on Saturday, it was evident that Polly would have to be taken, for +no animal could be obtained in her place. + +So, soon after breakfast, the team was collected in Mr. Loudon's +back-yard, and harnessed to the sled. Besides the three negroes who had +been hired, there were seven volunteers--some big and some little--who +were very willing to work for nothing, if they might have a ride on the +sled. The harness was not the best in the world; some of it was leather, +and some was rope and some was chain. It was gathered together from +various quarters, like the team--nobody seemed anxious to lend good +harness. + +Grits and thin Hector were the leaders, and Polly and old Selim were the +pole-horses, so to speak. + +When all the straps were buckled, and the chains hooked, and the knots +tied (and this took a good while as there were only twelve men and boys +to do it), Dick Ford jumped on old Selim, little Johnny Sand, as black +as ink, was hoisted on Grits, and Gregory Montague, a tall yellow boy, +with high boots and no toes to them, bestrode thin Hector. Harry, Tom, +and nine negroes (two more had just come into the yard) jumped on the +sled. Dick Ford cracked his whip; Kate stood on the back-door step and +clapped her hands; all the darkies shouted; Tom and Harry hurrahed; and +away they did not go. + +Polly was not ready. + +And what was more, old brown Selim was perfectly willing to wait for +her. He looked around mildly at the little mule, as if he would say: +"Now, don't be in a hurry, my good Polly. Be sure you're right before +you go ahead." + +Polly was quite sure she was not right, and stood as stiffly as if she +had been frozen to the ground, and all the cracking of whips and +shouting of "Git up!" "Go 'long!" "What do you mean, dar? you Polly!" +made no impression on her. + +Then Harry made his voice heard above the hubbub. + +"Never mind Polly!" he shouted. "Let her alone. Dick, and you other +fellows, just start off your own horses. Now, then! Get up, all of you!" + +At this, every rider whipped up his horse or his mule, and spurred him +with his heels, and every darkey shouted, "Hi, dar!" and off they went, +rattledy-bang! + +Polly went, too. There was never such an astonished little mule in this +world! Out of the gate they all whirled at full gallop, and up the road, +tearing along. Negroes shouting, chains rattling, snow flying back from +sixteen pounding hoofs, sled cutting through the snow like a ship at +sea, and a little darkey shooting out behind at every bounce over a +rough place! + +"Hurrah!" cried Harry, holding tight to an upright pole. "Isn't this +splendid!" + +"Splendid! It's glorious!" shouted Tom. "It's better than being a pi--" +And down he went on his knees, as the big sled banged over a stone in +the road, and Josephine's Bobby was bounced out into a snow-drift under +a fence. + +Whether Tom intended to say a pirate or a pyrotechnic, was never +discovered; but, in six minutes, there was only one of the small darkies +left on the sled. The men, and this one, John William Webster, hung on +to the poles as if they were glued there. + +As for Polly, she was carried along faster than she ever went before in +her life. She jumped, she skipped, she galloped, she slid, she skated; +sometimes sitting down, and sometimes on her feet, but flying along, all +the same, no matter how she chose to go. + +And so, rattling, shouting, banging, bouncing; snow flying and whips +cracking, on they sped, until John William Webster's pole came out, and +clip! he went heels over head into the snow. + +But John William had a soul above tumbles. In an instant he jerked +himself up to his feet, dropped the pole, and dashed after the sled. + +Swiftly onward went the sled and right behind came John William, his +legs working like steamboat wheels, his white teeth shining, and his big +eyes sparkling! + +There was no stopping the sled; but there was no stopping John William, +either, and in less than two minutes he reached the sled, grabbed a man +by the leg, and tugged and pulled until he seated himself on the end +board. + +"I tole yer so!" said he, when he got his breath. And yet he hadn't told +anybody anything. + +And now the woods were reached, and after a deal of pulling and +shouting, the team was brought to a halt, and then slowly led through a +short road to where the wood was piled. + +The big mule and the horses steamed and puffed a little, but Polly stood +as calm as a rocking-horse. + +Notwithstanding the rapidity of the drive, it was late when the party +reached the woods. The gathering together and harnessing of the team had +taken much longer than they expected; and so the boys set to work with a +will to load the sled; for they wanted to make two trips that morning. +But although they all, black and white, worked hard, it was slow +business. Some of the wood was cut and split properly, and some was not, +and then the sled had to be turned around, and there was but little room +to do it in, and so a good deal of time was lost. + +But at last the sled was loaded up, and they were nearly ready to start, +when John William Webster, who had run out to the main road, set up a +shout: + +"Oh! Mah'sr Harry! Mah'sr Tom!" + +Harry and Tom ran out to the road, and stood there petrified with +astonishment. + +Where was the snow? + +It was all gone, excepting a little here and there in the shade of the +fence corners. The day had turned out to be quite mild, and the sun, +which was now nearly at its noon height, had melted it all away. + +Here was a most unlooked-for state of affairs! What was to be done? The +boys ran back to the sled, and the colored men ran out to the road, and +everybody talked and nobody seemed to say anything of use. + +At last Dick Ford spoke up: + +"I tell ye what, Mah'sr Harry! I say, just let's go 'long," said he. + +"But how are you going to do it?" said Harry. "There's no snow." + +"I know that; but de mud's jist as slippery as grease. That thar team +kin pull it, easy 'nuff!" + +Harry and Tom consulted together, and agreed to drive out to the road +and try what could be done, and then, if the loaded sled was too much +for the team, they would throw off the wood and go home with the empty +sled. + +There was snow enough until they reached the road--for very little had +melted in the woods--and when they got fairly out on the main road the +team did not seem to mind the change from snow to thin mud. + +The load was not a very heavy one, and there were two horses and two +mules--a pretty strong team. + +Polly did very well. She was now harnessed with Grits in the lead; and +she pulled along bravely. But it was slow work, compared to the lively +ride over the snow. The boys and the men trudged through the mud, by the +side of the sled, and, looking at it in the best possible light, it was +a very dull way to haul wood. The boys agreed that after this trip they +would be very careful not to go on another mud-sledding expedition. + +But soon they came to a long hill, and, going down this, the team began +to trot, and Harry and Tom and one or two of the men jumped on the edges +of the sled, outside of the load, holding on to the poles. Then Grits, +the big mule, began to run, and Gregory couldn't hold him in, and old +Selim and thin Hector and little Polly all struck out on a gallop, and +away they went, bumping and thumping down the hill. + +And then stick after stick, two sticks, six sticks, a dozen sticks at a +time, slipped out behind. + +It was of no use to catch at them to hold them on. They were not +fastened down in any way, and Harry and Tom and the men on the sled had +as much as they could do to hold themselves on. + +When they reached the bottom of the hill the pulling became harder; but +Grits had no idea of stopping for that. He was bound for home. And so he +plunged on at the top of his speed. But the rest of the team did not +fancy going so fast on level ground, and they slackened their pace. + +This did not suit Grits. He gave one tremendous bound, burst loose from +his harness and dashed ahead. Up went his hind legs in the air; off shot +Gregory Montague into the mud, and then away went Grits, clipperty-clap! +home to his stable. + +When Harry and Tom, the two horses, the little mule, the eight colored +men, the sled, John William Webster and eleven logs of wood reached the +village it was considerably after dinner-time. + +When the horse-hire was paid, and something was expended for mending +borrowed harness, and the negroes had received a little present for +their labor, the Aunt Matilda Fund was diminished by the sum of three +dollars and eighty cents. + +Mr. Truly Matthews agreed to say nothing about the loss of his wood that +was scattered along the road. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +BUSINESS IN EARNEST. + + +Although Harry did not find his wood-hauling speculation very +profitable, it was really of advantage to him, for it gave him an idea. + +And his idea was a very good one. He saw clearly enough that money could +be made by hauling wood, and he was also quite certain that it would +never do for him to take his time, especially during school term, for +that purpose. So, after consultation with his father, and after a great +deal of figuring by Kate, he determined to go into the business in a +regular way. + +About five miles from the village was a railroad station, and it was +also a wood station. Here the railroad company paid two dollars a cord +for wood delivered on their grounds. + +Two miles from the station, on the other side of Crooked Creek, Harry's +father owned a large tract of forest land, and here Harry received +permission to cut and take away all the wood that he wanted. Mr. Loudon +was perfectly willing, in this way, to help his children in their good +work. + +So Harry made arrangements with Dick Ford and John Walker, who were not +regularly hired to any one that winter, to cut and haul his wood for +him, on shares. John Walker had a wagon, which was merely a set of +wheels, with a board floor laid on the axletrees, and the use of this he +contributed in consideration of a little larger share in the profits. +Harry hired Grits and another mule at a low rate, as there was not much +for mules to do at that time of the year. + +The men were to cut up and deliver the wood and get receipts for it from +the station-master; and it was to be Harry's business to collect the +money at stated times, and divide the proceeds according to the rate +agreed upon. Harry and his father made the necessary arrangements with +the station-master, and thus all the preliminaries were settled quite +satisfactorily. + +In a few days the negroes were at work, and as they both lived but a +short distance from the creek, on the village side, it was quite +convenient for them. John Walker had a stable in which to keep the +mules, and the cost of their feed was also to be added to his share of +the profits. + +In a short time Harry had quite a number of applications from negroes +who wished to cut wood for him, but he declined to hire any additional +force until he saw how his speculation would turn out. + +Old Uncle Braddock pleaded hard to be employed. He could not cut wood, +nor could he drive a team, but he was sure he would be of great use as +overseer. + +"You see, Mah'sr Harry," he said, "I lib right on de outside edge ob +you' pa's woods, and I kin go ober dar jist as easy as nuffin, early +every mornin', and see dat dem boys does dere work, and don't chop down +de wrong trees. Mind now, I tell ye, you all will make a pile o' money +ef ye jist hire me to obersee dem boys." + +For some time Harry resisted his entreaties, but at last, principally on +account of Kate's argument that the old man ought to be encouraged in +making something toward his living, if he were able and willing to do +so, Harry hired him on his own terms, which were ten cents a day. + +About four o'clock every afternoon during his engagement, Uncle Braddock +made his appearance in the village, to demand his ten cents. When Harry +remonstrated with him on his quitting work so early, he said: + +"Why, you see, Mah'sr Harry, it's a long way from dem woods here, and I +got to go all de way back home agin; and it gits dark mighty early dese +short days." + +In about a week the old man came to Hurry and declared that he must +throw up his engagement. + +"What's the matter?" asked Harry. + +"I'm gwine to gib up dat job, Mah'sr Harry." + +"But why? You wanted it bad enough," said Harry. + +"But I'm gwine to gib it up now," said the old man. + +"Well, I want you to tell me your reasons for giving it up," persisted +Harry. + +Uncle Braddock stood silent for a few minutes, and then he said: + +"Well, Mah'sr Harry, dis is jist de truf; dem ar boys, dey ses to me dat +ef I come foolin' around dere any more, dey'd jist chop me up, ole +wrapper an' all, and haul me off fur kindlin' wood. Dey say I was dry +enough. An' dey needn't a made sich a fuss about it, fur I didn't +trouble 'em much; hardly eber went nigh 'em. Ten cents' worf o' +oberseein' aint a-gwine to hurt nobody." + +"Well, Uncle Braddock," said Harry, laughing, "I think you're wise to +give it up." + +"Dat's so," said the old negro, and away he trudged to Aunt Matilda's +cabin, where, no doubt, he ate a very good ten cents' worth of corn-meal +and bacon. + +This wood enterprise of Harry's worked pretty well on the whole. +Sometimes the men cut and hauled quite steadily, and sometimes they did +not. Once every two weeks Harry rode over to the station, and collected +what was due him; and his share of the profits kept Aunt Matilda quite +comfortably. + +But, although Kate was debarred from any share in this business, she +worked every day at her tidies for the store, and knit stockings, +besides, for some of the neighbors, who furnished the yarn and paid her +a fair price. There were people who thought Mrs. Loudon did wrong in +allowing her daughter to work for money in this way, but Kate's mother +said that the end justified the work, and that so long as Kate +persevered in her self-appointed tasks, she should not interfere. + +As for Kate, she said she should work on, no matter how much money Harry +made. There was no knowing what might happen. + +But the most important of Kate's duties was the personal attention she +paid to Aunt Matilda. She went over to the old woman's cabin every day +or two, and saw that she was kept warm and had what she needed. + +And these visits had a good influence on the old woman, for her cabin +soon began to look much neater, now that a nice little girl came to see +her so often. + +When the spring came on, Aunt Matilda actually took it into her head to +whitewash her cabin, a thing she had not done for years. She and Uncle +Braddock worked at it by turns. The old woman was too stiff and +rheumatic to keep at such work long at a time; but she was very proud of +her whitewashing; and when she was tired of working at the inside of her +cabin, she used to go out and whitewash the trunks of the trees around +the house. She had seen trees thus ornamented, and she thought they were +perfectly beautiful. + +Kate was violently opposed to anything of this kind, and, at last, told +Aunt Matilda that if she persisted in surrounding her house with what +looked like a forest of tombstones, she, Kate, would have to stop coming +there. + +So Aunt Matilda, in a manner, desisted. + +But one day she noticed a little birch-tree, some distance from the +house, and the inclination to whitewash that little birch was too strong +to be resisted. + +"He's so near white, anyway," she said to herself, "dat it's a pity not +to finish him." + +So off she hobbled with a tin cup full of whitewash and a small brush to +adorn the little birch-tree, leaving her cabin in the charge of Holly +Thomas. + +Holly, whose whole name was Hollywood Cemetery Thomas, was a little +black girl, between two and five years old. Sometimes she seemed nearly +five, and sometimes not more than two. Her parents intended christening +her Minerva, but hearing the name of the well-known Hollywood Cemetery +in Richmond, they thought it so pretty that they gave it to their little +daughter, without the slightest idea, however, that it was the name of a +grave-yard. + +Holly had come over to pay a morning visit to Aunt Matilda, and she had +brought her only child, a wooden doll, which she was trying to teach to +walk, by dragging it head foremost by a long string tied around its +neck. + +"Now den, you Holly, you stay h'yar and mind de house while I's gone," +said Aunt Matilda, as she departed. + +"All yite," said the little darkey, and she sat down on the floor to +prepare her child for a coat of whitewash; but she had not yet succeeded +in convincing the doll of the importance of the operation when her +attention was aroused by a dog just outside of the door. + +It was Kate's little woolly white dog, Blinks, who often used to come to +the cabin with her, and who sometimes, when he got a chance to run away, +used to come alone, as he did this morning. + +"Go 'way dar, litty dog," said Miss Holly, "yer can't come in; dere's +nobody home. Yun 'long, now, d'yer y'ear!" + +But Blinks either did not hear or did not care, for he stuck his head in +at the door. + +"Go 'way, dere!" shouted Holly. "Aunt Tillum ain't home. Go 'way now, +and tum bat in half an hour. Aunt Tillum'll be bat den. Don't yer hear +now, go _'way_!" + +But, instead of going away, Blinks trotted in, as bold as a four-pound +lion. + +"Go 'way, go 'way!" screamed Holly, squeezing herself up against the +wall in her terror, and then Blinks barked at her. He had never seen a +little black girl behave so, in the whole course of his life, and it was +quite right in him to bark and let her know what he thought of her +conduct. Then Holly, in her fright, dropped her doll, and when Blinks +approached to examine it, she screamed louder and louder, and Blinks +barked more and more, and there was quite a hubbub. In the midst of it a +man put his head in at the door of the cabin. + +He was a tall man, with red hair, and a red freckled face, and a red +bristling moustache, and big red hands. + +"What's all this noise about?" said he; and when he saw what it was, he +came in. + +"Get out of this, you little beast!" said he to Blinks, and putting the +toe of his boot under the little dog, he kicked him clear out of the +door of the cabin. Then turning to Holly, he looked at her pretty much +as if he intended to kick her out too. But he didn't. He put out one of +his big red hands and said to her: + +"Shake hands." + +Holly obeyed without a word, and then snatching her wooden child from +the floor, she darted out of the door and reached the village almost as +soon as poor Blinks. + +In a minute or two Aunt Matilda made her appearance at the door. She had +heard the barking and the screaming, and had come to see what was the +matter. + +When she saw the man, she exclaimed: + +"Why, Mah'sr George! Is dat you?" + +"Yes, it's me," said the man. "Shake hands, Aunt Matilda." + +"I thought you was down in Mississippi; Mah'sr George," said the old +woman; "and I thought you was gwine to stay dar." + +"Couldn't do it," said the man. "It didn't suit me, down there. Five +years of it was enough for me." + +"Enough fur dem, too, p'r'aps!" said Aunt Matilda, with a grim chuckle. + +The man took no notice of her remark, but said: + +"I didn't intend to stop here, but I heard such a barking and screaming +in your cabin, that I turned out of my way to see what the row was +about. I've just come up from the railroad. Does old Michaels keep store +here yet?" + +"No, he don't," said Aunt Matilda; "he's dead. Mah'sr Darby keeps dar +now." + +"Is that so?" cried the man. "Why, it was on old Michaels's account that +I was sneakin' around the village. Why, I'm mighty glad I stopped here. +It makes things different if old Michaels isn't about." + +"Well, ye might as well go 'long," said Aunt Matilda, who seemed to be +getting into a bad humor. "There's others who knows jist as much about +yer bad doin's as Mah'sr Michaels did." + +"I suppose you mean that meddling humbug, John Loudon," said the man. + +"Now, look h'yar, you George Mason?" cried Aunt Matilda, making one long +step toward the whitewash bucket; "jist you git out o' dat dar door!" +and she seized the whitewash brush and gave it a terrific swash in the +bucket. + +The man looked at her--he knew her of old--and then he left the cabin +almost as quickly as Blinks and Holly went out of it. + +"Ef it hadn't been fur dat little dog," said Aunt Matilda, grimly, "he'd +a gone on. Them little dogs is always a-doin' mischief." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A MEETING ON THE ROAD. + + +Some weeks before the little affair between Blinks and Holly, related in +our last chapter, Harry and Kate took a ride over to the railroad +station. + +During the winter Harry had frequently gone over on horseback to attend +to the payments for his wood; and now that the roads were in fit +condition for carriage travel, he was glad to have an opportunity to +take the buggy and give Kate a ride. + +For some days previously, Crooked Creek had been "up;" that is, the +spring rains had caused it to overflow, and all travel across it had +been suspended. The bridges on such occasions--and Crooked Creek had a +bad habit of being "up" several times in the course of a year--were +covered, and the lowlands were under water for a considerable distance +on each side of the stream. There were so few boats on the creek, and +the current, in time of freshets, was so strong, that ferriage was +seldom thought of. In consequence of this state of affairs Harry had not +heard from his wood-cutters for more than a week, as they had not been +able to cross the creek to their homes. It was, therefore, as much to +see how they were getting along as to attend to financial matters that +he took this trip. + +It was a fine, bright day in very early spring, and old Selim trotted on +quite gayly. Before very long they overtook Miles Jackson, jogging along +on a little bay horse. + +Miles was a black man, very sober and sedate who for years had carried +the mail twice a week from a station farther up the railroad to the +village. But he was not a mail-carrier now. His employer, a white man, +who had the contract for carrying the mails, had also gone into another +business which involved letter-carrying. + +A few miles back from the village of Akeville, where the Loudons lived, +was a mica mine, which had recently been bought, and was now worked by a +company from the North. This mica (the semi-transparent substance that +is set into stove doors) proved to be very plentiful and valuable, and +the company had a great deal of business on their hands. It was +frequently necessary to send messages and letters to the North, and +these were always carried over to the station on the other side of +Crooked Creek, where there was a daily mail and a telegraph office. The +contract to carry these letters and messages to and from the mines had +been given to Miles's employer, and the steady negro man had been taken +off the mail-route to attend to this new business. + +"Well, Miles," said Harry, as he overtook him. "How do you like riding +on this road?" + +"How d' y', Mah'sr Harry? How d' y', Miss Kate?" said the colored man, +touching his hat and riding up on the side of the road to let them pass. +"I do' know how I likes it yit, Mah'sr Harry. Don't seem 'xactly nat'ral +after ridin' de oder road so long!" + +"You have a pretty big letter-bag there," said Harry. + +"Dat's so," said Miles; "but 'taint dis big ebery day. Sence de creek's +been up I haint been able to git across, and dere's piles o' letters to +go ober to-day." + +"It must make it rather bad for the company when the creek rises in this +way," said Harry. + +"Dat's so," answered Miles. "Dey gits in a heap o' trubble when dey +can't send dere letters and git 'em. Though 'taint so many letters dey +sends as telegraphs." + +"It's a pity they couldn't have had their mine on the other side," +remarked Kate. + +"Dat's so, Miss Kate," said Miles, gravely. "I reckon dey didn't know +about de creek's gittin' up so often, or dey'd dug dere mine on de oder +side." + +Harry and Kate laughed and drove on. + +They soon reached Mr. Loudon's woods, but found no wood-cutters. + +When they arrived at the station they saw Dick Ford and John Walker on +the store-porch. + +Harry soon discovered that no wood had been cut for several days, +because the creek was up. + +"What had that to do with it?" asked Harry. + +"Why, you see, Mah'sr Harry," said John Walker, "de creek was mighty +high, and dere was no knowin' how things ud turn out. So we thought we'd +jist wait and see." + +"So you've been here all the time?" + +"Yes, sir; been h'yar all de time. Couldn't go home, you know." + +Harry was very sorry to hear of this lost time, for he knew that his +wood-cutting would come to an end as soon as the season was sufficiently +advanced to give the men an opportunity of hiring themselves for +farm-work; but it was of no use to talk any more about it; and so, after +depositing Kate at the post-office, where the post-mistress, who knew +her well, gave her a nice little "snack" of buttermilk, cold fried +chicken, and "light-bread," he went to the station and transacted his +business. He had not been there for some weeks, and he found quite a +satisfactory sum of money due him, in spite of the holiday his men had +taken. He then arranged with Dick and John to work on for a week or two +longer--if "nothing happened;" and after attending to some commissions +for the family, he and Kate set out for home. + +But nothing they had done that day was of so much importance as their +meeting with Miles tuned out to be. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ROB. + + +Blinks was not the only dog on the Loudon place. There was another one, +a much larger fellow, named Rob. + +Rob was a big puppy, in the first place, and then he grew up to be a +tall, long-legged dog, who was not only very fond of Harry and Kate, but +of almost everybody else. In time he filled out and became rather more +shapely, but he was always an ungainly dog--"too big for his size," as +Harry put it. + +It was supposed that Rob was partly bloodhound, but how much of him was +bloodhound it would have been very difficult so say. Kate thought it was +only his ears. They resembled the ears of a picture of a beautiful +African bloodhound that she had in a book. At all events Rob showed no +signs of any fighting ancestry. He was as gentle as a calf. Even Blinks +was a better watch-dog. But then, Rob was only a year old, and he might +improve in time. + +But, in spite of his general inutility, Rob was a capital companion on a +country ramble. + +And so it happened, one bright day toward the close of April, that he +and Harry and Kate went out together into the woods, beyond Aunt +Matilda's cabin. Kate's objects in taking the walk were wild flowers and +general spring investigations into the condition of the woods; but Harry +had an eye to business, although to hear him talk you would have +supposed that he thought as much about ferns and flowers as Kate did. + +Harry had an idea that it might possibly be a good thing to hire negroes +that year to pick sumac for him. He was not certain that he could make +it pay, but it was on his mind to such a degree that he took a great +interest in the sumac-bushes, and hunted about the edges of the woods, +where the bushes were generally found, to see what was the prospect for +a large crop of leaves that year. + +They were in the woods, about a mile from Aunt Matilda's cabin, and not +very far from a road, when they separated for a short time. Harry went +on ahead, continuing his investigations, while Kate remained in a little +open glade, where she found some flowers that she determined to dig up +by the roots and transplant into her garden at home. + +While she was at work she heard a heavy step behind her, and looking up, +she saw a tall man standing by her. He had red hair, a red face, a red +bristling moustache, and big red hands. + +"How d'ye do?" said the man. + +Kate stood up, with the plants, which she had just succeeded in getting +out of the ground, in her apron. + +"Good morning, sir," said she. + +The man looked at her from head to foot, and then he said, "Shake +hands!" holding out his big red hand. + +But Kate did not offer to take it. + +"Didn't you hear me?" said he. "I said, 'Shake hands.'" + +"I heard you," said Kate. + +"Well, why don't you do it, then?" + +Kate did not answer, and the man repeated his question. + +"Well, then, if I must tell you," said she; "in the first place, I don't +know you; and, then, I'd rather not shake hands with you, anyway, +because your hands are so dirty." + +This might not have been very polite in Kate, but she was a +straightforward girl, and the man's hands were very dirty indeed, +although water was to be had in such abundance. + +"What's your name?" said the man, with his face considerably redder than +before. + +"Kate Loudon," said the girl. + +"Oh, ho! Loudon, is it? Well, Kate Loudon, if my hand's too dirty to +shake, you'll find it isn't too dirty to box your ears." + +Kate turned pale and shrank back against a tree. She gave a hurried +glance into the woods, and then she called out, as loudly as she could: +"_Harry_!" + +The man, who had made a step toward her, now stopped and looked around, +as if he would like to know who Harry was, before going any further. + +Just then, Harry, who had heard Kate's call, came running up. + +When the man saw him he seemed relieved, and a curious smile stretched +itself beneath his bristling red moustache. + +"What's the matter?" cried Harry. + +"Oh, Harry!" Kate exclaimed, as she ran to him. + +"Matter?" said the man. "The matter's this: I'm going to box her ears." + +"Whose ears?" + +"That girl's," replied the red-faced man, moving toward Kate. + +"My sister! Not much!" + +And Harry stepped between Kate and the man. + +The man stood and looked at him, and he looked very angrily, too. + +But Harry stood bravely before his sister. His face was flushed and his +breath came quickly, though he was not frightened, not a whit! + +And yet there was absolutely nothing that he could do. He had not his +gun with him; he had not even a stick in his hand, and a stick would +have been of little use against such a strong man as that, who could +have taken Harry in his big red hands and have thrown him over the +highest fence in the county. + +But for all that, the boy stood boldly up before his sister. + +The man looked at him without a word, and then he stepped aside toward a +small dogwood-bush. + +For an instant, Harry thought that they might run away; but it was only +for an instant. That long-legged man could catch them before they had +gone a dozen yards--at least he could catch Kate. + +The man took out a knife and cut a long and tolerably thick switch from +the bush. Then he cut off the smaller end and began to trim away the +twigs and leaves. + +While doing this he looked at Harry, and said: + +"I think I'll take you first." + +Kate's heart almost stopped beating when she heard this, and Harry +turned pale; but still the brave boy stood before his sister as stoutly +as ever. + +Kate tried to call for help, but she had no voice. What could _she_ do? +A boxing on the ears was nothing, she now thought; she wished she had +not called out, for it was evident that Harry was going to get a +terrible whipping. + +She could not bear it! Her dear brother! + +She trembled so much that she could not stand, and she sank down on her +knees. Rob, the dog, who had been lying near by, snapping at flies, all +this time, now came up to comfort her. + +"Oh, Rob!" she whispered, "I wish you were a cross dog." + +And Rob wagged his tail and lay down by her. + +"I wonder," she thought to herself, "oh! I wonder if any one could make +him bite." + +"Rob!" she whispered in the dog's ear, keeping her eyes fixed on the +man, who had now nearly finished trimming his stick. "Rob! hiss-s-s-s!" +and she patted his back. + +Rob seemed to listen very attentively. + +"Hiss-s-s!" she whispered again, her heart beating quick and hard. + +Rob now raised his head, his big body began to quiver, and the hair on +his back gradually rose on end. + +"Hiss! Rob! Rob!" whispered Kate. + +The man had shut up his knife, and was putting it in his pocket. He took +the stick in his right hand. + +All now depended on Rob. + +"Oh! will he?" thought Kate, and then she sprang to her feet and clapped +her hands. + +"Catch him, Rob!" she screamed. "Catch him!" + +With a rush, Rob hurled himself full at the breast of the man, and the +tall fellow went over backward, just like a ten-pin. + +Then he was up and out into the road, Rob after him! + +You ought to have seen the gravel fly! + +Harry and Kate ran out into the road and cheered and shouted. Away went +the man, and away went the dog. + +Up the road, into the brush, out again, and then into a field, down a +hill, nip and tuck! At Tom Riley's fence, Rob got him by the leg, but +the trowsers were old and the piece came out: and then the man dashed +into Riley's old tobacco barn, and slammed the door almost on the dog's +nose. + +Rob ran around the house to see if there was an open window, and finding +none, he went back to the door and lay down to wait. + +Harry and Kate ran home as fast as they could, and after a while Rob +came too. He had waited a reasonable time at the door of the barn, but +the man had not come out. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +TONY ON THE WAR-PATH. + + +"She did it all," said Harry, when they had told the tale to half the +village, on the store-porch. + +"I!" exclaimed Kate. "Rob, you mean." + +"That's a good dog," said Mr. Darby, the storekeeper; "what'll you take +for him?" + +"Not for sale," said Harry. + +"Rob's all very well," remarked Tony Kirk; "but it won't do to have a +feller like that in the woods, a fright'nin' the children. I'd like to +know who he is." + +Just at this moment Uncle Braddock made his appearance, hurrying along +much faster than he usually walked, with his eyes and teeth glistening +in the sunshine. + +"I seed him!" he cried, as soon as he came up. + +"Who'd you see?" cried several persons. + +"Oh! I seed de dog after him, and I come along as fas' as I could, but +couldn't come very fas'. De ole wrapper cotch de wind." + +"Who was it?" asked Tony. + +"I seed him a-runnin'. Bress my soul! de dog like to got him!" + +"But who was he, Uncle Braddock?" said Mr. Loudon, who had just reached +the store from his house, where Kate, who had run home, had told the +story. "Do you know him?" + +"Know him? Reckon I does?" said Uncle Braddock, "an' de dog ud a knowed +him too, ef he'd a cotched him! Dat's so, Mah'sr John." + +"Well, tell us his name, if you know him," said Mr. Darby. + +"Ob course, I knows him," said Uncle Braddock. "I'se done knowed him fur +twenty or fifty years. He's George Mason." + +The announcement of this name caused quite a sensation in the party. + +"I thought he was down in Mississippi," said one man. + +"So he was; I reckons," said Uncle Braddock, "but he's done come back +now. I'se seed him afore to-day, and Aunt Matilda's seed him, too. Yah, +ha! Dat dere dog come mighty nigh cotchin' him!" + +George Mason had been quite a noted character in that neighborhood five +or six years before. He belonged to a good family, but was of a lawless +disposition and was generally disliked by the decent people of the +county. Just before he left for the extreme Southern States, it was +discovered that he had been concerned in a series of horse-thefts, for +which he would have been arrested had he not taken his departure from +the State. + +Few people, excepting Mr. Loudon and one or two others, knew the extent +of his misdemeanors; and out of regard to his family, these had not been +made public. But he had the reputation of being a wild, disorderly man, +and now that it was known that he had contemplated boxing Kate Loudon's +ears and whipping Harry, the indignation was very great. + +Harry and Kate were favorites with everybody--white and black. + +"I tell ye what I'm goin' to do," said Tony Kirk; "I'm goin' after that +feller." + +At this, half a dozen men offered to go along with Tony. + +"What will you do, if you find him?" asked Mr. Loudon. + +"That depends on circumstances," replied Tony. + +"I am willing to have you go," said Mr. Loudon, who was a magistrate and +a gentleman of much influence in the village, "on condition that if you +find him you offer him no violence. Tell him to leave the county, and +say to him, from me, that if he is found here again he shall be +arrested." + +"All right," said Tony; and he proceeded to make up his party. + +There were plenty of volunteers; and for a while it was thought that +Uncle Braddock intended to offer to go. But, if so, he must have changed +his mind, for he soon left the village and went over to Aunt Matilda's +and had a good talk with her. The old woman was furiously angry when she +heard of the affair. + +"I wish I'd been a little quicker," she said, "and dere wouldn't a been +a red spot on him." + +Uncle Braddock didn't know exactly what she meant; but he wished so, +too. + +Tony didn't want a large party. He chose four men who could be depended +upon, and they started out that evening. + +It was evident that Mason knew how to keep himself out of sight, for he +had been in the vicinity a week or more--as Tony discovered, after a +visit to Aunt Matilda--and no white person had seen him. + +But Tony thought he knew the country quite as well as George Mason did, +and he felt sure he should find him. + +His party searched the vicinity quite thoroughly that night, starting +from Tom Riley's tobacco barn; but they saw nothing of their man; and in +the morning they made the discovery that Mason had borrowed one of +Riley's horses, without the knowledge of its owner, and had gone off, +north of the mica mine. Some negroes had seen him riding away. + +So Tony and his men took horses and rode away after him. Each of them +carried his gun, for they did not know in what company they might find +Mason. A man who steals horses is generally considered, especially in +the country, to be wicked enough to do anything. + +At a little place called Jordan's cross-roads, they were sure they had +come upon him. Tom Riley's horse was found at the blacksmith's shop at +the cross-roads, and the blacksmith said that he had been left there to +have a shoe put on, and that the man who had ridden him had gone on over +the fields toward a house on the edge of the woods, about a mile away. + +So Tony and his men rode up to within a half-mile of the house, and then +they dismounted, tied their horses, and proceeded on foot. They kept, as +far as possible, under cover of the tall weeds and bushes, and hurried +along silently and in single file, Tony in the lead. Thus they soon +reached the house, when they quietly surrounded it. + +But George Mason played them a pretty trick. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +COUSIN MARIA. + + +After posting one of his men on each side of the house, which stood on +the edge of a field, without any fence around it, Tony Kirk stepped up +to the front door and knocked. The door was quickly opened by a woman. + +"Why, Cousin Maria," said Tony, "is this you?" + +"Certainly it's me, Anthony," said the woman; "who else should it be?" + +Cousin Maria was a tall woman, dressed in black. She had gray hair and +wore spectacles. She seemed very glad to see Tony, and shook hands with +him warmly. + +"I didn't know you lived here," said Tony. + +"Well, I don't live here, exactly," said Cousin Maria; "but come in and +sit awhile. You've been a-huntin', have you?" + +"Well, yes," said Tony, "I am a-huntin'." + +Without mentioning that he had some friends outside, Tony went in and +sat down to talk with Cousin Maria. The man in front of the house had +stepped to one side when the door opened, and the others were out of +sight, of course. + +Tony entered a small sitting-room, into which the front door opened, and +took a seat by Cousin Maria. + +"You see," said she, "old Billy Simpson let this house fur a hundred +dollars--there's eighty acres with it--to Sarah Ann Hemphill and her +husband; and he's gone to Richmond to git stock for a wheelwright's +shop. That's his trade, you know; and they're goin' to have the shop +over there in the wagon-house, that can be fixed up easy enough ef Sam +Hemphill chooses to work at it, which I don't believe he will; but he +_can_ work, ef he will, and this is just the place for a wheelwright's +shop, ef the right man goes into the business; and they sold their two +cows--keeping only the red-and-white heifer. I guess you remember that +heifer; they got her of old Joe Sanders, on the Creek. And they sold one +of their horses--the sorrel--and a mule; they hadn't no use fur 'em +here, fur the land's not worth much, and hasn't seen no guano nor +nothin' fur three or four years; and the money they got was enough to +start a mighty good cooper-shop, ef Sam don't spend it all, or most of +it, in Richmond, which I think he will; and of course, he being away, +Sarah Ann wanted to go to her mother's, and she got herself ready and +took them four children--and I pity the old lady, fur Sam's children +never had no bringin' up. I disremember how old Tommy is, but it isn't +over eight, and just as noisy as ef he wasn't the oldest. And so I come +here to take care of the place; but I can't stay no longer than Tuesday +fortnight, as I told Sarah Ann, fur I've got to go to Betsey Cropper's +then to help her with her spinnin'; and there's my own things--seven +pounds of wool to spin fur Truly Mattherses people, besides two bushel +baskets, easy, of carpet-rags to sew, and I want 'em done by the time +Miss Jane gits her loom empty, or I'll git no weavin' done this year, +and what do you think? I've had another visitor to-day, and your comin' +right afterwards kind o' struck me as mighty queer, both bein' Akeville +people, so to speak tho' it's been a long day since he's been there, and +you'll never guess who it was, fur it was George Mason." + +And she stopped and wiped her face with her calico apron. + +"So George Mason was here, was he?" said Tony. "Where is he now?" + +"Oh! he's gone," replied Cousin Maria. "It wasn't more 'n ten or fifteen +minutes before you came in, and he was a-sittin' here talking about ole +times--he's rougher than he was, guess he didn't learn no good down +there in Mississippi--when all ov a sudden he got up an' took his hat +and walked off. Well, that was jist like George Mason. He never had much +manners, and would always just as soon go off without biddin' a body +good-by as not." + +"You didn't notice which way he went, did you?" asked Tony. + +"Yes, I did," said Cousin Maria; "he went out o' the back door, and +along the edge of the woods, and he was soon out of sight, fur George +has got long legs, as you well know; and the last I saw of him was just +out there by that fence. And if there isn't Jim Anderson! Come in, Jim; +what are you doin' standin' out there?" + +So she went to the window to call Jim Anderson, and Tony stepped to the +door and whistled for the other men, so that when Cousin Maria came to +the door she saw not only Jim Anderson, but Thomas Campbell and Captain +Bob Winters and Doctor Price's son Brinsley. + +"Well, upon my word an' honor!" said Cousin Maria, lifting up both her +hands. + +"Come along, boys," said Tony, starting off toward the woods. "We've got +no time to lose. Good-by, Cousin Maria." + +"Good-by, Cousin Maria," said each of the other men, as the party +hurried away. + +Cousin Maria did not answer a word. She sat right down on the door-step +and took off her spectacles. She rubbed them with her apron, and then +put them on again. But there was no mistake. There were the men. If she +had seen four ghosts she could not have been more astonished. + +Tony did not for a moment doubt Cousin Maria's word when she told him +that George Mason had gone away. She never told a lie. The only trouble +with her was that she told too much truth. + +In about an hour and a half the five men returned to the place where +they had left their horses. They had found no trace of George Mason. + +When they reached the clump of trees, there were no horses there! + +They looked at each other with blank faces! + +"He's got our horses!" said Jim Anderson, when his consternation allowed +him to speak. + +"Yes," said Tony, "and sarved us right. We oughter left one man here to +take care uv 'em, knowin' George Mason as we do.' + +"I had an idea," said Dr. Price's son Brinsley, "that we should have +done something of that kind." + +"Idees ain't no good," said Tony with a grunt, as he marched off toward +the blacksmith's shop at Jordan's cross-roads. + +The blacksmith had seen nothing of Mason or the horses, but Tom Riley's +horse was still there; and as the members of the party were all well +known to the blacksmith, he allowed them to take the animal to its +owner. So the five men rode the one horse back to Akeville; not all +riding at once, but one at a time. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HARRY'S GRAND SCHEME. + + +This wholesale appropriation of horses caused, of course, a great +commotion in the vicinity of Akeville, and half the male population +turned out the next day in search of George Mason and the five horses. + +Even Harry was infected with the general excitement, and, mounted on old +Selim, he rode away after dinner (there was no school that afternoon) to +see if he could find any one who had heard anything. There ought to be +news, for the men had been away all the morning. + +About two miles from the village, the road on which Harry was riding +forked, and not knowing that the party which had started off in that +direction had taken the road which ran to the northeast, as being the +direction in which a man would probably go, if he wanted to get away +safely with five stolen horses, Harry kept straight on. + +The road was lonely and uninteresting. On one side was a wood of +"old-field pines"--pines of recent growth and little value, that spring +up on the old abandoned tobacco fields--and on the other a stretch of +underbrush, with here and there a tree of tolerable size, but from which +almost all the valuable timber had been cut. + +Selim was inclined to take things leisurely, and Harry gradually allowed +him to slacken his pace into a walk, and even occasionally to stop and +lower his head to take a bite from some particularly tempting bunch of +grass by the side of the road. + +The fact was, Harry was thinking. He had entirely forgotten the five +horses and everything concerning them, and was deeply cogitating a plan +which, in an exceedingly crude shape, had been in his mind ever since he +had met old Miles on the road to the railroad. + +What he wished to devise was some good plan to prevent the interruption, +so often caused by the rising of Crooked Creek, of communication between +the mica mine, belonging to the New York company, and the station at +Hetertown. + +If he could do this, he thought he could make some money by it; and it +was, as we all know, very necessary for him, or at least for Aunt +Matilda, that he should make money. + +It was of no use to think of a bridge. There were bridges already, and +when the creek was "up" you could scarcely see them. + +A bridge that would be high enough and long enough would be very costly, +and it would be an undertaking with which Harry could not concern +himself, no matter what it might cost. + +A ferry was unadvisable, for the stream was too rapid and dangerous in +time of freshets. + +There was nothing that was really reliable and worthy of being seriously +thought of but a telegraph line. This Harry believed to be feasible. + +He did not think it would cost very much. If this telegraph line only +extended across the creek, not more than half a mile of wire, at the +utmost, would be required. + +Nothing need be expended for poles, as there were tall pine-trees on +each side of the creek that would support the wire; and there were two +cabins, conveniently situated, in which the instruments could be placed. + +Harry had thoroughly considered all these matters, having been down to +the creek several times on purpose to take observations. + +The procuring of the telegraphic instruments, however, and the necessity +of having an operator on the other side, presented difficulties not easy +to surmount. + +But Harry did not despair. + +To be sure the machines would cost money, and so would the wire, +insulators, etc., but then the mica company would surely be willing to +pay a good price to have their messages transmitted at times when +otherwise they would have to send a man twenty miles to a telegraphic +station. + +So if the money could be raised it would pay to do it--at least if the +calculations, with which Harry and Kate had been busy for days, should +prove to be correct. + +About the operator on the other side, Harry scarcely knew what to think. +If it were necessary to hire any one, that would eat terribly into the +profits. + +Something economical must be devised for this part of the plan. + +As to the operator on the Akeville side of the creek, Harry intended to +fill that position himself. He had been interested in telegraphy for a +year or two. He understood the philosophy of the system, and had had the +opportunity afforded him by the operator at Hetertown of learning to +send messages and to read telegraphic hieroglyphics. He could not +understand what words had come over the wires, simply by listening to +the clicking of the instrument--an accomplishment of all expert +telegraphers--but he thought he could do quite well enough if he could +read the marks on the paper slips, and there was no knowing to what +proficiency he might arrive in time. + +Of course he had no money to buy telegraphic apparatus, wire, etc., etc. +But he thought he could get it. "How does any one build railroads or +telegraphic lines?" he had said to Kate. "Do they take the money out of +their own pockets?" + +Kate had answered that she did not suppose they did, unless the money +was there; and Harry had told her, very confidently, that the money was +never there. No man, or, at least, very few men, could afford to +construct a railroad or telegraph line. The way these things were done +was by forming a company. + +And this was just what Harry proposed to do. + +It was, of course, quite difficult to determine just how large a company +this should be. If it were composed of too many members, the profits, +which would be limited, owing to the peculiar circumstances of the case, +would not amount to much for each stockholder. And yet there must be +members enough to furnish money enough. + +And more than that, a contract must be made with the mica-mine people, +so that the business should not be diverted from Harry's company into any +outside channels. + +All these things occupied Harry's mind, and it is no wonder that he +hardly looked up when Selim stopped. The horse had been walking so +slowly that stopping did not seem to make much difference. + +But when he heard a voice call out, "Oh, Mah'sr Harry! I'se mighty glad +to see yer!" he looked up quickly enough. + +And there was old Uncle Braddock, on horseback! + +Harry could scarcely believe his eyes. + +And what was more astonishing, the old negro had no less than four other +horses with him that he was leading, or rather trying to lead, out of a +road through the old-field pines that here joined the main road. + +"Why, what's the meaning of this?" cried Harry. "Where did you get those +horses, Uncle Braddock?" + +And then, without waiting for an answer, Harry burst out laughing. Such +a ridiculous sight was enough to make anybody laugh. + +Uncle Braddock sat on the foremost horse, his legs drawn up as if he +were sitting on a chair, and a low one at that, for he had been +gradually shortening the stirrups for the last hour, hoping in that way +to get a firmer seat. His long stick was in one hand, his old hat was +jammed down tightly over his eyes, and his dressing-gown floated in the +wind like a rag-bag out for a holiday. + +"Oh, I'se mighty glad to see yer, Mah'sr Harry!" said he, pulling at his +horse's bridle in such a way as to make him nearly run into Selim and +Harry, who, however, managed to avoid him and the rest of the cavalcade +by moving off to the other side of the road. + +"I was jist a-thinkin' uv gittin' off and lettin' em go 'long they own +se'ves. I never seed sich hosses fur twistin' up and pullin' crooked. I +'spected to have my neck broke mor' 'n a dozen times. I never was so +disgruntled in all my born days, Mah'sr Harry. Whoa dar, you yaller +hoss! Won't you take a-hole, Mah'sr Harry, afore dey're de death uv me?" + +The old man had certainly got the horses into a mixed-up condition. One +of them was beside the horse he rode, two were behind, and one was +wedged in partly in front of these in such a way that he had to travel +sidewise. The bridle of one horse was tied to that of another, so that +Uncle Braddock led them all by the bridle of the horse by his side. This +was tied to his long cane, which he grasped firmly in his left hand. + +Harry jumped down from Selim, and, tying him to the fence, went over to +the assistance of Uncle Braddock. As he was quite familiar with horses, +Harry soon arranged matters on a more satisfactory footing. He +disentangled the animals, two of which he proposed to take charge of +himself, and then, after making Uncle Braddock lengthen his stirrups, +and lead both his horses on one side of him, he fastened the other two +horses side by side, mounted Selim, and started back for Akeville, +followed by Uncle Braddock and his reduced cavalcade. + +The old negro was profuse in his thanks; but in the middle of his +protestations of satisfaction, Harry suddenly interrupted him. + +"Why, look here, Uncle Braddock! Where did you get these horses? These +are the horses George Mason stole." + +"To be sure they is," said Uncle Braddock. "What would I be a-doin' wid +'em ef they wasn't?" + +"But how did you get them? Tell me about it," said Harry, checking the +impatient Selim, who, now that his head was turned homeward, was anxious +to go on with as much expedition as possible under the circumstances. + +"Why, ye see, Mah'sr Harry," said the old man, "I was up at Miss +Maria's; she said she'd gi' me some pieces of caliker to mend me +wrapper. I put 'em in me pocket, but I 'spects they's blowed out; and +when I was a-comin' away fru de woods, right dar whar ole Elick Potts +used to hab his cabin--reckon you nebber seed dat cabin; it was all +tumbled down 'fore you was born--right dar in de clarin' I seed five +horses, all tied to de trees. 'Lor's a massy!' I said to mesef, 'is de +war come agin?' Fur I nebber seed so many hosses in de woods sence de +war. An' den while I was a-lookin' roun' fur a tree big enough to git +behind, wrapper an' all, out comes Mah'sr George Mason from a bush, an' +he hollers, 'Hello, Uncle Braddock, you come a-here.' An' then he says, +'You ain't much, Uncle Braddock, but I guess you'll do!' An' I says, +'Don't believe I'll do, Mah'sr George, fur you know I can't march, an' I +nebber could shoot none, an' I got de rheumertiz in both me legs and me +back, and no jint-water in me knees--you can't make no soldier out er +me, Mah'sr George.' And then he laughed, an' says, 'You would make a +pretty soldier, dat's true, Uncle Braddock. But I don't want no +soldiers; what I want you to do is to take these horses home.' 'To +where? says I. 'To Akeville,' says Mah'sr George. An' he didn't say much +more, neither; for he jist tied dem horses all together and led 'em out +into a little road dat goes fru de woods dar, an' he put me on de head +horse, an' he says, 'Now, go 'long, Uncle Braddock, an' ef anything +happens to dem hosses you'll have to go to jail fur it. So, look out!' +An' bress your soul, Mah'sr Harry, I did have to look out, fur sich a +drefful time as I did have, 'specially wid dat yaller hoss, I nebber did +see." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE COUNCIL. + + +When Harry's mother heard that he had gone off to try and meet the +horse-hunters she was quite anxious about him. + +But Mr. Loudon laughed at her fears. + +"If there had been the slightest danger," he said, "of course I would +not have allowed him to go. But I was glad he wanted to go. A youngster +of his age ought to have a disposition to see what is going on and to +take part, too, for that matter. I had much rather find it necessary to +restrain Harry than to push him. You mustn't want to make a girl of him. +You would only spoil the boy, and make a very poor girl." + +Mrs. Loudon made no reply. She thought her husband was a very wise man; +but she took up her key basket and went off to the pantry with an air +that indicated that she had ideas of her own upon the subject in +question. + +Kate had no fears for Harry. She had unbounded faith in his good sense +and his bravery, if he should happen to get into danger. + +The fact is, she was quite a brave girl herself; and brave people are +very apt to think their friends as courageous as themselves. + +When Harry and Uncle Braddock reached the village they found several of +the older inhabitants on the store porch, and they met with an +enthusiastic reception. + +And when, later in the afternoon, most of the men who had gone out after +George Mason, returned from their unsuccessful expedition, the +discussion in regard to Mason's strange proceeding grew very animated. +Some thought he had only intended to play a trick; others that he had +been unable to get away with the horses, as he had hoped to do when he +had taken them. + +But nobody knew anything about the matter excepting George Mason +himself, and he was not there to give the village any information. + +As for Harry, he did not stay long to hear the discussions at the store. + +His mind was full of a much more important matter and he ran off to find +Kate. He wanted to talk over his latest impressions with her. + +When he reached the house, where his appearance greatly tranquillized +his mother's mind, he found Kate in the yard under the big +catalpa-trees, always a favorite place of resort in fine weather. + +"Oh, Harry!" she cried, when she saw him, "did they find the horses?" + +"No," said Harry; "they didn't find them." + +"Oh, what a pity! And some of them were borrowed horses. Tony Kirk had +Captain Caseby's mud-colored horse. I don't know what the captain will +do without him." + +"Oh, the captain will do very well," said Harry. + +"But he can't do very well," persisted Kate. "It's the only horse he has +in the world. One thing certain, they can't go to church." + +Harry laughed at this, and then he told his sister all about his meeting +with Uncle Braddock. But while she was wondering and surmising in regard +to George Mason's strange conduct, Harry, who could not keep his +thoughts from more important matters, broke in with: + +"But, I say, Kate, I've made up my mind about the telegraph business. +There must be a company, and we ought to plan it all out before we tell +people and sell shares." + +"That's right," cried Kate, who was always ready for a plan. "Let's do +it now." + +So, down she sat upon the ground, and Harry sat down in front of her. + +Then they held a council. + +"In the first place, we must have a President," said Harry. + +"That ought to be you," said Kate. + +"Yes," said Harry, "I suppose I ought to be President. And then we must +have a Treasurer, and I think you should be Treasurer." + +"Yes," said Kate, "that would do very well. But where could I keep the +money?" + +"Pshaw!" said Harry. "It's no use to bother ourselves about that. We'd +better get the money first, and then see where we can put it. I reckon +it'll be spent before anybody gets a chance to steal it. And now then, +we must have a Secretary." + +"How would Tom Selden do for Secretary?" asked Kate. + +"Oh, he isn't careful enough," answered Harry. "I think you ought to be +Secretary. You can write well, and you'll keep everything in order." + +"Very well," said Kate, "I'll be Secretary." + +"I think," said Harry, "that we have now about all the officers we want, +excepting, of course, an Engineer, and I shall be Engineer; for I have +planned out the whole thing already." + +"I didn't know there was to be an engine," said Kate. + +"Engine!" exclaimed Harry, laughing. "That's a good one! I don't mean an +engineer of a steam-engine. What we want is a Civil Engineer; a man who +lays out railroad lines and all that kind of thing. I'm not right sure +that a Civil Engineer does plan out telegraph lines; but it don't make +any difference what we call the officer. He'll have to attend to putting +up the line." + +"And do you think you can do it?" said Kate, "I should suppose it would +be a good deal harder to be Engineer than to be President." + +"Yes, I suppose it will; but I've studied the matter. I've watched the +men putting up new wires at Hetertown, and Mr. Lyons told me all he knew +about it. It's easy enough. Very different from building a railroad." + +"It must be a good deal safer to build a railroad, though," said Kate. +"You don't have to go so high up in the air." + +"You're a little goose," said Harry, laughing at her again. + +"No, I'm not," said Kate. "I'm Treasurer and Secretary of the--What +shall we call the company, Harry? It ought to have a name." + +"Certainly it ought," said her brother. "How would 'The Mica Mine +Telegraph Company'--No, that wouldn't do at all. It isn't theirs. It's +ours." + +"Call it 'The Loudon Telegraph Company,'" said Kate. + +"That would be nearer the thing, but it wouldn't be very modest, though +people often do call their companies after their own names. What do you +think of 'The Akeville and Hetertown Company'?" + +"But it won't go to either of those places," said Kate. "It will only +cross the creek." + +"All right!" exclaimed Harry. "Let's call it 'The Crooked Creek +Telegraph Company.'" + +"Good!" said Kate. "That's the very name." + +So the company was named. + +"Now," said Kate, "we've got all the head officers and the name; what do +we want next?" + +"We want a good many other things," said Harry. "I suppose we ought to +have a Board of Directors." + +"Shall we be in that?" asked Kate. + +Harry considered this question before answering it. "I think the +President ought to be in it," he said, "but I don't know about the +Secretary and Treasurer. I think they are not generally Directors." + +"Well," said Kate, with a little sigh, "I don't mind." + +"You can be, if you want to," said Harry. "Wait until we get the Board +organized, and I'll talk to the other fellows about it." + +"Are they going to be all boys?" asked Kate, quickly. + +"I reckon so," said Harry. "We don't want any men in our Board. They'd +be ordering us about and doing everything themselves." + +"I didn't mean that. Will there be any girls?" + +"No," said Harry, a little contemptuously, it is to be feared. "There +isn't a girl in the village who knows anything about telegraph lines, +except you." + +"Well, if it's to be all boys, I don't believe I would care to belong to +the Board," said Kate. "But who are we going to have?" + +This selection of the members of the Board of Directors seemed a little +difficult at first, but as there were so few boys to choose from it was +settled in quite a short time. + +Tom Selden, Harvey Davis, George Purvis, Dr. Price's youngest son, +Brandeth, and Wilson Ogden, were chosen, and these, with the addition of +Harry, made up the Board of Directors of the Crooked Creek Telegraph +Company. + +"Well," said Kate, as the council arose and adjourned, "I hope we'll +settle the rest of our business as easily as we have settled this part." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +COMPANY BUSINESS. + + +After the selection of the Directors, all of whom accepted their +appointments with great readiness, although, with the exception of Tom +Selden, none of them had known anything about the company until informed +by Harry of their connection with its management, it remained only to +get subscriptions to the capital stock, and then the construction of the +line might immediately begin. + +Harry and Kate made out a statement of the probable expense, and a very +good statement it was, for, as Harry had said, he had thoroughly studied +up the matter, aided by the counsel of Mr. Lyons, the operator at +Hetertown. + +This statement, with the probable profits and the great advantages of +such a line, was written out by Harry, and the Secretary, considering +all clerical work to be her especial business, made six fair copies, one +of which was delivered to each of the Board of Directors, who undertook +to solicit subscriptions. + +A brief constitution was drawn up, and by a clause in this instrument, +one-quarter of the profits were to go to the stockholders and the rest +to Aunt Matilda. + +The mica-mine men, when visited by Harry, who carried a letter from his +father, at first gave the subject but little consideration, but after +they found how earnest Harry was in regard to the matter and how, +thoroughly he had studied up the subject, theoretically and practically, +under the tuition of his friend, Mr. Lyons, they began to think that +possibly the scheme might prove of advantage to them. + +After a good deal of talk--enough to have settled much more important +business--they agreed to take stock in the telegraph company, provided +Harry and his Board purchased first-class instruments and appliances. + +Their idea in insisting upon this was the suggestion of their manager, +that if the boys failed in their project they might get possession of +the line and work it themselves. Consequently, with a view both to the +present success of the association and their own possible acquisition of +the line, they insisted on first-class instruments. + +This determination discouraged Harry and his friends, for they had not +calculated upon making the comparatively large expenditures necessary to +procure these first-class instruments. + +They had thought to buy some cheap but effective apparatus of which they +had heard, and which, for amateur purposes, answered very well. + +But when the mica-mine officers agreed to contribute a sum in proportion +to the increased capital demanded, Harry became quite hopeful, and the +other members of the Board agreed that they had better work harder and +do the thing right while they were about it. + +The capital of the company was fixed at one hundred and fifty dollars, +and to this the mica-mine people agreed to subscribe fifty dollars. They +also gave a written promise to give all the business of that kind that +they might have for a year from date, to Harry and his associates, +provided that the telegraphic service should always be performed +promptly and to their satisfaction. + +A contract, fixing rates, etc., was drawn up, and Harry, the Directors, +the Secretary, and the Treasurer, all and severally signed it. This was +not actually necessary, but these officers, quite naturally, were +desirous of doing all the signing that came in their way. + +Private subscriptions came in more slowly. Mr. Loudon gave fifteen +dollars, and Dr. Price contributed ten, as his son was a Director. Old +Mr. Truly Matthews subscribed five dollars, and hoped that he should see +his money back again; but if he didn't, he supposed it would help to +keep the boys out of mischief. Small sums were contributed by other +persons in the village and neighborhood, each of whom was furnished with +a certificate of stock proportioned to the amount of the investment. + +There were fifty shares issued, of three dollars each; and Miss Jane +Davis, who subscribed one dollar and a quarter, got five-twelfths of a +share. The members of the Board, collectively, put in thirty dollars. + +The majority of the shareholders considered their money as a donation to +a good cause, for of course, it was known that Aunt Matilda's support +was the object of the whole business; but some hoped to make something +out of it, and others contributed out of curiosity to see what sort of a +telegraph the company would build, and how it would work. + +It was urged by some wise people that if this money had been contributed +directly to Aunt Matilda, it would have been of much more service to +her; but other people, equally wise, said that in that case, the money +could never have been raised. + +The colored people, old and young, took a great interest in the matter, +and some of them took parts of shares, which was better. Even John +William Webster took seventy-five cents worth of stock. + +The most astonishing subscription was one from Aunt Matilda herself. One +day she handed to Kate a ten-cent piece--silver, old style--and +desired that that might be put into the company for her. Where she got +it, nobody knew, but she had it, and she put it in. + +Explanations were of no use. The fact of the whole business being for +her benefit made no impression on her. She wanted a share in the +company, and was proud of her one-thirtieth part of a share. + +A Shareholder + +Taking them as a whole, the Board of Directors appeared to have been +very well chosen. Tom Selden was a good fellow and a firm friend of +Harry and Kate. They might always reckon upon his support, although he +had the fault, when matters seemed a little undecided, of giving his +advice at great length. But when a thing was agreed upon he went to work +without a word. + +Harvey Davis was a large, blue-eyed boy, very quiet, with yellow hair. +He was one of the best scholars in the Akeville school, and could throw +a stone over the highest oak-tree by the church--something no other boy +in the village could do. He made an admirable Director. + +Dr. Price's son, Brandeth, and Wilson Ogden, lived some miles from the +village, and sometimes one or the other of them did not get to a meeting +of the Board until the business before it had been despatched. But they +always attended punctually if there was a horse or a mule to be had in +time, and made no trouble when they came. + +George Purvis lived just outside of the village. He was a tall fellow +with a little head. His father had been in the Legislature, and George +was a great fellow to talk, and he was full of new ideas. If Harry and +Kate had not worked out so thoroughly the plan of the company before +electing the Directors, George would have given the rest of the Board a +great deal of trouble. + +When about four-fifths of the capital stock had been subscribed, and +there was not much likelihood of their getting any more at present, the +Board of Directors determined to go to work. + +Acting under the advice and counsel of Mr. Lyons (who ought to have been +a Director, but who was not offered the position), they sent to New York +for two sets of telegraphic instruments--registers, keys, batteries, +reels, etc., etc.--one set for each office, and for about half a mile +of wire, with the necessary office-wire, insulators, etc. + +This took pretty much all their capital, but they hoped to economize a +good deal in the construction of the line, and felt quite hopeful. + +But it seemed to be a long and dreary time that they had to wait for the +arrival of their purchases from New York. Either Harry or one of the +other boys rode over to Hetertown every day, and the attention they paid +to the operation of telegraphy, while waiting for the train, was +something wonderful. + +It was a fortunate thing for the Board that, on account of the sickness +of the teacher, the vacation commenced earlier than usual in Akeville +that year. + +More than a week passed, and no word from New York. No wonder the boys +became impatient. It had been a month, or more, since the scheme had +been first broached in the village, and nothing had yet been done--at +least, nothing to which the boys could point as evidence of progress. + +The field of operation had been thoroughly explored. The pine trees +which were to serve as telegraph poles had been selected, and contracts +had been made with "One-eyed Lewston," a colored preacher, who lived +near the creek on the Akeville side, and with Aunt Judy, who had a log +house on the Hetertown side, by which these edifices were to be used as +telegraphic stations. The instruments and batteries, when not in use, +were to be locked up in stationary cases, made by the Akeville +carpenter, after designs by Harry. + +Of course, while waiting for the arrival of their goods from New York, +the Board met every day. Having little real business, their discussions +were not always harmonious. + +George Purvis grew discontented. Several times he said to Brandeth Price +and Harvey Ogden that he didn't see why he shouldn't be something more +than a mere Director, and a remark that Harvey once made, that if Harry +and Kate had not chosen to ask him to join them he would not have been +even a Director, made no impression upon him. + +One day, when a meeting was in session by the roadside, near "One-eyed +Lewston's" cabin--or the Akeville telegraph station, as I should +say--George and Harry had a slight dispute, and Purvis took occasion to +give vent to some of his dissatisfaction. + +"I don't see what you're President for, anyway," said he to Harry. +"After the Board of Directors had been organized it ought to have +elected all the officers." + +"But none of you fellows knew anything about the business," said Harry. +"Kate and I got up the company, and we needn't have had a Board of +Directors at all, if we hadn't wanted to. If any of you boys had known +anything about telegraphs we would have given you an office." + +"I reckon you don't have to know anything about telegraphs to be +Secretary, or Treasurer either," said George, warmly. + +"No," answered Harry, "but you've got to know how to keep accounts and +to be careful and particular." + +"Like your sister Kate, I suppose," said George, with a sneer. + +"Yes, like Kate," answered Harry. + +"I'd be ashamed of myself," said George, "if I couldn't get a better +Secretary or Treasurer than a girl. I don't see what a girl is doing in +the company, anyway. The right kind of a girl wouldn't be seen pushing +herself in among a lot of boys that don't want her." + +Without another word, the President of the Crooked Creek Telegraph +Company arose and offered battle to George Purvis. The contest was a +severe one, for Purvis was a tall fellow, but Harry was as tough as the +sole of your boot, and he finally laid his antagonist on the flat of his +back in the road. + +George arose, put on his hat, dusted off his clothes, and resigned his +position in the Board. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +PRINCIPALLY CONCERNING KATE. + + +During all this work of soliciting subscriptions, ordering instruments +and batteries, and leasing stations, Kate had kept pretty much in the +background. True, she had not been idle. She had covered a great deal of +paper with calculations, and had issued certificates of stock, all in +her own plain handwriting, to those persons who had put money into the +treasury of the company. And she had received all that money, had kept +accurate account of it, and had locked it up in a little box which was +kindly kept for her in the iron safe owned by Mr. Darby, the +storekeeper. + +When the money was all drawn out and sent to New York, her duties became +easier. + +School had closed, as has been before stated, and although Kate had home +duties and some home studies, she had plenty of time for outdoor life. +But now she almost always had to enjoy that life alone, if we except the +company of Rob, who generally kept faithfully near her so long as she +saw fit to walk, but when she stopped to rest or to pursue some of her +botanical or entomological studies he was very apt to wander off on his +own account. He liked to keep moving. + +One of her favorite resorts was what was called the "Near Woods," a +piece of forest land not far from Mr. Loudon's house, and within calling +distance of several dwellings and negro cabins. She visited Aunt Matilda +nearly every day; but the woods around her cabin were principally pine, +and pine forests are generally very sombre. + +But the "Near Woods" were principally of oak and hickory, with dogwood, +sweet gum, and other smaller trees here and there; and there were open +spots where the sun shone in and where flowers grew and the insects +loved to come, as well as heavily shaded places under grand old trees. + +She thoroughly enjoyed herself in a wood like this. She did not feel in +the least lonely, although she would have found herself sadly alone in a +busy street of a great city. + +Here, she was acquainted with everything she saw. There was company for +her on every side. She had not been in the habit of passing the trees +and the bushes, the lichens and ferns, and the flowers and mosses as if +they were merely people hurrying up and down the street. She had stopped +and made their acquaintance, and now she knew them all, and they were +her good friends, excepting a few, such as the poison-vines, and here +and there a plant or reptile, with which she was never on terms of +intimacy. + +She would often sit and swing on a low-bending grape-vine, that hung +between two lofty trees, sometimes singing, and sometimes listening to +the insects that hummed around her, and all the while as happy a Kate as +any Kate in the world. + +It was here, on the grape-vine swing, that Harry found her, the day +after his little affair with George Purvis. + +"Why, Harry!" she cried, "I thought you were having a meeting. + +"There's nothing to meet about," said Harry, seating himself on a big +moss-covered root near Kate's swing. + +"There will be when the telegraph things come," said Kate. + +"Oh, yes, there'll be enough to do then, but it seems as if they were +never coming. And I've been thinking about something, Kate. It strikes +me that, perhaps, it would be better for you to hold only one office." + +"Why? Don't I do well enough?" asked Kate, quickly, stopping herself +very suddenly in her swinging. + +"Oh, yes! you do better than any one else could. But, you see, the other +fellows--I mean the Board--may think that some of them ought to have +an office. I'd give them one of mine, but none of them would do for +Engineer. They don't know enough about the business." + +"Which office would you give up, if you were me?" asked Kate. + +"Oh, I'd give up the Secretaryship, of course," said Harry. "Nobody but +you must be Treasurer. Harvey Davis would make a very good Secretary, +considering that there's so little writing to do now." + +"Well, then," said Kate, "let Harvey be Secretary." + +There was no bitterness or reproachfulness in Kate's words, but she +looked a little serious, and began to swing herself very vigorously. It +was evident that she felt this resignation of her favorite office much +more deeply than she chose to express. And no wonder. She had done all +the work; she had taken a pride in doing her work well, and now, when +the company was about to enter upon its actual public life, she was to +retire into the background. For a Treasurer had not much to do, +especially now that there was so little money. There was scarcely a +paper for the Treasurer to sign. But the Secretary--Well, there was no +use of thinking any more about it. No doubt Harry knew what was best. He +was with the Board every day, and she scarcely ever met the members. + +Harry saw that Kate was troubled, but he did not know what to say, and +so he whittled at the root on which he was sitting. + +"I should think, Harry," said Kate directly, "that George Purvis would +want to be Secretary. He's just the kind of a boy to like to be an +officer of some kind." + +"Oh, he can't be an officer," said Harry, still whittling at the root. +"He has resigned." + +"George Purvis resigned!" exclaimed Kate. "Why, what did he do that +for?" + +"Oh, we didn't agree," said Harry; "and we're better off without him. We +have Directors enough as it is. Five is a very good number. There can't +be a tie vote with five members in the Board." + +Kate suspected that something had happened that she was not to be told. +But she asked no questions. + +After a few minutes of swinging and whittling, in which neither of them +said anything, Kate got out of her grape-vine swing and picked up her +hat from the ground, and Harry jumped up and whistled for Rob. + +As they walked home together, Kate said: + +"Harry, I think I'd better resign as Treasurer. Perhaps the officers +ought all to be boys." + +"Look here, Kate," said Harry; and he stopped as he spoke, "I'm not +going to have anybody else as Treasurer. If you resign that office I'll +smash the company!" + +Of course, after that there was nothing more to be said, and Kate +remained Treasurer of the Crooked Creek Telegraph Company. + +Before very long, of course, she heard the particulars of George +Purvis's resignation. She did not say much about it, but she was very +glad that it was not Harry who had been whipped. + +The next morning, quite early--the birds and the negroes had been up +some time, but everybody in Mr. Loudon's house was still sleeping +soundly--Harry, who had a small room at the front of the house, was +awakened by the noise of a horse galloping wildly up to the front gate, +and by hearing his name shouted out at the top of a boy's voice. + +The boy was Tom Selden, and he shouted: + +"Oh, Harry! Harry Loudon! Hello, there! The telegraph things have come!" + +Harry gave one bound. He jerked on his clothes quicker than you could +say the multiplication table, and he rushed down stairs and into the +front yard. + +It was actually so! The instruments and batteries and everything, all +packed up in boxes--Tom couldn't say how many boxes--had come by a +late train, and Mr. Lyons had sent word over to his house last night, +and he had been over there this morning by daybreak and had seen one of +the boxes, and it was directed, all right, to the Crooked Creek +Telegraph Company, and-- + +There was a good deal more intelligence, it appeared, but it wasn't easy +to make it out, for Harry was asking fifty questions, and Kate was +calling out from one of the windows, and Dick Ford and half-a-dozen +other negro boys were running up and shouting to each other that the +things had come. Mr. Loudon came out to see what all the excitement was +about, and he had to be told everything by Tom and Harry, both at once; +and Rob and Blinks were barking, and there was hubbub enough. + +Harry shouted to one of the boys to saddle Selim, and when the horse was +brought around in an incredibly short time--four negroes having clapped +on his saddle and bridle--Harry ran into the house to get his hat; but +just as he had bounced out again, his mother appeared at the front door. + +"Harry!" she cried, "you're not going off without your breakfast!" + +"Oh, I don't want any breakfast, mother," he shouted. + +"But you cannot go without your breakfast. You'll be sick." + +"But just think!" expostulated Harry. "The things have been there all +night." + +"It makes no difference," said Mrs. Loudon. "You must have your +breakfast first." + +Mr. Loudon now put in a word, and Selim was led back to the stable. + +"Well, I suppose I must," said poor Harry, with an air of resignation. +"Come in, Tom, and have something to eat." + +The news spread rapidly. Harvey Davis was soon on hand, and by the time +breakfast was over, nearly every body in the village knew that the +telegraph things had come. + +Harry and Tom did not get off as soon as they expected, for Mr. Loudon +advised them to take the spring-wagon--for they would need it to haul +their apparatus to the telegraphic stations--and the horse had to be +harnessed, and the cases which were to protect the instruments, when not +in use, were to be brought from the carpenter-shop, and so it seemed +very late before they started. + +Just as they were ready to go, up galloped Brandeth Price and Wilson +Ogden. So away they all went together, two of the Board in the wagon and +three on horseback. + +Kate stood at the front gate looking after them. Do what she would, she +could not help a tear or two rising to her eyes. Mr. Loudon noticed her +standing there, and he went down to her. + +"Never mind Kate," said he. "I told them not to unpack the things until +they had hauled them to the creek; and I'll take you over to Aunt Judy's +in the buggy. We'll get there by the time the boys arrive." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE ARRIVAL. + + +When Kate and her father reached Aunt Judy's cabin, the boys had not yet +arrived, but they were anxiously expected by about a dozen colored +people of various ages and sizes, and by two or three white men, who +were sitting under the trees waiting to see the "telegraph come." + +Telegraph apparatus and wires were not at all novel in that part of the +country, but this was to be the first time that anything of the kind had +been set up in that neighborhood, in those familiar old woods about +Crooked Creek. + +And then it must be remembered, too, that most of these interested +people were "stockholders." That was something entirely novel, and it is +no wonder that they were anxious to see their property. + +"I hopes, Mah'sr John," said Aunt Judy to Mr. Loudon, "dat dem dar +merchines ain't a-goin' to bust up when dey're lef' h'yar all alone by +theyselves." + +"Oh, there's no danger, Aunt Judy," said Mr. Loudon, "if you don't +meddle with them. But I suppose you can't do that, if the boys are going +to case them up, as they told me they intended doing." + +"Why, bress your soul, Mah'sr John, ye needn't be 'fraid o' my techin' +'em off. I wouldn't no more put a finger on 'em dan I'd pull de trigger +ov a hoss pistol." + +"There isn't really any danger in having these instruments in the house, +is there, father?" asked Kate, when she and Mr. Loudon had stepped out +of the cabin where Aunt Judy was busy sweeping and "putting things to +rights" in honor of the expected arrival. + +"That depends upon circumstances," said Mr. Loudon. "If the boys are +careful to disconnect the instruments and the wires when they leave the +cabins, there is no more danger than there would be in a brass clock. +But if they leave the wires attached to the instruments, lightning might +be attracted into the cabins during a thunder-storm, and Aunt Judy might +find the 'merchines' quite as dangerous as a horse-pistol." + +"But they mustn't leave the wires that way," said Kate. "I sha'n't let +Harry forget it. Why, it would be awful to have Aunt Judy and poor old +Lewston banged out of their beds in the middle of the night." + +"I should think so," said Mr. Loudon; "but the boys--I am sure about +Harry--understand their business, to that extent, at least. I don't +apprehend any accidents of that kind." + +Kate was just about to ask her father if he feared accidents of any +kind, when a shout was heard from the negroes by the roadside. + +"Dar dey come!" sang out half-a-dozen voices, and, sure enough, there +was the wagon slowly turning an angle of the road, with the mounted +members of the Board riding close by its side. + +All now was bustle and eagerness. Everybody wanted to do something, and +everybody wanted to see. The wagon was driven up as close to the cabin +as the trees would allow; the boys jumped down from their seats and +saddles the horses' bridles were fastened to branches overhead; white, +black, and yellow folks clustered around the wagon; and some twenty +hands were proffered to aid in carrying the load into the cabin. + +Harry was the grand director of affairs. He had a good, loud voice, and +it served him well on this important occasion. + +"Look out, there!" he cried. "Don't any of you touch a box or anything, +till I tell you what to do. They're not all to go into Aunt Judy's +cabin. Some things are to go across the creek to Lewston's house. Here, +John William and Gregory, take this table and carry it in carefully; and +you, Dick, take that chair. Don't be in a hurry. We're not going to open +the boxes out here." + +"Why, Harry," cried Kate, "I didn't know there were to be tables and +chairs." + +"To tell the truth, I didn't think of it either," said Harry; "but we +must have something to put our instruments on, and something to sit on +while we work them. Mr. Lyons reminded us that we'd have to have them, +and we got these in Hetertown. Had to go to three places to get them +all, and one's borrowed, anyway. Look out there, you, Bobby! you can't +carry a chair. Get down off that wheel before you break your neck. + +"Lor' bress your heart, Mah'sr Harry, is ye got a bed? I never did +'spect ye was a-goin' to bring furniture," cried Aunt Judy, her eyes +rolling up and down in astonishment and delight. "Dat's a pooty cheer. +Won't hurt a body to sot in dat cheer when you all ain't a-usin' it, +will it?" + +"Blow you right through the roof, if you set on the trigger," said Tom +Selden; "so mind you're careful, Aunt Judy." + +"Now, then," cried Harry, "carry in this box. Easy, now. We'll take all +the wire over on the other side. You see, Tom, that they leave the wire +in the wagon. Do you know, father, that we forgot to bring a hammer or +anything to open these boxes?" + +"There's a hammer under the seat of the buggy. One of you boys run and +get it." + +At the word, two negro boys rushed for the buggy and the hammer. + +"A screw-driver would do better," said Harvey Davis. + +"One-eyed Lewston's got a screw-driver," said one of the men. + +"Dar Lewston!" cried John William Webster. "Dar he! Jist comin' ober de +bridge." + +"Shet up!" cried Aunt Judy. "Don't 'spect he got him screw-driber in him +breeches pocket, does ye? Why don' ye go 'long and git it?" + +And away went John William and two other boys for the screw-driver. + +In spite of so many cooks, the broth was not spoiled; and after a +reasonable time the beautifully polished instruments were displayed to +view on the table in Aunt Judy's cabin. + +Everybody looked with all their eyes. Even Mr. Loudon, who had often +examined telegraphic apparatus, took a great interest in this, and the +negroes thought there was never anything so wonderful. Especially were +those delighted who owned stock. + +"Some o' dat dar's mine," said a shiny-faced black boy. "Wonder ef dat +little door-knob's my sheer." + +"You go 'long, dar," said Dick Ford, giving him a punch in the ribs with +his elbow. "Dat little shiny screw's 'bout as much as you own." + +As for the members of the Board, they were radiant. There was the +telegraphic apparatus (or a part of it) of the Crooked Creek Telegraph +Company, and here were the officers! + +Each one of them, except Brandeth Price, explained some portion of the +instruments to some of the bystanders. + +As for Brandeth, he had not an idea what was to be done with anything. +But he had a vote in the Board. He never forgot that. + +"Can't ye work it a little, Mah'sr Harry!" asked Gregory Montague. + +"Dat's so!" cried a dozen voices. "Jist let's see her run a little, +Mah'sr Harry, please!" Even Kate wanted to see how the things worked. + +Harry explained that he couldn't "run it" until he had arranged the +battery and had made a great many preparations, and he greatly +disappointed the assembly by informing them that all that was to be done +that day was to put the instruments in their respective houses (or +stations, as the boys now began to call the cabins), and to put up the +cases which were to protect them when not in use. These cases were like +small closets, with movable tops, and there was great fear that they +would not fit over the tables that had been brought from Hetertown. + +On the next day, Mr. Lyons had promised to come over and show them how +to begin the work. + +"There'll be plenty for you fellows to do," said Harry, "when we put up +the wires." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +CONSTRUCTING THE LINE. + + +The next day was a day of hard work for the Board of Managers. Mr. +Lyons, who took the greatest interest in the enterprise, got another +operator to take his place at the Hetertown station, and came over to +help the boys. + +Under his direction, and with his help, they arranged the instruments +and the batteries, sunk the ground-wires, and, in a general way, put the +office-apparatus in working order. When night came, there were still +some things that remained to be done in the two stations, but the main +part of the office arrangements had been satisfactorily concluded, under +Mr. Lyons's supervision. + +Now, it only remained to put up the wire; and this was a piece of work +that interested the whole neighborhood. There had been lookers-on enough +while the instruments were being put in working order, but the general +mind did not comprehend the mechanism and uses of registers and keys and +batteries. + +Any one, however, could understand how a telegraphic wire was put up. +And what was more, quite a number of persons thought they knew exactly +how it ought to be put up, and made no scruple of saying so. + +Tony Kirk was on hand--as it was not turkey season--and he made +himself quite useful. Having had some experience in working under +surveyors, he gave the boys a good deal of valuable advice, and, what +was of quite as much service, he proved very efficient in quieting the +zeal of some ambitious, but undesirable, volunteer assistants. + +Certain straight pine-trees, at suitable distances from each other, and, +as nearly as possible, on a right line between the two cabins, were +selected as poles, and their tops were cut off about twenty-five feet +from the ground. All trees and branches that would be apt to interfere +with the wires were cut down, out of the way. + +At one time--for this matter of putting up the wire occupied several +days--there were ten or twelve negro men engaged in cutting down trees, +and in topping and trimming telegraph poles. + +Each one of these men received forty cents per day from the company, and +found themselves. It is probable that if the Board had chosen to pay but +twenty cents, there would have been quite as many laborers, for this was +novel and very interesting work, and several farm-hands threw up their +situations for a day or two and came over to "cut fur de telegraph." + +When the poles were all ready on each side of the creek, the insulators, +or glass knobs, to which the wires were to be attached, were to be +fastened to them, a foot or two from the top. + +This was to be done under Harry's direction, who had studied up the +theory of the operation from his books and under Mr. Lyons. + +But the actual work proved very difficult. The first few insulators +Harry put up himself. He was a good climber, but not being provided with +the peculiar "climbers" used by the men who put up telegraph wires, he +found it very hard to stay up at the top of a pole after he had got +there, especially as he needed both hands to nail to the tree the wooden +block to which the insulator was attached. + +In fact, he made a bad business of it, and the insulators he put up in +this way looked "shackling poorly," to say nothing of his trowsers, +which suffered considerably every time he slipped part way down a pole. + +But here Tony Kirk again proved himself a friend in need. He got a +wagon, and drove four miles to a farm-house, where there was a long, +light ladder. This he borrowed, and brought over to the scene of +operation. + +This ladder was not quite long enough to reach to the height at which +Harry had fastened his insulators, but it was generally agreed that +there was no real necessity for putting them up so high. + +The ladder was arranged by Tony in a very ingenious way. He laid it on +the ground, with the top at the root of the tree to be climbed. Then he +fastened a piece of telegraph wire to one side of the ladder, passed it +loosely around the tree, and fastened it to the other side. Then, as the +ladder was gradually raised, the wire slipped along up the tree, and +when the ladder was in position it could not fall, although it might +shake and totter a little. However, strong arms at the bottom held it +pretty steady, and Harry was enabled to nail on his insulators with +comparative ease, and in a very satisfactory manner. + +After a while, Tony took his place, and being a fellow whom it was +almost impossible to tire, he finished the whole business without +assistance. + +It may be remarked that when Tony mounted the ladder, he dispensed with +the wire safeguard, depending upon the carefulness of the two negro men +who held the ladder from below. + +The next thing was to put up the wire itself, and this was done in +rather a bungling manner, if this wire were compared with that of +ordinary telegraph lines. + +It was found quite impossible to stretch the wire tightly between the +poles, as the necessary appliances were wanting. + +Various methods of tightening were tried, but none were very successful; +and the wire hung in curves, some greater and some less, between the +poles. + +But what did it matter? There was plenty of wire, and the wind had not +much chance to blow it about, as it was protected by the neighboring +treetops. + +There was no trouble in carrying the wire over the creek, as the bridge +was very near, and as trees close to each bank had been chosen for +poles, and as the creek was not very wide, the wire approached nearer to +a straight line where it passed over the water than it did anywhere +else. + +At last all was finished. The "main line" wire was attached to the +copper office-wire. The batteries were charged, the register was +arranged with its paper strip, and everything was ready for the +transmission of messages across Crooked Creek. + +At least, the Board hoped that everything was ready. It could not be +certain until a trial was made. + +The trial was made, and everybody in the neighborhood, who could get +away from home came to see it made. + +Harry was at the instrument on the Akeville side, and Mr. Lyons (the +second operator of the company had not been appointed) attended to the +other end of the line, taking his seat at the table in Aunt Judy's +cabin, where Mr. and Mrs. Loudon, Kate, and as many other persons as the +room would hold, were congregated. + +As President of the company, Harry claimed the privilege of sending the +first message. + +Surrounded by the Board, and a houseful of people besides, he took his +seat at the instrument, and after looking about him to see if everything +was in proper order, he touched the key to "call" the operator at the +other end. + +But no answer came. Something was wrong. Harry tried again, but still no +answer. He jumped up and examined the instrument and the battery. + +Everybody had something to say, and some advice to give. + +Even old "One-eyed Lewston" pushed his way up to Harry, and exclaimed: + +"Oh, Mah'sr Harry! Ef you want to grease her, I got some hog's-lard up +dar on dat shelf." + +But Harry soon thought he found where the fault lay, and, adjusting a +screw or two, he tried the key again. This time his call was answered. + +"Click! click! click! click!" went the instrument. + +Wild with excitement, everybody crowded closer to Harry, who, with +somewhat nervous fingers, slowly sent over the line of the Crooked Creek +Telegraph Company its first message. + +When received on the other side, and translated from the dots and dashes +of the register, it read thus: + + To Kate.--Ho-ow are you? + +Directly the answer came swiftly from the practised fingers of Mr. +Lyons: + + To Harry.--I am very well. + +This message had no sooner been received and announced than Harry, +followed by every one else, rushed out of the house, and there, on the +other side of the creek, he saw his father and mother and Kate and all +the rest hurrying out of Aunt Judy's cabin. + +Mr. Loudon waved his hat and shouted; "Hurrah!" + +Harry and the Board answered with a wild "Hurrah!" + +Then everybody took it up, and the woods rang with, "Hurrah! hurrah! +hurrah!" + +The Crooked Creek Telegraph Line was a success. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +AN IMPORTANT MEETING OF THE BOARD. + + +Now that the telegraphic line was built, and in good working order, it +became immediately necessary to appoint another operator, for it was +quite evident that Harry could not work both ends of the line. + +It was easy enough to appoint an operator, but not so easy for such +person to work the instruments. In fact, Harry was the only individual +in the company or the neighborhood who understood the duties of a +telegrapher, and his opportunities for practice had been exceedingly +limited. + +It was determined to educate an operator, and Harvey Davis was chosen as +the most suitable individual for the position. So, day after day was +spent by Harry and Harvey, the one in the cabin of "One-eyed Lewston," +and the other in that of Aunt Judy, in steady, though often +unsatisfactory, practice in the transmission and reading of telegraphic +messages. + +Of course, great interest was taken in their progress, and some members +of the Board were generally present at one or the other of the stations. +Kate often came over to Aunt Judy's cabin, and almost always there were +other persons present, each of whom, whenever there was a chance, was +eager to send a telegraphic message gratis, even if it were only across +Crooked Creek. + +Sometimes neither Harry nor Harvey could make out what the other one was +trying to say, and then they would run out of the station and go down to +the bank of the creek and shout across for explanations. A great many +more intelligible messages were sent in this way, for the first few +days, than were transmitted over the wire. + +Tony Kirk remarked, after a performance of this kind, "It 'pears to me +that it wasn't no use to put up that ar wire, fur two fellows could a +been app'inted, one to stand on each side o' the creek, and holler the +messages across." + +But, of course, such a proceeding would have been extremely irregular. +Tony was not accustomed to the strict requirements of business. + +Sometimes the messages were extremely complicated. For instance, Harry, +one day about noon, carefully telegraphed the following: + + I would not go home. Perhaps you can get something to eat from Aunt + Judy. + +As Harvey translated this, it read: + + I would gph go rapd gradsvlt bodgghip rda goqbsjcm eat dkpx Aunt + Judy. + +In answer to this, Harvey attempted to send the following message: + + What do you mean by eating Aunt Judy? + +But Harry read: + + Whatt a xdll mean rummmlgigdd Ju! + +Harry thought, of course, that this seemed like a reflection on his +motives in proposing that Harvey could ask Aunt Judy to give him +something to eat, and so, of course, there had to be explanations. + +After a time, however the operators became much more expert, and +although Harvey was always a little slow, he was very careful and very +patient--most excellent qualities in an operator upon such a line. + +The great desire now, not only among the officers of the company, but +with many other folks in Akeville and the neighborhood, was to see the +creek "up," so that travel across it might be suspended, and the +telegraphic business commence. + +To be sure, there might be other interests with which a rise in the +creek would interfere, but they, of course, were considered of small +importance, compared with the success of an enterprise like this. + +But the season was very dry, and the creek very low. There were places +where a circus-man could have jumped across it with all his pockets full +of telegraphic messages. + +In the mean time, the affairs of the company did not look very +flourishing. The men who assisted in the construction of the line had +not been paid in full, and they wanted their money. Kate reported that +the small sum which had been appropriated out of the capital stock for +the temporary support of Aunt Matilda was all gone. This report she made +in her capacity as a special committee of one, appointed (by herself) to +attend to the wants of Aunt Matilda. As the Treasurer of the company, +she also reported that there was not a cent in its coffers. + +In this emergency, Harry called a meeting of the Board. + +It met, as this was an important occasion, in Davis's corn-house, +fortunately now empty. This was a cool, shady edifice, and, though +rather small, was very well ventilated. The meetings had generally been +held under some big tree, or in various convenient spots in the woods +near the creek, but nothing of that kind would be proper for such a +meeting as this, especially as Kate, as Treasurer, was to be present. +This was her first appearance at a meeting of the Board. The boys sat on +the corn-house floor, which had been nicely swept out by John William +Webster, and Kate had a chair on the grass, just outside of the door. +There she could hear and see with great comfort without "settin' on the +floor with a passel of boys," as Miss Eliza Davis, who furnished the +chair, elegantly expressed it. + +When the meeting had been called to order (and John William, who evinced +a desire to hang around and find out what was going on, had been +discharged from further attendance on the Board, or, in other words, had +been ordered to "clear out"), and the minutes of the last meeting had +been read, and the Treasurer had read her written report, and the +Secretary had read his, an air of despondency seemed to settle upon the +assembly. + +An empty corn-house seemed, as Tom Selden remarked, a very excellent +place for them to meet. + +The financial condition of the company was about as follows: + +It owed "One-eyed Lewston" and Aunt Judy one dollar each for one month's +rent of their homesteads as stations, the arrangement having been made +about the time the instruments were ordered. + +It owed four dollars and twenty cents to the wood-cutters who worked on +the construction of the line, and two dollars and a half for other +assistance at that time. + +("Wish we had done it all ourselves," said Wilson Ogden.) + +It owed three dollars, balance on furniture procured at Hetertown. (It +also owed one chair, borrowed.) + +It owed, for spikes and some other hardware procured at the store, one +dollar and sixty cents. + +In addition to this, it owed John William Webster, who had been employed +as a sort of general agent to run errands and clean up things, +seventy-five cents--balance of salary--and he wanted his money. + +To meet these demands, as was before remarked, they had nothing. + +Fortunately nothing was owing for Aunt Matilda's support, Harry and Kate +having from the first determined never to run in debt on her account. + +But, unfortunately, poor Aunt Matilda's affairs were never in so bad a +condition. The great interest which Kate and Harry had taken in the +telegraph line had prevented them from paying much attention to their +ordinary methods of making money, and now that the company's +appropriation was spent, there seemed to be no immediate method of +getting any money for the old woman's present needs. + +This matter was not strictly the business of the Board, but they +nevertheless considered it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A LAST RESORT. + + +The Board was fully agreed that something must be done to relieve Aunt +Matilda's present necessities, but what to do did not seem very clear. + +Wilson Ogden proposed issuing some kind of scrip or bonds, redeemable in +six or seven months, when the company should be on a paying basis. + +"I believe," said he, "that Mr. Darby would take these bonds at the +store for groceries and things, and we might pay him interest, besides +redeeming the bonds when they came due." + +This was rather a startling proposition. No one had suspected Wilson of +having such a financial mind. + +"I don't know," said Harry, "how that would work. Mr. Darby might not be +willing to take the bonds; and besides that, it seems to me that the +company ought not to make any more promises to pay when it owes so much +already." + +"But you see that would be different," said Wilson. "What we owe now we +ought to pay right away. The bonds would not have to be paid for ever so +long." + +"That may be pretty sharp reasoning," remarked Tom Selden, "but I can't +see into it." + +"It would be all the same as running in debt for Aunt Matilda, wouldn't +it?" asked Kate. + +"Yes," said Wilson, "a kind of running in debt, but not exactly the +common way. You see--" + +"But if it's any kind at all, I'm against it," said Kate, quickly. +"We're not going to support Aunt Matilda that way." + +This settled the matter. To be sure, Kate had no vote in the Board; but +this was a subject in which she had what might be considered to be a +controlling interest, and the bond project was dropped. + +Various schemes were now proposed, but there were objections to all of +them. Everyone was agreed that it was very unfortunate that this +emergency should have arisen just at this time, because as soon as the +company got into good working order, and the creek had been up a few +times it was probable that Aunt Matilda would really have more money +than she would absolutely need. + +"You ought to look out, Harry and Kate," said Harvey Davis, "that all +the darkies she knows don't come and settle down on her and live off +her. She's a great old woman for having people around her, even now." + +"Well," said Kate, "she has a right to have company if she wants to, and +can afford it." + +"Yes," said Tom Selden; "but having company's very different from having +a lot of good-for-nothing darkies eating her out of house and home." + +"She won't have anything of that sort," said Harry. "I'll see that her +money's spent right." + +"But if it's her money," said Harvey, "she can spend it as she chooses." + +A discussion here followed as to the kind of influence that ought to be +brought to bear upon Aunt Matilda to induce her to make a judicious use +of her income; but Harry soon interrupted the arguments, with the remark +that they had better not bother themselves about what Aunt Matilda +should do with her money when she got it, until they had found out some +way of preventing her from starving to death while she was waiting for +it. + +This was evidently good common sense, but it put a damper on the spirits +of the Board. + +There was nothing new to be said on the main question, and it was now +growing toward supper-time; so the meeting adjourned. + +On their way home, Harry said to Kate, "Has Aunt Matilda anything to eat +at all?" + +"Oh yes; she has enough for her supper to-night, and for breakfast, too, +if nobody comes to see her. But that's all." + +"All right, then," said Harry. + +"I don't think it is all right," replied Kate. "What's two meals, I'd +like to know?" + +"Two meals are very good things, provided you don't take them both at +once," said Harry. And he began to whistle. + +The next day, Harry went off and staid until dinner-time. + +Kate could not imagine where he had gone. He was not with the Board, she +knew, for Harvey Davis had been inquiring for him. + +Just before dinner he made his appearance. + +Kate was in the house, but he hurried her out under the catalpa-tree. + +"Look here!" said he, putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out +several "greenbacks." "I reckon that'll keep Aunt Matilda until the +company begins to make money." + +Kate opened her eyes their very widest. + +"Why, where on earth did you get all that money, Harry? Is it yours?" + +"Of course it's mine," said Harry. "I sold my gun." + +"Oh, Harry!" and the tears actually came into Kate's eyes. + +"Well, I wouldn't cry about it," said Harry. "There's nothing to shoot +now; and when we get rich I can buy it back again, or get another." + +"Got rich!" said Kate. "I don't see how we're going to do that; +especially when it's such dreadfully dry weather." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A QUANDARY. + + +About a week after the meeting of the Board in the Davis corn-house, old +Miles, the mail-rider, came galloping up to Mr. Loudon's front gate. The +family were at breakfast, but Harry and Kate jumped up and ran to the +door, when they saw Miles coming, with his saddle-bags flapping behind +him. No one had ever before seen Miles ride so fast. A slow trot, or +rather a steady waddle, was the pace that he generally preferred. + +"Hello, Mah'sr Harry," shouted old Miles, "de creek's up! Can't git +across dar, no how?" + +This glorious news for the Crooked Creek Telegraph Company was, indeed, +true! There had been wet weather for several days, and although the +rain-fall had not been great in the level country about Akeville, it had +been very heavy up among the hills; and the consequence was, that the +swollen hill-streams, or "branches" as they are called in that part of +the country, had rushed down and made Crooked Creek rise in a hurry. It +seemed to be always ready to rise in this way, whenever it had a chance. + +Now the company could go to work! Now it could show the world, or as +much of the world as chose to take notice, the advantages of having a +telegraph line across a creek in time of freshets. + +Harry was all alive with excitement. He sent for Harvey Davis, and had +old Selim saddled as quickly as possible. + +"H'yar's de letters and telegrums, Mah'sr Harry," said Miles, unlocking +his saddle-bags and taking out a bundle of letters and some telegrams, +written on the regular telegraphic blanks and tied up in a little +package. + +As the mail was a private one, and old Miles was known to be perfectly +honest, he carried the key and attended personally to the locking and +unlocking of his saddle-bags. + +"But I don't want the letters, Miles," said Harry. "I've nothing to do +with them. Give me the telegrams, and I'll send them across." + +"Don't want de letters?" cried Miles, his eyes and mouth wide open in +astonishment. "Why, I can't carry de letters ober no mor'n I kin de +telegrams." + +"Well, neither can I," said Harry. + +"Den what's de use ob dat wire?" exclaimed Miles. "I thought you uns ud +send de letters an' all ober dat wire? Dere's lots more letters dan +telegrums." + +"I know that," said Harry, hurriedly; "but we can't send letters. Give +the telegraphic messages, and you go back to the mines with the letters, +and if there's anything in them that they want to telegraph, let them +write out the messages, and you bring them over to Lewston's cabin." + +Harry took the telegrams, and old Miles rode off, very much disturbed in +his mind. His confidence in the utility of the telegraph company was +wofully shaken. + +By this time Harvey had arrived on a mule, and the two operators dashed +away as fast as their animals would carry them. + +As they galloped along Harry shouted to Harvey, who kept ahead most of +the time, for his mule was faster than Selim: + +"Hello, Harvey! If Miles couldn't get across, how can either of us go +over?" + +"Oh, I reckon the creek isn't much up yet," answered Harvey. "Miles is +easily frightened." + +So, on they rode, hoping for the best; but when they reached the creek +they saw, to their dismay, that the water was much higher already than +it usually rose in the summer-time. The low grounds on each side were +overflowed, and nothing could be seen of the bridge but the tops of two +upright timbers near its middle. + +It was certainly very unfortunate that both the operators were on the +same side of the stream! + +"This is a pretty piece of business," cried Harry. "I didn't expect the +creek to get up so quickly as this. I was down here yesterday, and it +hadn't risen at all. I tell you, Harvey, you ought to live on the other +side." + +"Or else you ought," said Harvey. + +"No," said Harry; "this is my station." + +Harvey had no answer ready for this, but as they were hurriedly +fastening Selim and the mule to trees near Lewston's cabin, he said: + +"Perhaps Mr. Lyons may come down and work the other end of the line." + +"He can't get off," said Harry. "He has his own office to attend to. +And, besides, that wouldn't do. We must work our own line, especially at +the very beginning. It would look nice--now, wouldn't it?--to wait +until Mr. Lyons could come over from Hetertown before we could commence +operations!" + +"Well, what can we do?" asked Harvey. + +"Why, one of us must get across, somehow." + +"I don't see how it's going to be done," said Harvey, as they ran down +to the edge of the water. "I reckon we'll have to holler our messages +across, as Tony said; only there isn't anybody to holler to." + +"I don't know how it's to be done either," said Harry; "but one of us +must get over, some way or other." + +"Couldn't we wade to the bridge," asked Harvey, "and then walk over on +it? I don't believe it's more than up to our waists on the bridge." + +"You don't know how deep it is," said Harry; "and when you get to the +bridge, ten to one more than half the planks have been floated off, and +you'd go slump to the bottom of the creek before you knew it. There's no +way but to get a boat." + +"I don't know where you're going to find one," said Harvey. "There's a +boat up at the mill-pond, but you couldn't get it out and down here in +much less than a day." + +"John Walker has his boat afloat again," said Harry, "but that's over on +the other side. What a nuisance it is that there isn't anybody over +there! If we didn't want 'em, there'd be about sixty or seventy darkies +hanging about now." + +"Oh, no!" said Harvey, "not so many as that; not over forty-seven." + +"I'm going over to Lewston's. Perhaps he knows of a boat," said Harry; +and away he ran. + +But Lewston was not in his cabin, and so Harry hurried along a road in +the woods that led by another negro cabin about a half-mile away, +thinking that the old man had gone off in that direction. Every minute +or two he shouted at the top of his voice, "Oh, Lewston!" + +Very soon he heard some one shouting in reply, and he recognized +Lewston's voice. It seemed to come from the creek. + +Thereupon, Harry made his way through the trees and soon caught sight of +the old colored man. He was in a boat, poling his way along in the +shallow water as close to dry land as the woods allowed him, and +sometimes, where the trees were wide apart, sending the boat right +between some of their tall trunks. + +"Hello, Lewston," cried Harry, running as near as he could go without +getting his shoes wet, for the water ran up quite a distance among the +trees in some places. "What are you about? Where did you get that boat? +I want a boat." + +"Dat's jist what I thought, Mah'sr Harry," said Lewston, still poling +away as hard as he could. "I know de compuny'd want to git ober de +creek, an' I jist went up to Hiram Anderson's and borrowed his ole boat. +Ise been a-bailing her out all de mornin'." + +"You're a trump, Lewston," said Harry. "Pole her down opposite your +house, and then one of us will go over. Why don't you go out farther? +You can't get along half as fast in here by the trees and hummocks as +you could in deeper water." + +"You don't ketch me out dar in dat runnin' water," said Lewston. "I'd be +in the middle afore I knowed it, and dis pole's pooty short." + +"Well, come along as fast as you can," cried Harry, "and I'll run down +to your house and get your axe to cut a longer pole." + +By the time Harry had found a tall young sapling, and had cut it down +and trimmed it off, Lewston arrived with the boat. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +CROSSING THE CREEK. + + +"Now, then," said Harry, "here's the boat and a good pole, and you've +nothing to do, Harvey, but just to get in and push yourself over to your +station as fast as you can." + +But the situation did not seem to strike Harvey very favorably. He +looked rather dissatisfied with the arrangement made for him. + +"I can't swim," he said. "At least, not much, you know." + +"Well, who wants you to swim?" said Harry, laughing. "That's a pretty +joke. Are you thinking of swimming across, and towing the boat after +you? You can push her over easy enough; that pole will reach the bottom +anywhere." + +"Dat's so," said old Lewston. "It'll touch de bottom ob de water, but I +don't know 'bout de bottom ob de mud. Ye musn't push her down too deep. +Dar's 'bout as much mud as water out dar in de creek." + +The more they talked about the matter, the greater became Harvey's +disinclination to go over. He was not a coward, but he was not used to +the water or the management of a boat, and the trip seemed much more +difficult to him than it would have appeared to a boy accustomed to +boating. + +"I tell you what we'll do," cried Harry, at last. "You take my station, +Harvey, and I'll go over and work your end of the line." + +There was no opposition to this plan, and so Harry hurried off with +Harvey to Lewston's cabin and helped him to make the connections and get +the line in working order at that end, and then he ran down to the boat, +jumped in, and Lewston pushed him off. + +Harry poled the boat along quite easily through the shallow water, and +when he got farther out he found that he proceeded with still greater +ease, only he did not go straight across, but went a little too much +down stream. + +But he pushed out strongly toward the opposite shore, and soon reached +the middle of the creek. Then he began to go down stream very fast +indeed. Push and pole as he would, he seemed to have no control whatever +over the boat. He had had no idea that the current would be so strong. + +On he went, right down toward the bridge, and as the boat swept over it, +one end struck an upright beam that projected above the water, and the +clumsy craft was jerked around with such violence that Harry nearly +tumbled into the creek. + +He heard Lewston and Harvey shouting to him, but he paid no attention to +them. He was working with all his strength to get the boat out of the +current and into shallower water. But as he found that he was not able +to do that, he made desperate efforts to stop the boat by thrusting his +pole into the bottom. It was not easy to get the pole into the mud, the +current was so strong; but he succeeded at last, by pushing it out in +front of him, in forcing it into the bottom; and then, in a moment, it +was jerked out of his hand, as the boat swept on, and, a second time, he +came near tumbling overboard. + +Now he was helpless. No, there was the short pole that Lewston had left +in the boat. + +He picked it up, but he could do nothing with it. If it had been an oar, +now, it might have been of some use. He tried to pull up the seat, but +it was nailed fast. + +On he rapidly floated, down the middle of the stream; the boat sometimes +sidewise, sometimes with one end foremost, and sometimes the other. Very +soon he lost sight of Lewston and Harvey, and the last he saw of them +they were hurrying by the edge of the water, in the woods. Now he sat +down, and looked about him. The creek appeared to be getting wider and +wider, and he thought that if he went on at that rate he must soon come +to the river. The country seemed unfamiliar to him. He had never seen +it, from the water, when it was overflowed in this way. + +He passed a wide stretch of cultivated fields, mostly planted in +tobacco, but he could not recollect what farmer had tobacco down by the +creek this year. There were some men at work on a piece of rising +ground, but they were a long way off. Still, Harry shouted to them, but +they did not appear to hear him. + +Then he passed on among the trees again, bumping against stumps, turning +and twisting, but always keeping out in the middle of the current. He +began to be very uneasy, especially as he now saw, what he had not +noticed before, that the boat was leaking badly. + +He made up his mind that he must do something soon, even if he had to +take off his clothes and jump in and try to swim to shore. But this, he +was well aware, would be hard work in such a current. + +Looking hurriedly around, he saw, a short distance before him, a tree +that appeared to stand almost in the middle of the creek, with its lower +branches not very high above the water. The main current swirled around +this tree, and the boat was floating directly toward it. + +Harry's mind was made up in an instant. He stood up on the seat, and as +the boat passed under the tree he seized the lowest branch. + +In a moment the boat was jerked from under his feet, and he hung +suspended over the rushing water. + +He gripped the branch with all his strength, and giving his legs a +swing, got his feet over it. Then, after two or three attempts, he +managed to draw himself up and get first one leg and then his whole body +over the branch. Then he sat up and shuffled along to the trunk, against +which he leaned with one arm around it, all in a perspiration, and +trembling with the exertion and excitement. + +When he had rested awhile, he stood up on the limb and looked toward the +land. There, to his joy, he saw, at a little distance, a small log-house, +and there was some one living in it, for he saw smoke coming from the +log and mud chimney that was built up against one end of the cabin. + +Harry gave a great shout, and then another, and another, and presently a +negro woman came out of the cabin and looked out over the creek. Then +three colored children came tumbling out, and they looked out over the +creek. + +Then Harry shouted again, and the woman saw him. + +"Hello, dar!" she cried. "Who's dat?" + +"It's me! Harry Loudon." + +"Harry Loudon?" shouted the woman, running down to the edge of the +water. "Mah'sr John Loudon's son Harry? What you doin' dar? Is you +fishin'?" + +"Fishing!" cried Harry. "No! I want to get ashore. Have you a boat?" + +"A boat! Lors a massy! I got no boat, Mah'sr Harry. How did ye git dar?" + +"Oh, I got adrift, and my boat's gone! Isn't there any man about?" + +"No man about here," said the woman. "My ole man's gone off to de +railroad. But he'll be back dis evenin'." + +"I can't wait here till he comes," cried Harry. "Haven't you a rope and +some boards to make a raft?" + +"Lor', no! Mah'sr Harry. I got no boards." + +"Tell ye what ye do, dar," shouted the biggest boy, a woolly-heady +urchin, with nothing on but a big pair of trousers that came up under +his arms and were fastened over his shoulders by two bits of string, +"jist you come on dis side and jump down, an' slosh ashore." + +"It's too deep," cried Harry. + +"No, 'tain't," said the boy. "I sloshed out to dat tree dis mornin'." + +"You did, you Pomp!" cried his mother. "Oh! I'll lick ye fur dat, when I +git a-hold of ye!" + +"Did you, really?" cried Harry. + +"Yes, I did," shouted the undaunted Pomp. "I sloshed out dar an' back +agin." + +"But the water's higher now," said Harry. + +"No, 'tain't," said the woman. "Tain't riz much dis mornin'. Done all de +risin' las' night. Dat tree's jist on de edge of de creek bank. If Pomp +could git along dar, you kin, Mah'sr Harry! Did ye go out dar, sure +'nuff, you Pomp? Mind, if ye didn't, I'll lick ye!" + +"Yes, I did," said Pomp; "clar out dar an' back agin." + +"Then I'll try it," cried Harry; and clambering around the trunk of the +tree, he jumped off as far as he could toward shore. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE FIRST BUSINESS TELEGRAMS. + + +When Harry jumped from the tree, he came down on his feet, in water not +quite up to his waist, and then he pushed in toward land as fast as he +could go. In a few minutes, he stood in the midst of the colored family, +his trousers and coat-tails dripping, and his shoes feeling like a pair +of wet sponges. + +"Ye ought to have rolled up yer pants and tooked off yer shoes and +stockin's afore ye jumped, Mah'sr Harry," said the woman. + +"I wish I had taken off my shoes," said Harry. + +The woman at whose cabin Harry found himself was Charity Allen, and a +good, sensible woman she was. She made Harry hurry into the house, and +she got him her husband's Sunday trousers, which she had just washed and +ironed, and insisted on his putting them on, while she dried his own. +She hung his stockings and his coat before the fire, and made one of the +boys rub his shoes with a cloth so as to dry them as much as possible +before putting them near the fire. + +Harry was very impatient to be off, but Charity was so certain that he +would catch his death of cold if he started before his clothes were dry +that he allowed himself to be persuaded to wait. + +And then she fried some salt pork, on which, with a great piece of +corn-bread, he made a hearty meal, for he was very hungry. + +"Have you had your dinner, Charity?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, Mah'sr Harry; long time ago," she said. + +"Then it must be pretty late," said Harry, anxiously. + +"Oh, no!" said she; "'tain't late. I reckon it can't be much mor' 'n +four o'clock." + +"Four o'clock!" shouted Harry, jumping up in such a hurry that he nearly +tripped himself in Uncle Oscar's trousers, which were much too long for +him. "Why, that's dreadfully late. Where can the day have gone? I must +be off, instantly!" + +So much had happened since morning, that it was no wonder that Harry had +not noticed how the hours had flown. + +The ride to the creek, the discussions there, the delay in getting the +boat, the passage down the stream, which was much longer than Harry had +imagined, and the time he had spent in the tree and in the cabin, had, +indeed, occupied the greater part of the day. + +And even now he was not able to start. Though he urged her as much as he +could, he could not make Charity understand that it was absolutely +necessary that he must have his clothes, wet or dry; and he did not get +them until they were fit to put on. And then his shoes were not dry, +but, as he intended to run all the way to Aunt Judy's cabin, that did +not matter so much. + +"How far is it to Aunt Judy's?" he asked, when at last he was ready to +start. + +"Well, I reckons it's 'bout six or seben miles, Mah'sr Harry," said +Charity. + +"Six or seven miles!" exclaimed Harry. "When shall I get there!" + +"Now don't hurry and git yese'f all in a heat," said Charity. "Jist keep +along dis path fru de woods till ye strike de road, and that'll take ye +straight to de bridge. Wish I had a mule to len' ye." + +"Good-by, Charity," cried Harry. "I'm ever so much obliged." And +hurriedly searching his vest pockets, he found a ten-cent note and a few +pennies, which he gave to the children, who grinned in silent delight, +and then he started off on a run. + +But he did not run all the way. + +Before long he began to tire a little, and then he settled down into a +fast walk. He felt that he must hurry along as fast as he was able. The +fortunes of the Crooked Creek Telegraph Company depended upon him. If +the company failed in this, its first opportunity, there was no hope for +it. + +So on he walked, and before very long he struck the main road. Here he +thought he should be able to get along faster, but there was no +particular reason for it. In fact, the open road was rather rougher than +that through the woods. But it was cooler here than under the heavy, +overhanging trees. + +And now Harry first noticed that the sun was not shining. At least, it +was behind the western hills. It must be growing very late, he thought. + +On he went, for a mile or two, and then it began to grow dusky. Night +was surely coming on. + +At a turn in the wood, he met a negro boy with a tin bucket on his head. +Harry knew him. It was Tom Haskins. + +"Hello, Tom!" said Harry, stopping for a moment; "I want you." + +"What you want, Mah'sr Harry?" asked Tom. + +"I want you to come to Aunt Judy's cabin and carry some messages over to +Hetertown for me." + +"When you want me?" said Tom; "to-morrer mornin'?" + +"No; I want you to-night. This minute. I'll pay you." + +"To-night?" cried the astonished Tom. "Go ober dar in de dark! Can't do +dat, Mah'sr Harry. Ise 'fraid to go fru de woods in de dark." + +"Nonsense," cried Harry. "Nothing's going to hurt you. Come on over." + +"Can't do it, Mah'sr Harry, no how," said Tom. "Ise got ter tote dis +hyar buttermilk home; dey's a-waitin' fur it now. But p'r'aps Jim'll go +fur you. He kin borrer a mule and go fur you, Mah'sr Harry, I 'spects." + +"Well, tell Jim to get a mule and come to Aunt Judy's just as quick as +he can. I'll pay him right well." + +"Dat's so, Mah'sr Harry; Jim'll go 'long fur ye. I'll tell him." + +"Now be quick about it," cried Harry. "I'm in a great hurry." And off he +started again. + +But as he hurried along, his legs began to feel stiff and his feet were +sore. He had walked very fast, so far, but now he was obliged to slacken +his pace. + +And it grew darker and darker. Harry thought he had never seen night +come on so fast. It was certainly a long distance from Charity's cabin +to Aunt Judy's. + +At last he reached the well-known woods near the bridge, and off in a +little opening he saw Aunt Judy's cabin. It was so dark now that he +would not have known it was a cabin, had he not been so familiar with +it. + +Curiously enough, there was no light to be seen in the house. Harry +hurried to the door and found it shut. He tried to open it, and it was +locked. Had Aunt Judy gone away? She never went away; it was foolish to +suppose such a thing. + +He knocked upon the door, and receiving no answer, he knocked louder, +and then he kicked. In a minute or two, during which he kept up a +continual banging and calling on the old woman, he heard a slight +movement inside. Then he knocked and shouted, "Aunt Judy!" + +"Who dar!" said a voice within. + +"It's me! Harry Loudon!" cried Harry. "Let me in!" + +"What ye want dar?" said Aunt Judy. "Go 'way from dar." + +"I want to come in. Open the door." + +"Can't come in hyar. Ise gone to bed." + +"But I must come in," cried Harry, in desperation; "I've got to work the +line. They're waiting for me. Open the door, do you hear Aunt Judy?" + +"Go 'way wid yer line," said Aunt Judy, crossly. "Ise abed. Come in der +mornin'. Time enough in de day-time to work lines." + +Harry now began to get angry. He found a stone and he banged the door. +He threatened Aunt Judy with the law. He told her she had no right to go +to bed and keep the company out of their station, when the creek was up; +but, from her testy answers, his threats seemed to have made but little +impression upon her. She didn't care if they stopped her pay, or fined +her, or sent her to prison. She never heard of "sich bisness, a-wakin' +people out of their beds in the middle o' the night fur dem foolin' +merchines." + +But Harry's racket had a good effect, after all. It woke Aunt Judy, and +after a time she got out of bed, uncovered the fire, blew up a little +blaze, lighted a candle, and putting on some clothes, came and opened +the door, grumbling all the time. + +"Now den," said she, holding the candle over her head, and looking like +a black Witch of Ender just out of the ground, "What you want?" + +"I want to come in," said Harry. + +"Well, den, come in," said she. + +Harry was not slow to enter, and having made Aunt Judy bring him two +candles, which he told her the company would pay for, he set to work to +get his end of the line in working order. + +When all was ready, he sat down to the instrument and "called" Harvey. + +He felt very anxious as he did this. How could he be sure that Harvey +was there? What a long time for that poor fellow to wait, without having +any assurance that Harry would get across the creek at all, much less +reach his post, and go to work. + +"He may suppose I'm drowned," thought Harry, "and he may have gone home +to tell the folks." + +But there was such a sterling quality about Harvey that Harry could not +help feeling that he would find him in his place when he telegraphed to +him, no matter how great the delay or how doubtful the passage of the +creek. + +But when he called there was no answer. + +Still he kept the machine steadily ticking. He would not give up hoping +that Harvey was there, although his heart beat fast with nervous +anxiety. So far, he had not thought that his family might be frightened +about him. _He_ knew he was safe, and that had been enough. He had not +thought about other people. + +But as these ideas were running through his head and troubling him +greatly, there came a "tick, tick" from the other side, then more of +them, but they meant nothing. Some one was there who could not work the +instrument. + +Then suddenly came a message: + +Is that you, Harry? + +Joyfully, Harry answered: + +Yes. Who wants to know? + +The answer was: + +Your father. He has just waked me up.--Harvey. + +With a light heart, Harry telegraphed, as briefly as possible, an +account of his adventures; and then his father sent a message, telling +him that the family had heard that he had been carried away, and had +been greatly troubled about him, and that men had ridden down the stream +after him, and had not returned, and that he, Mr. Loudon, had just come +to Lewston's cabin, hoping for news by telegraph. Harvey had been there +all day. Mr. Loudon said he would now hurry home with the good news, but +before bidding his son good night, he told him that he must not think of +returning until the creek had fallen. He must stay at Aunt Judy's, or go +over to Hetertown. + +When this had been promised, and a message sent to his mother and Kate, +Harry hastened to business. He telegraphed to Harvey to transmit the +company's messages as fast as he could; a boy would soon be there to +take them over to Hetertown. The answer came: + +What messages? + +Then Harry suddenly remembered that he had had the messages in the +breast-pocket of his coat all the time! + +He dived at his pocket. Yes, there they were! + +Was there ever such a piece of absurdity? He had actually carried those +despatches across the creek! After all the labor and expense of building +the telegraph, this had been the way that the first business messages +had crossed Crooked Creek! + +When Harry made this discovery he burst out laughing. Why, he might as +well have carried them to Hetertown from Charity's cabin. It would +really have been better, for the distance was not so great. + +Although he laughed, he felt a little humiliated. How Tom Selden, and +indeed everybody, would laugh if they knew it! + +But there was no need to tell everybody, and so when he telegraphed the +fact to Harvey, he enjoined secrecy. He knew he could trust Harvey. + +And now he became anxious about Jim. Would he be able to borrow a mule, +and would he come? + +Every few minutes he went to the door and listened for the sound of +approaching hoofs, but nothing was to be heard but the low snoring of +Aunt Judy, who was fast asleep in a chair by the fireplace. + +While thus waiting, a happy thought came into Harry's head. He opened +the messages--he had a right to do that, of course, as he was an +operator and had undertaken to transmit them--and he telegraphed them, +one by one, to Harvey, with instructions to him to send them back to +him. + +"They shall come over the creek on our line, anyway," said Harry to +himself. + +It did not take long to send them and to receive them again, for there +were only three of them. Then Harvey sent a message, congratulating +Harry on this happy idea, and also suggested that he, Harvey, should now +ride home, as it was getting late, and it was not likely that there +would be any more business that night. + +Harry agreed to this, urging Harvey to return early in the morning, and +then he set to work to write out the messages. The company had not yet +provided itself with regular forms, but Harry copied the telegrams +carefully on note-paper, with which, with pen and ink, each station was +furnished, writing them, as far as possible, in the regular form and +style of the ordinary telegraphic despatch. Then he put them in an +envelope and directed them to Mr. Lyons, at Hetertown, indorsing them, +"In haste. To be transmitted to destination immediately." + +"Now then," thought he, "nobody need know how these came over in the +first place, until we choose to tell them, and we won't do that until +we've sent over some messages in the regular way, and have proved that +our line is really of some use. And we won't charge the Mica Company +anything for these despatches. But yet, I don't know about that. I +certainly brought them over, and trouble enough I had to do it. I'll see +about charging, after I've talked it over with somebody. I reckon I'll +ask father about that. And I haven't delayed the messages, either; for +I've been waiting for Jim. I wonder where that boy can be!" And again +Harry went out of doors to listen. + +Had he known that Jim was at that moment fast asleep in his bed at home, +Harry need not have gone to the door so often. + +At last our operator began to be very sleepy, and having made up his +mind that if Jim arrived he would certainly wake him up, he aroused Aunt +Judy, who was now too sleepy to scold, and having succeeded in getting +her to lend him a blanket (it was her very best blanket, which she kept +for high days and holidays, and if she had been thoroughly awake she +would not have lent it for the purpose), and having spread it on the +floor, he lay down on it and was soon asleep. + +Aunt Judy blew out one of the candles and set the other on the hearth. +Then she stumbled drowsily into the next room and shut the door after +her. In a few minutes every living creature in and about the place was +fast asleep, excepting some tree-frogs and katydids outside, who seemed +to have made up their minds to stay up all night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +PROFITS AND PROJECTS. + + +The next morning, Harry was up quite early, and after having eaten a +very plain breakfast, which Aunt Judy prepared for him, he ran down to +the creek to see what chance there was for business. + +There seemed to be a very good chance, for the creek had not fallen, +that was certain. If there was any change at all, the water seemed a +little higher than it was before. + +Before long, Harvey arrived on the other side, accompanied by Tom Selden +and Wilson Ogden, who were very anxious to see how matters would +progress, now that there was some real work to do. + +The boys sent messages and greetings backward and forward to each other +for about an hour, and then old Miles arrived with his mailbag, which +contained quite a number of telegrams, this time. + +Not only were there those on the business of the Mica Company, but Mr. +Darby, the storekeeper at Akeville, thought it necessary to send a +message to Hetertown by the new line, and there were two or three other +private telegrams, that would probably never have been sent had it not +been for the novelty of the thing. + +But that rascal, Jim Haskins, did not make his appearance, and when +Harry found that it was not likely that he would come at all, he induced +Aunt Judy to go out and look for some one to carry the telegrams to +Hetertown. Harry had just finished copying the messages--and this took +some time, for he wrote each one of them in official form--when Aunt +Judy returned, bringing with her a telegraphic messenger. + +It was Uncle Braddock. + +"Here's a man to take yer letters," said Aunt Judy, as she ushered in +the old man. + +Harry looked up from his table in surprise. + +"Why, Uncle Braddock," said he, "you can't carry these telegrams. I want +a boy, on a mule or a horse, to go as fast as he can." + +"Lor' bress ye, Mah'sr Harry," said the old negro, "I kin git along fas' +enough. Aunt Judy said ye wanted Jim, an' Nobleses mule; but dat dar +mule he back hindwards jist about as much as he walks frontwards. I jist +keep right straight along, an' I kin beat dat dar ole mule, all holler. +Jist gim me yer letters, an' I'll tote 'em ober dar fur ten cents. Ye see +I wuz cotched on dis side de creek, an' wuz jist comin ober to see Aunt +Judy, when she telled me ob dis job. I'll tote yer letters, Mah'sr +Harry, fur ten cents fur de bag-full." + +"I haven't a bag-full," said Harry; "but I reckon you'll have to take +them. There's nobody else about, it seems, and I can't leave the +station." + +So Uncle Braddock was engaged as telegraph-boy, and Harry having +promised him twenty cents to go to Hetertown and to return with any +telegrams that were there awaiting transmission to the other side of the +creek, the old man set off with his little package, in high good humor +with the idea of earning money by no harder work than walking a few +miles. + +Shortly after noon, he returned with a few messages from Hetertown, and +by that time there were some for him to carry back. So he made two trips +and forty cents that day--quite an income for Uncle Braddock. + +In the evening, Jim Haskins made his appearance with his mule. He said +his brother hadn't told him anything about Harry's wanting him until +that afternoon. Notwithstanding Uncle Braddock's discouraging account of +the mule, Jim was engaged as messenger during the time that the creek +should be up, and Uncle Braddock was promised a job whenever an +important message should come during Jim's absence. + +The next day it rained, and the creek was up, altogether, for five days. +During this time the telegraph company did a good deal of paying +business. Harry remained at his station, and boarded and lodged with +Aunt Judy. He frequently sent messages to his father and mother and +Kate, and never failed, from an early hour in the morning until dark, to +find the faithful Harvey at his post. + +At last the creek "fell," and the bridge became again passable to Miles +and his waddling horse. The operators disconnected their wires, put +their apparatus in order, locked the wooden cases over their +instruments, and rode in triumph (Mr. Loudon had come in the buggy for +Harry) to Akeville. + +Harry was received with open arms by his mother and Kate; and Mrs. +Loudon declared that this should be the last time that he should go on +such an expedition. + +She was right. + +The next afternoon there was a meeting of the Board of Managers of the +Crooked Creek Telegraph Company, and the Secretary, having been hard at +work all the morning, with the assistance of the Treasurer and the +President, made a report of the financial results of the recent five +days' working of the company's line. + +It is not necessary to go into particulars, but when the sums due the +company from the Mica Company and sundry private individuals had been +set down on the one side, and the amounts due from the telegraph company +to Aunt Judy for candles and board and lodging for one operator; to +Uncle Braddock and Jim Haskins for services as messengers; to Hiram +Anderson for damages to boat (found near the river, stuck fast among +some fallen timber, with one end badly battered by floating logs), and +for certain extras in the way of additional stationery, etc., which it +had become necessary to procure from Hetertown, had been set down on the +other side, and the difference between the sums total had been +calculated, it was found, and duly reported, that the company had made +six dollars and fifty-three cents. + +This was not very encouraging. It was seldom that the creek was up more +than five days at a time, and so this was a very favorable opportunity +of testing the value of the line as a money-making concern. + +It was urged, however, by the more sanguine members of the Board that +this was not a fair trial. There had been many expenses which probably +would not have to be incurred again. + +"But they didn't amount to so very much," said Kate, who, as Treasurer, +was present at the meeting. "Aunt Judy only charged a dollar and a half +for Harry's board, and the boat was only a dollar. And all the other +expenses would have to be expected any time." + +After some further conversation on the subject, it was thought best to +attend to present business rather than future prospects, and to appoint +committees to collect the money due the company. + +Harry and Tom Selden were delegated to visit the mica-mine people, while +Harvey, Wilson Ogden, and Brandeth Price composed the committee to +collect what was due from private individuals. + +Before Harry started for the mica mine, he consulted his father in +regard to charging full price for the telegrams which he carried across +the creek in his pocket. + +Mr. Loudon laughed a good deal at the transaction, but he told Harry +that there was no reason why he should not charge for those telegrams. +He had certainly carried them over in the first place, and the +subsequent double transmission over the wire was his own affair. + +When Harry and Tom rode over to the mica mine the next morning, and +explained their business and presented their bill, their account was +found to be correct, and the amount of the bill was promptly handed to +them. + +When this little business had been transacted, Mr. Martin, the manager +of the mine, invited them to sit down in his office and have a talk. + +"This line of yours," said he, "is not going to pay you." + +"Why not?" asked Harry, somewhat disturbed in mind by this sudden +statement of what he had already begun to fear was an unpleasant truth. + +"It _has_ paid us," said Tom Selden. "Why, we've only been working it +five days, on regular business, and we've cleared--well, we've cleared +considerable." + +"That may be," said the manager, smiling, "but you can't have made very +much, for you must have a good many expenses. The principal reason why I +think it won't pay you is that you have to keep up two stations, and you +all live on this side of the creek. I've heard that one of you had a +hard time getting over the creek last week." + +"That was Harry," said Tom. + +"So I supposed," said Mr. Martin; "and it must have been a pretty +dangerous trip. Now it won't do to do that sort of thing often; and you +can't tell when the creek's going to rise, so as to be over before the +bridge is flooded." + +"That's true," said Harry. "Crooked Creek doesn't give much notice when +it's going to rise." + +"No, it don't," continued Mr. Martin. "And it won't do, either, for any +one of you to live on the other side, just to be ready to work the line +in time of freshets. The creek isn't up often enough to make that pay." + +"But what can we do?" asked Harry. "You surely don't think we're going +to give up this telegraph line just as it begins to work, and after all +the money that's been spent on it, and the trouble we've had?" + +"No, I don't think you are the kind of fellows to give up a thing so +soon, and we don't want you to give it up, for it's been a great deal of +use to us already. What I think you ought to do is to run your line from +the other side of the creek to Hetertown. Then you'd have no trouble at +all. When the creek was up you could go down and work this end, and an +arrangement could easily be made to have the operator at Hetertown work +the other end, and then it would be all plain sailing. He could send the +telegrams right on, on the regular line, and there would be no trouble +or expense with messengers from the creek over to Hetertown." + +"That would be a splendid plan," said Harry; "but it would cost like +everything to have a long line like that." + +"It wouldn't cost very much," said Mr. Martin. "There are pine woods +nearly all the way, by the side of the road, and so it wouldn't cost +much for poles. And you've got the instruments for that end of the line. +All you'll have to do would be to take them over to Hetertown. You +wouldn't have to spend any money except for wire and for trimming off +the trees and putting up the wire." + +"But that would be more than we could afford," said Tom Selden. "You +ought just to try to make the people about here subscribe to anything, +and you'd see what trouble it is to raise money out of them." + +"Oh, I don't think you need let the want of money enough to buy a few +miles of wire prevent your putting up a really useful line," said Mr. +Martin; "our company would be willing to help you about that, I'm sure." + +"If you'd help, that would make it altogether another thing," said +Harry; "but you'd have to help a good deal." + +"Well, we would help a good deal," said Mr. Martin. "It would be to our +benefit, you know, to have a good line. That's what we want, and we're +willing to put some money in it. I suppose there'd be no difficulty in +getting permission to put up the line on the land between the creek and +Hetertown?" + +"Oh, no!" said Harry. "A good part of the woods along the road belong to +father, and none of the people along there would object to us boys +putting up our line on their land." + +"I thought they wouldn't," said Mr. Martin. "I'll talk to our people +about this, and see what they think of it." + +As Harry and Tom rode home, Harry remarked, "Mr. Martin's a trump, isn't +he? I hope the rest of the mica-mine people will agree with him." + +"I don't believe they will," said Tom. "Why, you see they'd have to pay +for the whole thing, and I reckon they won't be in a hurry to do that. +But wouldn't we have a splendid line if they were to do it?" + +"I should say so," said Harry. "It's almost too good a thing to expect. +I'm afraid Mr. Martin won't feel quite so generous when he calculates +what it will cost." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A GRAND PROPOSITION. + + +The summer vacation was now over, and the Board of Managers of the +telegraph company, as well as the other boys of the vicinity, were +obliged to go to school again and study something besides the arts of +making money and transacting telegraphic business. But as there was not +much business of this kind to be done, the school interfered with the +company's affairs in little else than the collection of money due from +private individuals for telegraphic services rendered during the late +"rise" in the creek. The committee which had charge of this collection +labored very faithfully for some time, and before and after school and +during the noon recess, the members thereof made frequent visits to the +houses of the company's debtors. As there were not more than +half-a-dozen debtors, it might have been supposed that the business +would be speedily performed. But such was not the case. Mr. Darby, the +storekeeper, paid his bill promptly; and old Mr. Truly Matthews, who had +telegraphed to Washington to a nephew in the Patent Office Department, +"just to see how it would go," paid what he owed on the eighth visit of +Wilson Ogden to his house. He had not seen "how it would go," for his +nephew had not answered him, either by telegraph or mail, and he was in +no hurry to pay up, but he could not stand "that boy opening his gate +three times a day." As for the rest, they promised to settle as soon as +they could get some spare cash--which happy time they expected would +arrive when they sold their tobacco. + +It is to be supposed that no one ever bought their tobacco, for they +never paid up. + +The proceeds of the five days of telegraphing, together with the money +obtained by the sale of Harry's gun, were spent by Kate for Aunt +Matilda's benefit; and as she knew that it might be a good while before +there would be any more money coming, Kate was as economical as she +could be. + +It was all very proper and kind to make the old woman's income hold out +as long as possible, but Aunt Matilda did not like this systematic and +economical way of living. It was too late in life for her, she said, "to +do more measurin' at a meal than chewin';" and so she became +discouraged, and managed, one fine morning, to hobble up to see Mrs. +Loudon about it. + +"Ise afraid dese chillen ain't a-gwine to hold out," said she. "I don +know but what I'd better go 'long to the poor-house, arter all. And +there's that money I put inter de comp'ny. I ain't seen nothin' come o' +dat ar money yit." + +"How much did you put in, Aunt Matilda?" asked Mrs. Loudon. + +"Well, I needn't be a-sayin' jist how much it was; but it was solid +silver, anyway, and I don't reckon I'll ever see any of it back again. +But it don't differ much. Ise an old woman, and them chillen is a-doin' +their best." + +"Yes, they are," said Mrs. Loudon; "and I think they're doing very well, +too. You haven't suffered for anything lately, have you?" + +"Well, no," said the old woman, "I can't say that I've gone hungry or +nuthin'; but I was only a-gittin' 'fraid I might. Dis hyar 'tic'lar way +o' doin' things makes a person scary." + +"I am glad that Kate is particular," said Mrs. Loudon. "You know, Aunt +Matilda, that money isn't very plenty with any of us, and we all have to +learn to make it go as far as it will. I don't think you need feel +'scary,' if Kate's economy is all you have to fear." + +This interview somewhat reassured Aunt Matilda, but she was not +altogether satisfied with the state of things. The fact was that she had +supposed that the telegraph company would bring in so much money that +she would be able to live in what to her would be a state of comparative +luxury. And instead of that, Kate had been preaching economy and +systematic management to her. No wonder she was disappointed, and a +little out of humor with her young guardians. + +But for all that, if Harry or Kate had fallen into a fiery crater, Aunt +Matilda would have hurried in after them as fast as her old legs would +have carried her. + +She went back to her cabin, after a while, and she continued to have her +three meals a day all the same as usual; but if she could have seen, as +Kate saw, how steadily the little fund for her support was diminishing +day by day, she would have had some reason for her apprehensions. + +It was on a pleasant Saturday in early September, that Harry stood +looking over the front gate in his father's yard. Kate was at the +dining-room window, sewing. Harry was thinking, and Kate was wondering +what he was thinking about. She thought she knew, and she called out to +him: "I expect old Mr. Matthews would lend you a gun, Harry." + +"Yes, I suppose he would," said Harry, turning and slowly walking up +toward the house; "but father told me not to borrow a gun from Truly +Matthews. It's a shame, though, to stay here when the fields are just +chock full of partridges. I never knew them so plenty in all my life. +It's just the way things go." + +"It is a pity about your gun," said Kate. "There's some one at the gate, +Harry. Hadn't you better go and see what he wants? Father won't be home +until after dinner, you can tell him." + +Harry turned. + +"It's Mr. Martin," said he, and he went down to the gate to meet him. + +"How do you do, Mr. President?" said Mr. Martin. "I rode over here this +morning, and thought I would come and see you." + +Harry shook hands with his visitor, and invited him to walk into the +house; but after Mr. Martin had dismounted and fastened his horse, he +thought that the seat under the catalpa-tree looked so cool and +inviting, that he proposed that they should sit down there and have a +little chat. + +"I have been thinking about the extension of your telegraph line," said +the manager of the mica mine, "and have talked it over with our people. +They agree with me that it would be a good thing, and we have +determined, if it suits you and your company, that we will advance the +money necessary to carry out the scheme." + +"I'm glad to hear that," said Harry; "but, as I said before, you'll have +to bear the whole expense, and it will cost a good deal to carry the +line from the creek all the way to Hetertown." + +"Yes, it will cost some money," said Mr. Martin "but our idea is that +you ought to have a complete line while you are about it, and that it +ought to run from our mine to Hetertown." + +"From your mine to Hetertown!" exclaimed Harry, in astonishment. + +"Yes," said Mr. Martin, smiling. "That is the kind of a line that is +really needed. You see, our business is increasing, and we are buying +land which we intend to sell out in small farms, and so expect to build +up quite a little village out there in time. So you can understand that +we would like to be in direct communication with Richmond and the North. +And if we can have it by means of your line, we are ready to put the +necessary funds into the work." + +Harry was so amazed at this statement, that he could hardly find words +with which to express himself. + +"Why, that would give us a regular, first-class telegraph line!" he +exclaimed. + +"Certainly," said Mr. Martin, "and that's the only kind of a line that +is really worth anything." + +"I don't know what to think about it," said Harry. "I didn't expect you +to propose anything like this." + +"Well," said Mr. Martin, rising, "I must be off. I had only a few +minutes to spare, but I thought I had better come and make you this +proposition. I think you had better lay it before your Board of Managers +as soon as possible, and if you will take my advice, as a business man, +you'll accept our offer." + +So saying, he bid Harry good-by, took off his hat to Kate, who was still +looking out of the window, mounted his horse, and rode away. + +There was a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Crooked Creek +Telegraph Company that afternoon. It was a full meeting, for Harry sent +hasty messengers to those he called the "out-lying members." + +A more astonished body of officials has seldom been seen than was our +Board when Harry laid the proposition of Mr. Martin before it. + +But the boys were not so much amazed that they could not jump at this +wonderful opportunity and in a very short time it was unanimously voted +to accept the proposition of the mica-mine people, and to build the +great line. + +Almost as soon as this important vote had been taken, the meeting +adjourned, and the members hurried to their several homes to carry the +news. + +"We'll have to change our name," said Tom Selden to Harry. "We ought to +call our company 'The United States Mica and Hetertown Lightning Express +Line,' or something big like that." + +"Yes," replied Harry. "The A 1 double-action, back-spring, +copper-fastened, broad-gauge telegraph line from here to the moon!" + +And away he ran to meet Kate, who was coming down the road. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HOW SOMETHING CAME TO AN END. + + +The mica-mine management appeared to be thoroughly in earnest about this +extension of the telegraph line. As soon as the assent of the Board of +Managers to the scheme had been communicated to them, they sent a note +to Harry suggesting that he should, in the name of his company, get the +written consent of owners of the lands over which the line would pass to +the construction of said line on their property. This business was soon +settled, for none of the owners of the farms between the mines and +Hetertown, all of whom were well acquainted with Mr. Loudon (and no man +in that part of the country was held in higher estimation by his +neighbors), had the slightest objection to the boys putting up their +telegraph line on their lands. + +When Harry had secured the necessary promises, the construction of the +line was commenced forthwith. The boys had very little trouble with it. +Mr. Martin got together a gang of men, with an experienced man to direct +them, and came down with them to Akeville, where Harry hired them; and +finding that the foreman understood the business, he told him to go to +work and put up the line. When paydays came around, Harry gave each man +an order for his money on the Mica Mine Company, and their wages were +paid them by Mr. Martin. + +It was not very long before the line was constructed and the instruments +were in working order in Hetertown and at the mica mines. There was a +person at the latter place who understood telegraphy, and he attended to +the business at that end of the line, while Mr. Lyons worked the +instruments at the Hetertown station, which was in the same building +with the regular telegraph line. + +It was agreed that the Mica Company should keep an account of all +messages sent by them over the line, and should credit the Crooked Creek +Telegraph Company with the amount due in payment, after deducting +necessary expenses, hire of operators', and six per cent. on the capital +advanced. + +Everything having been arranged on this basis, the extended line went +into operation, without regard to the amount of water in the creek, and +old Miles carried no more telegrams to Hetertown. + +The telegraph business, however, became much less interesting to Kate +and the boys. It seemed to them as if it had been taken entirely out of +their hands, which was, indeed, the true state of the case. They were +the nominal owners and directors of the line, but they had nothing to +direct, and very vague ideas about the value of the property they owned. + +"I don't know," said Tom Selden, as he sat one afternoon in Mr. Loudon's +yard, with Harry and Kate, "whether we've made much by this business or +not. Those mica people keep all the accounts and do all the charging, +and if they want to cheat us, I don't see what's to hinder them." + +"But you know," said Harry, "that we can examine their accounts; and, +besides, Mr. Lyons will keep a tally of all the messages sent, and I +don't believe that he would cheat us." + +"No; I don't suppose he would," said Tom; "but I liked the old way best. +There was more fun in it." + +"Yes, there was," said Kate; "and then we helped old Lewston and Aunt +Judy. I expect they'll miss the money they got for rent." + +"Certainly," said Harry. "They'll have to deny themselves many a luxury +in consequence of the loss of that dollar a month." + +"Now you're making fun," said Kate; "but twelve dollars a year is a good +deal to those poor people." + +"I suppose it is," said Harry. "In fifty years, it would be six hundred +dollars, if they saved it all up, and that is a good deal of money, even +to us rich folks." + +"Rich!" said Kate. "We're so dreadfully rich that I have only forty-two +cents left of Aunt Matilda's money, and I must have some very soon." + +The consequence of this conversation was that Harry had to ride over to +the mica mines and get a small advance on the payment due at the end of +the month. + +The end of the month arrived, and the settlement was made. When the +interest on the money advanced to put up the line, hire of operators, +and other expenses, had been deducted from the amount due the Crooked +Creek Company, there was only two dollars and a quarter to be paid to +it! + +Harry was astounded. He took the money, rode back to Akeville, and +hastened to have a consultation with Kate. For the first time since he +became a guardian, he was in despair. This money was not enough for Aunt +Matilda's needs, and if it had been, there were stockholders who were +expecting great things from the recent extension of the line. What was +to be said to them? + +Harry did not know, and Kate could suggest nothing. It appeared to be +quite plain that they had made a very bad business of this telegraphic +affair. A meeting of the Board was called, and when each member had had +his say, matters appeared worse than ever. + +It was a very blue time for our friends. + +As for Kate, she cried a good deal that afternoon. + +The time had at last come when she felt they would have to give up Aunt +Matilda. She was sure, if they had never started this telegraphic +company, they might have struggled through the winter, but now there +were stockholders and creditors and she did not know what all. She only +knew that it was too much for them. + +Three days after this, Harry received a note from Mr. Martin. When he +read it, he gave a shout that brought everybody out of the house--Kate +first. When she read the note, which she took from Harry as he was +waving it around his head, she stood bewildered. She could not +comprehend it. + +And yet it simply contained a proposition from the Mica Mine Company to +buy the Crooked Creek Telegraph Line, with all its rights and +privileges, assuming all debts and liabilities, and to pay therefor the +sum of three hundred and fifty dollars in cash! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Two days afterward, the line was formally sold to the Mica Company, and +the Crooked Creek Telegraph Company came to an end. + +When accounts were settled, Aunt Matilda's share of the proceeds of the +sale were found to amount to two hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty +cents, which Kate deposited with Mr. Darby for safe keeping. + +It was only the sky that now looked blue to Harry and Kate. + +The Akeville people were a good deal surprised at this apparently +singular transaction on the part of the Mica Company, but before long, +their reasons for helping the boys to put up their line and then buying +it, became plain enough. + +The Mica Company had invested a large capital in mines and lands, and +the business required telegraphic communication with the North. The +managers knew that they might have a good deal of trouble to get +permission to put up their line on the lands between the mines and +Hetertown, and so they wisely helped the boys to put up the line, and +then bought it of them, with all their rights and privileges. + +There was probably some sharp practice in this transaction, but our +young friends and Aunt Matilda profited by it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +A MEETING. + + +About a week after the dissolution of the Crooked Creek Company, Harry +was riding over from Hetertown, and had nearly reached the creek on his +way home, when he met George Purvis. + +This was their first meeting since their fight, for George had been away +on a visit to some relatives in Richmond. + +When Harry saw George riding slowly toward him, he felt very much +embarrassed, and very much annoyed because he was embarrassed. + +How should he meet George? What should he say; or should he say +anything? + +He did not want to appear anxious to "make up" with him, nor did he want +to seem as if he bore malice toward him. If he only knew how George felt +about it! + +As it was, he wished he had stopped somewhere on the road. He had +thought of stopping at the mill--why had he not? That would just have +given George time to pass. + +Both boys appeared to be riding as slowly as their horses would consent +to go, and yet when they met, Harry had not half made up his mind what +he would say, or how he should say it, or whether it would be better or +not to say anything. + +"Hello, George!" said he, quite unpremeditatedly. + +"Hello!" said George, reining in his horse "Where are you going?" + +"Going home," said Harry, also stopping in the road. + +Thus the quarrel came to an end. + +"So you've sold the telegraph?" said George. + +"Yes," said Harry. "And I think we made a pretty good bargain. I didn't +think we'd do so well when we started." + +"No, it didn't look like it," said George; "but those mica men mayn't +find it such a good bargain for them." + +"Why?" asked Harry. + +"Well, suppose some of the people who own the land that the line's on, +don't want these strangers to have a telegraph on their farms. What's to +hinder them ordering them off?" + +"They wouldn't do that," said Harry. "None of the people about here +would be so mean. They'd know that it might upset our bargain. There +isn't a man who would do it." + +"All right," said George. "I hope they won't. But how are you going to +keep the old woman now?" + +"How?" said Harry. "Why, we can keep her easy enough. We got three +hundred and fifty dollars from the Mica Company." + +"And how much is her share?" + +"Over two hundred and sixty," answered Harry. + +"Is that all?" said George. "That won't give her much income. The +interest on it will only be about fifteen dollars a year, and she can't +live on that." + +"But we didn't think of using only the interest," said Harry. + +"So you're going to break in on the principal, are you? That's a poor +way of doing." + +"Oh, we'll get along well enough," said Harry. "Two hundred and sixty +dollars is a good deal of money. Good-by! I must get on. Come up, +Selim!" + +"Good-by!" said George; and he spurred up his horse and rode off gayly. + +But not so Harry. He was quite depressed in spirits by George's remarks. +He wished he had not met him, and he determined that he would not bother +his head by looking at the matter as George did. It was ridiculous. + +But the more he thought of it, the more sorry he felt that he had met +George Purvis. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +ONCE MORE IN THE WOODS. + + +"Harry," said Kate, the next day after this meeting, "when are you going +to get your gun back?" + +"Get my gun back!" exclaimed Harry. "How am I to do that?" + +"Why, there's money enough," answered Kate. "You only lent your +gun-money to Aunt Matilda's fund. Take out enough, and get your gun +back." + +"That sounds very well," said Harry; "but we haven't so much money, +after all. The interest on what we have won't begin to support Aunt +Matilda, and we really ought not to break in on the principal." + +Kate did not immediately answer. She thought for a while and then she +said: + +"Well, that's what I call talking nonsense. You must have heard some one +say something like that. You never got it out of your own head." + +"It may not have come out of my own head," said Harry, who had not told +Kate of his meeting with George Purvis, "but it is true, for all that. +It seems to me that whatever we do seems all right at first, and then +fizzles out. This telegraph business has done that, straight along." + +"No, it hasn't," said Kate, with some warmth. "It's turned out +first-rate. I think that interest idea is all stuff. As if we wanted to +set up Aunt Matilda with an income that would last forever! Here comes +father. I'm going to ask him about the gun." + +When Mr. Loudon had had the matter laid before him, he expressed his +opinion without any hesitation. + +"I think, Harry," said he, "that you certainly ought to go and get your +gun." + +And Harry went and got it. + +The rest of that day, which was Saturday, was delightful, both to Harry +and Kate. Harry cleaned and polished up his gun, and Kate sat and +watched him. It seemed like old times. During those telegraphic days, +when they were all thinking of business and making money, they seemed to +have grown old. + +But all that was over now, and they were a girl and a boy again. Late in +the afternoon, Harry went out and shot half-a-dozen partridges, which +were cooked for supper, and Mrs. Loudon said that that seemed like the +good old style of things. She had feared that they were never going to +have any more game on their table. + +On the following Wednesday there was a half-holiday, and Harry was about +to start off with his gun, when he proposed that Kate should go with +him. + +"But you're going after birds," said Kate, "and I can't go where you'll +want to go--among the stubble and bushes." + +"Oh! I sha'n't go much after birds," said Harry. "I wanted to borrow +Captain Caseby's dog, but he's going to use him himself to-day, and so I +don't expect to get much game. But we can have a good walk in the +woods." + +"All right," said Kate. "I'll go along." And away she went for her hat. + +The walk was charming. It was now September, and the fields were full of +bright-colored fall flowers, while here and there a sweet-gum tree began +to put on autumn tints. The sun was bright, and there was a strong +breeze full of piney odors from the forests to the west. + +They saw no game; and when they had rambled about for an hour or so, +they sat down under an oak-tree on the edge of the woods, and while they +were talking, an idea came into Harry's head. He picked a great big fat +toadstool that was growing near the roots of the tree, and carrying it +about sixty feet from the tree, he stuck it up on a bush. + +"Now then," said he, taking up his gun, cocking it, and handing it to +Kate, "you take a shot at that mark." + +"Do you mean that I shall shoot at it?" exclaimed Kate. + +"Certainly," said Harry. "You ought to know how to shoot. And it won't +be the first time you have fired a gun. Take a shot." + +"All right," said Kate. And she took off her hat and threw it on the +grass. Then she took the gun and raised it to a level with her eye. + +"Be easy now," said Harry. "Hold the butt close against your shoulder. +Take your time, and aim right at the middle of the mark." + +"I'm afraid I'm shutting the wrong eye," said Kate. "I always do." + +"Shut your left eye," said Harry. "Get the sight right between your +other eye and the mark." + +Kate took a good long aim, and then, summoning all her courage, she +pulled the trigger. + +The gun went off with a tremendous bang! The toadstool trembled for an +instant, and then tumbled off the bush. + +"Hurra!" shouted Harry. "You've hit it fair!" And he ran and brought it +to her, riddled with shot-holes. Kate was delighted with her success, +and would have been glad to have spent the rest of the afternoon firing +at a mark. But Harry was not well enough supplied with powder and shot +for that. However, he gave her another shot at a piece of paper on the +bush. She made three shot-holes in it, and Harry said that would do very +well. He then loaded up again, and then they started off for home. The +path they took led through a corner of the woods. + +They had not gone far before they met Gregory Montague. + +"Oh, Mah'sr Harry!" said Gregory, "I done foun' a bees' nes'." + +"Where?" cried Harry. + +"Down in a big tree in de holler, dar," pointing over toward the +thickest part of the woods. "You have to go fru de brush and bushes, but +it's a powerful big nest, Mah'sr Harry, right in de holler ob de tree." + +"Are you sure it's a bees' nest?" said Harry. "How do you know?" + +"I knows it's a bees' nest," said Gregory, somewhat reproachfully. +"Didn't I see de bees goin' in an' out fru a little hole?" + +"Kate," said Harry, "you hold this gun a little while. I'll run down +there and see if it is really a bee-tree that he has found. Hold it +under your arm, that way, with the muzzle down. That's it. I'll be back +directly." And away he ran with Gregory. + +And now Kate was left alone in the woods with a gun under her arm. It +was a new experience for her. She felt proud and pleased to have control +of a gun, and it was not long before she began to think that it would be +a splendid thing if she could shoot something that would do for supper. +How surprised they would all be if she should bring home some game that +she had shot, all by herself! + +She made up her mind that she would do it, if she could see anything to +shoot. + +And so she walked quietly along the path with her thumb on the hammer of +the gun, all ready to cock it the instant she should see a good chance +for a shot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +A GIRL AND A GUN. + + +A short distance beyond the place where Kate had been left, there was a +small by-path; and when, still carefully carrying her gun, she reached +this path, Kate stopped. Here would be a good place, she thought, to +wait for game. Something would surely come into that little path, if she +kept herself concealed. + +So she knelt down behind a small bush that grew at a corner of the two +paths, and putting her gun through the bush, rested the barrel in a +crotch. + +The gun now pointed up the by-path, and there was an opening in the bush +through which Kate could see for some distance. + +Here, then, she watched and waited. + +The first thing that crossed the path was a very little bird. It hopped +down from a twig, it jerked its head about, it pecked at something on +the ground, and then flew up into a tree. Kate would not have shot it on +any account, for she knew it was not good to eat; but she could not help +wondering how people ever did shoot birds, if they did not "hold still" +any longer than that little creature did. + +Then there appeared a small brown lizard. It came very rapidly right +down the path toward Kate. + +"If it comes all the way," thought Kate, "I shall have to jump." + +But it did not come all the way, and Kate remained quiet. + +For some time no living creatures, except butterflies and other insects, +showed themselves. Then, all of a sudden, there popped into the middle +of the path, not very far from Kate, a real, live rabbit! + +It was quite a good-sized rabbit, and Kate trembled from head to foot. +Here was a chance indeed! + +To carry home a fat rabbit would be a triumph. She aimed the gun as +straight toward the rabbit as she could, having shut the wrong eye +several times before she got the matter arranged to her satisfaction. +Then she remembered that she had not cocked the gun, and so she had to +do that, which, of course, made it necessary for her to aim all over +again. + +She cocked only one hammer, and she did it so gently that it did not +frighten the rabbit, although he flirted his ears a little when he heard +the "click, click!" Everything was so quiet that he probably thought he +heard some insect, probably a young or ignorant cricket that did not +know how to chirp properly. + +So he sat very still and nibbled at some leaves that were growing by the +side of the path. He looked very pretty as he sat there, taking his +dainty little bites, and jerking up his head every now and then, as if +he were expecting somebody. + +"I must wait till he's done eating," thought Kate. "It would be cruel to +shoot him now." + +Then he stopped nibbling all of a sudden, as if he had just thought of +something, and as soon as he remembered what it was, he twisted his head +around and began to scratch one of his long ears with his hind foot. He +looked so funny doing this that Kate came near laughing but, +fortunately, she remembered that that would not do just then. + +When he had finished scratching one ear, he seemed to consider the +question whether or not he should scratch the other one; but he finally +came to the conclusion that he would not. He would rather hop over to +the other side of the path and see what was there. + +This, of course, made it necessary for Kate to take a new aim at him. + +Whatever it was that he found on the other side of the path it grew +under the ground, and he stuck his head down as far as he could get it, +and bent up his back, as if he were about to try to turn a somersault, +or to stand on his head. + +"How round and soft he is!" thought Kate. "How I should like to pat him. +I wonder when he'll find whatever it is that he's looking for! What a +cunning little tail!" + +The cunning little tail was soon clapped flat on the ground, and Mr. +Bunny raised himself up and sat on it. He lifted his nose and his +fore-paws in the air and seemed to be smelling something good. His queer +little nose wiggled so comically that Kate again came very near bursting +out laughing. + +"How I would love to have him for a pet!" she said to herself. + +After sniffing a short time, the rabbit seemed to come to the conclusion +that he was mistaken, after all, and that he did not really smell +anything so very good. He seemed disappointed, however, for he lifted up +one of his little fore-paws and rubbed it across his eyes. But, perhaps, +he was not so very sorry, but only felt like taking a nap, for he +stretched himself out as far as he could, and then drew himself up in a +bunch, as if he were going to sleep. + +"I wish he wouldn't do that," thought Kate, anxiously. "I don't want to +shoot him in his sleep." + +But Bunny was not asleep. He was thinking. He was trying to make up his +mind about something. There was no way of finding out what it was that +he was trying to make up his mind about. He might have been wondering +why some plants did not grow with their roots uppermost, so that he +could get at them without rubbing his little nose in the dirt; or why +trees were not good to eat right through trunk and all. Or he might have +been trying to determine whether it would be better for him to go over +to 'Lijah Ford's garden, and try to get a bite at some cabbage-leaves; +or to run down to the field just outside of the woods, where he would +very likely meet a certain little girl rabbit that he knew very well. + +But whatever it was, he had no sooner made up his mind about it than he +gave one big hop and was out of sight in a minute. + +"There!" cried Kate. "He's gone!" + +"I reckon he thought he'd guv you 'bout chance enough, Miss Kate," said +a voice behind her, and turning hurriedly, she saw Uncle Braddock. + +"Why, how did you come here?" she exclaimed. "I didn't hear you." + +"Reckon not, Miss Kate," said the old man. "You don't s'pose I was +a-goin' to frighten away yer game. I seed you a-stoopin' down aimin' at +somethin', and I jist creeped along a little at a time to see what it +was. Why, what _did_ come over you, Miss Kate, to let that ole har go? +It was the puttiest shot I ever did see." + +"Oh! I couldn't fire at the dear little thing while it was eating so +prettily," said Kate, letting down the hammer of the gun as easily as +she could; "and then he cut up such funny little capers that I came near +laughing right out. I couldn't shoot him while he was so happy, and I'm +glad I didn't do it at all." + +"All right, Miss Kate," said Uncle Braddock, as he started off on his +way through the woods; "that may be a werry pious way to go a-huntin' +but it won't bring you in much meat." + +When Harry came back from hunting for the bee-tree, which he did not +find, he saw Kate walking slowly down the path toward the village, the +gun under her arm, with the muzzle carefully pointed toward the ground. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +A MAN IN A BOAT. + + +On a very pleasant afternoon that fall, a man came down Crooked Creek in +a small flat-bottomed boat. He rowed leisurely, as if he had been rowing +a long distance and felt a little tired. In one end of the boat was a +small trunk. + +As this man, who had red hair, and a red face, and large red hands, +pulled slowly along the creek, turning his head every now and then to +see where he was going, he gradually approached the bridge that crossed +the creek near "One-eyed Lewston's" cabin. Just before he reached the +bridge, he noticed what seemed to him a curious shadow running in a thin +straight line across the water. Resting on his oars, and looking up to +see what there was above him to throw such a shadow, he perceived a +telegraph wire stretching over the creek, and losing itself to sight in +the woods on each side. + +A telegraph wire was an ordinary sight to this man, but this particular +wire seemed to astonish him greatly. + +"What on earth is this?" he asked out loud. But there was no one to +answer him, and so, after puzzling his mind for a few minutes, he rowed +on. + +When that man reached the point in the creek to which he was bound, and, +with his trunk on his shoulder, walked up to the house where he used to +live, he was still more astonished; for a telegraph wire ran through one +corner of the back yard. + +Cousin Maria now lived in this house, and George Mason was coming to pay +her a visit. His appearance was rather a surprise to her, but still she +welcomed him. She was a good soul. + +Almost before he asked her how she was, he put the question to her: + +"What telegraph line's that?" + +So Cousin Maria wiped her hands on her long gingham apron (she had been +washing her best set of china), and she sat down and told him all about +it. + +"You see, George," said she, "that there line was the boys' telegraph +line, afore they sold it to the mica people; and when the boys put it up +they expected to make a heap of money, which I reckon they didn't do, or +else they wouldn't have sold it. But these mica people wanted it, and +they lengthened it at both ends, and bought it of the boys--or rather +of Harry Loudon, for he was the smartest of the lot, and the real owner +of the thing--he and his sister Kate--as far as I could see. And when +they stretched the line over to Hetertown, they came to me and told me +how the line ran along the road most of the way, but that they could +save a lot of time and money (though I don't see how they could save +much of a lot of money when, accordin' to all accounts, the whole line +didn't cost much, bein' just fastened to pine-trees, trimmed off, and if +it had cost much, them boys couldn't have built it, for I reckon the +mica people didn't help 'em a great deal, after all) if I would let them +cut across my grounds with their wire, and I hadn't no objection, +anyway, for the line didn't do no harm up there in the air, and so I +said certainly they might, and they did, and there it is." + +When George Mason heard all this, he walked out of the back-door and +over to the wood-pile, where he got an axe and cut down the pole that +was in Cousin Maria's back yard. And when the pole fell, it broke the +wire, just as Mr. Martin had got to the sixth word of a message he was +sending over to Hetertown. + +Cousin Maria was outraged. + +"George Mason!" said she, "you can stay here as long as you like, and +you can have part of whatever I've got in the house to eat, but I'll +never sit down to the table with you till you've mended that wire and +nailed it to another pole." + +"All right," answered George Mason. "Then I'll eat alone." + +When Mr. Martin and the mica-mine people and the Akeville people and +Harry and Kate and all the boys and everybody black and white heard what +had happened, there was great excitement. It was generally agreed that +something must be done with George Mason. He had no more right to cut +down that pole because he had once lived on the place, than he had to go +and cut down any of the neighbors' beanpoles. + +So the sheriff and some deputy sheriffs, (Tony Kirk among them), and a +constable and a number of volunteer constables, went off after George +Mason, to bring him to justice. + +It was more than a week before they found him, and it is probable that +they would not have captured him at all, had he not persisted in staying +in the neighborhood, so as to be on hand with his axe, in case the line +should be repaired. + +"It's all along of my tellin' him that that line was got up by them +Loudon children," said Cousin Maria. "He hates Mr. Loudon worse than +pisen, because he was the man that found out all his tricks." + +Mason was taken to the court-house and locked up in the jail. Almost all +the people of the county, and some people belonging to adjoining +counties, made up their minds to be at the court-house when his trial +should take place. + +On the second night of his imprisonment, George Mason forced open a +window of his cell and went away. And what was more, he staid away. He +had no desire to be at the court-house when his trial took place. + +No one felt more profound satisfaction when George Mason left the +country, and the telegraph line was once more in working order, than +Harry and Kate. + +They had an idea that if George Mason, should persist in cutting the +telegraph line, the Mica Company would give it up, and that they might +be called upon to refund the money on which Aunt Matilda depended for +support. They had been told that they need not trouble themselves about +this, as the Mica Company had taken all risks; but still they were +delighted when they heard that George Mason had cleared out, and that +there was every reason to suppose that he would not come back. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +AUNT MATILDA'S LETTER. + + +One afternoon, about the end of October, Aunt Matilda was sitting in her +big straight-backed chair, on one side of her fireplace. There was a +wood fire blazing on the hearth, for the days were getting cool and the +old woman liked to be warm. On the other side of the fireplace sat Uncle +Braddock. Sitting on the floor, between the two, were John William +Webster and Dick Ford. In the doorway stood Gregory Montague. He was not +on very good terms with Aunt Matilda, and was rather afraid to come in +all the way. On the bed sat Aunt Judy. + +It must not be supposed that Aunt Matilda was giving a party. Nothing of +the kind. These colored people were not very much engrossed with +business at this time of the year, and as it was not far from +supper-time, and as they all happened to be near Aunt Matilda's cabin +that afternoon, they thought they'd step in and see her. + +"Does any of you uns know," asked Aunt Matilda, "whar Ole Miles is now? +Dey tells me he don't carry de mails no more." + +"No," said John William Webster, who was always quick to speak. "Dey +done stop dat ar. Dey got so many letters up dar at de mica mines, dat +dey send all the big ones to de pos'-office in a bag an' a buggy, and +dey send de little ones ober de telegraph." + +"But whar's Ole Miles?" repeated Aunt Matilda. + +"He's a-doin' jobs up aroun' de mines," said Uncle Braddock. "De las' +time I see him he was a-whitewashin' a fence." + +"Well, I wants to see Ole Miles," said Aunt Matilda. "I wants him to +carry a letter fur me." + +"I'll carry yer letter, Aunt Matilda," said Dick Ford; and Gregory +Montague, anxious to curry favor, as it was rapidly growing near to +ash-cake time, stated in a loud voice that he'd take it "fus thing in de +mornin'." + +"I don' want none o' you uns," said Aunt Matilda. "Ole Miles is used to +carryin' letters, and I wants him to carry my letter. Ef you'd like ter +keep yerse'f out o' mischief, you Greg'ry, you kin go 'long and tell him +I wants him to carry a letter fur me." + +"I'll do that," said Gregory, "fus' thing in de mornin'." + +"Better go 'long now," said Aunt Matilda. + +"Too late now, Aunt Matilda," said Gregory, anxiously. "Couldn't git dar +'fore dark, no how, and he'd be gone away, and I 'spect I couldn't fin' +him." + +"Whar is yer letter?" asked Uncle Braddock. + +"Oh, 'tain't writ yit," said Aunt Matilda. "I wants some o' you uns to +write it fur me. Kin any o' you youngsters write writin'?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said John William Webster. "Greg'ry kin write fus-rate. +He's been ter school mor'n a month." + +"You shet up!" cried Gregory, indignantly. "Ise been to school mor'n +dat. Ise been free or four weeks. And I know'd how to write some 'fore I +went. Mah'sr George teached me." + +"You'd better git Miss Kate to write yer letter," said Aunt Judy. "She'd +spell it out a great sight better dan Gregory Montague, I reckons." + +"No, I don't want Miss Kate to write dis hyar letter. She does enough, +let alone writin' letters fur me. Come 'long hyar, you Greg'ry. Reach up +dar on dat shelf and git dat piece o' paper behin' de 'lasses gourd." + +Gregory obeyed promptly, and pulled out a half-sheet of note-paper from +behind the gourd. The paper had been there a good while, and was rather +yellow-looking. There was also a drop of molasses on one corner of it, +which John William said would do to seal it up with; but Gregory wiped +it carefully off on the leg of his trousers. + +"Now, den," said Aunt Matilda; "sot yerse'f right down dar on de floor. +Git off dat ar smooth board, you Dick, an' let Greg'ry put his paper +dar. I hain't got no pen, but hyar's a pencil Miss Kate lef' one day. But +it ain't got no pint. Ef some of you boys has got a knife, ye kin put a +pint to it." + +Uncle Braddock dived into the recesses of his dressing-gown, and +produced a great jack-knife, with a crooked iron blade and a hickory +handle. + +"Look a-dar!" cried John William Webster. "Uncle Braddock's a-gwine ter +chop de pencil up fur kindlin'-wood." + +"None o' yer laughin' at dis knife," said Uncle Braddock, with a frown. +"I done made dis hyar knife mese'f." + +A better knife, however, was produced by Dick Ford, and the pencil was +sharpened. Then Gregory Montague stretched himself out on the floor, +resting on his elbows, with the paper before him and the pencil in his +hand. + +"Is you ready?" said Aunt Matilda. + +"All right," said Gregory. "Yer can go 'long." + +Aunt Matilda put her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, and +looked into the fire. Gregory and every one else waited quite a while +for her to begin. + +"Ye had better put de number ob de year fus," suggested Uncle Braddock. + +"Well, ye kin put dat," said Aunt Matilda, "while I'm a-workin' out de +letter in my mind." + +There now arose a discussion as to what was the "number of the year." +Aunt Judy knew that the "war" was somewhere along in "sixty," and +thought it must certainly be seventy or eighty by this time; while Uncle +Braddock, who was accustomed to look back a long way, was sure it was +"nigh on to a hun'red." + +Dick Ford, however, although he was not a writer, could read, and had +quite a fancy for spelling out a newspaper, and he asserted that the +year was eighteen hundred and seventy, and so it was put down "180070," +much to the disgust of Uncle Braddock, who did not believe it was so +much. + +"Yer ought to say ef it's before Christ or after Christ," said Aunt +Judy. "Old Mah'sr Truly Mathers 'splained dat to me, 'bout years." + +"Well, then," said Gregory, ready with his pencil, "which is it?" + +Dick Ford happened to know a little on the subject, and so he told +Gregory how he should put down "B. C." for "before Christ," and "A. C." +for "after Christ," and that "A. C." was right for this year. + +This was set down in Gregory's most careful lettering. + +"Dat dar hind letter's got the stumic-ache," said John William Webster, +putting his long finger, black on top and yellow underneath, on the C, +which was rather doubled up. + +Nobody thought of the month or the day, and so the letter was considered +dated. + +"Now, den," said Gregory, "who's it to?" + +"Jist never you mind who's it to," answered Aunt Matilda. "I know, an' +that's enough to know." + +"But you've got to put de name on de back," said Aunt Judy, anxiously. + +"Dat's so," said Uncle Braddock, with equal anxiety. + +"No, I hain't," remarked Aunt Matilda. "I'll tell Ole Miles who to take +it to. Put down for de fus' thing: + +"'Ise been thinkin' fur a long time dat I oughter to write about dis +hyar matter, and I s'pose you is the right one to write to.'" + +"What matter's dat?" asked Aunt Judy. + +"Neber you mind," replied Aunt Matilda. + +Slowly and painfully, Gregory printed this sentence, with Dick Ford +close on one side of him; with John William's round, woolly head stuck +almost under his chin; with Uncle Braddock leaning over him from his +chair; and Aunt Judy standing, peering down upon him from behind. + +"Dat's wrong," said Dick Ford, noticing that Gregory had written the +last words thus: "rite 1 ter rite 2." "She don't want no figgers." + +"What did she say 'em fur, den?" asked Gregory. + +"Now, Greg'ry," said Aunt Matilda, "put down dis: + + "'I don't want to make no trouble, and I wouldn't do nothin' to + trouble dem chillen; but Ise been a-waitin' a good long while now, + and I been thinkin' I'd better write an' see 'bout it.'" + +"What you want to see 'bout?" asked Aunt Judy, quickly. + +"Neber you min' what it is," replied Aunt Matilda. "Go on, you Greg'ry, +and put down: + + "'Dat money o' mine was reel money, and when I put it in, I thought + I'd git it back ag'in afore dis.'" + +"How much was it, Aunt Matilda?" asked Uncle Braddock, while Aunt Judy +opened her eyes and her mouth, simply because she could not open her +ears any wider than they were. + +"Dat's none o' your business," replied Aunt Matilda. "Now put down: + + "'I 'spect dem telegram fixin's cost a lot o' money, but I don't + 'spect it's jist right to take all an ole woman's money to build + 'em.'" + +"Lor's _ee_!" ejaculated Uncle Braddock, "dat's so!" + +"Now you Greg'ry," continued Aunt Matilda, "put down: + + "'Ef you write me a letter 'bout dat ar money, you kin giv it to Ole + Miles.' + +Now sign my name to dat ar letter." + +The next day, having been summoned by the obliging Gregory, Old Miles +made his appearance in Aunt Matilda's cabin. + +The old woman explained to him that the letter was so important that she +could trust it to no one who was not accustomed to carry letters, and +Miles was willing and proud to exercise his skill for her benefit. + +"Now, den," said she; "take dis hyar letter to de man what works de +telegrum in Hetertown, and fotch me back an answer." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +TIME TO STOP. + + +About a week after this letter was written, Kate said to Harry: + +"You really ought to have Aunt Matilda's roof mended. There are several +holes in it. I think her house ought to be made tight and warm before +winter; don't you?" + +"Certainly," said Harry. "I'll get some shingles and nail them over the +holes to-morrow." + +The next day was Saturday, and a rainy day. About ten o'clock Harry went +to Aunt Matilda's cabin with his shingles and a hammer and nails. Kate +walked over with him. + +To their surprise they found the old woman in bed. + +"Why, what is the matter, Aunt Matilda?" asked Kate. "Are you sick?" + +"No, honey, I isn't sick," said the old woman; "but somehow or other I +don't keer to git up. Ise mighty comfurt'ble jist as I is." + +"But you ought to have your breakfast," said Kate. "What is this basin +of water doing on the foot of your bed?" + +"Oh, don't 'sturb dat ar tin basin," said Aunt Matilda. "Dat's to ketch +der rain. Dar's a hole right ober de foot o' de bed." + +"But you won't want that now," said Kate. "Harry's going to nail +shingles over all the holes in your roof." + +"An' fall down an' break his neck. He needn't do no sich foolishness. +Dat ar tin basin's did me fur years in and years out, and I neber kicked +it ober yit. Dere's no use a-mendin' holes dis time o' day." + +"It's a very good time of day," said Harry, who was standing in the +door; "and it isn't raining now. You used to have a ladder here, Aunt +Matilda. If you'll tell me where it is, I can mend that hole over your +bed without getting on the roof at all." + +"Jist you keep away from de roof," said the old woman. "Ef you go +hammerin' on dat ole roof you'll have it all down on me head. I don't +want no mendin' dis time o' day." + +Finding that Aunt Matilda was so much opposed to any carpenter-work on +her premises at that time, Harry went home, while Kate remained to get +the old woman some breakfast. + +Aunt Matilda felt better that afternoon, and she sat up and ate her +supper with Uncle Braddock (who happened to be there); but as she was +evidently feeling the effects of her great age, an arrangement was made, +by which Aunt Judy gave up her cabin and came to live with Aunt Matilda +and take care of her. + +One morning, about a week after the rainy Saturday, Mrs. Loudon came +over to see Aunt Matilda. She found the old woman lying on the bed, and +evidently worried about something. + +"You see, Miss Mary," said Aunt Matilda, "Ise kind o' disturbed in me +min'. I rit a letter a long time ago, and Ole Miles ain't fetched me no +answer yit, and it sorter worries me." + +"I didn't know you could write," said Mrs. Loudon, somewhat surprised. + +"Neither I kin," said Aunt Matilda. "I jist got dat Greg'ry Montague to +write it fur me, and dear knows what he put in it." + +"Who was your letter to, Aunt Matilda?" asked Mrs. Loudon. + +"I do' know his name, but he works de telegrum at Hetertown. An' I do' +min' tellin' you 'bout it, Miss Mary, ef you do' worry dem chillen. De +letter was 'bout my money in de telegrum comp'ny. Dat was reel silber +money, an' I hain't heerd nor seed nothin' of it sence." + +When Mrs. Loudon went home she told Harry and Kate of Aunt Matilda's +troubles. + +Neither of them said anything at the time, but Harry put on his hat and +went up to the store, while Kate sat down to her sewing. + +After a while, she said: + +"I think, mother, it's pretty hard in Aunt Matilda, after all we've done +for her, to think of nothing but the ten cents she put into the stock of +the company." + +"It is perfectly natural," said Mrs. Loudon. "That ten cents was her own +private property, and no matter how small a private property may be, it +is of greater interest to the owner than any other property in the +world. To be sure, the money that was paid for the telegraph line is for +Aunt Matilda's benefit, but you and Harry have the management and the +spending of it. But that ten cents was all her own, and she could spend +it just as she chose." + +The next day Kate went over to Aunt Matilda with two silver ten-cent +pieces that Harry had got from Mr. Darby. + +"Aunt Matilda," said she, "this is not the very same ten-cent piece you +put into the company, but it's just as good; and Harry thinks that you +have about doubled your money, and so here's another one." + +The old woman, who was sitting alone by the fire wrapped up in a shawl, +took the money, and putting it in the hollow of her bony hand, gazed at +it with delight. + +Then she looked up at Kate. + +"You is good chillen," she said. "You is mighty good chillen. I don't +'spect I'll lib much longer in dis hyar world. Ise so precious old dat +it's 'bout time to stop. But I don't 'spects I'll find nobody in heben +that'll be more reel comfort to me dan you chillen." + +"Oh Aunt Matilda!" cried Kate. "Why, you'll meet all your friends and +relations that you talk so much about and who died so long ago." + +"Well," said Aunt Matilda, very deliberately, "perhaps I shall, and +perhaps I sha'n't; dere's no tellin'. But dere ain't no mistakin' 'bout +you chillen." + +That afternoon, when Uncle Braddock called, Aunt Matilda said to him: + +"Ef you see Ole Miles ye kin tell him he needn't bring me no answer to +dat letter." + +Very early one morning, a few days after this, Kate went over to Aunt +Matilda's cabin. + +She saw Aunt Judy standing at the door. + +"How's Aunt Matilda?" asked Kate. + +"Gone to glory," said Aunt Judy. + +Aunt Matilda was buried under a birch-tree near the church that she used +to attend when able to walk. + +That portion of her "fund" which remained unexpended at the time of her +death was used to pay her funeral expenses and to erect a suitable +tombstone over her grave. On the stone was an inscription. Harry +composed it, and Kate copied it carefully for the stonecutter. + +And thus, after much hard labor and anxious thought, after many +disappointments and a great deal of discouragement, Harry and Kate +performed to the end the generous task they had set themselves, which +was just what might have been expected of such a boy and such a girl. + +THE END. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +1. Punctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards. + +2. Typographic errors corrected from original: + p. 13 "find" to "fine" ("fine head for mathematics") + p. 63 "Mr. Mr." to "Mr." ("pacify Mr. Matthews") + p. 78 "hubhub" to "hubbub" ("heard above the hubbub") + p. 96 "grumly" to "grimly" ("said Aunt Matilda, grimly") + p. 129 "buiness" to "business" ("business should not be diverted") + p. 181 "or" to "for" ("for it was quite evident") + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's What Might Have Been Expected, by Frank R. 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