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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+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: Reels and Spindles
+       A Story of Mill Life
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+Illustrator: Frank T. Merrill
+
+Release Date: December 25, 2008 [EBook #27613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REELS AND SPINDLES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES
+
+_A Story of Mill Life_
+
+BY
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST," "A LITTLE LADY OF THE HORSE," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK T. MERRILL
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+BOSTON AND CHICAGO
+W. A. WILDE COMPANY
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1900,
+BY W. A. WILDE COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES.
+
+
+[Illustration: "SHE PULLED A BOOK FROM HER POCKET AND BEGAN TO READ."]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It was love for others which made Amy Kaye make use of the first
+opportunity which offered, even though it was an humble one and she was
+handicapped by ignorance. But having once decided what course was right
+for her, she followed it with a singleness of purpose and a thoroughness
+of effort which brought a prompt success. The help she was to others was
+no small part of this success. For in an age of shams and low ideals the
+influence of even one sincere girl is far-reaching; and when to that
+sincerity she adds the sympathy which makes another's interests as vital
+to her as her own, this influence becomes incalculable for good.
+
+It is the author's hope that the story of "Reels and Spindles" may aid
+some young readers to comprehend and make their own this beauty of
+simplicity and this charm of sympathy which are the outcome of
+unselfishness.
+
+E. R.
+
+BALTIMORE, April 3, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+      I. A BYWAY OF THE ARDSLEY                     11
+
+     II. THE MILL IN THE GLEN                       23
+
+    III. FAIRACRES                                  33
+
+     IV. HALLAM                                     47
+
+      V. A KINSMAN OF THE HOUSE                     60
+
+     VI. SETTLEMENTS                                70
+
+    VII. THE "SPITE HOUSE" OF BAREACRE              82
+
+   VIII. NEEDS AND HELPERS                          93
+
+     IX. THE WATERLOO OF BONAPARTE LAFAYETTE       105
+
+      X. HOME-MAKING                               117
+
+     XI. THE YOUNG OLD MAN AND OLD YOUNG GIRL      130
+
+    XII. BAD NEWS FROM BURNSIDE                    142
+
+   XIII. AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL                  154
+
+    XIV. PEPITA FINDS A NEW HOME                   167
+
+     XV. FACING HARD FACTS                         181
+
+    XVI. AMY BEGINS TO SPIN                        192
+
+   XVII. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BALAAM               210
+
+  XVIII. THE FASCINATION OF INDUSTRY               224
+
+    XIX. MOTIVES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS             236
+
+     XX. IN THE OLD HOME                           248
+
+    XXI. A PECULIAR INVITATION                     264
+
+   XXII. TWO WANDERERS RETURN                      279
+
+  XXIII. FREDERIC KAYE'S WELCOME HOME              292
+
+   XXIV. FAIRACRES IS CLOSED                       304
+
+    XXV. MYSTERIES AND MASTERIES                   315
+
+   XXVI. A PICNIC IN THE GLEN                      324
+
+  XXVII. A DOUBLE INHERITANCE IN A SINGLE DAY      333
+
+ XXVIII. ONE WONDERFUL AUTUMN DAY                  345
+
+   XXIX. CONCLUSION                                363
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                             PAGE
+"She pulled a book from her pocket and began to
+read"                                           _Frontispiece_ 12
+
+"'Take care! You'll drop sperm on the rug, tipping
+that candlestick so!'"                                         68
+
+"'Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita'"           173
+
+"She so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound
+it with the lotions"                                          262
+
+"He began to gather up the coins"                             334
+
+
+
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A BYWAY OF THE ARDSLEY.
+
+
+The white burro had a will of her own. So, distinctly, had her mistress.
+As had often happened, these two wills conflicted.
+
+For the pair had come to a point where three ways met. Pepita wanted to
+ascend the hill, by a path she knew, to stable and supper. Amy wished to
+follow a descending road, which she did not know, into the depths of the
+forest. Neither inclined toward the safe middle course, straight onward
+through the village, now picturesque in the coloring of a late September
+day.
+
+"No, Pepita. You must obey me. If I'm not firm this time, you'll act
+worse the next. To the right, amiable beastie!"
+
+Both firmness and sarcasm were wasted. The burro rigidly planted her
+forefeet in the dust and sorrowfully dropped her head.
+
+Amy tugged at the bridle.
+
+"Pepita! To--the--right! Go on. In your native Californian--_Vamos!_"
+
+The "Californian" budged not, but posed, an image of dejection. The
+happiness of life had departed; the tale of her woe seemed pictured in
+every hair of her thickly coated body; she was a broken-hearted donkey.
+
+Amy Kaye was neither broken-hearted nor broken-spirited, and she was
+wholly comfortable. Her saddle was soft and fitted well. The air was
+delightful. She pulled a book from her pocket and began to read. In five
+minutes she was so absorbed that she had forgotten Pepita's little
+mannerisms.
+
+After a while the "Californian" moved her head just enough to gain a
+corner-wise glimpse of a calm and unresponsive face beneath a scarlet
+Tam; and evidently realizing that she had become a mere support to the
+maid who owned her, uttered her protest.
+
+"Bra-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-umph--umph--mph--ph--h!"
+
+Amy read on.
+
+Pepita changed her tactics. She began to double herself together in a
+fashion disconcerting to most riders; whereupon Amy simply drew her own
+limbs up out of harm's way and waited for the burro's anatomy to settle
+itself in a heap on the ground.
+
+"All right, honey."
+
+Then she resumed her book, and the beast her meditations. Thus they
+remained until the rumble of an approaching wagon caused the now
+submissive animal to rise and move aside out of the road.
+
+Again Amy tested the bridle, and found that she might now ride whither
+she pleased.
+
+"Is it so, beloved? Well, then, that's right; and when you do right
+because I make you, it is one lump of sugar. Open your mouth. Here. But,
+Pepita, when you do right without compulsion, there are always two
+lumps. Into the forest--go!"
+
+Pepita went. Suddenly, swiftly, and so recklessly that Amy nearly slid
+over her head.
+
+"Very well! What suits you suits me. I'm as good a sticker-on as you are
+a shaker-off. Besides, a word in your ear. It would be quite the proper,
+story-book sort of thing for you to try and break my neck, as a
+punishment, since I'm almost running away."
+
+Though she had always lived within a few miles of the spot the girl had
+never before visited it. That she did so now, without knowledge of
+anybody at home, gave her a sense of daring, almost of danger, as new as
+it was fascinating. True, she had not been forbidden, simply because
+nobody had thought of her wandering so far afield; yet the habit of her
+life had been such as to make anything out of the common seem strange,
+even wrong.
+
+"However, since I'm here, I'll see what there is to see and tell them
+all about it afterward--that is, if they will care to hear," she ended
+her remark to the burro with a sigh, and for a bit forgot her
+surroundings. Then she rallied, and with the spirit of an explorer,
+peered curiously into all the delightful nooks and corners which
+presented; not observing that the road grew steadily more steep and
+rough, nor that Pepita's feet slipped and stumbled, warningly, among the
+loose stones, which were so hidden by fallen leaves that Amy could not
+see them. Along the sides, seasoning at convenient intervals, were rows
+of felled timber, gay with a summer's growth of woodbine and clematis,
+now ripened to scarlet and silvery white.
+
+Amy was an artist's daughter. At every turn her trained eye saw
+wonderful "bits" of pictures, and she exclaimed to Pepita:--
+
+"If father were only here! See that great rock with its gray-green
+lichens and its trailing crimson tendrils! Just that on a tiny canvas,
+say six by eight or, even, eight by twelve, how it would brighten
+mother's room!"
+
+The "Californian" kicked the leaves impatiently. She had no eye for
+"bits" of anything less material than sugar, and she had long since
+finished her one lump; she was tired of travelling in the wrong
+direction, with her head much lower than her heels, and she suddenly
+stopped.
+
+It was quite time. Another step forward would have sent them tobogganing
+into a brawling stream. With a shiver of fear Amy realized this.
+
+"O-oh! Oh! You knew best, after all! You wouldn't come till I made you;
+and now--how shall we get out! Hark! What's that?"
+
+The burro had already pricked up her ears. There was a shout from
+somewhere.
+
+Amy managed to slide off and fling herself flat against the slope. When
+she tried to climb back to a less dangerous spot the twigs she clutched
+broke in her hands and the rocks cut her flesh. The adventure which had
+been fascinating was fast becoming frightful.
+
+"Hil-loa! Hil-l-loa!"
+
+Clinging desperately to the undergrowth, she managed to move her head
+and look down. Far below in the ravine somebody was waving a white
+cloth.
+
+"Hilloa, up there!"
+
+She was too terrified to speak; yet, after the salute had reached her
+several times, she dared to loose one hand and wave a returning signal.
+
+"You--just--hold on! I'll come--and get--you!"
+
+As "holding on" was all that either Amy or Pepita could do just then,
+they obeyed, perforce; although, presently, the burro had scrambled to a
+narrow ledge, whence she could see the whole descent and from which, if
+left to herself, she would doubtless have found a way into the valley.
+
+They clung and waited for so long that the girl grew confused; then
+tried to rally her own courage by addressing the "Californian."
+
+"It's so--so absurd--I mean, awful! If that man doesn't come soon, I
+shall surely fall. My fingers ache so, and I'm slipping.
+I--am--slipping! Ah!"
+
+Fortunately, her rescuer was near. He had worked his way upward on all
+fours, his bare feet clinging securely where shoe-soles would have been
+useless. He approached without noise, save of breaking twigs, until he
+was close beside them, when Pepita concluded it was time to bid him
+welcome.
+
+"Br-r-r-ray! A-humph! A-humph--umph--mph--ph--h!"
+
+The climber halted suddenly.
+
+"Sho-o!"
+
+Also startled, Amy lost her hold and shot downward straight into the
+arms of the stranger, who seized her, croaking in her ear:--
+
+"Hilloa! What you up to? Can't you wait a minute?"
+
+Then, with a strong grasp of her clothing, he wriggled himself sidewise
+along the bank to a spot where the rock gave place to earth and shrubs.
+
+"Now catch your breath and let her go!"
+
+The girl might have screamed, but she had no time. Instantly, she was
+again sliding downward, with an ever-increasing momentum, toward
+apparent destruction, yet landing finally upon a safe and mossy place;
+past which, for a brief space, the otherwhere rough stream flowed
+placidly. She caught the hum of happy insects and the moist sweet odor
+of growing ferns, then heard another rush and tumble. But she was as yet
+too dazed to look up or realize fresh peril, before Pepita and the other
+stood beside her.
+
+"Sho! That beats--huckleberries!"
+
+Amy struggled to her feet. She had never heard a voice like that, which
+began a sentence with mighty volume and ended it in a whisper. She
+stared at the owner curiously, and with a fresh fear. "He looks as queer
+as his voice," she thought.
+
+She was right. His physique was as grotesque as his attire; which
+consisted of a white oilskin blouse, gayly bordered with the national
+colors, trousers of the most aggressive blue, and a helmet-shaped hat,
+adorned by a miniature battle-axe, while a tiny broom was strapped upon
+his shoulders.
+
+"Huh! pretty, ain't I? The boys gave 'em to me."
+
+"Did--they?"
+
+"Yes. You needn't be scared. I shan't hurt you. I'm a Rep-Dem-Prob."
+
+"Ah, indeed?"
+
+"Yes. I march with the whole kerboodle. I tell you, it's fun."
+
+It was "Presidential year," and Amy began to understand, not only that
+the lad before her was a "natural," but, presumably, that he had been
+made the victim of village wit. She had heard of the "marching bands,"
+and inferred that the strange dress of her rescuer was made up by
+fragments from rival political uniforms.
+
+"Yes. I'm out every night. Hurrah for Clevey-Harris!"
+
+"You must get very tired."
+
+"No. It's fun. I drag the gun carriage. That's on account o' my
+strength. Look a' there for an arm!" And he thrust out his illy
+proportioned limb with a pitiable pride.
+
+"I see. But now that you've helped me down the bank, will you as kindly
+show me the way home?"
+
+"Never slid that way before, did you? Only thing, though. I'll show you
+all right if you'll let me ride your donkey. Funny, ain't she? Make her
+talk."
+
+"I think she's very pretty; and you may ride her, certainly, if she will
+let you."
+
+A puzzled and angry expression came over the youth's face as he looked
+toward the burro, who had already begun to make hay for herself out of
+the lush grasses bordering the Ardsley.
+
+"Make her talk, I say."
+
+"She'll do that only to please herself. She's rather self-willed, and
+besides--"
+
+"Who do _you_ march with?"
+
+"March? _March!_ I?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why, nobody. Of course not. Why should you think it?"
+
+The lad scrutinized her dress and gazed abstractedly upon the white
+"Californian." Just then, a "parade" was the dominant idea in the poor
+fellow's limited intelligence. Amy's simple white flannel frock, with
+its scarlet sash, and the scarlet cap upon her dark curls, suggested
+only another "uniform." The girls with whose appearance he was familiar
+were not so attired.
+
+Neither did they ride upon white donkeys. Yet a donkey of venerable and
+unhappy appearance did nightly help to swell the ranks of the country's
+patriots, and the beast which he knew enjoyed a sort of honor: it drew
+an illuminated "float" wherein rode a greatly envied fifer.
+
+"What makes you ask that?" again demanded Amy, now laughing; for she had
+just imagined what her mother's face would express, should her daughter
+become a part of a "parade."
+
+"Oh! because."
+
+Pepita now took share in the conversation. "Br-r-rr-a-y! Ah-huh-um-umph!
+Ah-umph--u-m-ph--ah-umph--umph--mph--ph--h-h-h!" she observed.
+
+Never was a remark more felicitous. The lad threw himself down on the
+grass, laughing boisterously. Amy joined, in natural reaction from her
+former fear, and even the "Californian" helped on the fun by observing
+them with an absurdly injured expression.
+
+"She is funny, I admit; though she is as nothing compared to her
+brother Balaam. If you like that kind of music, you should hear their
+duet about breakfast time. Which is the shortest way to some real road?"
+
+"Come on. I'll show you."
+
+"Thank you; and, you are so tall, would you mind getting me that bunch
+of yellow leaves--just there? They are so very, very lovely I'd like to
+take them home to put in father's studio."
+
+"What's that? Where's it at? Who are you, anyhow?"
+
+"Amy Kaye."
+
+"I'm 'Bony,'--Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson. Who's he?"
+
+"My father is Cuthbert Kaye, the artist. Maybe you know him. He is
+always discovering original people."
+
+The speech was out before she realized that it was not especially
+flattering. Her father liked novel models, and she had imagined how her
+new acquaintance would look as a "study." Then she reflected that the
+lad was not as pleasing as he was "original."
+
+"No. I don't know him. He don't live in the village, I 'low?"
+
+"Of course not. We live at Fairacres. It has been our home, our family's
+home, for two hundred years."
+
+"Sho! You don't look it. An' you needn't get mad, if it has. I ain't
+made you mad, have I? I'd like to ride that critter. I'd like to, first
+rate."
+
+Amy flushed, ashamed of her indignation against such an unfortunate
+object, and replied:--
+
+"I'd like to have you 'first rate,' too, if Pepita is willing. You get
+on her back and show me which way to go, and I'll try to make her behave
+well. I have some sugar left. That turning? All right. See, Pepita,
+pretty Pepita! Smell what's in my fingers, amiable. Then follow me, and
+we'll see what--we shall see."
+
+"Bony" was much impressed by Amy's stratagem of walking ahead of the
+burro with the lump of sugar held temptingly just beyond reach. For the
+girl knew that the "Californian" would pursue the enticing titbit to the
+sweetest end.
+
+Yet this end seemed long in coming. For more than a mile their path lay
+close to the water's edge, through bogs and upon rocks, over rough and
+smooth, with the bluff rising steeply on their right and the stream
+preventing their crossing to the farm lands on its left. But at length
+they emerged upon a wider level and a view that was worth walking far to
+see.
+
+Here the lad dismounted. He was so much too large for the beast he
+bestrode that he had been obliged to hold his feet up awkwardly, while
+riding. Besides, deep in his clouded heart there had arisen a desire to
+please this girl who so pleased him.
+
+"Hmm. If you like leaves, there's some that's pretty," he said, pointing
+upward toward a brilliant branch, hanging far out above the stream.
+
+"Yes, those are exquisite, but quite out of reach. We can get on faster
+now; and tell me, please, what are all those buildings yonder? How
+picturesque they look, clustered amid the trees on the river's bank."
+
+Her answer was a rustle overhead. She fancied that a squirrel could not
+have climbed more swiftly; for, glancing up, she discovered the witless
+youth already upon the projecting branch, moving toward its slender
+tips, which swayed beneath his weight, threatening instant breakage.
+Below him roared the rapids, hurrying to dash over the great dam not
+many yards away.
+
+"Oh! how dare you? Come back--at once!"
+
+"Scare you, do I? Sho! This is nothing. You just ought to see what I can
+do. Catch 'em. There you are. That's prettier than any. Hello! Yonder's
+a yellow-robin's nest. Wait. I'll get it for you!"
+
+Amy shut her eyes that she might not see; though she could not but hear
+the snapping of boughs, the yell, and the heavy splash which followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE MILL IN THE GLEN.
+
+
+"Hi! ducked myself that time, sure!"
+
+Amy ventured to open her eyes. There, dripping and grinning, evidently
+enjoying the fright he had given her, stood her strange new
+acquaintance. His hand still clutched the scarlet branch with its
+swinging nest that he had risked his safety to secure, nor would
+relinquish for so trivial a matter as a fall into the water.
+
+"You--you might have been drowned!"
+
+"But I wasn't."
+
+"I should have felt that it was all my fault!" she exclaimed, now that
+her fear was past, growing angry at his hardihood.
+
+He stared at her in genuine surprise; all the gayety of his expression
+giving place to disappointment.
+
+"Don't you like it? They always build far out."
+
+"Oh, yes. It's beautiful, and I thank you, of course. But I want to get
+home. You must show me the way."
+
+"Make the donkey carry 'em."
+
+"Very well."
+
+So they piled the branches upon the back of the dumbly protesting
+"Californian," Amy retaining the delicate nest and gently shaking the
+water from it.
+
+"She don't like 'em, does she?"
+
+"Not at all. Idle Pepita likes nothing that is labor. But I love her,
+even though she's lazy."
+
+"What'll you take for her?"
+
+"Why--nothing."
+
+"Won't swop?"
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh! dozens of 'whys.' The idea of my selling Pepita! For one thing, she
+was a gift."
+
+"Who from?"
+
+"My uncle Frederic."
+
+"When? Where? What for?"
+
+"Oh! what a question asker. Come, Pepit! Tcht!"
+
+Shaking her body viciously, but unable to rid herself of her brilliant
+burden, the burro started swiftly along the footpath running toward the
+distant buildings, and over the little bridge that crossed just there.
+Both path and bridge were worn smooth by the feet of the operatives from
+the mills, which interested Amy more and more, the nearer she approached
+them. Once or twice, on some rare outing among the hills where her home
+lay, she had caught glimpses of their roofs and chimneys, and she
+remembered to have asked some questions about them; but her father had
+answered her so indifferently, even shortly, that she had learned
+little.
+
+Seen from this point they impressed her by contrast to all she had ever
+known. There was a whirl and stir of life about them that excited and
+thrilled her. Through the almost numberless windows, wide open to the
+air, she could see hundreds of busy people moving to and fro, in a sort
+of a rhythmic measure with the pulsating engines.
+
+As yet she did not know what these engines were. She heard the mighty
+beat and rumble, regular, unchanging, like a gigantic heart of which
+this many-storied structure was the enclosing body; and she slowly
+advanced, fascinated, and quite heedless of some staring eyes which
+regarded her curiously from those wide windows.
+
+A discontented bray and the touch of a hand upon her shoulder suddenly
+recalled her, to observe that she had reached the bottom of a steep
+stairway, and was face to face with another stranger.
+
+"Beg pardon, but can I be of service to you?"
+
+"Oh! sir. Thank you. I--I don't know just where I am."
+
+"In the yard of the Crawford carpet mill."
+
+"Is that the wonderful building yonder?"
+
+"Yes. Have you never seen it before?"
+
+"Not at near hand. I am here by accident. I was lost on the river bank,
+a long distance back, and a strange lad helped me so far. I don't see
+him now, and I'm rather frightened about him, for he fell into the
+water, getting me this nest. He doesn't act just like other people, I
+think."
+
+"No. Poor 'Bony'! He has run up into the street above us, yet even he
+knew better than to have brought you just here," and he glanced
+significantly toward a large sign of "No Admittance."
+
+"Is it wrong? I'm very sorry. I'll go away at once, when I'm shown how."
+
+Gazing about, her perplexity became almost distress; for she found
+herself shut in a little space by buildings of varying heights. Behind
+her lay the difficult route over which she had come, and on the east
+uprose a steep bank or bluff. Against this was placed a nearly
+perpendicular sort of ladder, and this steep stair was the only visible
+outlet from the ravine.
+
+The gentleman smiled at her dismay.
+
+"Oh, that isn't as bad as it looks. I fancy you could easily climb it,
+as do our own mill girls; but this pretty beast of yours, with the
+fanciful burden, how about him?"
+
+"I don't know. She might. She's right nimble-footed--when she chooses to
+be."
+
+"So 'he' is a young lady, too? Well, I have great faith in girls, even
+girl donkeys, as well as in those who own them. There will certainly be
+a way out; if not up the bank, then through the mill. By the by, if
+you've never visited such a place, and have come to it 'by accident,'
+wouldn't you like to go through it now? I'm the superintendent, William
+Metcalf, and am just about to make my rounds, before we shut down for
+the night. I'd be pleased to show you about, though we must first find a
+safe place where we can tie your donkey. She looks very intelligent."
+
+"Oh, indeed, sir, she is! She's the dearest burro. She and her brother
+Balaam were sent to my brother and me from California. Her name is
+Pepita, and I am Amy Kaye. I live at Fairacres."
+
+At this announcement the gentleman looked as if he were about to
+whistle, though courtesy prevented. He bowed gravely:--
+
+"I'm very glad to know you. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll find
+something with which to tie the burro."
+
+He soon returned, bringing a leather strap.
+
+"We'll fasten her to the stair, but it will be better to put these
+branches on the ground. Having them on her back frets her."
+
+"Thank you. You're very kind."
+
+Pepita did not endorse this opinion. In the matter of tying she gave
+them all the trouble she could, and allowed them to depart only after a
+most indignant bray. Her racket brought various heads to the windows,
+and the visitors were as much of interest to the artisans as themselves
+were to Amy.
+
+She followed her guide eagerly, too self-unconscious to be abashed by
+any stare; and though he had shown many strangers "over the works," he
+felt that explaining things to this bright-eyed girl would be a
+pleasanter task than ordinary.
+
+"I like to begin all things at the foundation," he remarked, with a
+smile, "so we'll go to the fire-room first."
+
+This was down another short flight of steps, and over a bridge spanning
+the race, which deep, dark watercourse immediately caught Amy's
+attention.
+
+"How smooth and swift it looks; and so black. Isn't that man afraid to
+stand there?" indicating a workman stationed upon the sluice gate,
+engaged in the endless task of raking fallen leaves away from the rack.
+
+"Oh, no! not afraid! The work is monotonous, but it must be done, or
+there'll be the mischief to pay. Now, here are the fires."
+
+A soot-grimed man approached the door of the furnace room, and
+respectfully touched his forehead to his superior, then glanced toward
+Amy.
+
+"I'm afeared the little lady will soil her pretty frock," he remarked,
+with another pull at his forelock.
+
+"Thank you for thinking of it. I'll try to be careful," she answered,
+tiptoeing across the earthen floor, to stoop and peer into the roaring
+furnaces. "I should be afraid it would burn the whole place up. How hot
+it is! Is it all right?"
+
+"Yes; they're doing prime to-day. We takes care of the danger, miss.
+But hot? Well, you should ought to be here about midsummer, say. Ah!
+this isn't bad, is it, boss?"
+
+"Very comfortable. You like your job, eh, Ben?"
+
+"Sure; it's a good one. Steady, an' wages regular. Good day, miss,
+you're welcome, I'm sure," he concluded, as she thanked him again for
+opening the furnace doors and explaining how it was he managed the great
+fires.
+
+"Now, the engine room; to see the object of all that heat," said Mr.
+Metcalf.
+
+"If only Hallam were here!" exclaimed Amy.
+
+"Is he your brother?"
+
+"Yes. Oh! it all seems just like fairyland; even better, for this is
+useful, while fairyland is merely pleasant."
+
+"Then you deem useful things of more account than pleasant ones? Hmm;
+most young ladies who have visited us have seemed afraid rather than
+pleased. The whir of the machinery frightened them."
+
+"It frightens me, too, and yet--I like it. The power of it all awes me."
+
+"Well, your enthusiasm is certainly agreeable."
+
+Nor was he the only one who found it so. Even the usually silent workmen
+in the fireproof storehouse, where the bales of wool were piled to the
+ceiling with little aisles of passage between, were moved to explanation
+by the alert, inquiring glances of this dainty visitor. So she quickly
+learned the difference between Turkish and Scottish fleeces, and
+remarked to her guide on the oddity of the sorted ones, "that look just
+like whole sheepskins, legs and tail and all, with the skins left out."
+In the scouring room she saw the wool washing and passing forward
+through the long tanks of alkaline baths; and in the "willying" house
+her lungs were filled by the dust that the great machines cleaned from
+the freshly dried fleeces. Indeed, she would have lingered long before
+the big chute, through which compressed air forced the cleansed fibres
+to the height of four stories and the apartment where began its real
+manufacture into yarn.
+
+Mr. Metcalf took her next to this top floor; and though the deafening
+noise of the machinery made her own voice sound queerly in her ears, she
+managed to ask so many questions, that before she again reached the
+ground floor and passed outward to the impatient Pepita, she had gained
+a clear general idea how some sorts of carpets are made.
+
+"And now, Miss Amy, that our little tour is over, I'd like to hear what,
+of all you've seen, has most impressed you," said Mr. Metcalf, kindly.
+
+"The girls."
+
+"The--girls? In the spinning room?"
+
+"Everywhere; all of them. They are so clean, so jolly, and--think! They
+are actually earning money."
+
+"Of course; else they wouldn't be here. Does it strike you oddly that a
+girl should earn her own living?"
+
+"I think it's grand."
+
+"Hmm. You caught but a fleeting glimpse of them. There's a deal of
+reality in their lives, poor things."
+
+"Why! Are you sorry for them?"
+
+"No,--and yes. They haven't much leisure, and I dare say that you are an
+object of envy to every mill girl who has seen you to-day."
+
+"Oh! I hope not. I liked them so. It seems so fine to really earn some
+of the money which everybody needs so much, just by standing before one
+of those 'jennies' and doing what little they did. They laughed often,
+as if they were glad. Nobody looked sorrowful, so I don't see why you
+pity them."
+
+"It may be misplaced, for, after all, they _are_ happy in their way. I
+do not think it is always the best way; still--Why, here's 'Bony.' Well,
+young man, what mischief's up now? Do you march again to-night?"
+
+"No. I'm going with her."
+
+"Best wait till you're invited," suggested the superintendent.
+
+The lad said nothing, but kept on tying into a compact bundle all the
+branches heaped upon the ground, and to which he had made a considerable
+addition during Amy's inspection of the mill. He had begged a bit of
+rope from the office in the street above; and when he had secured the
+boughs to his satisfaction, he slung them across his shoulder.
+
+"Come on. I'll pack 'em for you to where you live."
+
+He seemed none the worse for his fall into the water, and Amy laughed;
+not only at the readiness with which he constituted himself her
+assistant, but also at Pepita's frantic efforts to ascend the steep
+stairway.
+
+"Thank you. But if we can get her up there, above, she can carry the
+stuff herself. I can walk, when I am told the road."
+
+"Up she goes she!" shouted the startling Lafayette, and gave the
+unprepared burro a sharp prod with a stick he held.
+
+Astonished, Pepita leaped to escape the attack and landed her forefeet
+upon the fourth stair.
+
+"Hi! There you be! You're a regular Rep-Dem-Prob! Up you go--I tell
+you!"
+
+"Oh! you dreadful boy!" exclaimed Amy, and tried to take the stick from
+the fellow's hand.
+
+"Don't. He isn't hurting her, and she _is_ going up!" laughed the
+superintendent, as the burro made another skyward spring. But his
+merriment suddenly ceased.
+
+The "Californian" could use her nimble feet for more than one purpose.
+She resented the indignity of her present position in the only manner
+possible to her, and when a third prod touched her dainty flesh, she
+flung one heel backward, with an airy readiness that might have been
+funny save for its result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FAIRACRES.
+
+
+"How dreadful! Is he killed?" cried Amy, pale with fear.
+
+For the indignant Pepita had planted her active hoof squarely in the
+mouth of the lad who was tormenting her, and had knocked him backward
+from the stair. During a brief time he lay, dazed by the blow, with a
+trickle of blood rapidly staining his features.
+
+"Wait. Don't get frightened. There may not be much damage done. That boy
+has as many lives as a cat. I'll see to him," returned Mr. Metcalf,
+quietly.
+
+With a strong, kindly touch, the gentleman helped the unfortunate "Bony"
+to his feet; whereupon, the lad flew into a fearful rage and started up
+the ladder, in pursuit of the burro.
+
+His movement roused Amy also to action, and she followed him so swiftly
+that she reached the top, and the broad road there, almost as soon as
+he. Before then, however, he had caught up a barrel stave, which
+happened to be lying in a too convenient spot, and was belaboring Pepita
+with all his might.
+
+The latter, after her ascent of the steps, had remained standing at
+their head, gazing dreamily downward in her own demure manner and
+evidently considering that she had quite properly adjusted matters.
+
+Amy succeeded in reaching them just as the third blow was descending
+upon Pepita's flank and by a deft movement arrested the stroke. The
+stave flew out of the lad's grasp, and his astonishment at her strength
+cooled his anger.
+
+"Don't you strike her again! You shall not. Aren't you ashamed of
+yourself to beat a helpless creature like that? If you are still able to
+act so--so brutally--you can't be much hurt. I was terribly frightened
+and sorry, but now I don't care. She served you just right."
+
+Then the red Tam dropped on the burro's neck and a torrent of
+affectionate words was poured into the creature's indifferent ears.
+
+"Sho! Huckleberries! She's drove my teeth clean down my throat!" slowly
+ejaculated the youth.
+
+This was about half true. One tooth had been broken out by the blow upon
+the lad's jaw and another had been loosened. The copious bleeding of
+these wounds gave him a startling appearance, and when Amy looked up a
+shudder of repellent pity ran through her. Then she seemed to see her
+mother's gentle face and, conquering the aversion she felt, she pulled
+out her handkerchief and began to wipe the discolored, ill-shapen lips
+of the half-wit.
+
+He submitted to the operation in amazed silence. Even Mr. Metcalf had
+nothing to say, though he watched with keen interest the outcome of this
+little transaction.
+
+"There. If I had some water, I could do it nicely. I'm sorry you were
+hurt. But don't you ever strike my Pepita again! Next time she might
+kill you. It was her only way of defending herself, for she hasn't sense
+like you--"
+
+Regarding the imbecile face before her, Amy's sentence ended in
+confusion. Nor did it add to her comfort that the unhappy fellow now
+began to weep in a whimpering sort of way, that might have suited a
+spoiled child of a few years.
+
+"Why, what is it? Do you suffer so terribly! Oh! I am so sorry!"
+
+"There, my dear Miss Amy, let it pass. This is only one of 'Bony's'
+charming habits," said Mr. Metcalf, smiling derisively. "He has rather
+outgrown his age. Haven't you, lad? Well, it's all right. I'm sorry for
+you. You're sorry for yourself; and our young lady here is sorry for us
+both. Come. Brace up. Be a man. What would the 'boys' think of you, in
+this uniform, crying? Eh!"
+
+"Huh--huh--huh--huh-h-h!" responded the natural.
+
+"I'm going home, Bonaparte. Good night. Thank you for the leaves. Mr.
+Metcalf, will you tell me the nearest way, please?"
+
+Amy picked up the fallen bundle of boughs, which the superintendent had
+brought with him from the yard below, and laid them upon Pepita's back.
+
+"These have given us some trouble, but they are still too beautiful to
+lose."
+
+The gentleman directed her, courteously escorted her through the
+gateway, which bore another of those prohibitory "No Admittance" signs,
+and watched her walk briskly away, thinking what a bright feature of the
+landscape she made.
+
+"Not a beautiful girl, by any means, yet one of the most wholesome,
+honest, and engaging ones who ever stepped foot within this old mill.
+Odd, too! A Kaye. I wonder if she will ever come again to what, if all
+had gone as was expected, might easily have been her own great property.
+Well, that was pretty to see: the way in which she wiped the face of
+poor 'Bony.' The lad grows sillier every day, it seems, and the 'boys'
+are making him worse by their nonsense. Where is he now? I'll have a
+talk with him and try to keep him out of the parades. They are not good
+for him," reflected Mr. Metcalf.
+
+But the talk had to be postponed; for there was "Bony" already far along
+the road toward Fairacres, following doggedly in Amy's footsteps, though
+she repeatedly assured him that she could manage quite well without him
+and preferred to be alone.
+
+"No, I'm going," he asserted; and when she could not dissuade him, she
+gave up trying to do so and led him to talk of himself--his most
+interesting subject. So that, by the time they had come to the front of
+the old mansion, she knew his simple history completely, and her pity
+had almost outgrown her aversion.
+
+"See, Cleena! Cleena Keegan! See what I have brought!"
+
+The shout summoned a large woman to the door, who threw up her arms with
+the answering cry:--
+
+"Faith, an' I thought you was lost! Whatever has kept you such gait,
+Miss Amy?"
+
+"Oh! adventures. Truly, Cleena. Real, regular adventures. See my leaves?
+See this lad! He got them for me. He is Bonaparte Jimpson."
+
+"An' a curious spalpeen that same," casting a suspicious glance over the
+youth's strange attire.
+
+"I'm Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson," he explained gravely and, to Amy's
+surprise, timidly.
+
+"The mischief, you be! An' what's Napoleon Bonyparty's gineral's
+pleasure at Fairacres, the night?"
+
+"Cleena, wait. I'll tell you. Yes, you will have time enough. The train
+isn't due till after six, and they'll be a half-hour longer getting home
+from the station. Sit you down, Goodsoul, just for one little bit of
+minute. The scrubbing must surely be done by now. Isn't it?"
+
+"Humph! The scrubbin's never done in this dirty world. Well, an' what is
+it? Be quick with you!"
+
+Amy coaxed the old servant down upon the doorstep of the freshly
+cleaned kitchen, whither they had now gone, and speedily narrated her
+afternoon's experiences.
+
+"So you see, dear old Scrubbub, that he must have a fine feast of the
+best there is in the house. Besides," and she pulled the other's ear
+down to her lips, "I'd just like to have father see him. He isn't
+pretty, of course, but he's _new_. I wonder, could he pose?"
+
+"Pose, is it?" groaned Cleena, with a comical grimace. "Pose! Sure, it's
+I minds the time when the master caught me diggin' petaties an' kept me
+standin', with me foot on me spade, an' me spade in the ground, an' me
+body this shape," bending forward, "till I got such a crick in me back I
+couldn't walk upright, for better 'n a week. Posin', indeed! Well, he
+might. He looks fit for naught else."
+
+"Pooh, Cleena! you know it's an honor. But, come now, I want to put all
+these leaves up in the dining room. Will you help me?"
+
+"Will I what--such truck! No, me colleen, not a help helps Cleena the
+day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will. I'll bring the step ladder and hand them to you,
+while you put them over the doors and windows. We'll make the place a
+perfect bower of cheerfulness, and if our dears, when they come--Oh,
+Cleena! they may need the cheerfulness very much."
+
+However, it was not Amy's habit to borrow trouble, and she ran lightly
+away, calling to the boy on the porch:--
+
+"I'm going to put Pepita in the stable. If you'd like to see her
+brother, you can come with me."
+
+"Sho! Ain't he black!" exclaimed "Bony," as they led Pepita into the
+great stables and he discovered Balaam.
+
+Amid ample accommodations for a dozen horses, the two burros seemed
+almost lost; but they occupied adjoining box-stalls which, if rather
+time-worn and broken, were still most roomy and comfortable.
+
+"Why, huckleberries! It's bigger 'n the mill sheds. And only them two.
+Will he swop?"
+
+As he asked this question the lad pulled from his pocket a miscellaneous
+collection of objects, and invitingly displayed them upon the palm of
+his long hand.
+
+"No, I think not. I fancy we are not a 'swopping' family. But I must
+choose some name for you besides that dreadful 'Bony.' Bonaparte is too
+long. So is Lafayette. Let me see. Suppose we make it just 'Fayette'?
+That is short and pleasant to speak, and I like my friends to have nice
+names. Would you like it?"
+
+"Bully!"
+
+"Why--why, Fayette! That doesn't sound well."
+
+"Sho! Don't it? One all black an' t'other all white. Hum."
+
+"Br-r-r-ray! Ah-umph--h-umph--umph--mph--ph--h-h-h!" observed Balaam to
+his sister.
+
+Fayette laughed, so noisily and uproariously that the burros brayed
+again; and they kept up this amusing concert until Amy had brought each
+an armful of hay, and had directed her companion where to find a pail
+and water for their drink.
+
+Then they returned to the house and beheld Cleena in the dining room,
+already mounted upon the step-ladder, trying to arrange the branches
+with more regard to the saving of time than to grace. But she made to
+the picture-seeing girl a very attractive "bit."
+
+Indeed, Cleena Keegan was a person of sufficient importance to warrant a
+paragraph quite to herself. She was a woman of middle age, with a wealth
+of curling, iron-gray hair, which she tucked away under a plain white
+cap. Her figure was large and grandly developed. She wore a blue print
+gown, carefully pinned back about her hips, thus disclosing her scarlet
+flannel petticoat; both garments faded by time and frequent washings to
+a most "artistic" hue. Upon her shoulders was folded a kerchief of
+coarse white muslin, spotlessly clean; and as she stood, poised among
+the glowing branches, with the dying sunset light touching her honest
+face to unusual brightness, she was well worth Amy's eager wish:--
+
+"Oh, Cleena! That father were only here to see and paint you just as you
+are this minute!"
+
+"Humph! It's meself's glad he isn't."
+
+"Why! That's not nice of you, Goodsoul. Yet it's a great pity that a
+body who is such a 'study' in herself can't fix those branches a bit
+more gracefully. You're jamming the leaves all into a little mess and
+showing the stems! Oh, Cleena, I wonder if I can't reach them."
+
+"Truth, it's meself's willin' you should try. Belike I'd be handier at
+the pullin' them down nor the puttin' them up."
+
+With head erect she descended from the ladder, and stood, arms akimbo,
+regarding the results of her labor. Even to her it suggested something
+not "artistic," and at Fairacres anything inartistic was duly frowned
+upon.
+
+"Faith, it's not the way the master would do it, I see that, but--"
+
+Before either she could finish her sentence or Amy mount the ladder,
+Fayette had run to its top and stood there rapidly pulling from the wall
+the branches Cleena had arranged. Thrusting all but one between his
+knees, he fastened that over the window-frame so deftly and charmingly
+that Amy clapped her hands in delight.
+
+"Oh, that's lovely! Try another--and another!"
+
+He obeyed. His vacant face flushed with a glow of enthusiasm equalling,
+if not exceeding her own, and even Cleena spent some moments of her
+rarely wasted time in watching him.
+
+Her own face had again become a "study," yet of a sort to provoke a
+smile, as her gaze roved from his handiwork, over the length of his
+ungainly person, to rest upon his bare and not too cleanly feet; then
+travelled slowly upward again, trying to settle once for all his
+rightful position in the social scale. Her thought might have been thus
+expressed:--
+
+"His foot's heathen. His head's the same. His clothes--they're the
+heathenest of all. I'd disdain 'em. But, arrah musha! The hand of him!
+The master himself couldn't better them fixin's."
+
+Then she hastened to her kitchen, and soon the appetizing odor of a
+well-cooked meal was in their nostrils, and the two young decorators
+realized that they were very hungry.
+
+"There, that will do. It is perfect. Thank you ever and ever so much,
+Fayette."
+
+"Shucks!"
+
+"Now I'll light the candles. I always do when the people are coming home
+from town. They go there quite often; at least father does, though
+mother hasn't been before in months. The candles are terrible
+extravagance, Cleena says, but they're so pretty."
+
+Fayette carried away the step-ladder, then returned to watch Amy as she
+set the old-fashioned candelabra upon the already daintily spread table.
+She had bordered the white cloth with some of the most dazzling-hued
+leaves, and when the wax tapers threw their soft radiance over the whole
+charming interior, poor Fayette felt his weak head grow dizzy and
+confused by the beauty of it all.
+
+He dimly realized that he was in a new world, which soothed and
+appealed to his clouded nature as did the birds and the flowers. That
+impulse, which he could neither express nor understand, which sent him
+so constantly into the woods and solitudes, was gratified now. This was
+as delightful as his favorite pastime of lying upon the grass and gazing
+upward into the sunlit sky.
+
+"Sho! It's pretty. I like it. I'm glad I come. I'll stay."
+
+Amy had almost forgotten him.
+
+"Yes, of course you'll stay till after supper. I'll--"
+
+But a shadow fell across the threshold of the still open door, and
+looking up she saw a stranger,--an old man of rather forbidding aspect,
+whose glance passed swiftly from herself to the youth near the big
+fireplace.
+
+There followed an instant of mutual and frowning recognition between
+these two; then Fayette disappeared through an inner doorway, while the
+newcomer remained at the entrance, his hat in his hand, and an assumed
+suavity in his manner.
+
+Yet there was still a note of anger in the tone with which he
+observed:--
+
+"I have called upon business with Cuthbert Kaye. Your father, I presume.
+Is he at home?"
+
+"Not yet. He went to the city, yesterday, with my mother and brother. I
+expect them back on the next train. Will you come in?"
+
+"Yes, thank you. I'll wait."
+
+He accepted the great chair Amy rolled toward him, and let his gaze
+slowly sweep the cheerful apartment. Yet he knew it by heart, already,
+and his face brightened as he saw how little it had been changed since
+these many years. Apparently not one of its quaint and rich old
+furnishings was missing, and the passage of time had but added to the
+remembered charm of the place. Even the chair into which he sank had a
+familiar feel, as if his back had long ago fitted to those simple,
+comfortable lines. The antique candelabra--how often had he watched his
+grandmother's fingers polishing them to brilliancy.
+
+But the girl was new. The only modern thing, save the freshly gathered
+leaves,--which also seemed but a memory of his childhood,--to remind him
+of the present and the errand upon which he had come.
+
+"She's Kaye, though, to the bone. Dark, crisp hair. Those short curls
+are like a boy's. Her eyes are the Kaye eyes; and that toss of her head,
+like her great-grandmother come to life again. All our women had it. Ah,
+well. If things--hmm."
+
+The visitor became absorbed in his thoughts, and his wandering gaze came
+home to rest, seemingly, upon the tips of his own boots, for he did not
+notice when Amy disappeared and Cleena entered.
+
+"Alanna! But this is a smart decent piece of work, now, isn't it?"
+
+At this sudden and derisive remark the gentleman looked up.
+
+"Oh, ho! You, is it?"
+
+"Faith an' it is. An' likin' to know what brings you this gait."
+
+"Keep a civil tongue in your head, woman. I'm not to be put off this
+time by any false stories. Here I am, and here I shall stay until I see
+your master."
+
+Steadily and silently confronting one another for some seconds, they
+measured each other's wills. The unwelcome guest was not sure but that
+the woman would lift him bodily and fling him out of doors. She looked
+ably strong and quite minded so to do; but, after a further reflection,
+she appeared to change her mind as well as her tone.
+
+"Hmm--yes. There's no irreverence meant. Come in by, to the library yon.
+There's pictures to see, an' books a plenty. Leave the master be, like a
+gentleman now, as you was born, till he eats his meal in peace. A body
+can bear trouble better on a full stummick nor an empty. Come by."
+
+To his own amazement, the caller rose and followed her. He told himself
+he was a simpleton to have left the cheery supper room and the certain
+presence of the man he wished to see for an hour of solitary waiting in
+an unknown place.
+
+"Library." There had been none in his grandmother's time. But he knew it
+well--from the outside. A detached, strong little building, of hewn
+stone like the mansion; one of Cuthbert Kaye's many "follies." Planned
+with a studio on the second floor above the spacious book room on the
+first. Well, it made the property so much the more valuable. Yes, after
+all, he would better visit it while the coast was clear.
+
+"Sure, sir, an' it's here the master do be spending all his time. Here
+an' above. You was never in the paintin' study, now was you?" she asked
+suggestively.
+
+"No."
+
+"Alanna! An' you two of the same blood!"
+
+"Hmm--yes, of course I'll go, since I'm here."
+
+So he followed her up the graceful staircase, with its softly covered
+steps, and into a room which rumor said was worth travelling far to see;
+and though thus prepared, its half-revealed beauty astonished him.
+
+"Well, it is a fine apartment. It must have cost a power of money.
+And--it explains many things."
+
+"Money, says you? It did that," echoed Cleena, with a pious sigh.
+
+"Yes, yes. I suppose so. It's rather dark, however, for me to see as I
+would like. Isn't there a lamp here?"
+
+"Lamp, is it? Askin' pardon for forgettin' me manners, but it's never a
+lamp will the master have left in this place. If one comes, indeed, 'tis
+himself brings it. Forby, on occasion like this, I'll fetch it an' take
+all the blame for that same. It's below. I'll step down;" and she
+departed hastily, leaving him alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HALLAM.
+
+
+As the stage from the railway station rolled up to Fairacres, Amy was
+waiting upon the wide porch. She had put on her daintiest frock, white,
+of course, since her father liked her to wear no other sort of dress;
+and she had twisted sprays of scarlet woodbine through her dark hair and
+about her shoulders. Before the vehicle stopped, she called out
+eagerly:--
+
+"Oh! how glad I am you're here! It's been such a long two days! Are you
+all well? Is everything right, mother dearest? Did you have a nice
+time?"
+
+The father reached her first, remarking, with a fond smile:--
+
+"You make a sweet picture, daughter, with that open doorway behind you,
+with the firelight and candlelight, and--Ah! did you speak, Salome?"
+turning toward his wife.
+
+"The man is waiting, Cuthbert. Has thee the money for him?"
+
+Mr. Kaye fumbled in one pocket, tried another, frowned, and appeared
+distressed.
+
+"Never mind, dear. Hallam can attend to it."
+
+But the crippled lad had already swung himself over the steps upon his
+crutches, and the artist remarked, with a fresh annoyance:--
+
+"He must put it in the bill, Salome. Why always bother with such
+trifles? If one could only get away from the thought and sound of money.
+Its sordidness is the torment of one's life."
+
+Mrs. Kaye sighed, as she paid the hackman from her own purse, then
+followed her husband into the house.
+
+His face had already lost all its expression of annoyance, and now
+beamed with satisfaction as he regarded Amy's efforts to celebrate the
+home-coming.
+
+"Good child. Good little girl. Truly, very beautiful. Why, my darling,
+you'll be an artist yourself some day, I believe."
+
+"The saints forbid!" murmured a voice from the further side the room,
+where Cleena had appeared, bearing a tray of dishes.
+
+Nobody heard the ejaculation, however, save Hallam, and he didn't count,
+being of one and the same opinion as the old serving-woman. All the
+lad's ambitions lay toward a ceaseless activity, and the coloring of
+canvases attracted him less than even the meanest kind of manual labor.
+
+Nor did Amy share in her father's hope, though she loved art for his
+sake, and she answered, with conviction:--
+
+"Never such an one as you are, father dear."
+
+But all this while the daughter's eyes had been studying her mother's
+face, with the keen penetration of sympathy, and the whispered advice:--
+
+"Be especially gentle with Hallam to-night, my child," but confirmed the
+answer she had already found in that careworn countenance.
+
+Yet Hallam showed no need of consolation as he sturdily stumped across
+the room and exclaimed, cheerfully enough:--
+
+"Fetch on the provender, Goodsoul. We're all as hungry as bears. What's
+for us?"
+
+"What should be? save the best rasher of bacon ever blessed eyesight,
+with tea-biscuits galore. For second course--My! but that pullet was a
+tender bird, so she was. An' them east-lot petaties would fain melt in
+your mouth, they're so hot-foot to be ate."
+
+"The pullet? Not the little brown one you have cared for yourself,
+Cleena?"
+
+"What for no? Eat your victuals askin' no questions, for that's aye bad
+for the appetite."
+
+Both Amy and Cleena knew, without words, that this last city trip had
+been a failure, like so many that had preceded it. Once more had the too
+sanguine father dragged his crippled son to undergo a fresh examination
+of his well-formed though useless limbs; and once more had an adverse
+verdict been rendered.
+
+This time the authority was of the highest. A European specialist, whose
+name was known and reverenced upon two continents, had come to New York
+and had been consulted. Interested more than common by the boy's fair
+face and the sweet womanliness of the mother, the surgeon had given
+extra attention to Hallam, and his decision had been as reluctantly
+reached as it was final.
+
+"Only a miracle will ever enable him to walk. Yet a miracle may occur,
+for we live in an age of them, and nothing seems impossible to science.
+However, in all mortal probability, he is as one dead below his knees.
+My lad, take your medicine bravely and be a man in spite of it all. Use
+your brain, thanking God for it, and let the rest go."
+
+"That's an easy thing for you to say, but it is I who have to bear it!"
+burst forth the unhappy boy, and was at once ashamed of his rude speech,
+even if it in no wise offended the sympathetic physician.
+
+The return journey had been a sad and silent one, though Hallam had
+roused at its end with the sort of bravado that Amy had seen, and which
+deceived her no more than it did any of the others; but she loyally
+seconded his assumed cheerfulness, and after they had gathered about the
+table, gave them a lively description of her afternoon's outing, ending
+with:--
+
+"For, mother dear, you hadn't said just where I might or might not ride,
+and I'd never seen the carpet mills, though I now hope to go there
+often; and, indeed, I think I would like to work in that busy place,
+among all those bright, active girls."
+
+Then her enthusiasm was promptly dashed by her father's exclamation:--
+
+"Amy! Amy Kaye! Never again say such a thing! Let there be no more of
+that mill talk, not a word."
+
+Mr. Kaye's tone was more stern than his child had ever heard, and as if
+he recognized this he continued, more gently:--
+
+"But I am interested in that silly Bonaparte. I almost wish you had kept
+him till I came."
+
+Amy happened to glance at Cleena, who had warned her not to mention the
+fact of the strange gentleman calling; nor had she known just when
+Fayette went away, though she supposed he had done so after so suddenly
+leaving the dining room.
+
+"Why, Goodsoul, you are as beaming as if you had found a treasure."
+
+"Faith, an' I have. Try a bit of the chicken, mistress, now do;" and she
+waved the dish toward the lady, with a smile that was more than
+cheerful.
+
+"Well, Cleena, it's heartening to see anybody so bright. The work must
+have gone finely to-day, and thee have had plenty of time for scrubbing.
+No, thank thee; nothing more. Not even those delicious baked apples. The
+best apples in the world grow on that old tree by the dairy door, I
+believe," replied the mistress, with another half-suppressed sigh.
+
+As she rose to leave the table, she turned toward her husband:--
+
+"I hope thee'll soon be coming upstairs, Cuthbert."
+
+It was noticeable that Cleena paused, tray in hand, to hear the answer,
+which was out of common, for the old servant rarely presumed upon the
+fact that she was also the confidential friend of her employers.
+
+"Well, after a little, dear; but, first, I must go over to the studio."
+
+"Arrah, musha, but, master! The painting's all right. What for no?
+Indeed, then, it's the mistress herself needs more attention this minute
+nor any picture ever was drawed."
+
+"Why, Cleena!" exclaimed the lady, in surprise. Such an interference had
+never been offered by the devoted creature to the head of the house.
+
+"Asking pardon, I'm sure; though I know I know. I've lighted a fire in
+the sittin' room above, an' it's sure for the comfort of both that yous
+make yourselves easy the night."
+
+"That's true, husband. Do leave the picture till morning. We're all
+tired and needing the rest."
+
+Always easily persuaded where physical comfort was at stake, the artist
+acquiesced, and with his arm about his wife's slender waist he gently
+led her from the room.
+
+Cleena heard him murmuring tender apologies that he had not before
+observed how utterly fatigued she looked; and a whimsical smile broke on
+the Irishwoman's face as she cleared the table and assured the cups and
+saucers, with a vigorous disdain, that:--
+
+"Them two's no more nor a couple of childer still. But, alanna! Never a
+doubt I doubt there'll be trouble with old Cleena when the cat leaps the
+bag. Well, he's in it now, tied fast and tight."
+
+Whereupon, there being nobody to see, the good woman executed a sort of
+jig, and having thus relieved her feelings departed to the kitchen,
+muttering:--
+
+"It wasn't for naught Miss Amy fetched a simpleton home in her pocket.
+Sure, I scared the life clean out of _him_, so I did, an' he'll stay
+where he's settled till he's wanted, so long as I keep fillin' his
+stummick with victuals like these. Will I carry a bit o' the fowl to the
+lib'ry--will I no? Hmm. Will I--nill I?"
+
+Having decided, Cleena passed swiftly from the house into the darkness
+and in the direction of the distant library.
+
+Meanwhile, up in the little chamber which had once been their nursery
+and was still their own sitting room, Amy had drawn a lounge before the
+grate, and, after his accustomed fashion, Hallam lay upon it, while his
+sister curled upon the rug beside him.
+
+But she did not look at him. She rested her chin in her palms and gazed
+at the dancing flames, as she observed:--
+
+"Even a king might envy us this fire of pine cones, mightn't he? Isn't
+it sweet and woodsy? and so bright. I've gathered bushels and bushels of
+them, while you were away, and we can have all the fun we want up here.
+So now--can't you just begin and tell, Hal dear? Part of it I guess, but
+start as you always do: 'I went from here--' and keep right on till you
+get back again to me and--this."
+
+She purposely made her tone light, but she was not surprised when her
+answer was a smothered sob. Indeed, there was such a lump in her own
+throat that she had to swallow twice before she could say:--
+
+"No, darling, you needn't tell one word. I know it all--all--all; and I
+can't bear it. I won't--I will not have it so!"
+
+Then she turned and buried her face in the pillow beside her brother's,
+crying so passionately that he had to become comforter himself; and his
+thin fingers stroked her hair until she grew ashamed of her weakness and
+looked up again, trying to smile.
+
+"Forgive me, brotherkin. I'm such a baby, and I meant to be so brave! If
+I could only take your lameness on myself, and give you my own strong,
+active legs!"
+
+"Don't, Amy! Besides, how often have you said that very same thing? Yet
+it isn't any use. Nothing is of any use. Life isn't, I fancy."
+
+Even the vehement Amy was shocked by this, and her tears stopped,
+instantly.
+
+"Why, Hal!"
+
+"Sounds wicked, doesn't it? Well, I feel wicked. I feel like, was it Job
+or one of his friends? that it would be good to 'curse God and die.'
+Dying would be so much easier than living."
+
+The girl sprang up, clinching her brown hands, and staring at her
+brother defiantly.
+
+"Hallam Kaye, don't you talk like that! Don't you dare! Suppose God
+heard you? Suppose He took you at your word and made you die just now,
+this instant? What then?"
+
+Hallam smiled, wanly, "I won't scare you by saying what then, girlie. If
+He did, I suppose it would all be right. Everything is right--to the
+folks who don't have to suffer the thing. Even the doctor--and I liked
+him as much as I envied him--even he preached to me and bade me not to
+mind, to 'forget.' Hmm, I wish _he_ could feel, just for one little
+minute, the helplessness that I must feel always, eternally."
+
+Hallam was dearer to his sister than any other human being, and the
+despair in her idol's tone promptly banished her anger against his
+irreverence. She went down on her knees and caught away the arm with
+which he had hidden his face, kissing him again and again.
+
+"Oh! there will be some way out of this misery, laddie. There must be.
+It wouldn't be right, that anybody as clever and splendid as you should
+be left a cripple for life. I won't believe it. I won't!"
+
+"How like father you are!"
+
+Amy's head tossed slightly, and a faint protest came into her eyes, but
+was banished as soon because of its disloyalty.
+
+"Am I? In what way? and why shouldn't I be?"
+
+"You never know when you're down nor why you shouldn't have all that you
+want."
+
+"Isn't it a good thing? Would it help to go moping and unbelieving?"
+
+"I suppose not. Anyway, it makes things easier for you and him, and so,
+maybe, for the rest of us."
+
+The sister dropped back into her favorite attitude upon the rug and
+regarded her brother curiously.
+
+"Hal, you're as queer as can be, to-night. Seems as if there was
+something the matter with you, beyond what that know-nothing doctor
+said. Isn't there?"
+
+"Don't call the poor man hard names, girlie. He was fine, and I was
+impertinent enough for the whole family. Only, I reckon he was too high
+up to feel anything we could say. But there _is_ something. Something I
+must tell you, and I don't know how to begin. Promise that you won't get
+into a tantrum, or run and disturb the little mother about it."
+
+"Hallam Kaye! Do I ever?"
+
+"Hmm! Sometimes. Don't you? Never mind. Sit closer, dear, and let me get
+hold of your hand. Then you'll understand why I am so bitter; why this
+disappointment about my lameness is so much worse than any that has gone
+before. And I've been disappointed often enough, conscience knows."
+
+Amy crept up and snuggled her dark head against Hallam's fair one,
+remarking, with emphasis:--
+
+"Now I'm all ready. I'll be as still as a mouse, and not interrupt you
+once. What other dreadful trouble has come? Is it a grocery bill, or
+Clafflin's for artists' stuff?"
+
+"Something far worse than that."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Did you ever think we might have--might have--oh, Amy! I can't tell you
+'gently,' as mother bade--all it is--well, we've got to go away from
+Fairacres. _Its not ours any longer._"
+
+"Wh-a-at?" cried the girl, springing up, or striving to do so, though
+Hallam's hold upon her fingers drew her down again.
+
+"I don't wonder you're amazed. I was, too, at first. Now I simply wonder
+how we have kept the place so long."
+
+"Why isn't it ours? Whose is it?"
+
+"It belongs to a cousin of mother's, Archibald Wingate. Did you ever
+hear of him?"
+
+"Never. How can it?"
+
+"I hardly understand myself, though mother's lawyer tried to explain.
+It's something about indorsing notes and mortgages and things. Big boy
+as I am, I know no more about business than--you do."
+
+"Thanks, truly. But I do know. I attended to the marketing yesterday
+when the wagon came. Cleena said that I did very well."
+
+"Glad of it. You'll have a chance to exercise your talents in that
+line."
+
+"But, Hal, mother will never let anybody take away our home. How could
+she? What would father do without his studio that he had built expressly
+after his own plan? or we without all this?" sweeping her arm about to
+indicate the cosiness of their own room.
+
+"Mother can't help herself, dear. She was rich once, but she's
+desperately poor now."
+
+"I knew there was trouble about money, of course. There never seems to
+be quite enough, but that's been so since I can remember. Why shouldn't
+we go on just as we have? What does this cousin of our mother's want of
+the place, anyway?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't know him. I hate him unseen."
+
+"So do I. Still, if he's a cousin, he should be fond of mother, and not
+bother."
+
+"Amy, we're all a set of simpletons, I guess, as a family, and in
+relation to practical matters."
+
+"'Speak for yourself, John.'"
+
+"That isn't all. There's something--something wrong with father."
+
+"Hallam Kaye! Now I do believe you're out of your head. I was afraid you
+were, you've talked and acted so queerly. I'm going for Cleena. Is your
+face hot? Do you ache more than usual?"
+
+"Don't be silly. I'm as right as I ever shall be. Listen. I found it
+all out in the city. Father had gone to some exhibition, and mother and
+I were waiting for the time to go to the doctor. A gentleman called, and
+I never saw anybody look so frightened and ill as mother did when she
+received him, though I knew it wasn't about me. She hadn't hoped for
+anything better in that line. She called the man 'Friend Howard Corson,'
+and he was very courteous to her; but all of a sudden she cried out:--
+
+"'Don't tell me that the end has come! I can't bear both sorrows in one
+day!' And then she looked across at me. I smiled as bravely as I could,
+and, Amy, I believe our mother is the very most beautiful woman in this
+world."
+
+"Why, of course; and father's the handsomest man."
+
+"Certainly," agreed the lad, with rather more haste than conviction.
+
+"Well, what next?"
+
+Before the answer could be given, there burst upon their ears an
+uproarious clamor of angry voices, such as neither had ever heard at
+Fairacres; and Amy sprang up in wild alarm, while Hallam groped blindly
+for the crutches he had tossed aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A KINSMAN OF THE HOUSE.
+
+
+"It's from the library!" reported Amy, who had first reached and opened
+the window. "I can't make out anything except--yes, it is! That's
+Fayette's voice. Hear that croak?"
+
+"The foolish boy? Here yet?"
+
+"So it seems. I'll go and find out."
+
+"Wait. That's Cleena talking now, and another voice, a man's. What can
+it all mean?"
+
+Amy ran down the stairs and out of the house so swiftly that she did not
+observe her father following with almost equal haste. Behind him sped
+Mrs. Kaye, far more anxious concerning her husband than the noise
+outside.
+
+"Slowly, Cuthbert. Please do take care. Thee must not hurry so, and I
+hear Cleena. She'll look out for everything. For my sake, don't run."
+
+Hallam upon his crutches came last of all, and for a moment the entire
+family stood in silent wonder at the scene before them.
+
+Two men were wrestling like angry schoolboys; and the light from a
+lantern in Cleena's hand fell over them and showed the distorted face
+of "Bony" in one of his wildest rages. His contestant was gray haired
+and stout, and was evidently getting the worst of the struggle. The
+library door was open, and it seemed as if the half-wit were trying to
+force the other backward into the building.
+
+One glance revealed something of the situation to Mrs. Kaye, and, as the
+wrestlers paused for breath, she moved forward and laid her hand upon
+the old man's arm.
+
+"Archibald, what does this mean?"
+
+The low voice acted like magic. Fayette slunk away, ashamed, and the
+other paused to recover himself. But his anger soon returned and was now
+directed against the astonished woman herself.
+
+"Mean! mean? That's for you to say. Since when has a Kaye stooped to the
+pettiness of locking up an unwelcome visitor like a rat in a trap? A
+pretty greeting and meeting, Cuthbert, after all these years!" he cried,
+turning next toward the artist, with indignant contempt.
+
+But the object of his wrath scarcely heard what he said. His own eyes
+were fixed upon the ruined panel of his beautiful library door, and he
+caught up the lantern and peered anxiously to learn the extent of the
+disaster.
+
+The wife again answered, as if speaking for both:--
+
+"Archibald, no. Whatever indignity thee has suffered, none of thy kin
+know anything about it or could be parties to it. Thy own heart must
+tell thee that; and now explain what it all means."
+
+At the old familiar speech, the man's expression altered, and when he
+replied it was in a far gentler tone.
+
+"I came to see Cuthbert; for the thousandth time, isn't it? Failing him
+again, though I didn't mean to fail, I had to talk with--thee," his
+voice tripping slightly over the pronoun, "and that virago brought me
+here to wait. Then she locked me up and set this idiot to watch. There
+are no windows to get out of from above, nothing but that skylight, so I
+finally forced the door at the foot of the stairs, and then again this.
+Here was that ruffian, armed with a cudgel, and--the rest thee knows."
+
+"I am very sorry, cousin. I can but apologize for what I would never
+have permitted had I known," and the mistress's gaze rested upon Cleena
+most reproachfully.
+
+Yet that bold-spirited creature was in no wise disturbed, and replied,
+with great enjoyment:--
+
+"Sure, mistress, I did but do what I'd do again, come same chance. What
+for no? If it wasn't for him, yon, there'd be peace an' plenty at
+Fairacres the now. Faith, I harmed him none."
+
+"Cleena!"
+
+"Askin' pardon if I overstepped me aut'ority, mistress. Come, Gineral
+Bonyparty, I'm surmisin' you an' me better be fixin' things up whiles
+the family goes home to their beds."
+
+Just then Mr. Kaye's silent examination of the injury done his beloved
+studio came to an end. He set down the lighted lantern with the ultra
+caution of one who dreads fire above all accidents, and turned toward
+his wife. However, he took but few steps forward before he paused,
+staggered, and would have fallen had not the ill-treated visitor sprung
+to his aid,--to be himself pushed aside, while Cleena caught up her
+master and strode off toward the house, as if she were but carrying an
+overgrown child in her strong arms. Indeed, the artist's weight was
+painfully light, nor was this the first time that Cleena's strength had
+thus served his need; though this fact not even Hallam nor Amy knew.
+
+The wife hurried after her fainting husband, and Amy started also; then
+reflected that it was she who had brought Fayette to the house, and was,
+in a measure, responsible for what had since happened there.
+
+But the lad gave her time for neither reproof nor question, as he
+eagerly exclaimed:--
+
+"'Twa'n't none o' my doin's. She made me. She told me to set here an'
+keep Mr. Wingate in, an' if he broke out I wasn't to let him. I don't
+know what for. I didn't ask questions. 'Twa'n't none o' my business,
+anyway. So I was just trying to jab him back. She fed me first rate.
+Say, is that your brother?"
+
+"Yes. Oh, Hal! what shall we do?"
+
+"You run to the house and see if mother wants anybody to go for the
+doctor, while I try to help this boy stop up the doorway. It's going to
+rain, and it would break father's heart if anything here were harmed."
+
+A curious smile crossed the stranger's face, but he advanced to lend his
+aid to the lad, Fayette, and succeeded in getting the parts of the door
+so far into place that they would prevent any damage by rain, except in
+case of severe storm. The broken lock was, of course, useless, and as
+the mill lad saw the cripple fingering it, he remarked:--
+
+"You needn't be scared. I'll stay an' watch. I won't march to-night. Oh,
+I can do it all right. I often stay with the watchmen round the mill,
+an' I've got a good muscle, if anybody wants to tackle it," with which
+he glared invitingly toward the late prisoner.
+
+A protesting groan was the only reply; and the lad received this with a
+snort of disdain.
+
+"Druther let old scores rest, had ye? All right. Suits me well enough
+now, but I ain't forgot the lickin's you've given me, an' I ain't goin'
+to forget, neither."
+
+Fayette's look was again so vindictive that Hallam interposed, fearing
+another battle between these uninvited guests.
+
+"Well, I wish you _would_ watch here for a while. As soon as Cleena can
+be spared, she shall bring you a blanket. And anyway, if you'll keep
+everything safe, I'll try to find something to pay you for your
+trouble."
+
+"Hmm, I'd take your donkey an' give back considerable to boot."
+
+"My donkey? Balaam? Well, I guess not."
+
+"I could do it. I could, first rate. I've got money. It's in the savings
+bank. 'Supe' put it in for me."
+
+"I couldn't think of it, not for a second. Mr. Wingate--is it?"
+
+"Archibald Wingate, and your kinsman, young sir."
+
+"So I heard my mother say. She would wish you to come to the house with
+me, and we'll try to make you comfortable. I must go--I am wild to know
+what is wrong with my father."
+
+"We will, at once," answered the other, coldly. "Your father was always
+weak--was never very rugged, and he hasn't lived in a way to make
+himself more robust. A man's place is in the open; not penned like a
+woman behind closed doors and windows."
+
+"Beg pardon, but you are speaking of my father."
+
+"Exactly, and of my cousin. Oh, I've known him since we sat together
+under our grandmother's table, munching gingerbread cakes. Ah, she was a
+famous cook, else the flavor of a bit of dough wouldn't last that long."
+
+"I've heard of my great-grandmother's talent for cookery. Father and
+mother often speak of it, and some of her old recipes are in use in our
+kitchen to-day."
+
+Mr. Wingate had kept an even pace with Hallam's eager swings upon his
+crutches, and they were speedily at the old house door, with a kindly
+feeling toward one another springing into life within the heart of each;
+though but a little while before Hallam had exclaimed to Amy, in all
+sincerity, "I hate him unseen."
+
+With the ready trustfulness of youth, Hallam began to think his mother's
+and the lawyer's words had not meant literally what they expressed.
+
+On Mr. Wingate's side, the sight of Hallam's physical infirmity had
+roused regret at the action he must take. Up till this meeting he had
+lived with but one object in view--the possession of Fairacres; nor did
+he now waver in his determination. There had simply entered into the
+matter a sentiment of compassion which was a surprise to himself, and
+which he banished as completely as he could.
+
+Amy met them at the door with the gratifying report:--
+
+"Father is about all right again. It was a sudden faint. Cleena says
+that he has had them before, but that mother had not wished us told.
+There is no need of a doctor, and Cleena is to get the west chamber
+ready for Mr. Wingate to sleep in. I'm to freshen the fire and--here is
+mother herself."
+
+The house mistress came toward them, vial and glass in hand, on her way
+back to the sick-room. The hall was dimly lighted, and as she turned at
+the stair's foot and passed upward, with that soft gliding motion
+peculiar to herself, she seemed to the entering guest like a sad-faced
+ghost of a girl he had known. Halfway up she paused upon the landing and
+smiled down upon them; and the serenity of that smile made the hard
+facts of the case--illness, poverty, and home-breaking--seem even more
+unreal than anything else could have done.
+
+Amy looked into Mr. Wingate's eyes, which were fixed upon their mother.
+"Isn't she like the Madonna? Father has so often painted her as such."
+
+"Yes--hmm. He ought to. A Madonna of Way and Means. Say, little girl,
+you are bright enough, but you act a good deal younger than your years.
+How happens it you've never learned to look after your father yourself,
+and so spare your mother? Can you do anything useful?"
+
+"That depends. I can arrange father's palette, and crack his eggs just
+right, and buy things--when there's money," she finished naïvely.
+
+"It all seems 'father.' What about your mother? What can you do, or have
+you done, to help _her_, eh?"
+
+Amy flushed. She thought this sort of cross-questioning very rude and
+uncalled for. As soon as she had heard this man's name she had realized
+that it must be he of whom Hallam had spoken, and whom she, also, had
+decided she "hated unseen." But, in truth, hatred was a feeling of which
+the carefully sheltered girl knew absolutely nothing, though it came
+very near entering her heart at that instant when the shrewd,
+penetrating gaze of her kinsman forced her to answer his question.
+
+"Why--nothing, I'm afraid. Only to love her."
+
+"Hmm. Well, you'll have to add a bit of practical aid to the loving, I
+guess, if you want to keep her with you. She looks as if the wind might
+blow her away if she got caught out in it. Now, good night. You and your
+brother can go. I'll sit here till that saucy Irishwoman gets my room
+ready. Take care! If you don't mind where you're going, you'll drop
+sperm on the rug, tipping that candlestick so!"
+
+[Illustration: "TAKE CARE! YOU'LL DROP SPERM ON THE RUG, TIPPING THAT
+CANDLESTICK SO!"]
+
+Hallam had been standing, leaning against the newel post, with his own
+too ready temper flaming within him. But there was one tenet in the Kaye
+household which had been held to rigidly by all its members: the guest
+within the house was sacred from any discourteous word or deed. Else the
+boy felt he should have given his new-found relative what Cleena called
+"a good pie-shaped piece of his mind."
+
+He had to wait a moment before he could say "good night" in a decent
+tone of voice, then swung up the staircase in the direction of his
+mother's room.
+
+Amy was too much astonished to say even thus much. She righted the
+candlestick, amazed at the interest in rugs which Mr. Wingate displayed,
+and followed her brother very slowly, like one entering a dark passage
+wherein she might go astray.
+
+She stopped where Hallam had, before their mother's door, which was so
+rarely closed against them. Even now, as she heard her children
+whispering behind the panel, Mrs. Kaye came out and gave them each their
+accustomed caress; then bade them get straight to bed, for she would be
+having a long talk with them in the morning, and she wanted them to be
+"as bright as daisies," to understand it.
+
+"Mother, that man! He--he's so dreadful! He scolded me about the
+candlestick, and--and you--and he made me feel like a great baby."
+
+"I wish he might have waited; but, no matter. Good night."
+
+It was a very confused and troubled Amy who crept into bed a little
+while afterward, and she meant to lie awake and think everything out
+straight, but she was too sound and healthy to give up slumber for any
+such purpose, and in a few minutes she was asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SETTLEMENTS.
+
+
+On the following morning the guest was the first person astir at
+Fairacres, not even excepting Cleena, who rose with the birds; and when
+she opened her kitchen door, the sight of him pacing the grass-grown
+driveway did not tend to put her in good humor.
+
+But there was little danger of her breaking bounds again, in the matter
+of behavior. A short talk had passed between her mistress and herself,
+before they bade each other good night, that had not left the too
+devoted servant very proud of her overzeal; and she now turned to her
+stove to rattle off her indignation among its lids and grates. But she
+kept "speakin' with herself," after her odd fashion, and her tone was
+neither humble nor flattering.
+
+"Arrah musha! The impidence of him! Hasn't he decency to wait till all's
+over 'fore he struts about that gait? But, faith, an' I'll show him one
+thing: that's as good a breakfast as ever he got in the old lady's time,
+as one hears so much tell of."
+
+Whereupon, with this praiseworthy ambition, a calm fell upon poor
+Cleena's troubled spirit, and when, a couple of hours later, the family
+assembled in the dining room, everybody was astonished at the feast
+prepared; while all but the stranger knew that a week's rations had been
+mortgaged to furnish that one meal. However, nobody made any comment,
+though Mr. Wingate found in this show of luxury another explanation of
+the Kayes' financial straits.
+
+"Cuthbert will not be down this morning, Archibald. I hope thee rested
+well. Hallam, will thee take thy father's place?"
+
+Mrs. Kaye's manner, as she greeted her kinsman, betrayed little of what
+must have been her real feeling toward him, nor had her children ever
+seen her more composed and gentle, though Hallam noticed that she was
+paler than ever, and that her eyes were dull, as if she had not slept.
+
+"It's going to be a miserable day outside," remarked the guest, a little
+stiffly.
+
+"Inside, too, I fancy," answered Amy. "I hate undecided things. I like
+either a cheerful downpour or else sunshine. I think wobbly weather is
+as bad as wobbly folks--trying to a body's temper."
+
+Mr. Wingate laughed, though rather harshly. Amy was already his favorite
+in that household, and he reflected that under different circumstances
+than those which brought him to Fairacres, he would have found her very
+interesting.
+
+"The weather should not be allowed to affect one's spirits," said Mrs.
+Kaye.
+
+"No, mother; I suppose not. Yet, it was so pretty here, last night; and
+now the leaves over the windows are all shrivelled up, while this border
+on the tablecloth is as crooked as can be. It all has such an afterward
+sort of look. Ah, it _is_ raining, good and fast."
+
+Mrs. Kaye excused herself and went to look out toward the library. The
+wind was howling in that direction, and she exclaimed, anxiously:--
+
+"Cleena, go at once and see if it is doing any harm out there! That
+broken door and window--put something against them, if it is."
+
+"I don't think there's any danger of harm. I've sent for a carpenter
+more than an hour ago," observed Mr. Wingate.
+
+"Thee?"
+
+For a moment there was a flash in the matron's eyes, but she did not
+remark further, though Hallam took up her cause with the words:--
+
+"I suppose you meant it for kindness, but my father does not allow any
+one to interfere with that place. Even if it rained in, I think he would
+rather give his own orders."
+
+"Probably," answered the guest, dryly, while Cleena deposited a dish of
+steaming waffles upon the table with such vigor as to set them all
+bouncing.
+
+"Sure, mistress, you'll be takin' a few of these, why not. I never
+turned me finer, an' that honey's the last of the lot, three times
+strained, too, an' you please."
+
+"Waffles, Cleena? Did thee take some up to the master? I am sure he
+would enjoy them."
+
+"Indeed, I did that. Would I forget? So eat, to please Cleena, and to be
+strong for what comes."
+
+Even Mrs. Kaye's indifference was not proof against the tempting
+delicacy, and doubtless the food did give her strength the better to go
+through a trying interview. For immediately breakfast was over, she
+rose, and, inviting the visitor into the old parlor, bade her children
+join them.
+
+"What our cousin Archibald has to say concerns us all. I leave it to him
+to tell the whole story," and she sat down with Amy snuggled beside her,
+while Hallam stood upon his crutches at her back.
+
+Somehow, Mr. Wingate found it a little difficult to begin, and after
+several attempts he put the plain question abruptly:--
+
+"When can you leave, Salome?"
+
+She caught her breath, and Amy felt the arm about her waist grow rigid,
+but she answered by another question:--
+
+"Must thee really turn us out, Archibald?"
+
+The plain, affectionate "thee" touched him, yet for that reason he
+settled himself all the more firmly in his decision.
+
+"What has to be done would better be done at once. It is a long time,
+Salome, since I have had any recompense for the use of this--my
+property--"
+
+"Your property?" cried Hallam.
+
+"Yes, mine. Mine it should have been by lawful inheritance, save for a
+rank injustice and favoritism. Mine it is now, by right of actual
+purchase, the purchase of my own! Your mother seems to desire that you
+should at last learn the whole truth, and I assure you that I have
+advanced more than twice the money required to buy this place, even at
+an inflated market value. So, lad, don't get angry or indignant. I make
+no statements that I cannot prove, nor can your parents deny that I
+notified them to vacate these premises more than two years ago."
+
+"Mother, is that so?"
+
+"Yes, Hallam."
+
+"Why didn't we go, then?"
+
+"Our cousin had a heart and did not force us."
+
+"Why do you now, sir?"
+
+"Because I'm tired of waiting. The case grows worse each day. I'm sick
+of throwing good money after bad, while, all the time, such folly as is
+yonder goes on," pointing toward the distant studio. "One man is as good
+to labor as another. Cuthbert Kaye has had money all his life; _my_
+money, of which I was defrauded--"
+
+"Archibald! Beg pardon, but that is not so."
+
+"But it is so, Salome. If you have been hoodwinked and believed false
+tales, it is time these youngsters learned the facts. They are Kayes,
+like you and me. It is honest blood, mostly, that runs in all our veins.
+Well then, the life they are living is not an honest life. No man has a
+right to more than he can pay for. Can Cuthbert--"
+
+"Archibald, thee shall leave him out of the question!" cried the wife,
+roused from her firm self-control. There was something so appealing in
+her tone that her children watched her in alarm.
+
+"Very well. So be it. Since he is not man enough to stand by you in the
+trouble he has brought upon you--"
+
+"If thee continues, we will leave the room."
+
+"Why haven't I been able ever to meet him then? Why has he always thrust
+you between himself and me? If he thought because you were a woman I
+would forever put off the day of judgment, he has for once reckoned
+without his host. I tell you the end has come."
+
+Mrs. Kaye sank back in her chair, trembling; but still her lips were
+closed until the angry guest had finished his speech and had walked off
+some of his excitement in a hasty pacing of the long room. At length he
+paused before her and said, more quietly:--
+
+"There is no need of our having recourse to legal force. You should
+leave without being put out. That is why I came, to arrange it all to
+your satisfaction. You are a good woman, Salome, as good as any of your
+race before you, and just as big a simpleton when your affections are
+touched. A little more firmness on your part, a little less devotee sort
+of worship of a--"
+
+"Archibald, remember thee is speaking of what does not concern thee.
+There is no need for rudeness, nor, indeed, 'legal' violence. Had I
+understood, two years ago, that thee needed--needed--this old home for
+thyself, I would have left it then. It has, of course, been to our
+advantage to occupy it, but it has also been to thine. An empty house
+goes swift to ruin. Everything here has been well cared for, as things
+held in trust should be. We will leave here as soon as I can find a
+house somewhere to shelter us."
+
+Mrs. Kaye rose, as if to terminate the interview; but Mr. Wingate
+cleared his throat and lifted his hand as if he had something further to
+say.
+
+"I suppose you have thought about this many times, Salome. What are your
+plans?"
+
+"They are not definite. House-hunting is the first, I suppose, since we
+cannot do without a roof to cover us."
+
+"How--I can't forget that we are kinsfolk, Salome--how do you propose to
+live? I am a plain business man, as practical as--I mean, use common
+sense. There are few houses to rent in this out-of-the-way town, where
+everybody, except the mill folks, owns his own home,--and even some of
+them do. I've come into possession of a house which might suit
+you--'Hardscrabble.' I'll let you have it cheap."
+
+"'Hardscrabble'! The 'Spite House'?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, Archibald!"
+
+"Exactly. I knew how it would strike you. We both know the story of the
+place, but our grandfather's enemy took good care to make his tenement
+comfortable inside, even if it was ugly as sin outside."
+
+For a while Mrs. Kaye remained silent, debating with herself. Very soon
+she was able to look up and smile gratefully.
+
+"Thee knows as well as I what a stab thee has given my pride, Archibald;
+but there is that saving 'common sense' in the offer, and love is
+stronger than pride. Tell me what rent thee will ask, and I will take
+the place if I can."
+
+"Ten dollars a month."
+
+The prompt, strictly business-like answer fairly startled its hearer.
+Then she smiled again.
+
+"I have never lived anywhere save at Fairacres, thee knows. I must trust
+thee in the matter. I have no definite ideas about the values of houses,
+but I think I can pay that. I must. There is nowhere else to go. Yes, I
+will take it."
+
+"It's dirt cheap, Salome. You will never think kindly of me, of course,
+but I'm dealing squarely, even generously by you. If 'thee'd,'" for the
+second time he dropped into the speech of his childhood, which his
+cousin Salome had always retained, and she was quick to observe this,
+"if thee had trusted me years ago, things might have gone better with us
+both. When will thee move?"
+
+"To-day."
+
+"To-day? There's no need for quite such haste."
+
+"Thee said 'the sooner the better,' and I agree. Get the lease ready as
+soon as possible, and I will sign it. I've only one thing to ask about
+that: please don't have the name put as either 'Hardscrabble' or 'Spite
+House.' I'd like it called 'Charity House.'"
+
+"Upon my word, Salome, you're the queerest mixture of business and
+sentiment that I ever met. You're as fanciful as a girl, still. But the
+name doesn't matter. Call the place 'Faith' and 'Hope' as well as
+'Charity,' if you wish, after you get there; but I won't alter the lease
+which I brought along with me last night."
+
+"Brought already, Archibald? Thee expected me to go to that place,
+then?"
+
+"Under the circumstances, Salome, and, as you've just admitted, I didn't
+see what else you could do. I've sent 'Bony' into the village for my
+lawyer, because I want you should have things all straight. He'll
+witness our signatures to the lease, and if you'll pick out such
+furniture as you most especially care to have, I'll try to spare it,
+though the mortgage covers all."
+
+But the speaker's glance moved so reluctantly and covetously over the
+antique plenishing that Mrs. Kaye promptly relieved his anxiety.
+
+"It would be a pity to disturb these old, beloved things in their
+appropriate places--"
+
+"You're right," interrupted the gentleman. "I've a better notion than
+that. I'll leave whatever is in 'Spite House' for your use, and not
+break up Fairacres at all."
+
+"Is it still furnished, then?"
+
+"Yes, according to old Ingraham's ideas--for hard use and no nonsense.
+He had a big family and nothing much but his temper to keep it on.
+However, if there's anything actually needed, I suppose I could advance
+a trifle more. It would be for your sake, only, Salome."
+
+"Thank thee, but I hope not to run further into thy debt, Archibald,
+save in case of direst need. And do not think but that I fully
+understand and appreciate all the kindness which has permitted us to
+stay at Fairacres so long. In some things, as thee will one day
+discover, thee has mistaken and misjudged us; but in one thing I have
+understood and sympathized with thee, always, and with all my heart: the
+passionate love which a Kaye must feel for his home and all this."
+
+There was pathos and dignity in the quiet gesture which Salome Kaye
+swept over the apartment that had been her own for all her life; but
+there was also courage and determination in her bearing as she walked
+out of it, leaning lightly upon Amy's shoulder, and with Hallam limping
+beside her. Somehow, too, Archibald Wingate did not feel quite as
+jubilant and successful as he had anticipated, and he welcomed, as an
+agreeable diversion, the approach of a buggy, conveying his friend,
+Lawyer Smith, to witness the lease and to give any needful advice in the
+matter.
+
+"Hello, Smith. Quite a rainy day, isn't it? I've been studying that row
+of old pines and spruces. How do you think the avenue'd look if I was to
+have 'em trimmed up, say about as high as your head, from the ground?
+Give a better view of the old Ardsley Valley, wouldn't it?"
+
+The lawyer stepped down from his vehicle, backward and cautiously, then
+turned, screwed up his eyes, and replied deliberately:--
+
+"Well, it might; and then again it mightn't. It's taken a good many
+years for those branches to grow, and once they're off they can't be put
+back again. If I was in your place, I'd rather let things slide easy for
+a spell; then--go as you please. Have you come to a settlement? Will
+they quit without lawing?"
+
+"Yes, they'll quit at once. Say, woman! You, Cleena, bring me a hatchet,
+will you? I'll just lop off a little limb on one side, and see the
+effect. Hurry up!"
+
+"Faith, I'll fetch it!" responded Cleena, loudly. But when she did so,
+she advanced with such a menacing gesture upon the new proprietor of her
+old home that he shrank back, doubtful of her intent. "Ain't it enough
+to break hearts, without breakin' the helpless trees your own forebears
+planted long by?--Aha, my fine gineral, so you're bad penny back again?
+Well, then, you're the handle o' time. By the way you tacked up them
+boughs, you'll be clever at packin'. Come by. I'll give ye a job."
+
+Thus, partly to Lawyer Smith's caution and partly to Cleena's
+indignation, the fine evergreens of Fairacres owed the fact that they,
+for the time being, escaped mutilation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "SPITE HOUSE" OF BAREACRE.
+
+
+By nightfall it was all over; and Cleena, Hallam, and Amy, with their
+self-constituted bodyguard, Fayette, were gathered about a big table in
+the kitchen of the "Spite House," to eat a supper of bread and milk, and
+to discuss the events of that memorable day. Strangely enough, as Amy
+thought, none of them realized anything clearly except the facts of
+fatigue and hunger.
+
+"Arrah musha! but the face of that lawyer body, when I tells him I was
+takin' the loan of his bit buggy wagon for the master an' mistress to
+ride to Burnside the morn, an' how as old Adam would sure send it back
+by a farm-hand, which he did that same. An' them two goin' off so quiet,
+even smilin', as if--But there, there! Have some more milk, Master Hal.
+It's like cream itself, so 'tis; an' that neighbor woman in the cottage
+yon is that friendly she'd be givin' me three pints to the quart if I'd
+leave her be."
+
+"Well, dear old Adam will be glad to see them on any terms, he is so
+fond of father and mother. But knowing they're in such trouble, he'll
+have the best of everything for them to-night."
+
+"Yes, Adam Burns is as likely as any man creature can be, which I've
+never been bothered with meself, me guardian angel be praised."
+
+"Well, Cleena, I've seen you work hard before, but you did as much as
+ten Cleenas in one to-day."
+
+The good woman sighed, then laughed outright. "It's been a hard row for
+that wicked body to hoe."
+
+"Who, Cleena?"
+
+"That sweet, decent kinsman o' your own. Was many an odd bit o' stuff
+went into the van 't he never meant should go there. The face of him
+when I went trampin' up the libr'y stairs, an' caught him watchin'
+Master Hallam packing the paint trash that he'd allowed the master might
+have. 'Take anything you want here, my boy,' says he. So, seein' Master
+Hal was working dainty an' slow, I just sweeps me arm over the whole
+business; an' I'm thinkin' there'll be 'tubes' a plenty for all the
+pictures master'll ever paint. In a fine heap, though, an' that must be
+your job, Master Hal, come to-morrow, to put them all tidy, as 'tis
+himself likes."
+
+"I'll be glad to do it, Cleena; but in which of these old rooms am I to
+sleep?"
+
+Cleena had taken a rapid survey of the dusty, musty bedchambers, and her
+cleanly soul revolted against her "childer" using any of them in their
+present condition. So for Amy she had put Mrs. Kaye's own mattress on
+the floor of what might be a parlor, and spread it with clean sheets;
+for Hallam there was in another place his father's easy lounge; and for
+herself and Fayette, who insisted upon staying for the night, there were
+"shakedowns" of old, warm "comforts."
+
+"And it's time we were all off to Noddle's Island. It's up in the
+mornin' early we must be. So scatter yourselves, all of ye, an' to sleep
+right away. Not forgettin' your prayers, as good Christians shouldn't."
+
+"Of course not," answered Amy, drowsily; but Fayette looked as if he did
+not understand.
+
+"Sure, _you'll_ have to be taught then, my fine sir, an' I'll tackle
+that job with the rest of to-morrow's."
+
+But when daylight broke and roused the active Cleena to begin her
+formidable task of scrubbing away the accumulated dirt of years there
+was no Fayette to be found. Dreamily, she recalled the sound of musical
+instruments, the shouts of voices, and the squealing of the rats that
+had hitherto been the tenants of "Spite House"; but which of these, if
+any, was answerable for the lad's absence, she could not guess.
+
+"Well, I was mindin' to keep him busy, had he stayed; but since he's
+gone, there's one mouth less to feed."
+
+It did not take the observant woman long to discover that the outlook
+for the comfort of "her folks" was even less by daylight than it had
+seemed the night before. Her heart sank, though she lost no time in
+useless regrets, and she did most cordially thank that "guardian angel"
+to whom she so constantly referred for having prevented her spending the
+last twenty-five dollars she possessed. This would long ago have wasted
+away had it not been placed in the care of that true friend of the
+family, Adam Burns, with whom her master and mistress had now taken
+refuge.
+
+"Alanna, that's luck! I was for usin' it long syne, but the old man
+wouldn't leave me do it. 'No, Cleena, thee's not so young as thee was,
+an' thee might be wantin' it for doctor's stuff,' says he. Twenty-five
+dollars! That'd pay the rent an' buy flour an' tea, an' what not;" and
+with cheerful visions of the unlimited power of her small capital, the
+old servant stooped to fill her apron with the stray chips and branches
+the bare place afforded.
+
+At that moment there fell upon her ears the familiar sound of Pepita and
+Balaam braying in concert for their breakfast.
+
+"Now what's to feed _them_ is more nor I know; yet never a doubt I doubt
+it would clean break the colleen's heart must she part with her neat
+little beast."
+
+The braying roused Hallam and Amy, also, from a night of dreamless
+sleep; and as they passed out from the musty house into the crisp air of
+a frosty morning, they felt more cheerful than they considered was quite
+the proper thing, under the circumstances. Then Amy looked at her
+brother and laughed.
+
+"Isn't it splendid after the rain? and isn't it funny to be here?
+Yesterday it seemed as if the world had come to an end, and now it seems
+as if it had just been made new."
+
+"'Every morn is a fresh beginning,'" quoted Hallam, who loved books
+better than his sister did.
+
+"Let's go down to the gate, or place where a gate should be, and take a
+good look at our--home."
+
+"All right. Though we've seen it at a distance, I suppose it will appear
+differently to us at near hand."
+
+"And uglier. Oh, but it's horrid! _horrid!_" and with a sudden revulsion
+of feeling Amy buried her face in her hands and began to cry. "I hate
+it. I won't stay here. I will not. I'd rather go home and live in the
+old stable than here."
+
+"That wouldn't have been a bad idea, only we shouldn't have been
+allowed."
+
+"Who could have hindered that? Who'd want an empty stable?"
+
+"Our cousin Archibald!" answered Hallam, with scornful emphasis. "I
+believe he feels as if he had a mortgage on our very souls. Indeed, he
+said I might sometime be able to earn enough to buy the place back, as
+well as pay all other debts. He said he couldn't live forever, and it
+was but fair he should have a few years' possession of 'his own.'
+He--Well, there's no use talking. I wish--I wish I were--"
+
+"No, no! you don't! No, you don't either, Hallam Kaye! I know what you
+began to say, and you shall not finish. You shall not die. You shall get
+well and strong and do all those things he said. I'm ashamed of myself
+that I cried. I felt last night as if my old life were all a beautiful
+dream, and that I had just waked up into a real world where I had to do
+things for myself and for others; not have others do for me any longer."
+
+"That was about the state of the case, I fancy."
+
+"Well, that isn't so bad. It shouldn't be, that is; for I have such
+health and strength and everything. Nothing matters so much as long as
+we are all together."
+
+"Nobody knows how long we shall be. I don't like these 'attacks' of
+father's, Amy. I'm afraid of them. It will kill him to live here."
+
+It needed but the possibility of giving comfort to somebody to arouse
+all Amy's natural hopefulness, and she commanded with a shake of her
+forefinger:--
+
+"Hallam Kaye, you stop it! I won't have it! If you keep it up, I shall
+have to--to cuff you."
+
+"Try it!" cried the brother, already laughing at her fierce show of
+spirit; yet to tempt her audacity he thrust his fingers through her
+short curls and wagged her head playfully.
+
+She did not resent it; she could resent nothing Hallam ever did save
+that morbid talk of his. She had been fighting with this spirit ever
+since she could remember, and their brief "tussle" over, she crept
+closer to him along the old stone wall and begged:--
+
+"Cleena has tied the burros out to graze in the weeds, and that will be
+their breakfast, and while we're waiting for ours, I wish you'd tell me
+all you know about 'Spite House.' I've heard it, of course, but it's all
+mixed up in my mind, and I don't see just where that cousin Archibald
+comes in."
+
+"Oh, he comes in easily enough. He's a descendant of old Jacob Ingraham
+as well as of the house of Kaye. I believe it was in this way: our
+great-grandfather Thomas Kaye and Jacob were brothers-in-law, and there
+was some trouble about money matters."
+
+"Seems to me all the mean, hateful troubles _are_ about money. I don't
+see why it was ever made."
+
+"Well, they had such trouble anyway. Great-grandfather had just built
+Fairacres, and had spent a great deal to beautify the grounds. He was a
+pretty rich man, I fancy, and loved to live in a great whirl of society
+and entertain lots of people and all that. He was especially fond of the
+view from the front of the house and had cut away some of the trees for
+'vistas' and 'outlooks' and 'views.' There were no mills on the Ardsley
+then. They came in our own grandfather's time. It was just a beautiful,
+shimmering river--"
+
+"Hal, you're a poet!"
+
+"Never," said the boy, with a blush.
+
+"But you are. You tell things so I can just see them. I can see that
+shimmering river this instant, in my mind, with my eyes shut. I can see
+boats full of people sailing on it, and hear music and laughter and
+everything lovely."
+
+"Who's the poet now?"
+
+"I'm not. But go on."
+
+"It seems that old Mr. Ingraham thought he had been cheated by
+great-grandfather--"
+
+"Likely enough he had. Else I don't see where he got all that money to
+do things."
+
+"But, missy, he was _our_ relative. He was a _Kaye_."
+
+"There might be good Kayes and bad Kayes, mightn't there?"
+
+"Amy, you're too honest for comfort. You may think a spade's a spade,
+but you needn't always mention it."
+
+"Go on with the story. In a few minutes Cleena will call us to our
+'frugal repast,' like the poor children in stories, and I want to hear
+all about this 'ruined castle' I've come to live in, I mean 'dwell,' for
+story-book girls--'maidens'--never do anything so commonplace as just
+'live.' Hally, boy, there's a lot of humbug in this world."
+
+"How did you find that out, Miss Experience?"
+
+"I didn't trouble to find it, I just read it. I thought it sounded sort
+of nice and old, so I said it."
+
+"Humph! Well, do you want to hear, or will you keep interrupting?"
+
+"I do want to hear, and I probably shall interrupt. I am not blind to
+my own besetting sins."
+
+"Listen. Just as great-grandfather had everything fixed to his taste and
+was enjoying life to the utmost, old Jacob came here to this knoll that
+faces Fairacres--Oh, you needn't turn around to see. The trees have
+grown again, and the view is hidden. On this knoll, if there was
+anything tall, it would spoil the Fairacres' view. So Jacob built this
+'Spite House.' He made it as ugly as he could, and he did everything
+outrageous to make great-grandfather disgusted. He named this rocky
+barren 'Bareacre,' and that little gully yonder he called 'Glenpolly,'
+because his enemy had named the beautiful ravine we know as 'Glenellen.'
+Polly and Ellen were the wives' names, and I've heard they grieved
+greatly over the quarrel. Mr. Ingraham painted huge signs with the names
+on them, and hung up scarecrows on poles, because he wouldn't let a tree
+grow here, even if it could. There are a few now, though. Look like old
+plum trees. My, what a home for our mother!"
+
+Amy's face sobered again, as she regarded the ugly stone structure which
+still looked strong enough to defy all time, but which no lapse of years
+had done much to beautify. Nothing had ever thrived at Bareacre, which
+was, in fact, a hill of apparently solid stone, sparsely covered by the
+poorest of soil. The house was big, for the Ingraham family had been
+numerous, but it was as square and austere as the builders could make
+it. The roof ended exactly at the walls, which made it look, as Amy
+said, "like a girl with her eyelashes cut off." There were no blinds or
+shutters of any sort, and nothing to break the bleak winds which swept
+down between the hills of Ardsley, and which nipped the life of any
+brave green thing that tried to make a hold there. A few mullein stalks
+were all that flourished, and the stunted fruit trees which Hallam had
+noticed seemed but a pitiful parody upon the rich verdure of the
+elsewhere favored region.
+
+"Has nobody ever lived here since that wicked old man?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I think so. But nobody for long, nor could anybody make it a
+home."
+
+"It looks as if it had been blue, up there by the roof."
+
+"I believe it was. I've heard that every color possible was used in
+painting it, so as to make it the more annoying to a person of good
+taste, such as great-grandfather was."
+
+"Heigho! Well, _we've_ got to live here."
+
+"Or die. It's hopeless. I can't see a ray of light in the whole
+situation."
+
+"You dear old bat, you should wear specs. I can see several rays. I'll
+count them off. Ray one: the ugly all-sorts-of-paint has been washed
+away by the weather. Ray two: the air up here is as pure as it's sharp,
+and there's nothing to obstruct or keep it from blowing your 'hypo'
+away. Ray three: there are our own darling burros already helping to
+'settle' by mowing the weeds with their mouths. What a blessing is
+hunger, rightly utilized! And, finally, there's that
+worth-her-weight-in-gold Goodsoul waving her pudding-stick, which in
+this new, unique life of ours must mean 'breakfast.' Come along. Heigho!
+Who's that? Our esteemed political friend, 'Rep-Dem-Prob.' I'd forgotten
+him. Now, by the lofty bearing with which he ascends to our castle of
+discontent, I believe he's been out 'marching.'"
+
+It was, indeed, Fayette whom they saw climbing over the rocks. He wore
+his oilcloth blouse and his gay helmet, and soon they could hear his
+rude voice singing and see the waving of his broom.
+
+"He? Coming back again? Why, we can't keep him. We can't even 'keep'
+ourselves."
+
+"Yet never a doubt I doubt he means to tarry," quoted Amy, laughing at
+her brother's rueful countenance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NEEDS AND HELPERS.
+
+
+"Sure, I thought ye had lost yourself or been ate by the rats!" cried
+Cleena, as Fayette rather timidly peered in at the open kitchen door.
+"But all rogues is fond o' good atin', so I suppose you've come for your
+breakfast, eh?"
+
+"No. I've et."
+
+"Must ha' been up with the lark then. No, hold on. Don't go in there.
+They're master Hallam an' Miss Amy still, an' always will be. They eats
+by themselves, as the gentry should. If there's ought left when they're
+done, time enough for you an' me."
+
+"I've had my breakfast, I told you."
+
+"Didn't seem to set well on your stummick either, by the way your temper
+troubles ye. Are ye as ready to work as ye was yesterday?"
+
+"Yes. What I come back for."
+
+Cleena paused and studied the ill-shaped, vacant, though not vicious,
+face of the unfortunate waif. Something drew her sympathy toward him,
+and she pitied him for the mother whom he had never known. In the
+adjoining room she could hear the voices of her own "childer," with
+their cultured inflection and language, which was theirs by inheritance
+and as unconsciously as were "Bony's" harsh tones and rude speech his
+own.
+
+"Arrah musha! but it's a queer world, I d'know. There's them an' there's
+him, an' the Lord made 'em both. Hear me, me gineral. Take a hold o'
+that broom o' yours, an' show me what it's made for. If you're as clean
+as you're homebly, I might stand your good friend. What for no?"
+
+Fayette had returned Cleena's cool stare with another as steady. He
+liked her far better and more promptly than she liked him, yet in that
+moment of scrutiny each had measured the other and formed a tacit
+partnership. "For the family," was Cleena's watchword, and it had
+already become the half-wit's.
+
+Cleena went to the well, tied her clothesline to the leaky old bucket
+and lowered it. On the night before she had obtained a pail of spring
+water from the cottage at the foot of the knoll, from the same friendly
+neighbor who had sold her the milk. But their own well must be fixed. To
+her dismay she found that it was very deep, and that the bit of water
+which remained in the bucket when it was drawn up was quite unfit even
+for cleaning purposes.
+
+This worried her. A scarcity of water was one of the few trials which
+she had been spared, and she could hardly have met a heavier. As she
+turned toward the house she saw that Fayette had carefully set out of
+doors the old chairs and the other movable furniture which the kitchen
+had contained, and that, before sweeping, he was using his broom to
+brush the cobwebs from the ceiling. The sight filled her with joy and
+amazement.
+
+"Saints bless us! That's the first man body I ever met that had sense
+like that!" and she lifted up her voice in a glad summons:--
+
+"You, Napoleon Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"
+
+"Before I finish here?"
+
+"Before the wag o' dog's tail. Hurry up!"
+
+"The wind'll blow it all over again."
+
+"Leave it blow. Come by. Here's more trouble even nor cobwebs, avick!
+First need is first served."
+
+This summoned Hallam and Amy out to see what was going on, and after
+learning the difficulty and peering into the depths of the old pit they
+offered their suggestions. Said Amy:--
+
+"We might draw it up, bucket by bucket, and throw it away. Then I
+suppose it would fill with clean water, wouldn't it?"
+
+"If we did, 'twould break all our backs an' there's more to do than
+empty old wells. Master Hal, what's _your_ say?"
+
+"Hmm, we might rig up some sort of machinery and stir it all up, and
+with chemicals we could clear it and--"
+
+"Troth we could, if we'd a month o' Sundays to do it in an' slathers o'
+time an' money spoilin' to be spent."
+
+Hallam was disgusted. Already he had blamed himself for his haughty
+refusal of Mr. Wingate's offer, on the previous day, to send a practical
+man to look over the premises and "set them going," as any landlord
+would.
+
+But the lad had replied, as one in authority to decide for his absent
+parents: "We won't trouble you, sir. What happens to us, after we leave
+Fairacres, is our own affair. If you get your rent, that should be
+sufficient for you."
+
+After that the offer was not renewed; for Mr. Wingate was not the man to
+waste either money or service, and the lad's tone angered him.
+
+Regrets were now, as always, useless, and Cleena's open disdain of
+Hallam's suggestion sent him limping angrily away; though Amy laughed
+over her own "valuable contribution to the solution of the dilemma," and
+by her intentional use of the longest words at hand caused Fayette to
+regard her with a wonderment that was ludicrous in itself.
+
+"Well, Goodsoul, we've helped a lot. Ask our 'Rep-Dem-Prob' what his
+'boys' would do."
+
+"What for no? Sure, he's more sense nor the whole of us. Say, me
+gineral, what's the way out?"
+
+Fayette colored with pride. He had an inordinate vanity, and, like most
+of his sort, he possessed an almost startling keenness of intelligence
+in some respects, as contrasted with his foolishness in others.
+Moreover, he had been disciplined by poverty, and had always lived among
+working people and, for a long time, about the carpet mills.
+
+"Well, the 'Supe's' force-pump."
+
+"Hmm, I know, I know. But what's the 'Supe' an' his pump? Is he fish,
+flesh, or fowl, eh?"
+
+"He's the 'Supe' to the mill. Ain't ye any sense?"
+
+"No. None left after botherin' with you. What's it, Miss Amy?"
+
+"I know. You mean Mr. Metcalf, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What would he do? How could he help us?"
+
+"Lend me the donkey. I'll ride and tell him. All them houses--see them
+mill cottages, down yonder?"
+
+"Certainly. They look very pretty from here, with all the trees about
+them."
+
+"They've got wells. Once in six months the wells has to be cleared out.
+That's orders. Me an' another fellow goes down 'em, after the pump's
+drawed out all it can. We bail 'em out. I clean cisterns, too. Ain't
+another fellow in the village as good at a cistern as me. See, I'm slim.
+I can get down a man-hole 't nobody else can. Shall I go?"
+
+"I'll ask Hallam."
+
+Who, upon consultation, replied:--
+
+"I suppose it's the only thing we can do, but it does go against my
+inclination to ask favors of anybody."
+
+"Hal, that's silly. We must send Fayette to Mr. Metcalf, and will you
+write the note, or shall I?"
+
+"You, since you've seen him, personally."
+
+"Which is the only way I could see him," laughed the girl, and ran into
+the house to find a sheet of paper. Then the mill boy was given his
+choice of the burros, to ride as messenger; and having selected Balaam,
+departed down the slope in high glee. When he reached the mill, and Mr.
+Metcalf was at liberty to see him, he began a voluble description of all
+that had occurred since his chance meeting with Amy in the wood; but the
+superintendent cut the story short.
+
+"Now, see here, 'Bony.' This is the chance of your life. Understand?
+They are, I should think, the very nicest folks you ever saw. Well,
+treat them square. None of your monkey shines nor nonsense. Do
+everything you can to help them. Of course you can have the pump, though
+you can't carry it up to 'Hardscrabble' donkey-back. That fellow is as
+black as his brother, or sister, is white. They're the prettiest donkeys
+I ever saw. How my youngsters would like such. Well, go round to John.
+There's no teaming to be done this morning, and he shall take the pump
+there in the wagon. He'll help you too, no doubt, for a small payment."
+
+"Say, 'Supe.'"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I don't believe they've got any money. Don't look so they had a cent.
+Ain't it queer? With all them purty things an' the way they act an'
+talk. Ain't like nobody I ever saw before. Ain't never saw anybody liked
+each other so much. I'm goin' to stay."
+
+"Have they asked you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, run along and get hold of John before he goes home for a nap, as
+he might, with nothing needed here."
+
+Then, when Fayette had left him, Mr. Metcalf took up Amy's note and
+reread it.
+
+The second perusal pleased the gentleman even more than the first. He
+thought that the little letter was very characteristic of the girl he
+had met, and he specially liked her statement that his former kindness
+presupposed a later one. So he stopped John, the teamster, as he was
+driving out of the mill yard, with the request:--
+
+"You stay up there all day, if you can be of any use. Got your dinner
+with you? and the horses'? Good enough. I've heard about that family
+being turned out from their old home, and whether it was justly done or
+not doesn't alter the fact of its hardness. Lend them a hand, as if it
+were for me, John, and I'll make it all right with you."
+
+"It's all right already, sir. I saw that girl, when she was down here
+that day; saw her take her fine little handkerchief out of her pocket
+and wipe that idiot's, or next door to idiot, wipe his lips as nice as
+if he was her own brother. Ain't one of the mill girls'd do _that_.
+They'd be too dainty. She wasn't, because she was quality. It always
+tells. Pity though that such folks have so little common sense. Now--"
+
+But Mr. Metcalf warded off any further talk of the good John, who had
+lived at Ardsley all his life and knew the history of the Kaye household
+almost better than they knew it themselves.
+
+"I'll ask you to tell me about them another time. Just now I guess you'd
+better hurry to get them a decent drink of water. Hold on, 'Bony.' Ride
+over to the office door. I'll send a note back to Miss Kaye, and want
+you to carry her a little basket."
+
+So this was the note which answered Amy's, and that proved its writer to
+be a gentleman, even though he had begun life a humble ash-boy in just
+such a mill as he now managed so ably:--
+
+
+"MY DEAR MISS AMY: The kindness is wholly on your side in allowing me to
+serve you, and I hope you will command me in any further matter wherein
+I can be of use.
+
+"I am sending the pump by John Young, our teamster, with instructions to
+remain under your orders for the rest of the day. You will find that
+'Bony' thoroughly understands the business of well-cleaning, but you
+will have to restrain him from venturing into any great hazard, because,
+poor lad, he has not the caution to balance his daring.
+
+"I am offering, also, a little basket of fruit which came my way this
+morning, and which looks, I fancy, as if it wanted to be eaten by just
+such a girl as you.
+
+"FAITHFULLY YOURS,
+"WILLIAM METCALF."
+
+
+When Amy read this note aloud to Hallam and Cleena, she did so in a
+proud and happy voice.
+
+"Well, I've written letters for mother, and father, too, sometimes, but
+I've not had many of my own. This is. I'm going to keep it always. The
+very first one that has come here. Isn't he just the dearest man? Oh! I
+am so happy I must just sing. It's such a beautiful world, after all,
+and maybe we've had all our old things taken away just to teach us that
+_folks_ are better than _things_. I feel as if I'd come out of a musty
+room into the open air."
+
+"Amy Kaye! You should be ashamed of yourself. Have you no heart at all?
+As for musty rooms, if you can find any to beat these at 'Spite House,'
+you'll do well."
+
+"I know. I'm 'bad,' of course, but come on. I'll fetch you all father's
+tubes and brushes that are in such a muddle, and you can sort them right
+near the well, and watch John fix it, and take care of Fayette; I'm
+going in and help Cleena, in any way I can."
+
+Amy's cheerfulness was certainly infectious. It was also helpful to
+Hallam's gloomy mood that just then there should be the well and cistern
+cleaning, Mr. Young having discovered a cistern beneath a pile of
+decayed boards, at a little distance from the house. But the water in
+both being unfit for use, Amy bravely picked up a couple of pails and
+started down hill to their new neighbor's cottage.
+
+"Wait, Amy, I'll rig up something," called the cripple; and by the aid
+of a rope, a barrel stave, and some wire he managed to hang the pails on
+either side Pepita's saddle. "So all you'll have to do will be walk up
+and down and make her behave," referring to Pepita's uncertain temper.
+
+"If I had a barrel I'd better that job," said John the teamster. "I'd
+drive down once and get all you needed for the day."
+
+"But there isn't any barrel that will hold water," answered the girl.
+"So I'll play 'Jack and Jill' with Pepita, as long as Cleena wishes.
+Besides, the cottage children think she's beautiful, and they are so
+kind they help me fill the pails each trip, as well as give us the water
+in them."
+
+John wiped his brow and looked admiringly upon her. "Keep that spirit,
+lass, and it'll make small difference to you whether your purse is empty
+or full. But 'give' you the water? I should say yes. The Lord gave it to
+them in the first place, free as the air of heaven. Well, there'll be
+water to spare up here, too, soon, for we've got the pump about ready
+for work."
+
+It was a long time, though, before any impression was made upon the
+accumulation of water in the deep well. After a while, however, less
+came with each draft, and it was thicker and fouler. Finally, the pump
+ceased to be of any use, and was drawn up and laid beside the broken
+curb. Then came the interesting part of the task, as well as the
+perilous.
+
+Keeping an eye upon all of Fayette's movements, John had allowed him "to
+boss the job," partly because the lad did fully understand his business,
+and partly to give him pleasure. But now was need for utmost caution.
+
+"Will you fetch me a candle?" the teamster asked Cleena; and when she
+had done so he fastened it to the end of the clothesline and slowly
+lowered it into the shaft. The flame was instantly extinguished.
+
+"Hmm, have to wait a spell, I reckon. Might as well tackle the cistern."
+
+"What made the candle go out? Was there a wind?" asked Amy.
+
+"Carbonic acid gas," answered her brother.
+
+"Huh," said Fayette, contemptuously, "'twa'n't neither. Just choke damp
+an' fixed air. Soon's the candle'll stay lighted, I'll go down.
+Cistern's the same, only wider. Got a powder here'll fix it, if it don't
+clear soon."
+
+After the cistern was cleaned, and this was a much easier task than the
+well, Fayette returned to the curb, again lighted the candle, and
+lowered it. The foul and poisonous gases had mostly passed away, and the
+flame continued to burn as far down as the clothesline would reach.
+
+"That's all right; I'll tackle it now."
+
+"No, you'll not. None o' your foolhardiness here."
+
+"Who made you boss o' me, John Young?"
+
+"I did. I'll prevent you, if I have to hold on to you. Best leave it
+open till to-morrow, or longer even," said John. "I'm going to eat my
+dinner now. Come and have some."
+
+"Bime-by. I'm goin' to take off my shoes. Work best when I'm barefoot."
+
+The answer gave John no concern, for he knew this peculiarity of
+Fayette's; so he walked quietly away toward the old shed where he had
+tied his horses, to give them their food and secure his own. Before he
+reached them, however, he heard a loud shout, and, turning, saw the
+foolish boy capering about on the beam which had been laid across the
+top of the well, and from which the rope and bucket were still
+suspended.
+
+"'Bony,' you fool, get off that! A misstep and you're gone!"
+
+"All right, I'll get off!"
+
+There was a wild waving of arms, a burst of derisive laughter, and
+"Bony" had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE WATERLOO OF BONAPARTE LAFAYETTE.
+
+
+The teamster's cry of horror brought everybody to the scene. Cleena was
+the first to reach it and to find John standing by the mouth of the
+well, whitefaced and trembling.
+
+"What's it? What's down there? What mean ye yellin' that gait? Speak,
+man, if ye can."
+
+He could only point downward, while he strained his ears to catch any
+sound that might come from below.
+
+Then Cleena shook him fiercely. "Speak, I tell ye! Where's the boy?"
+
+The other still pointed down into the shaft, but he made out to say:--
+
+"I heard him laugh, then shout, and he must have gone stark crazy."
+
+"He down there? That poor, senseless gossoon? Where was you that you'd
+leave him do it?"
+
+"I was walking--wait! I hear something."
+
+Four white, terror-stricken faces now bent above the old well, while
+Cleena's arms clasped her "childer" tightly, fearing they, too, might be
+snatched away from her.
+
+"Saints save us, it's bewitched! Oh, the day, the day!"
+
+"Shut up, woman! Keep still. I hear something."
+
+Again they stooped and listened, and Amy's keen ears reported,
+joyfully:--
+
+"It's Fayette! It is, it is! It sounds as if he were speaking from the
+far end of a long, long tube. But he's alive, he's alive!"
+
+"He might as well be dead. His bones must be broken, and he can't live
+long in such an air as that," said Hallam.
+
+"I don't know. That he's alive at all proves that the air isn't as bad
+as I thought. Besides, he may not have broken any bones. He's had
+fearful falls, before this, and he always came out about sound. But the
+rope doesn't reach much more than two-thirds down. I've heard they dug
+this well a hundred and fifty feet deep. They had to, to reach water
+from top this rock."
+
+"A hundred and fifty feet! How can we possibly reach him?"
+
+"Not by standin' talkin'. Whisk to the cottage, Amy, an' beg the length
+of all the rope they have. To save a lad's life--be nimble!"
+
+The girl was away long before Cleena finished speaking, while the latter
+herself darted into the house, caught off the sheets and blankets from
+the beds, and tore them into strips. Never wasting one motion of her
+strong hands, and praying ceaselessly, she tied each fresh length and
+tested it with all her force.
+
+Meanwhile Amy almost flew over the space between "Spite House" and the
+cottage, arriving there nigh breathless; but gasping out her errand, she
+rushed straight to the line in the drying yard and began to tear it from
+its fastenings on the poles.
+
+"You're wanting my rope, miss? Somebody in the well? Heaven help him!
+But wait! If it's _cleaning_ the well he is, why of course he'd be down
+there. Who is it?"
+
+"Fayette. Maybe you know him as 'Bony.'"
+
+"The half-wit? Pshaw, Miss. Don't look that frightened. He's all safe,
+never fear. Nothing hurts him. The Lord looks after him. I'm afraid this
+rope won't hold, it's so old. Wait, I'll go, too. Never mind the
+children, they'll have to take care of themselves."
+
+All the while she was talking the kindly woman had been rolling the
+line, retying it where their haste broke its worn strands, and following
+Amy up over the slope. Now she paused for one second to remonstrate:--
+
+"You, Victoria, go back! There's William Gladstone trying to creep after
+us. Beatrice, Belinda, go home. You mustn't follow mother every time she
+turns her back! Go home, I tell you. Go--right--straight--back--home.
+My! but this _is_ steep!"
+
+A shriek, shrill and piercing as only infant lungs could utter, made
+even Amy stop, eager though she was to reach the well where poor "Bony"
+might already have breathed his last. The one backward glance she cast
+showed the numerous children of the house of Jones toiling industriously
+skyward, in their mother's footsteps. Victoria, who was "eight and
+should have known better," had left William Gladstone to take care of
+himself, with the result that, being less than two years old and rather
+unsteady on his legs, he had toddled up to the biggest stone in the
+path, tried to step over it, lost his balance, and fallen. The hill was
+so steep that once the fat little fellow began to roll downwards he
+could not stop, and the terrified outcry first showed the mother his
+danger.
+
+"He'll bump his head against a rock and--"
+
+Mrs. Jones did not finish her sentence, but faced about and ran
+frantically down the slope, catching up her baby and smothering it with
+kisses, although she had assured the little fellow, at least a dozen
+times that day, that "he was the very plague of her life." She had
+dropped the rope, and Amy caught it, then turned and ran as fast upward
+as her neighbor was going in the other direction. Behind Amy still
+followed Victoria, Beatrice, and Belinda.
+
+"You should go back. Your little brother's hurt," shouted she.
+
+"Yes'm. He is often," coolly replied Victoria, who could have the minor
+excitement of examining the baby's bruises any day, but who did not
+intend to lose the greater one of "a man down the well" for any
+commonplace home matter.
+
+Just before she came to the crest of the knoll Amy hesitated, and stood
+still. It seemed to her she could not go on and face the possible, even
+probable, tragedy at the top, and into the midst of her awestruck
+waiting there was hurled this startling question:--
+
+"Say, miss, where do you s'pose you'll have the funeral? May I come?"
+
+"Ugh! Oh, you horrid little thing!"
+
+Victoria appeared so amazed at the effect of her inquiry that she stared
+back into Amy's face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
+
+"Wh-h--why!"
+
+"I shouldn't have said that. But you go right straight back home. Your
+mother wants you. I don't. Oh, dear! How could you say it?"
+
+"Why, 'cause I like to go to funerals. I go to every one Ma does. She's
+got a real nice 'funeral dress,' an' so have I."
+
+Amy fled. She had never seen anything like little Victoria, and she was
+so indignant that she almost forgot her dread of what might lie before
+her. She reached the group about the well, who were now utterly silent,
+and seemed to be watching with more astonishment than terror something
+happening within it.
+
+Amy, also, stretched her neck to see, though she shut her eyes, and
+this naturally prevented; nor did she open them till she felt Cleena
+clutch the skirt of her frock and heard her exclaim:--
+
+"Faith, but he's the biggest monkey out o' the Zoo! Arrah musha! I'll
+teach him scaring folks out o' their wits, an' wastin' good bedclothes
+on such havers! Huh!"
+
+For this was the marvel that now presented. Poor, silly Fayette, looking
+more foolish and grotesque than ever, climbing upwards into the
+daylight, blinking and sputtering, his back against the stones of one
+side the shaft, his feet against the other, his hands clutching,
+pulling; both feet and hands almost prehensile, like the creature's to
+which Cleena had likened him, yet safe, unbruised, and only mud-splashed
+and laughing.
+
+With a final, agile movement he reached the top, threw his arms about
+the beam, and leaped to the ground beside them. Then he laughed again,
+hilariously, uproariously, and not for long.
+
+In Cleena Keegan's indignant soul a plan had been rapidly forming.
+
+"So you'd be givin' us all the terrors, would ye, avick? Sure, a taste
+o' the same medicine's good for the doctor as his patient. I'll just
+give ye a try of it, an' see what ye say. Hmm, them sheets might ha'
+lasted for years, so they might; an' them blankets, my heart!"
+
+Before anybody, least of all the astonished "Bony," could comprehend
+what she would be about, Cleena had tripped and thrown the lad to the
+ground. She was more powerful than even his boasted muscle, and he quite
+unprepared for what she meant to do. The life-line made from her
+cherished bedclothing was twisted about his wet shoulders like a flash.
+Yet there seemed nothing violent nor vindictive as she rolled him over
+and over, wisely winding and binding first his hands and feet. After
+that the punishment she administered was but a question of endurance on
+her part, and the length of the line.
+
+"There, you blatherskite! What's your guardian angel thinkin' of ye the
+now, you poor, ignorant, heathen gossoon? Well for ye that old Cleena
+has met up with ye to beat some bits o' sense into your idle pate.
+Tight, is it? Well, not so tight as the bands o' me heart when I looked
+to see ye brought up to me dead. 'Twon't hurt. Lie there an' rest."
+
+Cleena finished her harangue and her task together. After that she stood
+up straight and strong, and regarded the teamster with a questioning
+eye.
+
+"Is it true, what he says, that he's nor kith nor kin, hereabouts?"
+
+"I guess it's true," answered John, laughing at the ludicrous appearance
+of Fayette upon the ground. "He was born in the poorhouse, an' I've
+heard his mother died. His father had before then, I know. I used--"
+
+Cleena was in no mood for long stories, and she foresaw that one was
+imminent. She interrupted without ceremony--
+
+"So, if I take him in hand to train him a bit, what for no? There'll be
+no one botherin' an' interferin', is it?"
+
+"I guess there won't anybody worry about 'Bony.' He's right handy around
+the mill, an' he does odd jobs for a many people; but if you want him, I
+'low you can have him 'for a song.'"
+
+"I'll have no song singin', not I, nor from him. But if I don't make a
+smart, decent lad where there lies a fool, my name isn't Cleena Keegan,
+the day. Now what's about the well?"
+
+"That's what I want to know, Cleena," cried Amy. "How did he, could he,
+fall into it and climb out of it alive?"
+
+"Easier than you think, miss. He slid down the rope as far as it went, I
+suppose, then caught his feet in the stones of the sides, then his
+hands, and went down just as he came up. He didn't go into the water in
+the bottom, of course; but he's proved that the well is safe enough, and
+to-morrow morning he ought to be made to go down, properly fixed, with a
+rope around his waist and the tackle for bailing it out. It'll be a job,
+then, even after to-day's beginning. But I'll tell the boss about it,
+and I don't doubt he'll send the other man that helps 'Bony' in the mill
+village, and get things right this time. What say, boy? Think you'll
+take matters a little soberer to-morrow, if I come back to help?"
+
+Fayette lay with closed eyes and made no answer, but Cleena spoke for
+him, and as one in authority:--
+
+"Faith an' he will. An' I'm thankin' ye, sir, for all ye've done the
+day. Sure, by this hour to-morrow, we should begin to see daylight
+'twixt the dirt."
+
+"I 'low you will. You're a master scrubber, and no mistake. Well,
+good-by. Anything I can do for you village way?"
+
+"I'm beholden to you, sir, an' so are my folks, but there's not. I'm for
+sending the childer down on their donkeys to see how fares the mistress
+an' master; an' they'll fetch back what's lackin' o' food an' so on,
+when they come. It's hungerin' sore will the sweet lady be for a sight
+of her own."
+
+"Oh, Cleena, is that so? May we go? But--that will leave you quite
+alone," said Amy.
+
+Hallam smiled. "She'll not be so very much alone, after all, dear," and
+he nodded significantly toward the still apparently sleeping Fayette.
+
+Then they went away to saddle the burros, and after having received a
+mysterious message which they were to deliver to Adam Burn, to the
+effect that "he'll know what to send o' them things in his box."
+
+"And it's as clear as the sunshine just what you are asking, dear old
+Goodsoul. That Friend Adam shall give us your dollars out of his box.
+You transparent old pretender! Well, never mind, Scrubbub. Some day our
+ships will come home, and then--you shall live in lavender," said Amy,
+hugging the faithful woman, and smiling, though tears of gratitude were
+in her dark eyes.
+
+Which eyes, happening to look downward, saw Fayette's own half open, and
+watching this little affectionate by-play with deep interest. No sooner,
+however, did he perceive that Amy had discovered this fact than his lids
+went down with a snap.
+
+"Ah, ha, Fayette! I saw you. I'm sorry for you, but just you tell
+Goodsoul, here, that you'll remember not to shame your 'guardian angel'
+any more, and she'll let you up. I know her. Her heart's made of honey
+and sugar, and everything soft and sticky. I believe she's caught you in
+it, now, bad as you are, and if she has, you'll never get quite clear of
+her love and too demonstrative kindness."
+
+Then she cried to Hallam, who was limping toward the tethered burros:
+"Now for a race. These dear little beasties would trot a good pace if
+they realized they were on the road to mother and father and Friend Adam
+Burn's big oat-bin!"
+
+As they passed through the gateless entrance to "Bareacre," Hallam
+turned, and with something of Amy's cheerfulness waved his hand to
+Cleena.
+
+"We'll be back before dark, Goodsoul. Don't keep that lad tied any
+longer. Don't."
+
+"Arrah musha! Can't I do what I will with me own? There's somewhat to
+pass 'twixt him an' me afore he gets free o' them bonds."
+
+Evidently, there was; nor was she sorry to see all go and leave her
+alone with Fayette. Of what occurred during their brief absence at the
+Clove, nobody ever heard; but when the brother and sister rode up the
+slope, just as the evening fell, Fayette appeared to meet them and take
+their burros for them. His manner was subdued and gentle, and on his
+homely face was a look of exceeding peace.
+
+Amy nudged Hallam mischievously. "Another lull before another storm,
+isn't it?"
+
+Hallam regarded the half-wit critically. "No. But I think he's 'met his
+Waterloo.'"
+
+"Oh, is that what we are to call her in future? She's already as many
+names as a Spanish princess." Then she lifted her voice to summon
+Cleena.
+
+"Heigho, 'Waterloo'! Father and mother are doing finely, and send love,
+and dear old Adam sent something much more substantial, but not what you
+asked for. Just plain beefsteak and potatoes, and a jolly chicken pie
+that's in a basket on Hallam's crutch. Those crutches are the handiest
+things!"
+
+"Faith, so they be. An' there's a fire out of some wood the cottage
+woman sent, an' the steak'll broil while the taties roast, like the
+whisk of a squirrel in the tree."
+
+So "Waterloo" became another of good Cleena's "love names." For it's
+ever the tone and not the words that makes a sweet sound in one's ears,
+and the woman's heart thrilled, and her weary shoulders lifted because
+of the love which sang through Amy's innocent jest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HOME-MAKING.
+
+
+For one whole week the artist and his wife remained at the Clove. During
+that time "Spite House" had undergone the most thorough cleaning and
+overhauling of its existence. The walls had been scraped of the ancient
+and discolored whitewash that covered them, and a fresh coat of
+sweet-smelling lime applied.
+
+"It's like a new-mown field, I think," said Amy, on the day that this
+whitewashing had taken place, to Fayette who was artisan in
+chief--always under Cleena's orders.
+
+"An' I must be the daisy that grows in it," he returned, catching a
+glimpse of his lime-splashed face in the tiny pocket mirror he always
+carried.
+
+"A whole bunch of daisies, indeed. But isn't it jolly? I never did so
+much hard work in my life; my hands are all blistered and sore, my feet
+ache--whew! And I never, never was so happy."
+
+Fayette paused midway to the shed, which he had repaired with bits of
+boards, begged or offered in various sources. The whitewash brush over
+his shoulder dripped a milky fluid upon his bared head, and
+occasionally a drop trickled as far as the corner of his capacious
+mouth.
+
+But he minded nothing so trivial as this, and he stared at Amy in the
+same wonderment with which he had regarded her from the beginning of
+their acquaintance. She also paused and returned his gaze with an amused
+scrutiny.
+
+"Fayette, that stare of yours is getting chronic. I wish you'd give it
+up. Everything I do or say seems to astonish you. What's the matter with
+me? Am I not like other girls? You must know many down at the mill."
+
+"No, you ain't."
+
+"How different? I'd really like to know."
+
+"Ain't seen you cry once,--or not more 'n once," he corrected
+truthfully. "An' you left all them things up there, an' the trees, an'
+the posies, an' everything like that way."
+
+For one moment Amy's breast heaved and her voice choked. Then she jerked
+her head in a fashion she had when she wished to throw aside unpleasant
+things and replied:--
+
+"What would be the use of crying? If it would bring them all back, I'd
+cry a bath-tub full. But it won't. Thinking about it only makes it
+worse. _It had to be_, and in some ways I'm thankful it did. It was all
+unreal and dreamlike up there. I knew nothing about the sorrows and
+hardships in the real world. But how I am talking! I wonder, do you
+understand at all what I have said?"
+
+"I couldn't help cryin' when the bluebird's nest fell an' smashed all
+the eggs," remarked Fayette, whimpering at the recollection. His words
+were "like a bit of blue sky, showing through a cloud," as the girl
+often expressed it, when the untaught lad revealed something of his
+intense love of nature, so strongly in contrast to his otherwise limited
+intelligence.
+
+"Well, we must forget what's past and go to work. I'll tether the burros
+out of the roadside while you clean up their shed; and when they come
+back to find it all sweet and white, like Pepita herself, they'll be as
+pleased as Punch. Wonder we never thought of having the old stable at
+Fairacres whitewashed."
+
+"Didn't have me, then," answered the lad.
+
+"Fayette, you're as vain as a peacock. You always say 'ME' as if it were
+spelled with the biggest kind of capital letters."
+
+"Do I? Hmm," responded Fayette, with a vacant smile.
+
+Then Amy went into the house where Hallam and Cleena were arguing about
+what rooms should be arranged for the personal use of master and
+mistress, because Hallam thought his father's likes and habits should
+take precedence of all others.
+
+During this time of separation from him, the son had grown to think of
+his parent as a whimsical invalid, only. Oddly enough, with his own
+physical infirmity, he had come to look upon any bodily weakness of
+other lads or men as something almost degrading. He had always felt
+himself disgraced by his own lameness. It was this which had given him
+so bitter and distorted an outlook upon life, and involuntarily there
+had crept into his love for his father a feeling of contempt as well.
+
+Something of this showed in his talk with his sister, over this
+selection of rooms, and shocked her. Then, with loyal indignation she
+proceeded to enlighten him as to her own view of the subject.
+
+"Now, see here, Hallam Kaye. I don't believe, I can't believe, and I
+never will believe that from being a brilliant scholar and a wonderfully
+talented artist my darling father has suddenly become a--a--the sickly,
+selfish man you seem to imagine."
+
+"Amy! I never said that. I never thought it. I only remember that he has
+always had the best of everything, and I supposed he always should."
+
+The tears of excited protest rushed into her eyes, but she dashed them
+away. "Queer, I never cry, hardly ever, unless I'm mad. I am mad at you,
+Hal Kaye, right straight clear through. You wait and see how father is,
+after this trouble. All his life he has been petted by mother, who
+adores him; and that not too agreeable cousin Archibald said the truth
+about his having had so easy a path all his life. I tell you it isn't
+for his children to sit here in judgment upon him, nor criticise
+anything he does; but one thing I believe, he's had a good hard waking
+up. He hasn't realized the truth. How should he? Mother has always
+smiled and smiled and seen to everything. He was a genius. He was never
+to be disturbed. He never has been. Not till now. Now he has been
+tumbled off his cushions whack! and presently he'll get up--all right."
+
+"Whe-e-ew! You don't mince matters in speaking of your relatives, do
+you, sweet sister?"
+
+"Not a bit. Just you wait. All the histories we've ever read, all the
+tales we've ever heard, of gentlemen and gentlewomen, 'aristocrats,' who
+have had to suffer anything dreadful, show that they have borne the
+troubles as no meaner person could. The good there is in being of
+'family,' it seems to me, is the self-respect that holds us upright, no
+matter what blows are dealt."
+
+Again Hallam blew a long note. But he looked at his excited little
+sister with a new admiration.
+
+"Upon my word, Amy, my dear, you are positively eloquent. Who knows but
+you may one day take to the 'stump,' become a public orator, and
+lecture, to fill the coffers of that 'family' of which you are so
+proud."
+
+"No, thank you. I don't need to go abroad to lecture. I find enough
+subjects right in my own household. Between you and 'Bony' and Miss
+Scrubbub my life's a burden to me. Now hear me, both of you; for in the
+language of 'Bonaparty Gineral Lafayette,' 'there ain't none o' ye got
+no sense 'cept me,' and 'me' says: Fix up the north chamber for a
+studio. Put all father's things in there. Fix the middle room, which
+faces east and the sunrise, for a bedroom; and this warm southwestern
+one for a private sitting room, for mother darling, where she can
+retreat to think upon her husband's greatness and her children's folly;
+and where the sweet blessed thing will never be alone one single minute,
+unless every other member of the family is sound asleep. So that's for
+the 'retreating' of Friend Salome Kaye. Oh, that she were here this
+minute! that I could hug the heart right out of her! Fly around, Amy,
+'an' set the house to one side,' _à la_ Friend Adam's old housekeeper."
+
+It was wonderful what four pairs of arms could accomplish when love
+actuated them. "Spite House" had seemed hopelessly bare and dirty when
+the little household first entered it, but it was far from that by the
+end of a week's stay. Bare and bleak and unadorned it was still, and the
+surroundings seemed to forbid that it would ever be any better. But
+there was not an inch of its surface, outside or in, that had not been
+cleaned and polished, by scrubbing or whitewash brush. Even the
+moss-grown roof had been swept by Fayette, standing barefooted and
+unsupported on the sloping shingles, while he vigorously attacked them.
+To Hallam this seemed a desecration. The moss had been the one redeeming
+feature of the roof's ugliness.
+
+"Saints save us! If we leave go that muck up yon, it'll be like me
+dressin' for mass an' no rackin' down me hair, so it would. No, Master
+Hal, if riches we can't have, cleanness we can. An' that's aye more
+pleasin' to God."
+
+The plain, strong furniture which had been in the house had been placed
+to best advantage; and in the parents' rooms above, as well as the one
+family living room below, were gathered all that had been brought from
+dear Fairacres.
+
+A load of wood and another of coal, which Cleena supposed had been sent
+by Friend Adam and paid for with her money, gave a comfortable look to
+the woodshed, and in the storeroom was a bag of flour, a side of bacon,
+a fair supply of vegetables, and a barrel of apples. These the village
+grocer's lad had brought in his delivery wagon, and it was useless to
+ask him by whose order. Since they were needed, however, it was well to
+take them in and to consider them as belonging with the wood and coal.
+
+Finally, the Saturday afternoon arrived on which Hallam and Amy were to
+go to the Clove, to pass First Day with Adam Burn and their parents,
+returning before nightfall with the latter, to begin their reunited
+family life.
+
+Dressed in their freshest clothes, upon Balaam and Pepita, groomed by
+the willing hands of Fayette, they journeyed gayly down the slope over
+the familiar road, eager for their visit and the warm welcome awaiting
+them.
+
+"Do you know, Amy, it's queer that we've never been about alone much,
+even on these country roads, till now? Losing our home seems to have
+broken down ever so many restrictions."
+
+"Well, don't you like it? Doesn't it make you feel freer and healthier?"
+
+"Maybe. I'm not enthusiastic over our poverty. I'd be glad enough to go
+back to Fairacres."
+
+"So would I, if we could live there honestly. I wouldn't go, not for one
+day, if I could help it, to live in debt as we did."
+
+"Aren't we living in debt just the same now, and much more
+uncomfortably?"
+
+"I suppose so; though it's different. This time it isn't going to last,
+and we haven't shut our eyes to it."
+
+"Why isn't it going to last? How can we stop it? I see nothing ahead
+except starvation."
+
+"Hallam Kaye, the very first thing you ought to learn is to be cheerful.
+You don't want to be a dead weight on anybody, do you? Well, you will be
+if you can't look ahead at all to anything bright. You and I are going
+to work and mend the family fortunes. Then we're going back to Fairacres
+and do all the good we can with the money we've earned."
+
+"If I were sound--"
+
+"And sensible, you'd race me again to the gate of the Clove."
+
+Burnside-in-the-Clove was a bonny place. The "burn," from which the farm
+took its name almost as much as from the family which had dwelt there
+for generations, ran through the velvet lawn and was spanned by a rustic
+bridge where the well kept driveway curved toward the roomy house.
+
+"Oh! it's so lovely here. The many, many windows, each more cheery and
+inviting than its neighbor; the old-fashioned door, opened almost all
+the time; the hammocks, the benches, the flowers, the cool, sweet
+dairy--this is a _home_. I guess I'll make ours here instead of at
+Fairacres, after all," laughed Amy, as they paced sedately over the
+gravel, the better to enjoy the scene, and now that they had arrived, in
+no such haste for the meeting with their people.
+
+"I like to go slowly now, don't you, Hal? Because that makes the
+pleasure 'long-drawn out' and all the sweeter. In a minute mother's face
+will be in the doorway, with father looking over her shoulder. Friend
+Adam, blessed man, will hobble after, if he is not too lame; and then we
+shall jump off and the 'man' will take the burros, and we will go in and
+hug everybody all round, and eat the biggest kind of a supper--living on
+dry bread and milk two meals a day can give an appetite! And then one of
+dear old Adam's 'Spirit' talks; and bed and sleep, and breakfast and
+meeting, and--"
+
+"'Spite House'!"
+
+"No, Hallam, truly not. Our mother couldn't live in such a place.
+To-morrow a new life will begin on the barren knoll. 'Charity House' she
+will have it, and wherever our mother goes, softness and kindness and
+loveliness are sure to follow."
+
+"Yes, that is so," answered the cripple, thoughtfully. "Well, hear me,
+Amy. I guess I have been about as much of a wet blanket as I could be,
+but I'm going to try my very hardest to make things easy for father and
+mother. Just now, as we rode down the valley into all this peace and
+quiet, I seemed to see myself exactly as I am. Heigho! but look how
+green the grass is still, late in the year as it is, and how beautiful
+the vines on the stone walls. The maples are like a golden glory. My
+father must have been wonderfully soothed by so much loveliness about
+him, though he's going to feel it all the--"
+
+"Take care, Sir Optimist, that is to be. You're taking the wrong turn,
+comrade. Come away from the down to 'has been,' and climb to 'will be,'
+short metre."
+
+It was all as they said. The mother's gentle face in the doorway,
+looking rested and less faded for the week passed in the society of a
+simple, noble man; the father's gay and debonair, as Amy remembered
+it--how long ago, was it? And last of all Friend Adam, in gray attire,
+his broadbrim crowning his snowy hair, his expression one of childlike
+happiness and freedom from care.
+
+He welcomed them both with all heartiness, but Amy was dearest. She had
+always been, perhaps because she bore the name of his long dead wife,
+and had always seemed to stand as a child to his childless life.
+
+So after the fine supper was over, while before a blazing fire in
+another room Mr. and Mrs. Kaye discussed with Hallam all the events of
+the past week, Amy and the old man who had lived for more than eighty
+years a blameless, helpful life sat by a window in another place and
+looked out into the moonlight saying little, but enjoying all.
+
+"Dear father Adam, shall I tell thee"--for with him she always drifted
+into the sweet speech which was hers by birthright and his for all his
+life--"shall I tell thee how it seems to me, as if thee had learned
+every single lesson life and God has had to teach. Thee has had poverty
+and sorrow, and endured the wrong that others have done thee. Thee has
+seen thy kindred go away and leave thee alone. It is just like a good
+soldier who has been in a thick fight and a sailor who has swam in deep
+waters, but has come out safe on the other side. Thee is so calm and
+happy, like Mrs. Jones's little Belinda, who sits in the sun and sings
+and croons to herself, with never a plaything or anything good about her
+except her own serene happiness. Isn't it?"
+
+"Maybe, child. It may be. It should be, certainly. There should be no
+care in either extreme of life. _Both ends are so close to the Father's
+house._
+
+"Thee is right though, about the middle of life, little Amy. It is a
+time of struggle and rebuff."
+
+"But to-night it seems as if it could never have been so with thee. Tell
+me, father Adam, how thee has kept thyself so simple and good."
+
+"Nay, little one, not that. Simple, indeed, but not good. There is none
+good but One. Yet there are certain things that help. I'll tell thee
+what has helped me most, that is, in my daily life in the world, from
+which we can never escape while the heart beats."
+
+The dear old man rose, limped toward an ancient secretary, and took from
+it a small book. Just an ordinary account book, ruled for the keeping of
+small affairs, but arranged with every page inscribed by the trembling
+fingers of this all-thoughtful friend.
+
+"I have been thinking what a muddle it would be to thee, Amy, and I
+fixed this for thee. On one side is the debt and the other side the
+credit. Thee will have to keep the reckonings for thy family, I foresee;
+for thee is practical. Look. Is the light sufficient?"
+
+Amy held the little volume so that the rays of the harvest moon fell
+clearly over them, and the old, quaint script was as legible as
+copperplate. She questioned, and he explained just how the book should
+be kept, and she found his "system" exceeding plain and direct, as was
+everything about him. But there were two legends inscribed upon the
+covers which had little in common with the figuring to be done between
+them,--or so Amy thought; and when she asked him what they meant, he
+quietly explained:--
+
+"They have been my rules of life, Amy, and I think it would be well for
+thee if thee also adopted them. They are short and easy to remember, but
+they cover all. 'Simplicity, Sincerity, Sympathy,' on the front page;
+and on the last, when the first rule seems sometimes to fail and the
+heart needs cheer, there is this other: 'Love is all powerful.'"
+
+"Thank thee, dear Adam, so much. Not only for the book and the help it
+will be, but for the 'Rules' and--for thyself. I will make them mine,
+and thee shall tell me if I am succeeding. Now, I know thee is sitting
+up beyond thy time. I'll help thee to the living room and then to thy
+own."
+
+Nor was Amy ever to forget that peaceful hour with this ripe old
+Christian; and she never again sat in the rays of the harvest moon
+without recalling the lessons she learned that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE YOUNG OLD MAN AND THE OLD YOUNG GIRL.
+
+
+It seemed to Amy that she had never remembered so lovely a First Day as
+that one at Burnside Farm. Things happened just as she had foretold.
+Mrs. Kaye and Adam went to meeting in the little phaeton into which it
+was so easy for him to climb, and Hallam and she rode beside it; for
+"Old Shingleside," as the meeting-house was called, was at some distance
+from the Clove. It crowned a wooded hill-top, and behind it lay the
+peaceful burying-ground, with its rows of modest tombstones and wider
+rows of grass-covered, unmarked mounds.
+
+The windows of the meeting-house were all open, and the mild air came in
+and warmed them; for as yet the plain box stoves held no blazing logs
+within, and the rows of old-time foot-stoves reposed securely upon their
+tops. Later, when the weather turned, these little wood-rimmed,
+perforated tin boxes would be filled with coals from the fire and placed
+beneath the feet of the elderly folk who came to worship.
+
+The girl looked into her mother's face and found it beaming with the
+still delight of one whose heart was deeply moved. She had always been
+a member of this simple congregation, but of late years Salome Kaye had
+been obliged to forego the pleasure of gathering with it. The distance
+from Fairacres was too great for her to walk, and it was long since the
+horses and carriages that had once filled Fairacres stables had
+disappeared.
+
+Hallam, also, from his place on the men's side, saw the joy in the face
+he loved, and thought:--
+
+"I wish mother would consent to ride one of the burros to meeting, then
+she could come as often as she wished. But she doesn't think it
+decorous. Well, I'm glad she's having the comfort to-day; but what is
+Friend Adam saying? It sounds like a farewell."
+
+He shot a startled glance across to Amy, among the women, and she
+responded. Then both regarded Adam anxiously. He stood in the speaker's
+place, where he was always found in meeting time. His body swayed gently
+back and forth, though his hands rested upon his cane as if he needed
+its support. His voice fell into the rhythmic measure to which they were
+accustomed whenever he became the mouthpiece of the Spirit, but his
+words were as of one who departs for a distant country and wishes many
+things to be remembered.
+
+His message was brief, yet delivered with all the fire and eloquence of
+youth; but when he had finished and cast his eyes about him, something
+like a sob burst from his withered lips:--
+
+"It's so queer. He looks so happy and yet so sad. Well, he's giving the
+hand of greeting to his neighbor, and so meeting's over."
+
+There was no trace of sadness now. In the friendly hand-shaking that
+became general was, as Amy had seen, the signal for the closing of the
+meeting, whereupon old neighbors and friends fell promptly to giving and
+receiving news of mutual welfare or trouble, as the case might be; and
+after a while there was a driving away of vehicles, the nods and signals
+of gray bonnets and broad brims, until the while party from the Clove
+were the very last left lingering on the grass before the steps.
+
+"Well, it's been a good day, Salome. And now the Word comes: 'For here
+we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.'"
+
+The old man's eyes fixed themselves earnestly upon the weather-beaten
+structure; then with a bright smile he turned away and climbed into the
+phaeton which Amy had brought.
+
+Old Fanny mare trotted homeward at an almost giddy pace, and the burros
+did their utmost to keep up with her, though their chronic laziness
+overcame them at times, and they fell behind. After which Hallam and Amy
+would prod their indolent beasts till they had "made a spurt and caught
+up."
+
+"No use, children," laughed Adam Burn. "Fanny is a well-trained
+'Quaker.' She knows meeting days as well as I do, and she never fails
+to go there as slowly as she returns swiftly. She thinks, if horses
+think, and I think they think--doesn't thee think so, Amy? She thinks
+she has done her duty, and her conscience is as clear as her stomach is
+empty. On meeting days she has always an extra feed. That's why she
+spins along like this."
+
+He was very jolly, and as full of fun as Amy herself. They found Mr.
+Kaye pacing the driveway, waiting for them, and as eager for his dinner
+as Fanny for hers.
+
+They were soon gathered about the table, and again old Adam's jest was
+the readiest, his cheerfulness the most contagious, and his suggestions
+the most practical.
+
+"I advise thee, Cuthbert, to have a lot of good soil drawn up and spread
+over the top of Bareacre knoll. Thee can have the use of the team here
+till--for some time. There is plenty of muck in the hollow, and I'd be
+glad to have it cleared out. Then thee must sow grass, or grain and
+grass mixed, and Salome can have as many roots and cuttings of the green
+things here as she wishes. Get them all in this autumn. By another
+spring they will begin to grow, and a little greenery will transform the
+place."
+
+Mrs. Kaye thanked him, but Amy looked up from her dish of rice pudding
+and smiled.
+
+"Thee isn't helping us to keep the rule of 'don't run in debt' that thee
+told me was so good."
+
+"Cuthbert and I will settle that. Eat thy pudding, child." But he shook
+his head at her so merrily she did not mind the rebuff.
+
+After dinner came the big carryall, with its back part loaded so that
+the springs touched, and with the "man" upon the front seat, ready to
+drive the Kayes to their new home.
+
+"Why, Adam, dear old friend, this is too much; it really is. I cannot
+let thee do it," protested Mrs. Kaye, astonished at the sight. For there
+were vegetables of every sort that grew at Burnside, with hams and
+bacon, some very lively chickens, and baskets heaped with the grapes and
+pears for which the Clove was famous.
+
+"Too much, Salome? I think not. Not judging by the samples of appetites
+I've seen this noon. Say nothing. Thee knows how gladly I give it, and
+would give much more. Here, Amy, is a little letter for thee. I wish
+thee to keep it without reading until--" he hesitated, looked at her
+gravely, and finished his sentence--"until thy own heart tells thee that
+the right time is come. For Hallam, too, there is a bit of writing, and
+that he may read at any time he chooses."
+
+"That's right now, then," laughed the lad, and eagerly tore the sealed
+envelope.
+
+Adam Burn winced a little at the ragged edge this made on the paper, for
+he was a careful person and hated slovenliness. But he could not refrain
+a smile as he saw the expression of disappointment growing upon
+Hallam's face, where he sat upon black Balaam, his crutches crossed
+before him, looking down at the open sheet he had found. The envelope
+dropped to the ground, and Amy picked it up; but her brother did not
+show her the message he had received, and she was puzzled to hear their
+old friend say:--
+
+"The truth which I have written there is better for thee than a fortune,
+Hallam."
+
+"It may be, but, under the circumstances, I'd rather have the fortune."
+
+"Thee'll find it, lad, never fear. Thee'll find it."
+
+Amy thrust the envelope into her pocket, along with the letter Adam had
+given her, and a moment later they all passed out of the yard, and
+turned toward the knoll of Bareacre. The last glimpse they had of their
+friend showed him standing in the sunshine, leaning upon his cane, and
+gazing after them as they vanished from his sight.
+
+"There is something different about that blessed old man to-day," said
+Amy to Hallam, riding with him beside the carryall.
+
+"Well, I suppose it makes him feel badly to know we are not going back
+to Fairacres. He always does feel other people's troubles more than his
+own."
+
+"What was in your letter, Hal?"
+
+"Humph! It couldn't be called a letter. From anybody else I would have
+thought it insulting."
+
+"Not from him, dear. He couldn't insult anybody. He'd not have the
+heart to do it. Do you mind telling?"
+
+"Not a bit. I dare say you could take example by it too. For it was a
+sort of sermon in few words,--'The perfection of a man is the stature of
+his soul.' That's all."
+
+"I don't see yet just what it means, but I think it is that you
+shouldn't mind being lame. That you should let your soul grow so big you
+would forget your poor legs, and other folks would forget them too."
+
+Nothing more was said, and even Amy felt that they had had enough of
+"sermons" for one day, and it was a relief to the thoughtfulness upon
+them all to reach Bareacre, and to see Cleena, with Fayette beside her,
+waiting to welcome them.
+
+"Hal, isn't it odd? The poorer we are the more folks we have. Fayette
+means to live there with us, and so, it seems, do all the little
+Joneses. My! Who is that?"
+
+"A scarecrow, I should think. Nobody I ever saw before."
+
+Seated upon a rocking-chair which she had herself brought out from the
+house was a young girl of about Amy's age, though from her dress and
+manner she might have been at least several years older. Amy caught a
+vision of something very gay and brilliant, rivalling the forests upon
+the hillsides in variety of tint, but never in their harmony.
+
+"Whew! Whoever she is she makes my eyes ache; and what a picture for
+father to see, the first at his new threshold!"
+
+Yet apparently without noticing anything unpleasing, Mr. Kaye assisted
+his wife from the carryall and walked with her to where the stranger
+still sat and rocked. She did not rise at their approach, and returned
+the courteous greeting of the master and mistress of the house with the
+barest of nods.
+
+"How do? I come to pay a call."
+
+But not upon them. For the first time in their lives the artist and his
+lovely wife were relegated by this self-possessed young person to the
+land of "old folks," in whom she felt no interest.
+
+With a twinkle in his eye that met an answering one in hers, the
+gentleman handed Mrs. Kaye on toward the eager Cleena, and turned to his
+children:--
+
+"My dears, a visitor for you, I think."
+
+So Amy and Hallam rode up and dismounted, while the former went forward
+slowly, smiling a welcome, yet feeling oddly disconcerted before this
+unknown girl.
+
+"I'm Gwendolyn Jones. Ma said it wasn't no more 'n friendly to come an'
+call. I don't have no time 'cept Sunday an' Saturday-half. Then I
+generally go to Wallburg to do my shopping. It's such a trouble,
+shopping is, ain't it?"
+
+"I don't know. I never did any," answered Amy, simply. She was amused
+by Gwendolyn, but regretful that the visit had been timed just then. She
+had counted upon showing the interior of the new home to her parents,
+with all the best features accented, and now she must leave them to see
+things for themselves. Besides, she was conscious that she had herself
+been noticed only in the slightest degree by this maiden whose big brown
+eyes were fixed upon Hallam with a steady gaze that annoyed him
+exceedingly. He was always more conscious of his lameness in the
+presence of a stranger, and the people he had met, heretofore, had been
+so well bred that beyond the first involuntary surprise at his condition
+they had ignored it entirely.
+
+To his amazement Gwendolyn exclaimed:--
+
+"So you're the lame fellow, are you? Well now, you don't look it, not
+above your waist. You look real likely in your face, and your shoulders
+is broader than Lionel Percival's. He's considered well growed, too."
+
+"Is he?" asked poor Hallam, understanding that some sort of reply was
+expected.
+
+"Yes; 'Bony' feels real sot up, don't he, taking care of them donkeys?
+Oh, I tell you, 'Bony' is a case."
+
+"Is he?" again feebly ejaculated Hallam. He looked helplessly toward
+Amy, but she was disappearing indoors, too eager to be with her parents
+to loiter with this unprepossessing guest.
+
+"Yes, he's telling all over the mill, and village too, how that he
+belongs to your folks now. He's going to live here, ain't he?"
+
+"He may be. It will be just as Cleena wishes, I fancy. She is the one
+who has taken him in charge."
+
+"That's the work girl, ain't it?"
+
+To the young Kayes and their parents their faithful servant had never
+been anything save just "Cleena." Her position in their family was as
+assured as their own, and that she might be thought a "work girl" by
+others, was a novel idea to the lad. It gave him something natural to
+think about; and he stood leaning on his crutches, with a smile upon his
+face, looking down upon the girl in the rocking-chair, chewing gum and
+swaying so composedly.
+
+"Why, yes; I suppose she is. She certainly works, and all the time. But
+I should hardly call her a 'girl.'"
+
+"Say, you must be tired, standing so long. Take this chair. I'll step in
+and get another."
+
+Again Hallam smiled. The girl, in her ignorant kindness of heart, had
+broken a minor law of that courtesy in which he had been educated. She
+had offered him the chair in which she had herself been sitting, instead
+of the fresh one she meant to get. But he declined both, saying:--
+
+"Please don't trouble. I can easily bring one for myself."
+
+Because she was curious to see how he would do this, she watched him and
+sat still. Now he was quite able to wait upon himself in most ways, and
+handled his crutches so deftly that they often seemed to Amy, as to him,
+"but an extra pair" of feet or hands, as the case might be.
+
+So he swung himself into the house and out again, once more looking for
+his sister, and hearing her voice above stairs explaining, exhibiting,
+and regretting:--
+
+"Isn't it too bad, mother, that this young lady should have come just
+now? Hal has worked so hard and done so much. Anyway, father, you must
+not, indeed you must not, go into your studio till he can take you
+there. It would be such a disappointment, for he's arranged and
+rearranged till I'm sure even your fine taste will be pleased."
+
+He lingered a moment to catch the answer, and it filled his foreboding
+soul with great content.
+
+"It is all very excellent thus far, dear, and we'll surely leave the
+studio for him to show. I had no idea you could so transform this barn
+of a place. From the outside it was ugliness itself, but you have all
+done wonders. We shall be very happy here."
+
+"Can that really be father speaking? and we feared he would be utterly
+crushed. Amy was right. Blood tells. And there's something better even
+than blood to help him now. That's love. Dear old Adam was right, too:
+so long as we have each other we can be happy."
+
+Then he caught up a light chair under his arm and swung himself back to
+play knight-errant to this unknown damsel.
+
+She found him very agreeable, for he was a gentleman and could not fail
+in courtesy toward any woman, old or young. So agreeable, indeed, that
+she remained rocking, chewing, and talking, till the shadows of the
+autumn evening crept round them, and Cleena, watchful for her "child,"
+and indignant at the intrusion of this stranger, appeared.
+
+"Arrah musha, Master Hallam, will you be sittin' here catchin' your
+death? Come in by, immediate. The supper is on, an' the master waitin'.
+Sure, that's bad luck, for the first meal we're all together in the new
+home. Come by."
+
+Hallam rose. It was impossible for him to avoid asking Gwendolyn to
+remain, and she, utterly ignoring the sniffs and scowls of Cleena,
+promptly accepted.
+
+Of that meal it is not worth while to write. The girl did have the grace
+to keep reasonably quiet, though occasionally she would feel that this
+silence was not doing herself justice, and would break into the cheerful
+conversation of the others with a boldness and self-assertion that made
+Amy stare.
+
+Finally she departed, and Mr. Kaye sighed his relief.
+
+"Well, Friend Adam is the youngest old person, and Gwendolyn Jones is
+the oldest young person I ever saw," remarked Hallam, as he lighted his
+mother's bedroom candle and bade her good night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BAD NEWS FROM BURNSIDE.
+
+
+"Yes, it is to be 'Charity House' now," said Salome Kaye, with that
+quiet decision of hers which, as Amy described it, "Never makes any
+fuss, and never wobbles."
+
+"That's the best and the worst about mother. She never says 'yes' when
+she means 'no,' and she never says either till it's all settled. I
+remember how, when I was little, I used to ask, 'Is it decided?' and
+when she answered, 'Yes, it's decided,' I gave up teasing. Mountains
+might crush, but never move her."
+
+"So it's 'Charity House' forever and a day. The trouble with you,
+mother, is that all you say--or the little you say--always means
+something. 'Charity House' is, I suppose, just as full of meaning as
+everything else. Isn't it? Let me guess. It's 'Charity' because cousin
+Archibald lets us live here for what he calls a 'starvation rent.'
+That's the meanest kind of 'Charity,' and it's a lie, too."
+
+"Hallam!"
+
+"But, mother, it is. I've heard these people talk, and they all say that
+the old curmudgeon--"
+
+"Hallam, thee is proving that a 'Charity House' is the very sort of
+home thee needed."
+
+"Well, motherkin, it's true. He is curmudgeon-y. He's tried for years to
+get a tenant for this property, and not even the mill folks would touch
+it. He took advantage of us and made us think we were getting a great
+deal for nothing."
+
+"Are we not? Look about thee."
+
+"Of course, it's big enough."
+
+"What a curious place it is," said Amy; "like a box that eggs come in.
+See, this is it," and she rapidly sketched upon a paper the diagram.
+"Two partitions run this way, north and south, and two run at right
+angles. That's three rooms deep on each floor, look at it from any point
+of view. Each room is as like its neighbor as its twin. Hmm, I didn't
+realize it, but there are eighteen rooms if we count the halls and the
+'black hole.'"
+
+"Almost as large as 'Fairacres,' thee sees."
+
+"It's not so bad, if it weren't so fearfully bare," remarked Hallam,
+examining Amy's sketch. "But it's queer."
+
+The entrance hall was the middle front room of the old building. From
+this a flight of stairs ran up and ended in "the middle room" above,
+with a narrow flight behind into the attic. The upper middle room was
+therefore an open space, from the sides of which a narrow gallery had
+been reserved to surround the well-like opening of the stairway. Next
+the stairs the gallery was furnished with a strong plain railing, to
+prevent the accident of falling into the "well," and all the bedrooms
+had doors opening upon it.
+
+This upper space was dark, save when the bedroom doors were open and
+gave it light. So, also, was the room below; and beneath this, still,
+was the "black hole," the extension of a cellar under the kitchen.
+
+Whatever the original purpose of this "hole," which received no light
+nor ventilation except through the kitchen cellar, it was now the terror
+and despair of Cleena's cleanly soul. She had wasted many good candles
+in trying, by their light, to sweeten and make wholesome this damp,
+miserable place. But despite all it remained almost as she found it.
+
+"The pit of original sin," Hallam named it, advising her to give over
+the task of purification. "You've sprinkled pounds of chloride, splashed
+whitewash galore, swept and scrubbed and worn yourself out, and it's
+hopeless. Well, I never heard that any of the Ingrahams died of
+pestilence bred down there, so I fancy it won't hurt us."
+
+"Faith, it shan't that. I'll keep the front cellar door open into it
+incessant, an' I'll--"
+
+"Waste your substance in lime. Don't, Goodsoul. But it's on my mind as
+it is on yours. If I were as strong as I wish, I'd turn rabbit and
+burrow galleries out from the middle vault under the middle rooms each
+side of the house. That would give light and air and keep everything
+dry."
+
+Neither Cleena nor Hallam noticed that Fayette had been a close listener
+to this conversation, nor heard the muttered exclamation:--
+
+"I'll do it! Huckleberries! I'll s'prise 'em!"
+
+This had been some days before Amy drew the diagram of the house, which
+she now tossed into the waste-basket. From that it was rescued by the
+half-wit and treasured carefully; for to the purpose formed in his mind
+it would prove a great help.
+
+"But go on, mother dear. What's the other sort of charity you mean?"
+
+"That by all the advantages which we have had over these new neighbors
+we should be helpful to them. We possess nothing of our own, absolutely,
+not even our better training and--"
+
+"Arrah musha! Sure the pullet was bad enough, but this baby'll be me
+death! An' me steppin' me great foot--There, there, darlin'. Cry no
+more, cry no more!"
+
+The interruption was Cleena, and the cause "Sir" William Gladstone.
+
+"Again, Goodsoul," jeered Amy.
+
+"Again is it? An' me goin' down that hill betimes this mornin' to remind
+me neighbor as how it wasn't necessary to send all the childer up here
+to wonst. Not _all_!"
+
+One of the first things which Cleena had made Fayette do was cut and
+smooth a path from the door of "Charity House" to that of the cottage
+below. She foresaw that there would be frequent errands to and fro, and
+the loose stones, with the tangle of running blackberry vines, were
+dangerous to life and limb. Then, because Hallam's lameness was also in
+her mind, she had persuaded the mill boy to add a row of driven stakes
+with rope strung along their tops.
+
+"But never at all has Master Hal, for whom it was made, gone down or up
+by that same. Me fathers, what's a body to do!"
+
+"We're living in 'Charity,' Goodsoul. And I've observed that, look out
+of window when I will, there's always a yellow headed Jones-let
+ascending to us by the easy road you've fixed. Belinda, the small, is
+apt to lead the way. She likes it up here. She likes it very much."
+
+"Hmm, that's what the mother be's sayin'. But is that any reason at all,
+avick, why they should be let?"
+
+"Mrs. Jones thinks it is. She feels that we are flattered by the
+preference her offspring show for our society; but between ourselves,
+Cleena, I think it's more raisin-bread than affection. You made a dire
+mistake in beginning to feed them."
+
+"An' isn't it I that knows it? Now, this baby--"
+
+"Yes, that baby. What's happened to him? He's spotted white and black,
+like a coach-dog. What's he licking from his fingers?"
+
+"It's spoilin' the bakin' o' bread is he the day. Takin' the coals from
+the bucket, each by each, an' pressin' them deep in that beautiful
+dough. Will I wash his face, eh? Never a wash I wash, but home to his
+mother he goes the same as he is. If the sight does not shame her, I'd
+know."
+
+"I'll take him, Cleena, and I'll bring back the milk for the day."
+
+So with her pail in one hand and the other guiding the still uncertain
+steps of William Gladstone, Amy started.
+
+"It's a pity, Sir William, it really is a pity that you ever learned how
+to climb. You've progressed so alarmingly. First time you tried it you
+could only stumble and fall backward. Now--you hitch along famously.
+Heigho! here's Victoria. All the high personages of Merrie England are
+honoring us 'the day.' Well, Victoria Regina, what's the errand now?"
+
+"Nothing, only thought I'd tell you about that old Quaker man you like."
+
+"Everybody likes. What about him?"
+
+"He's gone away. Ma says he won't never live to come back again."
+
+"Victoria--Jones, what are you saying?"
+
+"That Mr. Quaker Burn, up Clove way, had been took to Ne' York."
+
+"I guess you're mistaken. We would have heard about it if it were so.
+Now, if you please, though, I should like Master Gladstone to be 'took'
+home. If you'll hold his other hand we'll get him there the quicker."
+
+"I guess I'll go up and set a spell; you take him," remarked Victoria,
+and turned to ascend the slope.
+
+Amy sighed: "Something must be done to stop this!" Then she lifted her
+eyes and scanned the white dusty road which circled Bareacre knoll, and
+across which lay the Jones's cottage. A wagon was driving leisurely
+along this highway, and it had a most familiar appearance. A moment's
+watching showed it to belong to the Clove Farm, and it was Adam Burn's
+"hired man" who was driving in it. Her heart sank. What if Victoria had
+spoken the truth?
+
+So she hurried her young charge to his home, and waiting only to have
+her pail filled with the milk, ran back to intercept the approaching
+vehicle.
+
+"Good morning, Israel. How's dear old Adam?"
+
+"Only the Lord knows. Sarah Jane's got him."
+
+"She hasn't! Don't tell me!"
+
+"But she has, though."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"York."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Yesterday."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Same old story. If she hadn't gone to Europe, she'd had him last year.
+I knew how 'twould be when she come home this summer an' begun to send
+him the letters. She's the powerfulest hand to do her duty that ever
+was. Everything else has to give way."
+
+Amy's hand trembled so that her milk began to trickle over the sides of
+her pail.
+
+"That's what it meant, then, that dear, precious old fellow. He knew he
+was going to leave us, that First Day we spent at the farm. That was why
+his words in the meeting-house were so like a farewell. It is too bad!
+It must have broken his heart."
+
+"No, it didn't. He didn't want to go, not a mite; but there wasn't no
+heart-break, _not in sight_. If there was, he kept it hid. But he went
+all round the place, into every shed and building, pointing out things
+that should be done, and being most particular about the flowers and
+garden. He told me to take care of everything just as if he was coming
+back to-morrow. But he'll never. He'll never."
+
+"Israel, you shall not say that! He must come back!"
+
+"Oh, he'll come, of course, one way: that's feet foremost. He's a sight
+feebler 'n he ever let on, an' this riotous livin' at York, what with
+balls and parties and wine suppers, he won't last long. They'll kill him
+out of hand amongst 'em."
+
+"Oh, Israel, the idea of Adam Burn at 'balls and parties and wine
+suppers,' when he's so simple and sweet and abstemious. I don't believe
+he ever tasted wine during all his pure, beautiful life. I'm not
+worrying about that. It's the leaving the things he loved will hurt him
+so. Why couldn't Sarah Jane have left him in peace? O dear! O dear! This
+will be a fresh sorrow for mother."
+
+"So I suppose. For all of us, too. It's going to be lonesome for me, I
+reckon. Though Mis' Boggs won't have so much to do. She wants to give up
+the job, an' go live with our son, Jim. But Sarah Jane told us to stay,
+an' so we'll have to."
+
+"Is this dreadful woman who's spirited Adam away any kin to _you_?"
+
+"Course not. But you needn't laugh. You don't know that lady. She's
+masterful, and she's rich--'rich as Croesus,'--and don't know what to
+do with her money. When the old man was lookin' around an' chargin' me
+'bout things, she broke in with: 'Oh, don't worry, father-in-law. The
+trumpery stuff isn't worth so much thought. I'm not a relic hunter, and
+let it go,' says she. Then he reminds her that he wanted it kept right
+for--Whew! I near let the secret out, didn't I? He told me he wrote you
+a letter. He gave it to you, didn't he? Well, if you'll carry the
+message for me, I won't climb 'Spite' hill this morning. There's a few
+things to fetch up in the open wagon, and I'll see your folks about
+hauling that muck. Good-by. The spirit's taken clean out of me.
+Twenty-five years me and him has lived together, and to part sudden like
+this. Twenty-five years by the clock, and a better man than him never
+trod the footstool."
+
+With that Israel brought the mare around, and giving a mournful nod of
+his head drove dejectedly away.
+
+Amy flew up the hill. She paid little heed now to the spilling of the
+milk, for she began to realize in all its force the calamity which had
+befallen them; and she burst into her mother's sitting room flushed and
+indignant, demanding:--
+
+"What right had Sarah Jane to take him away?"
+
+Mrs. Kaye's heart sank. She understood what this hysterical question
+implied. It had been a contingency long foreboded by her, though against
+its justice she could find nothing to say.
+
+"Every right, dear. She is his son's widow. She is acting, no doubt, as
+she thinks her husband would wish."
+
+"But he didn't want to go."
+
+"She probably felt he was too old to live alone, without relatives.
+Indeed, I know that she would have taken him long ago, if she had been
+living in this country herself. As soon as she came home she has
+attended to her--her duty, as she sees it. As I suppose, anybody would
+see it, who was indifferent whether he went or stayed. I hope, though,
+that she'll bring him back to Burnside in the spring."
+
+"Do you know her, mother?"
+
+"Not well. When we were both younger I used to see her sometimes. She
+was never very fond of Burnside, however. It was too quiet for her. She
+is a wealthy woman, who likes to do a great deal of good. She is at the
+head of many charitable associations, and she has always had wonderful
+executive ability."
+
+"Does that mean being what Israel called 'masterful'?"
+
+"About the same thing."
+
+"Will she be good to our dear Adam?"
+
+"Certainly. She will see that he has every comfort possible. He will,
+doubtless, have a servant especially appointed to wait upon and care for
+him, and he will be made to share in all the enjoyments of the house.
+She believes that it is the duty of all to live actively in the world
+and do good aggressively, so to speak. But Adam is so old and feeble, he
+has passed his days in such simplicity, I can feel what a change for him
+it will be. Still, if he were to fall seriously ill, he would be better
+off at his daughter-in-law's than here. Ah, yes. I suppose it is for the
+best--for him. For us--well, it will be hard to think of Burnside
+without his gracious presence. He was my parents' oldest, closest
+friend, as he has been mine."
+
+Mrs. Kaye rose, folded up her mending, and left the room. "I must tell
+Cuthbert," she remarked, as if to herself, and her face was very sad.
+
+When Amy found her brother and told him the news his comment was:--
+
+"That's a bad business for us, girlie."
+
+"Of course. Don't you suppose I feel it?"
+
+"As long as Adam Burn was near, mother would never have been allowed to
+really suffer for anything. I mean that he would have managed to keep an
+eye upon her and have helped us out, till we could help ourselves. Do
+you know where that letter is he gave you? Have you read it? I should
+think this might be that 'right time' of which he spoke."
+
+"The letter? In my other dress pocket. I'll get it."
+
+But when she had searched not only in her pockets but in every other
+possible place, the letter could not be found; and though Mrs. Kaye
+assured them that there was probably very little of importance in it,
+her children could not help imagining something quite to the contrary;
+and to learn the unread message became the great desire of their hearts.
+
+"Well, in any case, we have what he said to you, Hal, about soul growth
+and that."
+
+"Humph! Such talk is all well enough, but how is it going to help when
+we reach our last dollar? Did you ever think, Amy, seriously think how
+we are going to live? Just where our actual bread and butter is to come
+from?"
+
+"No. Why, no, not really."
+
+"Then it's high time you did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL.
+
+
+At about the same moment, on a "Saturday-half" in November, Amy Kaye and
+Gwendolyn Jones left each her own home to visit that of the other. They
+met on the slope of "Bareacre" and paused for mutual greetings.
+
+"How do? I was just going up to your house," said Gwendolyn, turning her
+back to the wind that just then blew strongly.
+
+"Good afternoon. Were you? And I was going to yours."
+
+"My! How cold it is. Winter'll be here before we know it. Makes a body
+think about her clothes. That's why I was coming. I thought, maybe,
+you'd like to go shopping with me."
+
+"You're forgetting, I fancy, that I told you I never did that. I
+shouldn't know how to shop, nor scarcely what it means," laughed Amy.
+
+"That's what me and ma was saying. You seem such a little girl, yet
+'Bony' says you're 'most as old as I am."
+
+"But I don't feel old, do you? I wish I might never grow a day older,
+except that if I do I may be more useful to my people."
+
+"Won't you go, then?"
+
+"Maybe, if you will do something for me, too. I'm not on the road to buy
+anything, but to sell. I thought that you might know of somebody who
+would like a burro. Do you?"
+
+"I'd like one myself, first-rate, only I'm saving for a wheel. I'm
+buying it on the instalment plan. I pay a dollar a week, and after I get
+my winter things I'll pay more. Do you ride?"
+
+"Nothing so fine as a bicycle; just either Pepita or Balaam."
+
+"It's awful hard to have to walk everywhere, and the good thing about a
+wheel is that it don't have to eat."
+
+"And the bad thing about a burro is that it does."
+
+"Are you in earnest? Do you want to sell it?"
+
+"No; I don't _want_ to at all, but I'm going to if I can. Do you know
+anybody who really might buy Pepit?"
+
+"Guess I do. Guess the 'Supe' would."
+
+"The 'Supe'--Mr. Metcalf?"
+
+"Yes; I heard him say he'd like to get such a pair of mules or donkeys,
+or whatever they are, for his children. He's got a slew of them, and he
+gets 'em every conceivable thing. I wouldn't wonder if he did, if you
+was to ask him."
+
+"Will he be at the mill to-day?"
+
+"No; he's at his house, I guess. The mill's shut up, only the watchman
+there. The 'Supe' don't hang around there himself so much since the new
+'boss' came."
+
+"Maybe his house would be out of your way. If you'll tell me how to find
+it, I can go by myself. I wouldn't like to give you trouble."
+
+"Oh, 'twouldn't be a mite. I'd like it. There'd be time enough afterward
+for Mis' Hackett's. She keeps open till near midnight, Saturdays. She
+gets lots of the mill trade, and she'd like to have it all. But
+Wallburg's far nicer. Don't you love Wallburg?"
+
+"I was never there except once, when father had a guest from town. Then
+mother sent for a carriage, and they took their friend to see the city.
+Hallam and I rode our burros, but we were very tired when it was over.
+Even then we passed through the residence streets only."
+
+"Pshaw! It's where the stores are that I like. I always wish I was made
+of money when I'm in a store. They do have such lovely things."
+
+"Doesn't your mother buy your clothes?"
+
+"My mother? _My mother?_ Well, I guess not. The idea! If a girl earns
+her own money and pays for all she has, I guess she's a right to pick
+'em out. Don't you?"
+
+"Why--yes. I suppose she has a right, if her mother allows. But I should
+think it would be very trying to select one's own things. I should be
+so afraid I wouldn't choose correctly, and not please her taste."
+
+"My land! What if you didn't? It's you that has to wear them, isn't it?
+Have a piece of this gum. It's a new sort. Mis' Hackett keeps it and
+charges two cents a stick. Other kinds are only one cent, but this is
+prime."
+
+Gwendolyn was kind-hearted. She was also very vain. She felt that it was
+a fine thing to be acquainted with "aristocratics" like the Kayes; yet
+in her heart she was rather ashamed of Amy's plain attire, the
+simplicity of which seemed to Gwendolyn a proof of Mrs. Kaye's
+incapacity to "shop"; and its being white--though of soft warm wool--of
+her want of taste. She supposed, also, that any girl who could, would
+buy gum, and decided that her new acquaintance must be very poor indeed.
+
+"Take it. I can get plenty more. I earn real good wages now."
+
+"Do you?" asked Amy, so wistfully that the other was confirmed in her
+opinion of the poverty.
+
+"I should think you would like to work in the mill, wouldn't you? If
+your folks have lost their money, it would seem real handy to have a
+little coming in."
+
+"Yes, it would, indeed. But I couldn't do it."
+
+"Why not? You're strong enough, I guess, if you aren't so big."
+
+"Yes, I'm strong and well. But father has forbidden me to think of it."
+
+"Pshaw! He'd come round. If you want to do it, I _would_; and once you
+were settled he wouldn't care, or he couldn't help himself, anyway. He's
+kind of queer, isn't he? I've heard that."
+
+"Queer? Yes; just as queer as a splendid gentleman like him must always
+seem to common people," flashed the daughter, all the more disturbed
+because she realized that there had been once, if not now, just a little
+truth in the suggestion.
+
+"Pshaw! I didn't mean to make you mad. O' course, I hadn't ought to have
+spoke so about your own father. I s'pose I'd be mad, too, if anybody
+said things about pa. They do, sometimes, or about ma, their naming us
+children by fancy names, as they did. You see, they're English, pa and
+ma are, and so they named us after English aristocratics. Ma's a master
+hand for reading novels, too, and she gets notions out of them. We take
+the _Four Hundred Story Paper_, and the _Happy Evening Gazette_. Do you
+take them?"
+
+"No; I never heard of them."
+
+"My land! you didn't? Ain't that queer? Why, they're splendid. They have
+five serial stories running all the time. As fast as one is finished
+another is commenced. Umm, they're awful exciting. You can't hardly wait
+from week to week to get the new instalments. Trouble is, ma says, we'd
+ought to each of us have a copy, we're so crazy to get hold of it when
+it comes. Some of the girls take fashion papers, and we lend them
+'round. Some lend, I mean. Some are stingy, and won't. They have
+patterns in them. You can get some of the patterns free, and some cost
+ten or fifteen cents. Say, how do you like my dress?"
+
+Amy looked critically at her companion's attire. She admired it far less
+than Gwendolyn had her own simple frock, and she found the question
+difficult to answer without giving offence. She compromised by saying:--
+
+"Your mother must be very industrious to have made it, with all the
+housework and the children."
+
+"If you ain't the greenest girl I know! My mother couldn't make a dress
+like this to save her life."
+
+"O--oh!" stammered Amy.
+
+"Indeed, she couldn't. This was made by a dressmaker. The best one in
+Ardsley, too. She charged me five dollars, and ma said it was too much.
+I think it was, myself, but what can you do? You must look right, you
+know; if you don't the girls will make fun of you, and the boys won't
+take you any place. Is there any boy you like, much?"
+
+"Why, of course; though I know only three. Is this the way, around the
+corner?"
+
+"Three? Who're they?"
+
+"Hallam, and Fayette, and William Gladstone. Doesn't the mill village
+look cosy? The cunning little houses with their porches and gardens and
+neat palings. Such a lot of folks living together should have good
+times, I think."
+
+"Oh, they do; prime. That's the 'Supe's' house, that big one, upon that
+little hill. That whole row belongs to the different 'bosses,'--of the
+setting room, the weavers, and the rest. The 'Supe' is real nice, I
+think, though some say he's stuck up. He was a poor boy, once,--as poor
+as a church mouse. Say, don't you feel sort of afraid to call on him,
+after all?"
+
+"Why? No, indeed. Afraid? Why should I?"
+
+"Oh, because."
+
+Amy laughed and hastened forward. Nothing more was said until they
+reached the door, shadowed by vines from which not even yet all the
+leaves had fallen. The whole place had a sheltered, homelike appearance,
+which spoke well for the taste and kindliness of its owners.
+
+"Yes; Mr. Metcalf is in. Would you like to see him? Ah, Gwendolyn, is it
+you? Walk in." Yet even Amy noticed that the maid's manner in welcoming
+her companion was less cordial than in welcoming herself. She concluded
+that there might be some truth in the assertion of this family
+considering themselves rather better than their neighbors.
+
+They were ushered into a cheery sitting room, which seemed also a sort
+of library, for there were bookcases around the walls, and a table was
+spread with the current literature of the day. The room was small by
+comparison with those to which Amy had been accustomed, but what it
+lacked in size it made up for in comfort. A coal fire glowed on the
+hearth, a bird sang in its cage before the window, and about the floor
+were scattered the playthings that told that it was the resort of
+children.
+
+The girls were not kept waiting. Mr. Metcalf entered almost at once,
+nodded kindly to Gwendolyn, and cordially extended his hand to Amy.
+
+"I am very pleased to see you, Miss Amy. Sit nearer the fire, for it's
+right cold to-day."
+
+"Thank you, but I'm not cold, and I don't wish to detain you. Gwendolyn
+tells me that it is your holiday, too, and that you go to Wallburg."
+
+Mr. Metcalf glanced across at the other girl, who bridled and simpered
+as she adjusted her hat and settled her skirts.
+
+"She goes there herself, I fear, rather too much. Eh, Gwendolyn?"
+
+"I go when I please," answered the mill girl, pertly. She resented
+something in the tone of her superintendent, feeling that out of work
+hours he had no authority over her.
+
+"Oh, of course. By the way, there's the stage just ready for the other
+end of the village. Do you see it, Miss Amy? The shop mistress, Mrs.
+Hackett, sends one over every Saturday afternoon to carry our folks
+free to her place of business. She's an enterprising person, but,
+unfortunately, as soon as she had adopted this plan, two other merchants
+of the town set up rival stages also. It's very funny, sometimes, to see
+the respective drivers' efforts to secure passengers, and therefore
+custom."
+
+At the mention of stages, Gwendolyn rose and looked through the window.
+Then she turned toward Amy like a person in great haste.
+
+"Tell the 'Supe' what you came for, Amy, so we can get a ride
+over,--that is, if you want to go shopping with me after all."
+
+But poor Amy could not reply just then. It had come over her with a rush
+what her errand really meant to her, and she was wholly indifferent to
+the charms of a stage or even "shopping."
+
+"Don't wait for me, please,--that is, of course, I will keep my word,
+but--"
+
+"All right, then, some other day. I'll be up to see how you made out,
+and if Mr. Metcalf don't want it maybe I'll hear of somebody else who
+does. By, by. Good day, sir," and off she tore, banging the door and
+shouting loudly to the driver of Mrs. Hackett's stage.
+
+Mr. Metcalf watched her in silence till she had climbed the steps at the
+rear of the omnibus, and then he remarked:--
+
+"That girl has so much sense that she ought to have more."
+
+"That's a doubtful compliment, isn't it?" asked Amy, smiling.
+
+"I suppose so, though it's quite true. She is warmhearted, generous to a
+fault, and as silly as they make them. However, she has given me the
+pleasure of seeing you to-day, and I hope that you will tell me how I
+can be of use to you. From Gwendolyn's words I judge that you came upon
+some special errand."
+
+"Yes; I came to ask if you would like to buy my white burro."
+
+"Ah, you are tired of her? I mean you wish to sell her? Has she been
+misbehaving or interfering with 'Bony' again?"
+
+"No, she has been very, very good, and I don't at all wish to part with
+her; but I want some money very badly, and that is the only thing--the
+only way I could get it."
+
+"I am very glad you came to me. Ever since I made Miss Pepita's
+acquaintance, that day at the mill, I've wished I could find another
+like her for my little Nanette. How much do you ask for the burro?"
+
+"I don't ask anything. That is, I don't know how much she is worth."
+
+"I think you told me that she was a gift to you?"
+
+"Yes, from my uncle in California."
+
+"Hmm, I've heard of him," commented the gentleman, briefly. "Now, I am
+almost as much in the dark in regard to the value of such animals as
+you are, but, at a rough estimate, I will offer you fifty dollars. Then
+I will make inquiries, and if I find I have named too small a price, I
+will add the balance. Is that satisfactory?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Thank you. I--I shall be glad to have Pepita in such a
+nice place."
+
+At home Amy had spoken to none save Cleena about this intention of hers,
+and that good creature had sighed and wiped her eyes, but had not
+uttered one word of protest. The girl sighed, too, now, and the
+superintendent felt it would be kind to cut the matter short.
+
+"When can I send for her?"
+
+"Oh, at--at any time, I suppose. Or, if you don't mind, I'd like to ride
+her here myself. Just once more."
+
+Mr. Metcalf looked at his watch.
+
+"In a few moments John will be passing by Bareacre on his way to the
+other village. You might drive up with him and ride her down here
+afterward. There will be ample time before dark, and you must tell your
+people not to be anxious, should there be any delay."
+
+"Very well; and maybe Hallam, my brother, will come, also. Though he
+hasn't been told yet, and might not--"
+
+"Very well. Excuse me for a moment. I will speak to John."
+
+He did not add, nor Amy reflect, that it was a very long and roundabout
+way to reach "the other village," by passing over rough and steep
+Bareacre hill; but John was willing enough to take it, when he was told
+who was to be his companion on the route. He had liked Amy from the
+first, and had grown to know her fairly well during his time of helping
+the Kaye household to settle.
+
+"All right, boss. Sorry the little thing is to give up her donkey. She
+set a powerful store by it, I 'low. Well, all ready? How do, Miss Amy?
+So me an' you're going to take a trip together, eh? Then I can find out
+for myself how the well is doing. Don't see much of 'Bony' since your
+folks took him in hand. Giddap, there, Jinny! Here we go!"
+
+To pass the time agreeably John talked of everything which he imagined
+might be of interest to the silent girl beside him, but he elicited few
+replies, and had the stream of his words flow, for once, without
+interruption. Yet it seemed a very, very slow ride to Amy, and when it
+came to an end, she scarcely waited to thank John for his "lift" before
+she sped to the shed where Pepita was tied, and shutting the door behind
+her, threw her arms around the neck of the gentle beast, to cry as
+freely as she pleased.
+
+"Bray! Br-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-u-umph!" inquired the burro, turning her
+head around as far as she could by reason of Amy's embrace.
+
+"Oh, you darling, you dear old darling. Don't talk to me. Don't look at
+me as if you thought I had no heart. Do you think I don't love you,
+that I will sell you, Pepit'? But--it must be. It must be. Better you
+than Balaam, and even he--"
+
+"Ah-umph! A-ah-umph! Br-r-r-ay! Bray-bray-bray! B-r-a-y-a-u-m-p-h!!"
+protested Balaam, with great haste and emphasis; and this sound was an
+added pang in the heart of the unhappy Amy, who felt that she was not
+only breaking her own heart by this separation, but the hearts of this
+four-footed pair as well.
+
+Then she heard a sound along the frozen ground, and instantly she lifted
+her head, pulled her Tam over her eyes to hide the traces of tears, and
+called out, gayly:--
+
+"Is that you, Hal dear? What do you think? You and I are to ride down to
+Mr. Metcalf's, right away now. Is Fayette in the house? I want him to
+help me groom Pepita to 'the Queen's taste,' as he says. Halloo to him,
+for me, please."
+
+But instead of that the brother hobbled into the shed and asked:--
+
+"Why should we go there? I don't want to. I've no fondness for paying
+visits."
+
+"But you must go this time, Hal. You really, really must. I'll tell you
+why, by and by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PEPITA FINDS A NEW HOME.
+
+
+When the cripple firmly declined the visit, Cleena found some errand for
+Fayette to do at the "general store" in the mill village. Hallam thought
+it a little queer that he was not greatly urged in the matter, and that
+Cleena should ask him to let Fayette ride Balaam.
+
+"For you know, Goodsoul, how I hate to have anybody ride him, except
+myself. Not even Amy is really welcome, though she does sometimes. I
+don't see why she goes, anyway. What have we to do with any of these
+people? When mother is ill, too. If I were a daughter, I'd stay at
+home."
+
+Cleena wheeled about from scrubbing the kitchen table and retorted,
+impatiently:--
+
+"Don't you go throwing blame on Miss Amy, lad. Arrah musha! but she's
+the more sense of the lot of us, so she has, bless her bonny heart. An'
+that sunbright an' cheerful, no matter--"
+
+"She's not very cheerful this afternoon, Cleena. I believe she'd been
+crying, just now, when I found her in the shed. I fancy she'll find a
+ride anything but funny, on such a day as this. I like the warm fire
+better than the road in such weather."
+
+"Get back to it then, child. There's your book yon, on the settle. Wait.
+Carry in a bowl of porridge to the mistress, an you can? Heigh! Move
+them crutches easy now, an' not spill the stuff all over me nice floor."
+
+In her heart Cleena was very proud of her deft-handed "child," who could
+do so many helpful things, even though a cripple, and she watched him
+cross the wide room, swinging easily along on his "other feet," yet
+holding the bowl of steaming liquid upright and safely. Then she sighed,
+and going to the door called:--
+
+"Me Gineral Bonaparty, come by!"
+
+Fayette was digging, even though the ground was frozen, and it would be
+months before anything could grow again. But the simple fellow was a
+"natural farmer," and it was his intention to "let her lie fallow this
+winter. Next summer I'll show you a garden'll make your eyes bung out.
+I'm the best gard'ner anywhere's round, I am."
+
+He now replied:--
+
+"What fer? I want to get this side gone over, this afternoon. Then come
+Monday I'm goin' to get some trees down brook way, an' get John to haul
+'em up an' set 'em out, an' get Miss Amy--"
+
+"Faith, what else'll you 'get' with your 'get' an' 'get,' I'd know. Come
+by, I tell ye, to wonst."
+
+When Cleena spoke in that tone, it was noticeable that Fayette always
+obeyed. He now threw down his spade, though reluctantly, and sauntered
+to the kitchen door.
+
+"A woman hain't got no sense nohow, stopping a man from his work."
+
+"An' all the sense a man body has, me fathers, is to keep a woman
+standin' in her doorway. I'm wantin' ye to go to the store down below.
+Master Hallam's for lettin' ye ride Balaam. Off with ye, now, an' clean
+the beast's coat, sayin' nothin' of Miss Amy's own little white. Will
+she ride with ye? What for no? Proud you be, says I, to be escortin' of
+the like o' her."
+
+Fayette's eyes shone. The desire of his heart was to possess Balaam for
+himself; failing this, to have the privilege of using the pretty
+creature occasionally.
+
+"How happened it? How does she want to go there in such a wind? Blows
+the hair right off your head, I 'low. I'd ruther go alone, I would."
+
+"'Ruthers' is all froze up. Haste along with ye now, an' be off. Mind ye
+talk pretty to my colleen, 'cause--No matter."
+
+Fayette made swift work of the grooming, and only a few moments later
+Amy and he rode out of the enclosure. As she descended the slope, the
+girl turned and waved her hand cheerfully to Cleena, then set her face
+toward the valley and relapsed into silence.
+
+Fayette endured this as long as he could, for though he rarely needed
+anybody else to speak, this afternoon he was annoyed by his companion's
+preoccupation.
+
+"What's the matter, Amy? You ain't said a word since we started."
+
+"Haven't I? and we're almost there, already. Well, I was thinking.
+That's all. I'll try to do better on the way home."
+
+"Feelin' bad about your ma? Land, she'll get well. All she wants is a
+bit o' boneset tea, or sage an' sassafras. I'll go yarb hunting
+to-morrow, if I get my garden ploughed. Cleena'll stew it. Say, have you
+heard my new one? Hark to this."
+
+He pulled from his pocket a small jewsharp and began to "play" upon it
+in the most nerve-rasping manner.
+
+"Oh, Fayette, another? Why, you must have a half-dozen already. I come
+upon them everywhere about the house, in the rooms where you are."
+
+"Ain't got none now but this. I bought it to Mis' Hackett's. Cleena's
+took my others. Got 'em all in her kitchen draw'. 'Low she'll get this
+if you tell on me."
+
+"I'll not need. You'll have it out to show her how talented you are, and
+then--away goes your pride, your jewsharp, and all."
+
+"Hmm, she better try. I'll teach her a lesson some day she ain't goin'
+to ferget. That woman bosses me too much. I ain't a-goin' to stand it.
+You'll see. I'll clear out an' leave the whole kerboodle first you know.
+Sho! Here we be."
+
+"Indeed. Well, I'm sorry to have reached the place so soon, though it is
+pretty cold."
+
+"You go in and see the 'Supe's' folks. I'll ride along an' do my
+arrants. Cleena'd ruther trust me than you, wouldn't she? I'm a master
+hand for a trade, an' she knows it. Say, I do wish he'd sell me Balaam."
+
+"You must drop that subject, really, Fayette. Even if Hallam were to
+part with his burro, it would not be to you."
+
+The simple lad's fierce temper rose in full force at Amy's blunt words.
+
+"Like to know why not? Ain't my money as good as anybody's? Ain't I
+'stuck up' enough to suit? He never rode in a parade, he didn't. Told me
+so himself."
+
+"Nor do I think he ever will, and, of course, one person's money is as
+good as another's, excepting that we could never trust how long you
+would be kind to dear old Balaam. Hal would take much less to have the
+creature well treated than--I mean--Oh, don't get so angry; it's not
+worth while."
+
+The more she tried to smooth matters over, the more indignant the other
+became. His harp was still between such discolored teeth as Pepita's
+former assault had left him, and added to the grotesqueness of his
+appearance as he glared upon Amy. To finish what she had begun, she
+remarked:--
+
+"Just tie him there, at that second post, please, and you'd best put his
+blanket on him."
+
+"Tie him? I'm goin' to ride him to the village to let the boys see him
+an' try him. I promised I would. Tie him! I shan't neither!"
+
+"You certainly will not ride him to wherever those dreadful boys are.
+Nobody shall touch him, except you or me, and you ought not."
+
+Fayette gave her one more angry glance, leaped from his saddle with a
+jerk, and bestowed upon the unoffending burro a vicious kick. Then he
+disappeared down the street, and Amy tied Pepita in haste, that she
+might look after the other animal also.
+
+Just then she heard a step upon the path behind her, and the
+superintendent's pleasant voice, saying:--
+
+"Well, young lady, you are certainly prompt, and promptness is a
+cardinal virtue--from a business man's point of view. See, here is the
+little girl for whom you are giving up your pet."
+
+"Ah, indeed."
+
+Amy smiled upon the child, who might have been ten years of age, and the
+fragile little creature appeared to smile in return. Then it came over
+the visitor that there was something out of common in that uplifted,
+happy face, and that the smile was not in response to her own greeting.
+The wide blue eyes looked upward, truly, but with the blank stare of
+one who sees nothing.
+
+"Ah, is it so?" cried Amy, a second time, watching with what hesitation
+the little girl moved along the path, and how persistently she clung to
+her father's hand.
+
+"Yes, blind; quite blind--from her birth," said Mr. Metcalf, sadly.
+
+Amy was on her knees in a moment, clasping the child's slight body in
+her arms and saying:--
+
+"Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita. She is the dearest,
+nicest burro--except when she's bad--and will carry you wherever you
+want to go,--that is, if she is willing. You dear little girl, she shall
+be yours, without that money either. I never knew about you before, or
+you should have had her before, too."
+
+[Illustration: "'THEN I'M GLAD, GLAD THAT YOU ARE TO HAVE PEPITA.'"]
+
+Mr. Metcalf smiled, well pleased. His blind daughter was the idol of his
+flock, and anybody who was attracted by her became interesting to him.
+Amy had been so, even before this incident, but he liked her heartily
+now.
+
+"So, Miss Amy, though you hated to part with your burro for money, you
+would do so willingly for love and sympathy?"
+
+"Why, of course. If I'd only known--"
+
+"You will not make a good business woman, at this rate. But this wind is
+sharp. I mustn't keep Nanette out here long, else her mother will worry,
+and that wouldn't do. Suppose, since you know more about donkeys than I
+do, that you give my girl her first riding lesson. Reach Miss Amy your
+hand, dear heart."
+
+Amy caught the little white-mittened fingers in her own and kissed them
+impulsively. Then she rose and placed the child on Pepita's saddle.
+
+"Take hold of the bridle, so, in both hands, now, till you learn how.
+I'll keep my arm about you. No, dear, you cannot fall. I wouldn't let
+you, even if Pepita would, and she's in a gentle mood to-day. Aren't
+you, Pepit'?"
+
+"Br-a-ay! Ah-ump!" responded the burro. She did not always have her
+replies so ready, and, for an instant, it seemed as if she would
+frighten her new mistress. But there was always something absurdly
+amusing in Pepita's tones, and after the first shock of hearing them had
+passed, Nanette burst into a merry laugh that made the others laugh too.
+
+"Oh, doesn't she talk nicely! Does she always answer so quick?"
+
+"No, indeed. Sometimes the naughty little beast will not say a single
+bray. She has many moods, has Pepit'. You'll find them all out, though,
+after a while. Now, how do you like it? Isn't the motion soft and
+gentle?"
+
+"Oh, if mamma could see!" cried the happy little girl, turning her sunny
+face toward Amy. Then she suddenly pulled off her mittens and drew her
+new friend's head down so that she could feel the unfamiliar features.
+Swiftly, lightly, the tiny finger-tips passed over every one, then
+travelled upward and lost themselves in the close rings of hair under
+the scarlet Tarn. "Now, I'll know you forever. What color is your hair?
+What is your hood, or bonnet?"
+
+"My hair is very dark brown, or almost black, I think. My Tarn is red.
+But do you know colors?"
+
+"I know what they are like to me. Papa says that maybe that is not the
+same as they are in the truly world, but I don't care. They are pretty
+and suit me, my blind colors do. I like you. I like you very much. I
+think you are lovely, lovely to give me your don-key--"
+
+"But I didn't. That is, I will, since I know about you; but I asked your
+father to buy her first. I wouldn't--"
+
+"Oh, never mind. It's all the same, isn't it? It would be in my blind
+world. She was yours and now she is mine, and you're lovely. Oh, I wish
+mamma could see!"
+
+"Why, can't she, dear? Is she--"
+
+"No," interrupted the superintendent, smiling. "No, she isn't blind. The
+only body in our household who is able to see beautiful things with her
+eyes shut is Nanette, here; and the only trouble with the mother is that
+there is a new baby in her room just now, so she hasn't time or strength
+to get up and look out of window at new burros. She thinks the new
+babies are the nicer of the two sorts. Eh, Nan, child?"
+
+"I suppose she does, but I don't. Pooh! there have been three new baby
+sisters that I can remember, and once I was a new baby sister myself, to
+my brothers. They're so common, you know; but I don't think of any girl
+anywhere, except you, and now me, that has had a new snow-white donkey.
+Do you?"
+
+"No, I do not," laughed Amy.
+
+Mr. Metcalf invited Amy into the house, while he led the burro around to
+the little stable in the rear, which was to be Pepita's new home. Amy
+would have liked to throw her arms about the hairy white neck, but pride
+forbade, and so the parting was made without any sign of distress on
+either side. Pepita was eager for shelter, and her late mistress to hear
+what the blind child was saying.
+
+"It's right this way into the sitting room. I love the sitting room
+best. That's where papa has his books and papers, and it smells like
+him. He smokes, you know, but only in this room or out of doors. Oh, do
+help me think! Mamma, dear heart, says I am to name this last little new
+baby. Just fancy it! I, myself! And it bothers me terrifically. I would
+want a nice long name, the longest that's in the books; but papa says
+that there are so many little folks who like us and come to live with
+us, that we mustn't spend time on long names. Oh, I've just thought!
+I'll name her 'Amy.' That's short, isn't it? Could a body nickname it?
+We don't like nicknames here. I'm the only one. I'm sometimes 'Nan' to
+papa. When the baby last before this one came, mamma named her Abby
+after Grandmother Abigail. Then she thought we couldn't ever stop to say
+Ab-i-ga-il, so she shortened it to Abby. Next thing, listen. Abby was
+crying one day and Rex heard her, and grandmother asked, 'What's that?'
+'cause she's deaf and doesn't hear straight, and Rex said, 'Oh, that's
+nothing but little Ab!' She was just three days old then, and mamma
+thought if her name got cut in two so quick as that, she wouldn't have
+any at all in a week or two longer. So she's just Ruth now; and when the
+boys say 'Ruth-y,' papa makes them put a nickel in the box. Do you have
+a nickel box on your bookcase?"
+
+"No, indeed. Tell me about it. I've never heard of such a thing."
+
+"Why, it's this way. Feel me your hand. I'll show you." And as if she
+could see perfectly, Nanette guided Amy to the further side of the room,
+where stood a pretty, polished box upon the bookshelf. The box had a
+slit in its cover, and it jingled merrily in the blind child's hand.
+
+"Hear! We must have been pretty bad this month. But that makes it all
+the better for the little 'fresh airers,' doesn't it? Sometimes, when I
+think about them, I just want to do things--_not nice things_--all the
+time, so as to make more money for them. But of course it wouldn't be
+honorable, and I wouldn't do it."
+
+"Do you put the nickels in when you are 'naughty'?"
+
+"Yes, for crossness and unpolite words and messing at table and--lots of
+things. Once--" Nanette paused and turned her eyes toward Amy for a long
+time. Then she again passed those delicate finger-tips over the other's
+face, and decided:--
+
+"Yes, I can trust you. Once one of us, I couldn't tell you which one,
+but one of us told a wrong story, a falsehood, an untruth. One of the
+dreadful things that made our dear Lord kill Ananias and Sapphira dead.
+Wasn't that awful? Mamma and papa didn't know what to do. A nickel
+didn't seem much pay for a lie, did it? So they made it a dollar. Yes,
+ma'am, one whole dollar. That's twenty nickels. Oh, it was so unhappy
+those days! I was gladder than ever that I was blind. I think I should
+have died to see the bad face of the one that did it while it was bad.
+But mamma says such a lesson is never, never forgotten. You see, we
+haven't any right to be bad, have we?"
+
+"I suppose not, dear. What a wise little thinker you are!"
+
+"Papa says I think too much. That's why, one why, he was so glad to get
+me the burro. He hopes it will stop me some. But in a home a body must
+remember it isn't his home nor her home, but the home of everybody that
+belongs. If I should be naughty, it would throw things all out of--of
+smoothness, don't you know. I can't be naughty all by myself. If I
+could--no, I wouldn't like it either. When I'm selfish or bad, I always
+feel as if I had on a dirty apron, and I do just hate dirty clothes!"
+
+"And you do just love to talk, little one," cried the superintendent,
+coming in and catching up his daughter in his strong arms. "We tell her,
+Miss Amy, that she makes up for what she doesn't see by what she does
+say. Eh, midget?"
+
+Nanette cuddled her fair head against her father's beard, and turned her
+eyes toward Amy. It seemed impossible to believe that those beautiful
+eyes could not really behold whereon they rested, and the tears of
+sympathy rose to Amy's own as she tried to comprehend this.
+
+"Isn't he a dear, funny papa? But you just wait until you see my mother.
+She's the nicest thing in this whole world. Oh, papa, shall I call the
+baby 'Amy'?"
+
+"If you like, darling. It's a pleasant, old-fashioned name."
+
+"I'll tell you a better one, though it's longer. That is 'Salome.'"
+
+"Who's she?" asked Nanette.
+
+"My mother. As you feel about yours, I think she is the sweetest thing
+in this whole world."
+
+"Sa-lo-me, Sa-lo-me," repeated the child, slowly. "That is pretty. What
+do you say about that, papa?"
+
+"As you and mother please, darling. It is a good name. But now, dear,
+run away. I have to talk business with this new friend of yours, and
+where you are--eh?"
+
+"Yes, I do talk, don't I? I love to talk. Good-by, Amy. Please come
+again to see me, and every time you must ride on Peppy--what is her
+name?"
+
+"Pe-pi-ta. It is Spanish and very pretty, I think."
+
+"Pay-pee-tah," repeated Nanette, imitating the sound and ignorant of the
+spelling.
+
+"Now, Miss Amy, I've had your saddle put upon your brother's burro. You
+can ride him home, and I will have 'Bony' carry the other saddle.
+To-morrow he shall bring the girl's saddle back to Nanette, and I echo
+her invitation that you should come often to visit us and ride upon your
+own, old favorite. Here is the envelope with the money, and since you
+must go at all, I'll urge you to go at once. There is another squall
+coming, and it will darken early."
+
+As she rode homeward a doctor's phaeton passed her. It was being driven
+rapidly, and a face peered out at her from beneath the hood. Then it
+stopped and waited for her to approach.
+
+"Do you belong at the 'Spite House'?"
+
+"Yes; why?"
+
+"Make haste. Drive on."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FACING HARD FACTS.
+
+
+"Make haste. Drive on."
+
+The words sang themselves into Amy's brain as she urged Balaam up the
+slope, and for days thereafter they returned to her, the last vivid
+memory of that happy time before bereavement came.
+
+Then followed a season of confusion and distress; and now that a
+fortnight was over she sat beside a freshly made mound in Quaker
+burying-ground, trying to collect her thoughts and to form a definite
+plan for her future.
+
+The end of a gentle, beneficent life had come with merciful suddenness,
+and the face of Salome Kaye was now hidden beneath this mound where her
+child sat, struggling with her grief, and bravely endeavoring to find
+the right way out of many difficulties. Finally, she seemed to have done
+so, for she rose with an air of grave decision and kneeling for one
+moment in that quiet spot, rose again, and passed swiftly from the
+place.
+
+Hallam was at the cemetery gate, resting sadly against the
+lichen-covered stone post, and waiting for her return. Indian summer
+had come, a last taste of warmth and brightness before the winter
+closed, and despite their sorrow nature soothed them with her
+loveliness. In any case, whether from that cause or from her own will,
+the girl found it easier than she had expected to speak with her brother
+upon their material affairs.
+
+"Shall we stop here a little while, Hal dear, to talk, or will we go on
+slowly toward home? I've been thinking, up--up there beside mother, and
+I've found a way, I hope."
+
+"I don't care where, though I'd rather not talk. What good does it do? I
+hate it. I hate home. I hate this place worse--Oh, it's wicked! It's
+cruel! Why did she ever have to leave Fairacres! She might be--"
+
+Amy's hand went up to Hallam's lips. "Hush! Do you suppose God blunders?
+I don't. If He had meant her to stay with us, He would have found a way
+to cure her. To think otherwise is torture. No. No, no, indeed no!
+Father is left and so are we. We have got to live and take care of him
+and of ourselves."
+
+"I should like to know how. I--a miserable good-for-naught, and you--a
+girl."
+
+"Exactly, thank you, just a girl. But a girl who loves her brother and
+her father all the more because--_she_ loved them too. A girl who has
+made up her mind to do the first thing and everything that offers,
+which will help to make them comfortable; who is going to put her family
+pride in her pocket and go to work. There, it's out!"
+
+"Go--out--to--work, Amy--Kaye!"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Don't take it so hard, dear."
+
+In spite of himself he smiled. Then he remembered. "I don't see how you
+can laugh or jest--so soon. As if--but you _must_ care."
+
+"Just because I do care, so very, very much. Oh, Hal, don't dream I'm
+not missing her every hour of the day. I fancy I hear her saying now,
+this moment, as she used to say when I'd been naughty and was penitent:
+'If thee loves me so much, dear, thee will try to do the things I like.'
+The one thing she liked, she _lived_, was a brave helpfulness toward
+everybody she knew. She didn't wait for great things, she did little
+things. Now, the first little things that are facing us are: the earning
+of our rent and of our food."
+
+Hallam said nothing. He knocked a stone aside with the end of his
+crutch, and groaned.
+
+"I'm going to work in the mill," she continued.
+
+"Amy! Father expressly forbade that, or even any mention of it. You, a
+Kaye!"
+
+"He has given me permission, even though I am a Kaye." She tried to
+smile still, but found it hard in the face of his want of sympathy, even
+indignation.
+
+"Do you think he knew what he was saying when he did it?"
+
+"Yes, Hallam, I do. It seems to me that father is more like other folks
+since this trouble came than he was before. I was worried and asked the
+doctor, for I remembered mother always used to spare him everything
+painful or difficult that she could. The doctor said:--
+
+"'It may be that this blow will do more to restore him than all her
+tender care could do.'
+
+"And then I asked him something else. It was--what was the matter with
+him--if it was all his heart. He said, 'No, indeed. It's his head.' He
+was in a great fire, at a hotel where he was staying, a long time ago.
+He was nearly killed, and many other people were killed. For a while he
+thought that mother had been burned, they had gotten separated some way,
+and it made him--insane, I suppose. But when she was found, in a
+hospital where he was taken, he got better. He isn't at all insane now,
+the doctor says, but is only a little confused. Mother never had us told
+about it, because she wanted we should think our father just perfect,
+and for that reason she drew him into this quiet life that we always
+have lived. If he wanted to spend money foolishly, she never objected.
+She hoped that by not opposing any wish he would get wholly well. Part
+of this Cleena has told me, for she thought we ought to know, now, and
+part the doctor said. Oh, Hal, I think it will be grand, grand, to take
+care of him as nearly like she did as we can. Don't you?"
+
+Hallam's eyes sparkled. "Amy, I always said she was the most beautiful
+woman in the world, in character as well as person."
+
+"To us, she certainly was. My plan is this: I will go to Mr. Metcalf and
+ask him to give me a place in the mill. If those other girls can work,
+so can I."
+
+"Do you know who owns the mills now?"
+
+"Yes; our cousin Archibald Wingate."
+
+"And you would work for him? You would demean yourself to that? Yet you
+know how, when he offered us money last week, or to do other things for
+us, both father and I indignantly declined."
+
+"Yes, I know. I, too, was glad we didn't have to take it, though I do
+not believe he is as bad as we think. We look at him from _this_ side;
+but if we could from the _other_, he might not seem so hard-hearted. He
+said he was sorry. He seemed to feel very badly."
+
+"Yes, and when he came and asked Cleena to let him see--her, just once
+more, she gave him a reproof that must have struck home. She told him he
+was practically the cause of mother's death,--his driving her from
+Fairacres,--and I shall always feel so, too."
+
+"I hope not, dear."
+
+"Well, I hate him. I hope I can sometime make him suffer all he has made
+us."
+
+"But, Hal, that is vindictive. To be vindictive is not half as noble as
+to be just. Mother was just. While it grieved her to leave her home, she
+fully appreciated how much he must long for it. It was their
+grandmother's, you know, and he felt he had a right there. I do not
+blame him half as much as I pity him. He's such a lonely old fellow, it
+seems to me."
+
+"Humph! I wouldn't work for him and take his money. I should feel as if
+it were tainted."
+
+For a moment Amy was staggered by this view of her brother's. Then it
+dropped into its proper place in the argument, and she went on:--
+
+"It would be pleasanter to work for somebody else. But there _is_ nobody
+else. I think Mr. Wingate has very little to do with the employees of
+the mill. It's Mr. Metcalf who pays them, and he's a dear, good friend
+already. I'm going to see him this afternoon. I asked Gwendolyn to tell
+him I was coming, but I suppose he thinks it is about selling Balaam.
+He's ready to take him off your hands if you want to part with him. That
+seventy-five dollars he paid for Pepita and the saddle and harness was
+such a blessing. It carried us through; we couldn't have done without
+it, unless we'd let Mr. Wingate help."
+
+"Never! Well, I suppose he'll have to take him. If I can't work, I can
+give up, as well as you."
+
+"No, Hal, I don't want to sell him yet. Wait till the last thing and we
+can't help it. Do try to think kindly of what I'm doing, dear. Down in
+my heart I'm pretty proud, too. But you start home. I'll take a bit of
+lunch and then start out to seek my fortune. Wish me luck, laddie; or,
+rather, bid me God-speed."
+
+She lifted her face for his kiss, and he gave it heartily. It was to the
+sensitive, proud, undisciplined boy the very hardest moment of his life,
+save and apart from his bereavement.
+
+"To think, Amy, little sister, that I, who should be your protector and
+supporter, am just--this!"
+
+"Hush! you shall not point so contemptuously to those poor legs. I think
+they are very good legs, indeed. There's nothing the matter with them
+except that they won't move. They've been indulged so long--"
+
+"Amy, I don't understand you. First you seem so cheerful; then you make
+light of my lameness. Are you forgetful, or what?"
+
+"Not forgetful, nor hard-hearted. Just 'what,' which means that I
+believe you could learn to walk if you would."
+
+"Amy! _Amy!!_"
+
+"Hallam!"
+
+"Do you suppose I wouldn't if I could?"
+
+"Hal, do you ever try?"
+
+He looked at her indignantly; then he reflected that, in fact, he never
+did try. But to convince her he made an effort that instant. Tossing his
+crutches to the ground, he tried to force his limbs forward over the
+ground. They utterly failed to respond to his will, and he would have
+fallen had not Amy's arms caught and supported him.
+
+"There, you see!"
+
+"For the first attempt it was fine. Bravo! _Encore!_"
+
+Yet she picked up his "other legs" and gave him, then led Balaam away
+from the late thistle blooms he was browsing. Hallam mounted, crossed
+his crutches before him, and lifted his cap. Amy tossed him a kiss and
+turned millward, while he ascended the hill road. But no sooner was she
+out of sight than her assumed cheerfulness gave way, and for a time it
+was a sad-faced girl who trudged diligently onward toward duty and a
+life of toil.
+
+Gwendolyn had delivered her message, and the superintendent welcomed Amy
+to his office at the mill with a friendly nod and smile; but, at that
+moment, he was deep in business with a strange gentleman, negotiating
+for a large sale of carpets, and after his brief greeting he apparently
+forgot the girl. She remained standing for some moments, then Mr.
+Metcalf beckoned an attendant to give her a chair and the day's
+newspaper.
+
+Her heart sank even lower than before. The superintendent appeared a
+different person from the friend she had met in his own home. Her throat
+choked. She felt that she should cry, if she did not make some desperate
+effort to the contrary; so she began to read the paper diligently,
+though her mind scarcely followed the words she saw, and would deflect
+to those she heard, which were very earnest, indeed, though all about a
+matter no greater than one-eighth cent per yard.
+
+"How queer! Two great grown men to stand there and argue about such a
+trifle. Why, there isn't any such coin, and what does it mean? Well, I'm
+eavesdropping, and that's wrong. Now I will read. I will not listen."
+
+Running in this wise, her thoughts at last fixed themselves upon a
+paragraph which she had perused several times without comprehending. Now
+it began to have a meaning for her, and one so intense that she half
+rose to beg the loan of the newspaper that she might show it to Hallam.
+
+"The very thing. The very thing I heard those doctors talking about in
+mother's room. I'll ask for it, or copy it, if I can, and show my boy.
+Who knows what it might do?"
+
+There was a little movement in the office. The gentleman in the big
+top-coat, with his eyeglasses, his gold-handled umbrella, and his
+consequential air, was leaving. He was bowing in a patronizing sort of
+way, and Mr. Metcalf was bowing also, smiling almost obsequious. He was
+rubbing his hair upward from his forehead, in a way Amy had already
+observed to be habitual when he was pleased. Evidently he was pleased
+now, and greatly so, for even after the stranger had passed out and
+entered the cab in waiting, the superintendent remained before the glass
+door, still smiling with profound satisfaction.
+
+Then, as if he had suddenly remembered her, he turned toward Amy.
+
+"Well, miss, what can I do for you to-day? I saw you were interested in
+our argument over the fraction of a cent, and I'm glad to tell you I
+won. Yes, I carried my point."
+
+The girl was disgusted. Though she liked to know her friends from every
+side of their characters, she was not pleased by this glimpse of Mr.
+Metcalf's.
+
+He saw her feeling in her face and took it merrily, dropping at last
+into the manner which she knew and liked best.
+
+"A small business, you're thinking, eh? Well, Miss Amy, let me tell you
+that on this one deal, this one sale, my gaining that fraction of a cent
+means the gaining to my employer of several thousand dollars. And that
+is worth contesting, don't you think?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible. Just that tiny eighth! Why, how many, many
+yards you must sell!"
+
+"Indeed, yes. The mills are constantly turning out great quantities and,
+fortunately, the market is free. We dispose of them as fast as we can
+finish. We could sell more if we could manufacture more. But this is not
+what has brought you here, I fancy. Tell me your errand, please. I have
+much to get through with before closing."
+
+The return to his business manner again chilled Amy's enthusiasm, but
+she thought of her father and what she hoped to do for him, and needed
+no other aid to her courage.
+
+"I've come to ask a place in the mill. I want to work and get paid."
+
+"Certainly. If you work, you will be paid. What makes you want to do it?
+Does your father know?"
+
+"He has consented. I think he understands, though he didn't seem to care
+greatly, either way. I must do it, sir, or something. It was the only
+thing I knew about."
+
+"You know nothing about that, really. The girls here are from an
+altogether different class than that to which you belong. You would not
+find it pleasant."
+
+"That wouldn't matter. And aren't we all Americans? Equal?"
+
+"Theoretically. How much do you suppose you could earn?"
+
+"I don't know. Whatever my work was worth."
+
+"That, at the beginning, would be not more than two dollars a week, and
+probably less. It would be fatiguing, constant standing in attending to
+your 'jenny.' I really think that you would better abandon the idea at
+once. Try to think of something nearer what you have known."
+
+Yet he saw the deepening distress in her face and it grieved him. He was
+bound, in all honesty to her, to set the dark side of things before her,
+and he waited for her decision with some curiosity.
+
+"If you'll let me try, I would like to do so."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AMY BEGINS TO SPIN.
+
+
+"Well, deary, it's time. Oh, me fathers, to think it! Wake up, Amy, me
+colleen, me own precious lamb."
+
+Six o'clock of a gray November morning is not an inspiriting hour to
+begin any undertaking. Amy turned in her comfortable bed, rubbed her
+eyes, saw Cleena standing near with a lighted candle in her hand, and
+inquired, drowsily:--
+
+"Why--what's happened? Why will you get up in the middle of the night?
+Don't bother me--yet."
+
+"Faith, an' I won't. Upon honor it's wrong, it's all wrong. What'll your
+guardian angel think of old Cleena to be leavin' you do it! Body an'
+bones, I'll do naught to further the business--not I!"
+
+The woman's voice was tremulous with indignation or grief, and all at
+once Amy remembered. Then she sprang from her cosy nest, wide-awake and
+full of courage.
+
+"Hush, dear old Goodsoul, I forgot. I forgot, entirely. I was dreaming
+of Fairacres. It was a beautiful dream. The old house was full of little
+children and young girls. They were singing and laughing and moving
+about everywhere. I can hardly believe it wasn't real; but, I'm all
+right now. I'll be down stairs in a few minutes. Don't wake anybody
+else, for there's no need. Is it six o'clock already? It might be
+midnight or--any time. Why, what's this?"
+
+"A frock I've made for you, child."
+
+"_You_ made a frock for me? Why, Cleena!"
+
+"Sure, it's not so handy with the needle as the broom me fingers is. But
+what for no? Them pretty white ones will never do for the nasty old
+mill. This didn't need so much. The body'll about fit, thinks I, if I
+sew it fast in the front an' split it behind. The skirt's not so very
+long. She was a mite of a woman, God rest her. Well, I'll go an' see the
+milk doesn't boil over, an' be back in a jiffy to fasten it for you. Ah,
+me lamb! Troth, a spirit's brave like your own will be prospered, I
+know."
+
+Then Cleena went hurriedly out of the room. The frock which she had
+prepared for Amy's use in the mill was remodelled from an old one of her
+mistress's. As has been said, Amy had never worn any sort of dress
+except white. The fabric was changed to suit the season, but the color
+was not. Even her warm winter cloak was of heavy white wool, faced here
+and there with scarlet, to match the simple scarlet headgear that suited
+her dark face so well. Quite against the habits of her own upbringing,
+Mrs. Kaye had clothed her daughter to please the taste of her artist
+husband, and therefore it had not greatly mattered that this taste
+dictated a style more fanciful than useful.
+
+Now everything was altered, and Cleena had consulted Mrs. Jones with the
+result just given. But from a true delicacy, the faithful old servant
+did not stay to watch the girl as she adopted the new garb which
+belonged to the new fortunes, though she need not have been afraid.
+
+For a moment Amy held the gray dress in her hand, feeling it almost a
+sacrilege to put it on. She remembered it as the morning gown of her
+mother, plain to the extreme, yet graceful and precious in her sight
+because of the dear wearer. Then she lifted the garment to her lips, and
+touched it lightly.
+
+"Mother, darling, it is a good beginning. It seems to me it is like a
+sister of mercy putting on her habit for the first time. It is a
+protection and a benediction. If I can only put on my mother's beautiful
+character with her clothing, I shall do well, indeed." Then she examined
+the alterations which Cleena had been instructed by the cottager to
+make, and was able to smile at them.
+
+"The new sewing and the old do not match very well, but it will answer,
+and it does fit me much better than I would have thought. My! but I must
+already be as large, or nearly so, as she was. Well, no time for
+thinking back now. It's all looking forward, and must be, if I am to
+keep my courage."
+
+Then she knelt beside her bed, prayed simply and in full faith for
+success in her efforts to provide for her beloved ones, and went below,
+smiling and gay.
+
+"Think of it, Cleena Keegan. This is Monday morning. On seventh day I
+expect to bring back two splendid dollars and put into your hands. I,
+just I, your own little Amy. Think of the oatmeal it will buy."
+
+It was not in Cleena's heart to dampen this ardor by remarking how small
+a sum two dollars really was, considered in the light of a family
+support; and, after all, oatmeal was cheap. Fortunately, it also formed
+the principal diet of this plainly nurtured household, and even that
+very breakfast to which the young breadwinner now sat down.
+
+But the meal was exquisitely cooked, and the hot milk was rich and
+sweet. Also, there lay, neatly wrapped in a spotless napkin, the mid-day
+luncheon, which Cleena had been told to prepare, and which Mrs. Jones
+suggested should be of something "hearty and strong" for "working in the
+mill beats all for appetite."
+
+Then Amy took the big gingham pinafore, that Cleena had also prepared,
+and with her little parcels under her arm, skipped away down the slope
+to the Joneses' cottage, where Gwendolyn was to meet and escort her to
+her first day's work.
+
+"Pshaw! I thought you wasn't coming. We'll be late if we don't hurry.
+Hmm. Wore your white cloak, didn't you? Well, I guess the girls won't
+laugh at you much. A dark one would have been better."
+
+"But I have no dark one, so it was this or nothing. How fast you walk,
+almost as if you were running!"
+
+"We'll be late, I tell you. I don't want to get docked, if _you_ do."
+
+"What is 'docked'?"
+
+"Why, having something taken from your wages."
+
+"Would that be done for just so short a time?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. The time-keeper watches out and nobody has a chance to get
+off. To be late five minutes means losing a quarter day's wages. They
+count off a quarter, a half, three-quarters, or a whole, according to
+time."
+
+"Then Gwendolyn, let's run. I wouldn't make you lose for anything."
+
+"All right."
+
+When they arrived at the mill, Gwendolyn said:--
+
+"You come this way with me. Hang your cap and coat right here, next to
+mine. Never mind if the girls do stare, you'll get used to that. I felt
+as if I should sink the first day I came, though that was ages ago.
+Hello, Maud, where was you last night?"
+
+Amy did not feel in the least like "sinking." She had overcome her
+drowsiness, and the light was already growing much stronger. She looked
+around upon these strangers who were to be her comrades at toil, with a
+friendly interest and curiosity. Some of her new mates regarded her with
+equal curiosity, though few with so kindly an interest as her own. The
+unconscious ease of Amy's bearing they esteemed "boldness," or even
+"cheek," and her air of superior breeding was distasteful to them.
+
+"My, ain't she a brazen thing! Looks around on the whole crowd as if she
+thought she could put on all the airs she pleased, even in the mill.
+Well, 'ristocrat or no 'ristocrat, she'll have to come down here. We're
+just as good as she is and--"
+
+"A little better, too, you mean," commented a lad, just passing.
+
+The girl who scorned "'ristocrats" paused in fastening her denim apron
+and looked after the youth, who was, evidently, a personage of
+importance in the eyes of herself and mates. They watched his jaunty
+movements with undisguised admiration, and his passing left behind him a
+wake of smiles and giggles which to Amy seemed out of proportion to the
+wit of his remark.
+
+However, there was little loitering, and the long procession of girls,
+with its sprinkling of men and boys, swiftly ascended the narrow open
+staircase to the upper floors. This staircase was built along the side
+wall of the great structure, flight above flight, an iron frame with
+steps of board. The only protection from falling upon the floor below,
+should one grow dizzy-headed, was a gas-pipe hand-rail; and even this
+might not have been provided had not the law compelled.
+
+As she fell into line behind Gwendolyn and began the upward climb, Amy
+grasped this slender support firmly; but everything about her seemed
+very unlike her memory of her first visit here. Then the sun was
+shining, she was under the guidance of the genial superintendent, and
+the scene was novel--like a picture exhibited for her personal
+entertainment. Now the novelty was past, the scene had become dingy, and
+herself a part of it.
+
+All around her were voices talking in a sort of mill _patois_ concerning
+matters which she did not understand. But nobody, not even Gwendolyn,
+spoke to her, and a sudden, overpowering dismay seized her stout heart
+and made her head reel. Then she made a misstep and her foot slipped
+through the space between two stairs. This brought the hurrying
+procession to a standstill, and recalled attention to the "new hand."
+
+"My sake! Somebody's fell. Who? Is she hurt? Oh, that donkey girl. Well,
+she ain't so used to these horrid stairs as we be."
+
+"Hold back! She's sort of giddy-headed, I guess."
+
+Amy felt an arm thrown round her waist, a rather ungentle pull was given
+her dangling foot, and she was set right to proceed. But for an instant
+she could not go on, and she again felt the arm supporting and forcing
+her against the bare brick wall, so that those below might not be longer
+hindered.
+
+Then she half gasped:--
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean--"
+
+"Of course you didn't. Never mind. You ain't the first girl has had her
+foot through these steps, and you won't be the last. After somebody has
+broke a leg or two, then they'll put backboards to 'em. Not before. Is
+your head swimming yet?"
+
+"It feels queerly. It jars so."
+
+"That's the machinery and the noise. The whole building just shakes and
+buzzes when we get fairly started. Don't be scared. You're all safe.
+Lots of girls feel just that way when they first come. Lots of 'em faint
+away. Some can't stand it at all. But you'll get used, don't fear. I was
+one of the fainters, and I kept it up quite a spell. The 'boss' of the
+room got so mad he told me if I didn't quit fainting I'd have to quit
+spinning. So I made a bold face and haven't fainted since. You see, I
+couldn't afford to. I had to do this or starve."
+
+By this time Amy's fright was past, and she was regarding her comforter
+with that friendly gratitude which won her the instant liking of the
+other, who resumed:--
+
+"Pshaw! The girls didn't know what they were saying. You don't look a
+mite stuck up. You aren't, are you?"
+
+"Indeed, no. Why should I be? But I do thank you so much for your
+kindness just now, and I'm sorry if my blundering has made you late.
+Will you be 'docked'?"
+
+"Oh, no. We've time enough. Gwen is always in a desperate hurry. She
+likes a chance to talk before she begins work. She's a nice girl, but
+she isn't very deep. Say, have you seen her new winter hat?"
+
+"No; has she another than that she wore this morning?"
+
+"My! yes."
+
+The "old hand" and the "new" were now quietly climbing to the top floor
+where their tasks were to be side by side, and Amy had time to examine
+her companion's face. It was plain and freckled, boasting none of that
+"prettiness" of which Gwendolyn was so openly proud, but it was gentle
+and intelligent, and had a look of delicacy which suggested chronic
+suffering, patiently borne. Amy had not far to seek the cause of this
+pathetic expression, for Mary Reese was a hunchback. In her attire there
+was as much simplicity as in Amy's own, but without grace or harmony of
+coloring.
+
+"You're looking at my clothes, aren't you? Well, they're the great
+trouble of my life. After I pay my board and washing, I don't have more
+than fifty cents left. I do the best I can, but I'm no hand with a
+needle, and Saturday-halves are short. I thought you were the loveliest
+thing I ever saw, that day you went round the mill with the 'Supe.'"
+
+"Oh, did you see me then? Did I see you? What is your name? Ah, are we
+up there already?"
+
+"You can ask questions, can't you? Yes, I saw you. My name is Mary
+Reese. If you saw me, you certainly didn't notice me, and I'm always
+mighty glad when folks don't turn for a second stare at my poor
+shoulders."
+
+"Mary, nobody would, surely," cried Amy, and flung her arm protectingly
+across the deformity of her new friend.
+
+"You dear, to think you'd do that when you know me so little. Well,
+there's many a body touches my hump 'for luck,' but I can't remember
+when anybody did for--love. I'm not going to forget it, either. Even a
+homely little hunchback has her own power among these people. There,
+we're here. This is our 'jenny.' I'm so glad we are to work on the same
+machine. There'll be another girl on your side till you learn; then
+she'll be taken off and we'll be alone. I'll like that. Shall you?"
+
+"I--think--so," responded Amy, absently, her attention now engrossed by
+the excitement about her. Girls were hurrying to take their places
+before the long frames filled with reels, on which fine woollen threads
+were being wound by the revolutions of the machinery overhead. These
+reels whirled round so rapidly that Amy could not follow their motion,
+and the buzz-buzz, as of a thousand bees humming, filled her ears and
+confused the instructions of the girl who was to give her her first
+lesson in winding and "tending."
+
+Across the great frame Mary nodded encouragingly, but it is safe to say
+that Amy had never felt so incompetent and foolish as she did while she
+was striving to understand what was expected of her.
+
+"No, no, no; you must be quicker. See, this spool is full. This is how.
+'Doffer,' here!"
+
+The lad who had created the ripple of admiration on his passage to this
+room, now approached. His motions were exact and incredibly swift. It
+was his duty to remove full spools and replace them by empty ones, and
+he did this duty for sixteen spinning frames. Seeing the "new hand's"
+astonishment at his deftness he became reckless and, intending an
+unusually dexterous movement, miscalculated his reach, and the result
+was a momentary tangle among the whirling spindles.
+
+"Stupid, see what you're at!" cried Amy's instructor, as by a swift
+movement of her foot she brought the rapidly circling frame to a
+standstill. "Now, you've done it!"
+
+"And I'll undo it," he returned, casting a side glance at the stranger.
+
+"If those who've worked here so long make mistakes, I'll not give up,"
+she thought; and Mary came round from behind the frame in time to read
+this thought.
+
+"Don't you mind. You see, we have to be on guard all the time. If we're
+not, something happens like this. Wait. While they're fixing those
+spools, you watch me tie these threads. That's what you have to do. To
+keep everything straight and fasten on the new ends as the old ones run
+out."
+
+"But I don't see you 'tie' it. There is no knot."
+
+"Of course not. We couldn't have rough things in the thread that is
+going to make a carpet. We just twist it--so. Do you see? It can't pull
+apart, and it makes no roughness. Try; keep on trying; and after you
+have practised awhile, you'll be as swift as swift."
+
+"I feel as slow as slow."
+
+The "new hand" smiled into the eager face of her willing helper, and the
+poor hunchback's heart glowed. That so bright a creature should ever
+come to be a worker in that busy mill, side by side with her own self,
+was stranger than the strangest of the cheap novels she read so
+constantly.
+
+"It beats all, don't it?" demanded Mary, clasping Amy's little brown
+hand.
+
+"What, dear? What beats what? Have I done that one better? Do you think
+I'll ever, ever be able to keep up my side of the 'frame' after this
+other one leaves me?"
+
+Mary's laugh was good to hear. Mr. Metcalf, entering the room, heard it
+and smiled. Yet his smile was fleeting, and his only comment a reprimand
+to "Jack doffer" for his carelessness.
+
+"It must not happen again. Understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the youth, humbly.
+
+Of Amy herself the superintendent took no notice whatever beyond a curt
+nod. She did not understand this, and a pain shot through her sensitive
+heart. Then she reflected that he might not have seen her.
+
+"Do you suppose he did, or that he knew me? You see, I've always worn
+white before, and maybe he did not recognize me."
+
+"Oh, he saw you all right. He wouldn't more 'n nod to his own wife, if
+he's on his rounds, and full of business. I've heard that he was very
+pleasant outside the mill and among his folks, but I never saw him any
+different from just now. Seems to me he looks on us like he does the
+spools on the spinners. I always feel as if I were part of the
+machine--the poorest part--and I guess you will, too. There, it's fixed
+and starting up. Hurry to your place and don't get scared. Sallie's
+cross, but she can't help it. She used to be one of the 'fainters.' Yes;
+that's right. Now all there is, is to keep at it till twelve o'clock
+whistle."
+
+That meant nearly five hours of the steadiest and most difficult labor
+which Amy had ever undertaken. Yet these others near her, and the crowds
+of spinners all through the great apartment, appeared to take this labor
+very easily, and were even able to carry on a conversation amid the
+deafening noise.
+
+Amy watched so intently, and tried so faithfully to do just what and all
+that was expected of her that she did, indeed, make a rapid progress
+for one beginning; and when the welcome whistle sounded, she was
+surprised to see how instantly every frame was stopped, and to hear Mary
+saying:--
+
+"If you don't want to go with anybody else, I'd admire to have you eat
+your lunch with me."
+
+"I'd like to, certainly, but I don't believe I can eat. My head is
+whirling, whirling, just like those dreadful spools. Isn't it terrible?"
+
+"No, I don't think so. I don't notice them now, except to make them say
+things. But come along, we have a half-hour nooning. We might have a
+whole hour, but most of the hands like to give up part of their
+dinner-time every day and then take the afternoon off on Saturday. The
+'Supe' doesn't care, so that's the way we get our 'Saturday-half.' I
+sometimes wish we worked the other way, but of course we couldn't. If
+part stops, the other part has to, 'cause every room depends on some
+other room to keep it going."
+
+"Why, I think that's beautiful, don't you? Like a big whole, and all of
+us the needed parts."
+
+"No, I don't. I don't see one single beautiful thing about this hateful
+old mill. At least, I didn't before this morning, when you came."
+
+Amy looked into Mary's face a moment. Then she stooped and kissed it
+gently. Small though Amy herself was, for her age, she was still taller
+than her new friend, and felt herself far stronger.
+
+Away in another place Gwendolyn and her mates observed this little
+by-play, and one girl remarked:--
+
+"Hmm. That settles _her_ hash. If she's going to take up with that
+horrid Mary Reese, there won't anybody go with her. Not a single girl,
+and as for the fellows--my!"
+
+To this flirtatious young person to be ignored by "the fellows" meant
+the depth of misfortune. Happily, however, Amy had never hear the word
+"fellow," as at present applied, and to do anything for the sake of
+attracting attention to herself she would have considered the extreme of
+vulgarity.
+
+Mary guided her to a quiet corner behind some bales, and filling a tin
+cup with water from a faucet, proceeded to open her own luncheon. Then
+she watched Amy, who, almost too weary to eat, loitered over the untying
+of the dainty parcel Cleena had made up. When she at last did so, and
+quietly sorted the contents of the neat box, she was surprised by Mary's
+astonished stare.
+
+"What is it, dear? Aren't you hungry?"
+
+"Hungry? I'm starved. But--see the difference. It goes even into our
+victuals. Oh dear, there isn't any use!" and, with a bitter sob, the
+mill girl tossed aside her own rude parcel of food and dropped her face
+in her hands.
+
+Girlhood is swiftly intuitive. The boarding-house lunch which the
+hunchback had brought was quite sufficient in quantity, but it was
+coarse in extreme, and meats had been wrapped in one bit of newspaper
+along with the sweets, so that the flavor of each article spoiled the
+flavor of all. Yet it was the first time that Mary had rebelled against
+such an arrangement.
+
+Now it was different. Amy's speech, Amy's manner and belongings, opened
+before the slumbering ambition of the mill girl a picture of better
+things, which she recognized as unattainable for herself.
+
+Then she felt again the clasp of firm, young arms about her own neck,
+and a face that was both smiling and tearful pressed close to her own.
+
+"You dear little girl. I see, I understand. But you've never had a
+chance to try how I've lived and I've never tried how you do. Let's
+change. Yes; I insist, for this once. You eat my lunch, and I'll eat
+yours. It will do Goodsoul's great heart no end of good when I tell her
+about it, and it will make me comprehend just how life looks from your
+side. Remember, we're both poor girls together now, and I--insist."
+
+Amy had a will, as has been remarked. So, in a few seconds, the two
+lunches were exchanged, and for almost the first time in her life Mary
+Reese knew what it was to feed daintily and correctly.
+
+"It makes me feel as if I was straighter, somehow. And you're a dear,
+dear girl."
+
+"Thank you, of course it does. I wouldn't like to do anything that hurt
+my own self-respect, even in such a little thing as eating. But, you
+see, I had my darling mother. Now I've had to let her go; yet if you'll
+let me, I'll be so glad to teach you all she taught me. It will be
+keeping her memory green in just the very way she'd like."
+
+"Teaching isn't all. The difference is _born_ in us."
+
+"Nonsense. Think of Mr. Metcalf. They say he was a foundling baby, and
+yet he's a gentleman."
+
+"Even if he doesn't speak to you in work hours?" asked Mary, with a
+mischievous glance that would have surprised her mill mates had they
+seen it. Already the leaven of kindness was working in her neglected
+life, and for the moment she forgot to be upon the defensive against the
+indifference of others.
+
+"Even anything. But, hear me, Mary Reese. Here am I, as poor as poor can
+be, but determined to succeed in doing something grand. Guess what?"
+
+"I couldn't tell. The whistle will blow again in a minute."
+
+"I'm going to build a Home for Mill Girls, where they shall have all
+things that any gentlewoman should have. I haven't the least idea how
+nor when nor where. But I'm going to do it. You'll see. And you shall
+help. Maybe that's just why God let me come here and be a mill girl
+myself."
+
+After a pause the other spoke. "It seems queer to hear you say such
+things. Yet you're not what I call 'pious,' I--guess."
+
+"Don't be afraid. I'm not goody-goody, at all. But it's the most
+interesting thing mother taught me: the watching how everything
+'happens' in life, like a wonderful picture or even a curious, beautiful
+puzzle. Each part, each thing, fits so perfectly into its place, and
+it's such fun to watch and see them fit. Yes, I believe that's the key
+to my coming."
+
+For a moment these girlish dreamers clasped hands and saw visions. The
+next, a whistle sounded and, still hand in hand, they returned to their
+frame and to this toil which was part of a far-reaching "plan." On the
+way they passed "Jack doffer," wearing his most fetching smile, and a
+new necktie, recklessly disported during work hours for the sole purpose
+of dazzling the bright eyes of the pretty "new hand."
+
+Unfortunately for his vanity, the "new hand" never saw him, because of
+those still lingering visions of a Home with a capital H; and oddly
+enough, the youth respected her the more since she did not. Later on
+things would be altered; but neither of them knew that then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BALAAM.
+
+
+"Me Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"
+
+The lad in the depths of the cellar vouchsafed no reply. He heard
+distinctly, and Cleena knew that he did. This did not allay her rising
+wrath.
+
+"The spalpeen! That's what comes o' takin' in folks to do for. Ah,
+Fayetty," she called wheedlingly.
+
+Good Cleena had almost as many titles for her "adopted son" as her
+"childer" had for her. Each one suggested to the simple fellow some
+particular mood of the speaker. "Gineral" meant mild sarcasm, and when
+"Bonyparty" was added, there was indicated a need for prompt and
+unquestioning obedience. "Fayetty" was the forerunner of something
+agreeable, to which might or might not be appended something equally
+disagreeable.
+
+Said Hallam, once: "Freely translated, 'Fayetty' stands for ginger
+cookies, and sometimes the cookies must be earned."
+
+The call came the third time:--
+
+"Napoleon Bonyparty Lafayette Jimpson, come out o' that! Two twists of
+a lamb's tail an' I'll fasten ye down!"
+
+The reconstruction of Fayette gave Cleena plenty of employment, and in
+one thing he disappointed her, sorely and continually: he utterly and
+defiantly refused to work in the mill or elsewhere that would bring in
+wages. Since Amy had become a daily toiler, this attitude on his part
+angered the poor woman beyond endurance.
+
+Yet there was not any laziness about Fayette. Nobody could have been
+more industrious, or more illy have directed his industry. As long as it
+was possible to work in the ground he had labored upon the barren soil
+of Bareacre, and those who understood such matters assured the Kayes
+that they would really have a fine garden spot, when another spring came
+round.
+
+"Surely, he that makes the wilderness to blossom is well engaged,
+Cleena," Mr. Kaye had remonstrated once, in his quiet way.
+
+"Faith, yes, master, but till them roses bloom there might be better
+doin'," she had returned. In her heart she respected Mr. Kaye's judgment
+less even than the mill boy's, though she veiled this contempt by an
+outward deference.
+
+To-day was a crisis. For good or ill, Cleena had determined to have the
+question of wage-earning settled. Either the lad must go to work and
+bring in something to pay for his keep, or he must "clear himself out."
+
+"D'ye mean it?"
+
+"Yes, avick, I means it! Up with ye, or stay below--for as long as I
+please."
+
+Fayette threw down his pick and crawled forward through the trench he
+was digging. The idle suggestion of Hallam had taken firm hold of the
+natural's mind, and with a dogged persistence, that he showed also in
+other matters, he had now been daily laboring upon the cross-shaped
+excavation which was to ventilate the cellars of "Charity House." He had
+made a fine beginning, and so explained to Cleena, as his mud-stained
+face appeared above the cellar stairs.
+
+"A beginnin' o' nonsense. When all's done, what use? Sit down an' taste
+the last o' the cakes me neighbor sent up. Here, you William, keep out
+o' that! It's for Miss Amy, dear heart. Four weeks an' longer she's been
+up before light, trudgin' away as gay as a mavis, with never a word that
+she's bothered. Alanna, Mister Gladstone, what's now?"
+
+A surplus of small Joneses had swarmed over the lower floor of the house
+on the hill, and their presence was now accepted by Cleena with little
+opposition, because of the generosity of their parents.
+
+"True for ye, the babies be forever under me foot, but one never comes
+atop the rise but there's doubled in his little fist the stuff to make
+him welcome. It may be a cake, or a biscuit, or a bowl o' milk even.
+It's something for some one."
+
+"The 'some one' is generally the bearer of the loaf, or cake, eh,
+Cleena?" asked Hallam, who was lingering in the kitchen, gathering what
+warmth he could from the stove there. The coals provided in the autumn
+were long ago consumed, and out of the scanty supply she had been able
+to procure since then, Cleena wasted little below stairs. In the
+master's studio above a fire was always burning, and if, as he sometimes
+did, he asked whence the supply, the faithful servant put his inquiry
+aside with some evasive remark.
+
+He had now work at hand which engrossed him entirely, and to which heat
+and physical comfort were a necessity. He was painting a life-sized
+portrait of his wife, and not one of the household could do aught but
+wish him God-speed on so precious a labor.
+
+Meanwhile, Hallam lay so silent upon the settle beside the stove that
+neither of them, Cleena nor Fayette, noticed him.
+
+"Here you, William, Beatrice, Belinda, come by! Set yourselves down in
+the corner, yon. Here's a fine bag o' scraps for you two little maids.
+Pick 'em over that neat your mother'll be proud; and, William, take out
+these things from Miss Amy's box till you puts them back as straight as
+straight. Sure, it's long since herself's had the time, an' he's a smart
+little gossoon, so he is."
+
+The little girls emptied the bag of pieces on the floor, and sorting
+them into piles began to roll them into tidy bundles. Along with
+improving Fayette, Cleena had early set out upon the same lines with the
+small Joneses. Even William Gladstone, the mite, was already learning to
+distinguish between soiled hands and clean, and to enjoy the latter.
+
+So now, while she talked, Cleena set the child to take out and replace
+with exactness the few treasured letters and cards, or papers, which
+were Amy's own, and kept in her big japanned box.
+
+Once, idly, Cleena observed the child lingering over a square packet,
+like an old-time letter, sealed with red wax. It was this bit of color
+which the little one fancied, and she smiled to see his delight in it.
+
+"The blessed baby! Sure, he's the makings of a fine man in him, so he
+has. Take a look, Fayetty, if yerself would copy yon."
+
+"You'll let that youngster play with your things once too often. He's a
+_hider_, Lionel Percival says so."
+
+"Humph! An' what that silly heeram-skeeram says means naught. Now, hear
+me, me gineral. This ends it. You goes to work, or you goes to play.
+Which is it?"
+
+"I--I won't."
+
+"Which is it?" repeated Cleena, sternly.
+
+The natural fidgeted. In his heart he was afraid of his self-constituted
+"mother." He had no wish to return to the drudgery of the mill. He was
+wholly interested in his cellar-digging. He had heard tales of mining,
+and in some way he had obtained a miner's lantern. This he fastened to
+his "parade hat," and wore to lighten his underground labors.
+
+Vague visions of untold wealth floated in his dull brain. Somewhere in
+the world he knew that other men were digging in other trenches for
+gold. He had heard the "boys" say so often, and some of them had even
+gone to do likewise. He had seen gold sometimes in Mr. Metcalf's office
+safe. Not much of it, indeed, but enough to fire his fancy. All the time
+he toiled he was looking for something round and glistening, like the
+coins he had seen. He was not in the least discouraged because he had
+found none. There was time enough, for he had not much more than begun
+what he hoped to complete. Yet, as Cleena knew, he had made a
+considerable opening under the west room and had carried out many
+barrowfuls of earth. This he had utilized upon his garden, which was
+almost as interesting to him as his mining.
+
+"Which is it, avick?"
+
+"Must I?"
+
+"Troth, must ye? Indeed, look here." Leaning over the table she spread
+before her charge's eyes a dilapidated pocket-book. It had been the
+receptacle for the family funds, but it was now quite empty. Fayette
+stared hard. Then he whistled.
+
+"You don't say so! All gone? Every cent?"
+
+Cleena nodded. Her face was very grave. It frightened the lad. He
+glanced toward Hallam, apparently asleep on the settle, and whispered:--
+
+"Where's hers? What she earns?"
+
+"Humph! That little! Well, it's gone. The last week's wage to buy her
+shoes. Faith, the poor little feet! Steppin' along to her duty with
+never a turn aside, an' the holes clean through the soles. Oh, me
+fathers, that ever I should see the day!"
+
+Overcome by her memories of far different circumstances, Cleena bowed
+her gray head upon her arms above the empty purse and shook in
+suppressed grief. So faithful was she that she would not have counted
+even her life of value if by sacrificing it she could have restored unto
+her "folks" the departed joy and comfort of their house.
+
+Fayette reached over and lifted the purse. He was not satisfied until he
+had examined it for himself. Then he rose and took the lantern from his
+hat.
+
+"I'll fetch some," he said briefly, and turned toward the door.
+
+But Hallam had not been so fast asleep as he seemed, and he demanded
+whither Fayette was bound.
+
+"It's nothin' to worry about, Master Hal. Just a little matter o'
+business 'twixt me gineral here an' meself. Can't a body wear out her
+shoes without so much ado?" she asked, thrusting into view her great
+foot with its still unbroken, stout, calfskin brogan upon it.
+
+Hallam smiled. "You can't deceive me, dear old Scrubbub. It's not you
+that's wanting new shoes, and if Fayette is going millward, I am going
+too."
+
+"Master Hal, what for now? An' what'll the master be sayin' if he's
+wantin' you betimes? Isn't it bad enough to keep him content without
+Amy, let alone yerself? No, no; go up by. It's warmer in the paintin'
+room, an' sure a body's still as you can't bother nobody, even a
+artist."
+
+But the cripple limped across the room and took from a recess his cap
+and the short top-coat he wore when he rode Balaam. It was as warm as it
+was clumsy, and gave his slender figure a width that was quite becoming.
+Like Amy's, his headgear was always a Scotch Tam, and when it crowned
+his fair face Cleena thought him exceeding good to look upon.
+
+"Arrah musha, but you're the lad for me! An' after all, no matter if the
+winds be cold, a ride'll do ye fine, an' make the oatmeal taste sweet in
+your mouth."
+
+"It's time something did. Oatmeal three times a day is a trifle
+monotonous. Heigho! for one of your chicken pies, Goodsoul."
+
+He was sorry as soon as he said that. Not to be able to give her
+"childer" what they desired was always real distress to Cleena. So he
+laughed her regret away, with the question:--
+
+"If I bring home a pair of fowls, will you cook them?"
+
+"Will I no? Fetch me the birds, an' I'll show you. Go on, Fayetty, an'
+saddle the beast."
+
+But Fayette was not, at that moment, inclined to do this office for the
+other lad. He had resolved upon a kindly deed, one which involved
+self-sacrifice on his part, and like many other wiser people he was
+inclined to let the one generous act cover several meaner ones.
+
+It was his heart's desire to own Balaam. If he took some of the money
+which the superintendent was keeping for him and gave it to Cleena for
+the housekeeping, he lessened his chance of obtaining his object by just
+that much. If he gave Cleena the money, he wanted everybody to
+understand that he fully realized, himself, how magnanimous he was.
+
+However, in many respects Hallam was his hero, and between the two there
+had been, of late, a little secret which Fayette was proud to share.
+Each day he would ask, with extreme caution:--
+
+"You hain't told nobody yet, have ye?"
+
+Commonly the cripple would answer: "No; nor shall I. There's no use."
+
+"Sho! Yes, there is. Read it an' see. If it's in the paper, it's so.
+Huckleberries! You ain't no more pluck than a skeeter."
+
+Then Hallam would reread the scrap of newspaper he carried in his
+pocket; and each time, after such a reading, a brighter light shone in
+the eyes of both boys, and the foundling would observe:--
+
+"It's worth tryin'. I say, it's worth tryin'. _I_ ain't tired yet. Keep
+her up."
+
+Hallam knew the half-column of print by heart. It had been brought him
+by Amy, on the day she went to Mr. Metcalf's office. She had asked the
+loan of the newspaper, and had received it as a gift. She had hurried
+home, full of enthusiasm, and showed it to Hallam. He had not been
+enthusiastic, and had apparently tossed the article aside as worthless
+to him. Amy was too busy to give the matter further thought, and did not
+know that after she had left the room her brother had read the paragraph
+a second time, and had then carefully preserved it.
+
+Even now, as they started for the mill, Fayette requested to "hear it
+again," but Hallam declined.
+
+"It's too cold. And if I don't hurry and do what I set out to, I'm
+afraid I'll back out."
+
+"Is it somethin' ye hate to do?"
+
+"Yes; it--Don't let's talk about it."
+
+"Just the way I feel. I'd ruther live on one meal a day 'n do it. Once I
+give it to her, I shan't never see no more of it. Oh, I know _her_!
+She's a regular boss, she is."
+
+"Cleena? But she's a dear old creature, even so."
+
+"Oh, I like her. I like her first rate. She's a good cook an' middlin'
+good-lookin'. I hain't got nothin' again her. They say, to the village,
+how 't John Young talks o' sparkin' her."
+
+"What? Teamster John? Our Cleena? Well, he'd better not!"
+
+In his indignation Hallam nearly slipped from his saddle. He did let one
+of his crutches fall, and Fayette picked up that, took the other, and
+cheerfully "packed" them to the end of their journey.
+
+"Why not? His wife's dead."
+
+"Yes. But--our Cleena! Cleena Keegan! Well, there's no danger of her
+encouraging him. Between her own 'folks,' yourself, and the Joneses, I
+think she has all she can attend to without taking in a man to worry
+with."
+
+The subject was idlest village gossip, but it served to divert Hallam's
+thoughts from his impending errand, and he arrived at the office of the
+mill in good spirits. Then he remembered a saying he had heard in the
+community:--
+
+"All roads lead to the mill," and quoted it for Fayette's benefit.
+
+"That's so. But, say, I hate that old Wingate that's got it now. He
+licked me when I worked for him. Licked me more 'n once, just because I
+fooled a little with his horses. I was bound out to him from the
+poor-farm, an' I run away. He treated me bad. I'm goin' to get even with
+him some day. You watch an' see."
+
+"Well, here we are. Is this the office? Will you go in with me and help
+me find the superintendent? I've never been here, you know."
+
+"Huckleberries! Ain't that queer? And Amy comes every day."
+
+Fayette meant no reproach. His thoughts were never profound, but Hallam
+flushed and felt ashamed.
+
+"That's true. The more disgrace to me. Well, cripple or not, that's the
+last time anybody shall ever say, truthfully, that my little sister has
+set me an example of courage and effort. Hurry up. Open the door."
+
+A moment later both lads stood within the little room wherein so many
+big money transactions took place; and it is doubtful if any speculator
+coming there had felt greater anxiety over the outcome of his visit than
+these two whose "operations" were to be of such a modest limit.
+
+"Boss, I've come after my money. I want the whole lot."
+
+"Good day, 'Bony'; good day, Hallam Kaye, I believe."
+
+Hallam bowed, and before his courage could wane, replied:--
+
+"Yes; I'm sorry to interrupt you in business hours, but--will you buy
+Balaam, Pepita's brother?"
+
+Before the gentleman could answer, Fayette had clutched Hallam's
+shoulder.
+
+"What's that? Did you come here to sell that donkey?"
+
+"I came to try to sell it, certainly."
+
+"Then I'm sorry I ever touched to help you. I want him myself. I come
+to get my money a purpose. My money is as good as his. He shan't have
+it. I'll have it myself."
+
+Mr. Metcalf interrupted:--
+
+"But, 'Bony,' you can't afford to keep such an animal. It would take all
+your capital to pay for him. Wait. Sometime, if you're industrious,
+you'll be rich enough to have a horse and carriage. Indeed, I mean it;
+and, yes, Hallam, I will very gladly buy your burro. I've wanted him
+ever since Amy let us have Pepita. I--"
+
+"You shan't have him, then. You never shall. I want him, an' I'll keep
+him. You see!"
+
+The door opened and shut with a bang. Whether purposely or not, it was
+impossible to say, but in his outward rush the half-wit brushed so
+rudely past Hallam that he knocked his crutch from his grasp, so that he
+would have fallen, had not the superintendent caught and steadied the
+lad to a seat.
+
+"That's 'Bony' all over. As irresponsible as a child and ungovernable in
+his rage. Yet, never fear; he'll be back again, sometime."
+
+"But--he has taken Balaam. What can I do now?"
+
+Mr. Metcalf walked to the window and looked out. There was a dash of
+something black disappearing at the turn of the road.
+
+"Humph! That's bad. He's taken the road to the mountains. When his
+'wood fit' comes over him, summer or winter, he vanishes. Sometimes he
+is gone for months."
+
+"And he's taken Balaam with him," repeated the other.
+
+"Yes; he certainly has;" but when the superintendent looked toward
+Hallam he was startled by the hopeless expression of the lad's fine
+face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE FASCINATION OF INDUSTRY.
+
+
+"Sit down, lad, and rest. It will not be long before noon, and then I
+will send for your sister to come here."
+
+"Thank you. Do you think he will stay long, this time?"
+
+"'Bony'? It's just as the fit takes him. There's no accounting for his
+whims, poor unbalanced fellow. In some respects he is clever and
+remarkably clean-handed. In fixing parts of the machinery, I would
+rather have his help than that of most professionals, he is so careful
+about the minutest details. Yet, of course, it would be out of the
+question to rely upon him. There's another thing. He's a most excellent
+nurse. For days at a time, when there's been sickness in the mill
+village, he has devoted himself faithfully to whoever seemed to take his
+fancy. His big, ungainly hand has a truly wonderful power of soothing.
+When I had rheumatic fever, he was the only person I could endure to
+have in the room with me. His step was lighter even than that of my
+wife, and I really believe I should have died but for his care."
+
+The superintendent was talking, simply to entertain and divert his
+visitor from the lad's own present annoyance, but he little knew how
+full of import his casual remarks were to his hearer.
+
+"Do you mean that he is magnetic? that there is something in the claim
+he makes of being a 'healer'?"
+
+"Quite as much as in the claim of any such person. There are, of course,
+some human beings so constituted that they can influence for good the
+physical conditions of other people. I am very sorry that his present
+whim has seized him. I would like the burro, and you would like the
+price of him. Well, all in good time. Meanwhile, if I can help you,
+please tell me."
+
+"There was only one way in which you could, so far as I know. That was
+by buying my pet. I--I don't suppose," Hallam continued, with hesitancy,
+"that there is anything such a--a useless fellow as I could do to earn
+money here?"
+
+"I am not so sure about that. What sort of work would you like?"
+
+"Any sort."
+
+Mr. Metcalf went into another room and presently returned with some
+oblong pieces of cardboard. These had a checked surface, and upon these
+checks were painted or stained partial patterns, designs for the carpets
+woven in the mills.
+
+"Your father is an artist. Have you learned anything about his work, or
+of coloring?"
+
+"Something, of course, though very little. I would not be an artist."
+
+"Indeed? But there are artisans whose work is simple, mechanical, and
+reasonably lucrative. Our designers, for instance, make an excellent
+living. Do you see these numbers at the sides of the patterns?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"They are for the guidance of the weavers. The threads of the carpets
+are numbered, and these numbers correspond. Therefore, the weaver can
+make his carpet from his pattern with mathematical exactness. We require
+many such copies of the original design. If you would like to try this
+sort of work, I will give you a temporary job. The boy who usually does
+it is ailing, and I have allowed him a vacation. The wages are small, no
+more than Amy earns, but the work isn't difficult, and is the only thing
+I have now, suitable for you."
+
+Incidentally the gentleman's eyes turned toward Hallam's crutches
+leaning against the arm of the chair where he sat; but instead of
+feeling humiliated by the glance, as the sensitive cripple often did,
+this casual one fired his heart with a new ambition. He recalled the
+words of the surgeon, and was no longer angry with them.
+
+"I will be a man in spite of it all," flashed through his brain. Aloud
+he said:--
+
+"I will be very glad to try the work."
+
+"Very well. When can you begin?"
+
+"Now."
+
+Mr. Metcalf smiled.
+
+"All right. A lad so prompt is the lad for me. But I had imagined
+another sort of fellow,--not so energetic, indeed."
+
+"I've not been worth much. I've been lazy and selfish; but I mean to
+turn over a new leaf. I'll try to be useful, and if I fail--I fail."
+
+"But you'll not fail. God never sent anybody into this world for whom He
+did not provide a place, a duty. You will succeed. You may even get to
+'the top,' that roomy plane where there are so few competitors. I want
+you to count me your friend. I, too, am a self-made man. There are few
+obstacles one cannot conquer, given good health and determination."
+
+Then once more the employer's gaze rested upon the crutches, and his
+heart misgave him that he had roused ambitions which could not be
+realized. The poor cripple was handicapped from the start by his
+infirmity.
+
+Hallam again saw the expression of the other's face, and again it nerved
+him to a firmer will.
+
+"Even that shall not hinder, sir; and now if you will explain to me the
+work, I'll make a try at it right away."
+
+Mr. Metcalf placed the designs upon a sloping table, at one side the
+office, and Hallam took the chair before it, as requested. Then the
+superintendent went over the system of numbering the designs, and
+illustrated briefly.
+
+"Now you try. I'll watch. Go on as if I were not here. If I do not
+speak, consider that you are working correctly."
+
+Hallam's intelligence was of a fine order, and he had always been a keen
+observer. Before Mr. Metcalf had finished his explanations the lad had
+grasped the whole idea of the work, and he took up the pen the gentleman
+laid down with the confidence of one who understood exactly what he had
+to do.
+
+"'Knowledge is power,' there is no truer saying," remarked the teacher,
+watching the tyro's eager efforts. "It's as easy as A B C to you,
+apparently."
+
+"It seems very simple. I think I would enjoy it better, though, if I
+could see the application."
+
+"How the patterns are used?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Come this way."
+
+Which was not by the shorter one of the stairway on the cliff, up which
+Fayette had once forced the reluctant Pepita, but around by the sloping
+wagon track and into the lower rooms of the great building. Already the
+lad knew most of these by the descriptions his sister had given him, but
+no description could equal the facts. As she had done, so he experienced
+that thrill of excitement, as he realized the mighty, throbbing life all
+around him, of which the wonderful machinery and the human hands and
+brains which controlled it seemed but parts of one vast whole. His eyes
+kindled, his cheeks flushed, and, as Amy had done, he forgot in his
+eagerness over the new scene that others might be observing him and his
+deformity.
+
+At the weavers' looms he was "all eyes and ears," as one remarked.
+Seeing the woollen threads stretched up and down, perfectly colored and
+looking like a greatly elongated pattern, gave him a complete insight of
+the task for which he had been engaged.
+
+"I thought I understood it before. I think I could not make a mistake
+now. A mistake would mean disaster wouldn't it?"
+
+"It would," answered the superintendent, delighted to find his new
+helper such a promising aid. "See, here is the pattern. Watch the weaver
+awhile, then come with me to the 'setting room.' There is where Amy will
+be if she keeps on as industriously as she has begun. I tell you brains
+count. You are both gifted with them, and it should make you
+grateful--helpful, too. I think the least of all a man's possessions
+that he has a right to keep to himself is his brain."
+
+Hallam looked up in surprise. Amy's acquaintance with the superintendent
+had begun most auspiciously, and he had desired to be considered her
+"friend," even as now her brother's. Yet since her coming to work in the
+mill, Mr. Metcalf had not exchanged a dozen sentences with her. She saw
+him daily, almost hourly. He was everywhere present about the great
+buildings. In no department was anybody sure of the time of his
+appearance, yet not one was overlooked. This kept the operators keyed
+to an expectancy which brought out from them their best, for the
+approbation of this observant 'boss' meant much to each. Yet he rarely
+spoke in a harsh tone to any, nor had any ever heard him utter an oath.
+This, in itself, gave him a distinction from all other mill
+superintendents under which most of these operatives had served, and
+added, it may be, a greater awe to their respect of him.
+
+"I've been color mixer in a carpet mill these forty years, and Metcalf's
+the only 'Supe' I ever knew could run one without swearing," often
+remarked the master of the dyeing room. "He does; and a fellow may count
+himself lucky to work under such a man."
+
+The color mixer, being a most important personage in the institution,
+had influence among his _confrères_, with good reason. His trade was an
+art and a secret. Like all trade secrets it commanded its own price. He
+was said to enjoy a salary "among the thousands," and to have rejected
+even richer offers for the sake of the peaceful discipline at Ardsley.
+
+Then the two visited the "setting room," where the mill girls reached
+the highest promotion possible in their business. The "setting" is the
+arrangement upon frames of the threads of the carpet, perfectly
+adjusted. A girl sits upon each side the frame, which holds from two
+hundred threads to slightly an advance upon that number. It is clean and
+dainty work, and the operator is fortunate who can secure the position.
+It is the same "thread" which, drawn over wires, in the weaver's hands,
+makes the looplike surface of Brussels carpeting, which was the only
+sort manufactured at Ardsley.
+
+"You find it fascinating, don't you? So did Amy. Well, if you work here,
+in any department, you will have opportunity to study the whole science,
+from beginning to end. But I'm to meet Mr. Wingate in ten minutes in his
+private office. Let us go back."
+
+Amy, away up on the fourth floor where she worked, knew nothing of this
+visit, and was a little dismayed when she received a summons to go down
+"to the 'Supe's' room for her nooning."
+
+She was now alone with Mary at her "jenny," and had already become so
+expert that those who understood such matters prophesied she would soon
+be promoted to the "twisting and doubling." That very morning the "boss"
+of their room had said to her:--
+
+"We never had a girl come here who got on so fast. It mostly takes
+months to learn a half-machine. After another three she can mind both
+sides. That means about four dollars and a half a week. Well, you've
+been quick and faithful, and nobody could envy your good luck."
+
+As she picked up her lunch basket and descended toward the office, more
+than one called after her a good wish.
+
+"Don't you be scared of the 'Supe.' If he scolds and you aren't to
+blame, just tell him so, and he'll like you the better."
+
+"Maybe he's going to promote you a'ready, though I don't see how he
+could. I won't be jealous if he does, though," cried another; and
+Gwendolyn, the inquisitive, resolved to keep up Amy's spirits by
+accompanying her to the interview.
+
+"But, Gwen, did he send for you?"
+
+"No; course not. If he did, I shouldn't feel so chipper. There ain't no
+love lost 'twixt the 'Supe' and me."
+
+"Then maybe--"
+
+"Trash! I'm going. Ain't I the one that fetched you here in the first
+place? Hadn't I ought to stand by you, thick or thin?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," answered Amy, more frightened by Gwendolyn's
+suggestive manner than by any consciousness of blunders made. Nor did
+she remind her neighbor that for a time, at first, while Amy's
+popularity had not been determined, the other had shrewdly held aloof,
+waiting the turn of the tide. Fortunately, this had been in the "new
+hand's" direction, and since then Gwendolyn's attentions had been almost
+overpowering.
+
+But, indeed, Amy did not even think this. "Simplicity, sincerity,
+sympathy"--she was faithfully striving to make this the rule of her own
+life, and therefore she could not imagine anything lower in the lives of
+others. But she still kept her frank tongue, and she gave it rein, as
+the pair hurried officeward.
+
+"Dear Gwen, if you only wouldn't chew that gum! It makes you look so
+queer, and spoils all the pretty outline of your cheek. Besides, I'm
+sure Mr. Metcalf doesn't like it. He always frowns when a gum-chewer has
+to speak with him about her work."
+
+"Pshaw, what a fuss you are! There, then, though that's the first bit
+off a new stick, I've thrown it out the window. _Is_ my cheek pretty?
+How do you manage to see things without looking? I never see you take
+your eyes off your frame, yet not a thing goes on in that room you don't
+seem to hear or know."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know, unless it's because having lived all alone,
+without other girls, I love to hear the voices and see the bright faces.
+Oh, I do love _folks_! And it seems to me that every single girl in that
+mill is far more interesting than the best story book I ever read."
+
+"Well, if you don't beat! But, say, Amy!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I don't believe there's another girl there would tell me I was pretty
+without saying something else would spoil it."
+
+"Oh, indeed, there must be. If it's the truth, why shouldn't one say it?
+But if it's the truth, again, you have no right to deface the beauty. Do
+give up the gum."
+
+"Why haven't I a right?"
+
+"I don't know why. I simply know you haven't, any more than I have to be
+untidy or disagreeable. I never realized until I came to be always among
+so many people how each one could pain or please her neighbor. And it
+seems to me each of us should be the sweetest, the best natured, the
+truest, it is possible. Heigho! I'm turning a preacher, and it's a good
+thing that there's the office, and I must stop. Brace your courage, Amy,
+and knock at the door."
+
+She did so and was promptly admitted; but did not see the
+superintendent, who thus served her, for he purposely stepped behind the
+door, so that her first glance fell upon Hallam seated at the sloping
+table and busily at work. She caught her breath, regained it, and rushed
+forward with a little shriek.
+
+"Hallam! Hallam Kaye! You here! you--working?"
+
+"Yes; I'm here. My first day at wage-earning. Didn't provide any lunch.
+Can you spare some for me? Ah, Gwendolyn, good day."
+
+Then another person appeared in the doorway--one whom nobody present
+cared to see just then, though the superintendent stepped from his
+hiding-place, the mirth dying out of his genial face as he bowed
+respectfully to his superior, Mr. Archibald Wingate, the owner of
+Ardsley Mill and of most of the surrounding property.
+
+"Good day, Metcalf. Eh? What? Amy? Hallam? You here?"
+
+"Yes, cousin Archibald. We are both here and working for you," answered
+Amy, quietly. Then she surprised even herself by extending her hand in
+greeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+MOTIVES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS.
+
+
+For an instant it seemed as if the old man would respond to the
+proffered civility; but his hand dropped again to his side, and Amy had
+the mortification of one who is repulsed. However, she had little time
+for thought. The master of the mill passed onward into his "den" and
+closed its door with a snap. On the ground glass which admitted light
+through the upper half the door, yet effectually screened from
+observation any who were within, was printed in large letters:--
+
+"Private. No Admittance."
+
+Then the girl turned an inquiring face toward the superintendent, who
+took her hand and shook it warmly.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Amy. You have done well,--famously,
+even. There's not been a girl in the mill, since I've had charge, who
+has learned so swiftly and thoroughly. What's the secret of it? Can you
+guess?"
+
+She had not been summoned for a reprimand, then. In her relief at this,
+the young operative scarcely heard the question put to her, and the
+gentleman replied to it himself.
+
+"I can tell you. It's your untiring perseverance, your persistent effort
+to do your best, without regard to anything or anybody about you. If all
+our girls would take example by you, promotions would be more frequent."
+
+Gwendolyn resented the glance with which the superintendent now favored
+her, and Amy would have preferred not to be so openly praised. She drew
+a chair to the table where Hallam sat, and hastily spread her luncheon
+upon it.
+
+"Come, Gwendolyn, bring yours. While we're eating, Hal shall tell us
+what this all means."
+
+He did so, rapidly, and between mouthfuls, for the half-hour's nooning
+had already been cut short by the unexpected meetings; and when the
+whistle sounded and the girls hurried back to their room, Amy carried a
+very thoughtful face.
+
+"Why, what a funny girl you are! You look as if you'd been scolded,
+after all, 'stead of praised and promised promotion. What's wrong?"
+
+"Fayette. To think he could run away with Balaam, after all we--or
+Cleena has done for him. Of course, he's done things for us, too; but I
+thought if we were kind to him, and made him feel that he was dear to
+somebody, he would improve and grow a splendid man."
+
+"'Can't make a purse out of a pig's ear,'" quoted Gwendolyn, seriously.
+"But don't you fret. He'll be back again, as humble as a lamb. You
+couldn't dog him away from 'Charity House,' I believe. He's been just
+wild over you all ever since he first saw you and your white burro. Say,
+Amy, I'm going to try and not chew any more. Your brother don't like it,
+does he, either?"
+
+"No; he detests it. He doesn't like anything that is unwomanly or
+coarse."
+
+Then they separated, but in the heart of each was a fresh determination:
+in Gwendolyn's that she would make herself into a "real lady," according
+to the standard of this brother and sister whom she admired, or saw
+admired of others; and in Amy's, to better deserve the encouragement of
+her employers, and to support Hallam to the utmost in his new ambition.
+
+But as she resumed her work she reflected, with much perplexity: "I
+don't understand yet why Mr. Metcalf is so delightful out of mill and so
+different here; nor why cousin Archibald still persists in being
+unfriendly, since he has gotten everything he wants."
+
+But she was still too ignorant of life to know that it is commonly the
+inflicter of an injury who shows ill feeling, and not the recipient of
+it.
+
+The afternoon passed swiftly, as all her days did now, and at the signal
+for leaving labor, both the girls hurried to don their outer things and
+join Hallam. But Amy had still a word for Mary.
+
+"To-morrow is half-holiday, you know, dear, and I've talked with
+Cleena. She wishes you to come and spend the night at 'Charity House,'
+and we'll fix things about that club all right."
+
+"What's that about a club?" asked another girl, noticing how the
+hunchback's face brightened. "Are you two going to join ours?"
+
+"Maybe; maybe not. Maybe we'll compromise and have but one. Though we
+can do little until after Christmas, it's so near now."
+
+"Oh, don't get up another. We have just lovely times in ours. All the
+boys come and--but I'll not tell. I'll leave you to see. They wanted I
+should ask you, and your brother, too. He's real nice looking, 'Jack
+doffer' says, even if he is lame."
+
+Amy's cheek burned, and her quick temper got her into trouble.
+
+"My brother Hallam is a very, very handsome boy. Even with his lameness
+he's a thousand times better looking than any boy in this mill, and
+what's more, he's a _gentleman_!"
+
+Then this champion of the aristocracy, which she thought she disdained
+but now discovered she was proud to call her own class, walked off with
+her nose in the air and her dark eyes glittering with an angry light.
+
+"There, now you've done it!" cried Gwendolyn, in amazement. "But ma said
+it wouldn't last. She says that's the way with all the heroines in her
+novels that lose their money and pretend to be just plain folks
+afterward. They never are. They're always 'ristocratics an' they can't
+help it."
+
+"Oh, well, they shouldn't try," remarked this young "heroine," fiercely.
+"I don't care at all what they say about me, but they'd best let my Hal
+alone."
+
+"Hoity-toity, I don't see as he's any better than anybody else."
+
+Amy stopped short on the path from the mill to the ladder upon the
+bluff. Suddenly she reflected how her mother would have regarded her
+present mood. "He that ruleth his own spirit."
+
+The words seemed whispered in her ear. A moment later she turned and
+spoke again, but her voice was now gentle and appealing.
+
+"Yes, he is better, though I'm not. He is better because he is just what
+he seems. There is no pretence about him. He doesn't think that
+plastering his hair with stuff, and wearing ugly, showy clothes, and a
+hat on the back of his head, or swaggering, or smoking nasty cigarettes,
+or being insolent to women, are marks of a gentleman. He's the real
+thing. That's what Hal is, and that's why I'm so proud of him, so--so
+touchy about him."
+
+"Amy, what does make a gentleman, anyway, if it isn't dressing in style
+and knowing things?"
+
+"It's the simplest thing in the world; it's just being kind out of
+one's heart instead of one's head. It's being just as pure-minded and
+honest as one can be, and--believing that everybody else is as good or a
+little better than one's self. So it seems to me."
+
+"We _are_ different, then. I never should know how to say such things. I
+don't know how to think them. It isn't any use. You are you, and I am
+me, and that ends it."
+
+Amy did not even smile at the crooked grammar. This was the old cry of
+Mary, too, and it hurt her.
+
+"Oh, Gwen, I am so sorry. It _is_ of use. There _isn't_ any difference,
+really. We are both girls who have to earn our living. Our training has
+been different, that is all. I want to know all you know; I want you to
+know all I do. I want to be friends; oh, I want to be friends with every
+girl in the world!"
+
+"Pshaw! do you? Well, I don't. I don't want but a few, and I want them
+to be stylish and nice. You'd have a lot of style if you could dress
+different."
+
+Poor Amy. This was like a dash of cold water over her enthusiasm. Just
+when she fancied that Gwendolyn was aspiring to all that was noble and
+uplifting, down she had dropped again into that idea of "style" and
+fashion and good times. But she remembered Mary. In the soul of that
+afflicted little mill girl was, indeed, a true ambition, and she felt
+glad again, from thoughts of her.
+
+"Hallam, how can you climb all the way to 'Charity House'? You will
+drop by the way. It's hard, even for me."
+
+"I can do it. I must. There is nothing else to be done."
+
+So they set out together, through the darkness. The days were at the
+shortest, and Christmas would come the following week. Hallam and Amy
+looked forward with dread to the festival, remembering their mother had
+striven, even under disadvantages, to keep the holiday a bright one for
+her children. There had never been either many or costly gifts at
+Fairacres, but there had been something for each and all; and the
+home-made trifles were all the dearer because Salome's gentle fingers
+had fashioned them.
+
+Now Gwendolyn was full of anticipation, and from her talk about it her
+neighbors judged she meant to expend a really large sum of money in
+presents for her friends.
+
+"But, Gwendolyn, how can you buy all these things? You told me you
+earned about five dollars a week, and you've bought so many clothes;
+and--I guess I'm not good at figures. My poor little two dollars and a
+half, that I get now, wouldn't buy a quarter of all you say."
+
+"Oh, that's all right. Mis' Hackett, she charges it. I always run an
+account with her."
+
+"You? a girl like you? What is your mother thinking about? I thought to
+buy a wheel that way was queer; but how dare you?"
+
+"Why, I'm working all the time, ain't I? Anybody that has regular work
+can get anything they want at Mis' Hackett's, or other places, too. Ma
+and pa do the same way."
+
+"But--that's _debt_. It must be horrible. It seems like going out of one
+debt into another as fast as you can. Oh, Gwen, don't do it."
+
+"Pshaw! that isn't anything. Why, look here, that's the very way your
+own folks did. If they hadn't been in debt, they wouldn't have had to
+move from Fairacres, and all that. Would they?"
+
+Both Hallam and Amy were silent. The keen common sense of the mill girl
+had struck home, and again Amy realized that her vocation was not that
+of "preaching." Finally, the cripple spoke:--
+
+"It's like it, yet it isn't. We had something left to pay our debts. It
+wasn't money, but it was money's worth. We paid them. We are left poor
+indeed, but we haven't mortgaged our future. That's all. But we are too
+young to talk so wisely. If your parents approve, they probably know
+best. Hark! there is a wagon coming."
+
+They all paused, and drew aside out of the road to let the vehicle pass.
+It was so dark that they could distinguish nothing clearly, and the
+lantern fastened to the dashboard of the buggy seemed but to throw into
+greater shadow the face of the occupant. To their surprise, the
+traveller drew rein and saluted them:--
+
+"Hello. Just getting home, eh?"
+
+All recognized the voice. It belonged to Mr. Wingate.
+
+"Yes, just getting home," answered Amy, cheerily.
+
+"Growing pretty dark, isn't it? Hmm, yes. Heard you lost your donkey,
+Hallam."
+
+"For the time, I have, sir," responded the lad, rather stiffly. He hated
+this man "on sight," or out of it, and it was difficult for him to
+conquer his aversion. All the kindness he had felt toward him, on the
+night of Mr. Wingate's first unwelcome visit to Fairacres, had been
+forgotten since; because in his heart he believed that his mother's
+death was due to her removal from her home. Yet he wished to be just,
+and he would try to feel differently by and by. Meanwhile, his unused
+strength was fast waning. He had met with a great disappointment that
+day, for he was going home empty-handed. He had lost his beloved Balaam,
+and he had nothing to show for it. In all his life he had never walked
+so far as from the mill to the Bareacre knoll, and even his crutches
+seemed to wobble and twist with fatigue. Amy had noticed this, and made
+him pause to rest more than once; but the night was cold, and he felt it
+most unwise to risk taking cold by standing in the wind. Poverty was
+teaching Hallam prudence, among many other excellent things.
+
+"None of us can afford to be sick now," he reflected.
+
+"Hmm. That half-witted fellow ought not to be allowed to go free. He's
+done me a lot of mischief, and I guess he injures everybody who
+befriends him. The last thing he ought to be trusted with is
+horse-flesh, or mule-flesh either. Well, I'm going your way, and it's a
+tough pull on a pair of crutches. If you'll get in, I'll give you a lift
+as far as the bars."
+
+Everybody was astonished, and everybody waited for Hallam's reply in
+some anxiety. Amy knew his mind, and she knew, also, that he was very
+weary. She hoped that he would say:--
+
+"Thank you; I'll be glad to accept," but his answer was a curt: "Thank
+you; I would rather walk."
+
+"Very well. Suit yourself."
+
+The horse was touched sharply, and bounded up the hill road at an
+unusual pace.
+
+"Oh, Hal, why didn't you ride? You are so tired."
+
+"Well--because."
+
+"You'd better. Old man don't like to have his favors lost," remarked
+Gwendolyn. "I've heard lots say that, even though he hasn't been at
+Ardsley so very long."
+
+Now, in the lad's heart, besides his unwillingness to "accept favors
+from an enemy," there had been another motive. Until that evening he had
+not realized how lonely and dark was the homeward walk for his sister,
+after her long day of toil, and even with the company of Gwendolyn. In
+this his first experience it had come upon him with a shock, that it was
+neither pleasant nor safe for Amy, and he resolved she should never
+again be left without his escort, if he were possibly able to be with
+her.
+
+But he could not, or felt that he could not, tell this to the girls;
+much less to Mr. Wingate, finding it easier to be misjudged than to
+explain. Yet had the mill owner known the fact, it would have gone far
+toward propitiating him, and toward rousing his admiration for his young
+kinsman.
+
+So with the best intentions all around, the breach between Fairacres and
+"Charity House" was duly widened.
+
+The trio of mill workers trudged wearily upward, and the mill master
+hurried recklessly through the gloom toward a home he had coveted, but
+found a lonely, "ghost-haunted" solitude. For though there are no real
+spectres to frighten the eye, there are memories which are sadder to
+face than any "haunt" would be.
+
+"Stir up the fire, man. Don't you know it's a bitter night outside?" he
+cried, as he entered it.
+
+The master's tone boded ill for the servant if obedience were not
+prompt. So though a great blaze roared upon the wide hearth in the old
+room where we first met this gentleman he was not content, nor was the
+good dinner which followed appreciated. Nothing was right that night for
+Archibald Wingate.
+
+Nothing? Yes, one thing gave him great satisfaction, so that, late in
+the evening, sitting before the blaze he had complained of, he rubbed
+his hands with a quiet glee.
+
+"If you please, sir, there's a black donkey wandered into the place
+to-night. It went straight to the stable and to one of the box stalls on
+the west. It seemed to know the way. The stable boy says it's one of
+them belonged to the--the folks was here before we came. I thought you'd
+like to know, sir; and, if you please, is it to remain?"
+
+"Yes, Marshall, it is to remain."
+
+And again the old gentleman smiled into the dancing flames and rubbed
+his smooth palms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+IN THE OLD HOME.
+
+
+After one o'clock on the afternoon before Christmas was a mill holiday;
+and while the great looms were silent, those who usually toiled at them
+took their way into Wallburg city to do their Christmas shopping. Though
+a few, indeed, were able to satisfy their needs at the local stores, and
+among these, for once, was Gwendolyn. She had come up the knoll after
+dinner hour, to invite Amy's presence at the gift buying, and concluded
+her invitation by saying:--
+
+"Even if you won't get anything yourself, you might come and look at the
+pretty things. It's surprising how many you find you can pick out in a
+few minutes. They've the loveliest dolls there 't I'm going to get for
+Beatrice and Belinda. Victoria's so big she's outgrown doll--"
+
+Cleena could hold her tongue no longer.
+
+"Toys, is it, alanna! Better be shoes for their feet; an' as for Queen
+Victory an' her dolls, more's the shame to you as sets her the example
+o' growin' up before her time. Vases for the mother, is it? An' she
+after patchin' the sheets off her bed. Pardon unasked advice, which
+same is unsavory, belike, an' get the makin' of a new pair. That's
+sense, so it is."
+
+It was sense. As such it commended itself to Gwendolyn, during her walk
+to the village, and bore results for the comfort of her family; for
+though she did run in debt to make her Christmas gifts, at least she now
+altered her usual habit completely, and for each member of the household
+provided some article of use. Even Mrs. Hackett paused in her busy
+attendance upon the crowd of customers to remark:--
+
+"Well, now, Gwen, that's a good plan. I guess your folks will be proud
+of what you're giving them this year. Yes, I'm more 'n willing to trust
+you for 'em. A girl that'll spend her money as you are, isn't going to
+cheat me in the long run. Yes, the wagon'll be going out late to-night
+and will fetch 'em all for you. Flannel and sheeting and such are a
+mighty sight heavier to carry than notions. But say, I'll put in a
+little candy for the youngsters, seeing they're disappointed of their
+dolls."
+
+Meanwhile, up at "Charity House," Amy had drawn Cleena into a corner to
+discuss their own plans, and especially to ask concerning a proposed
+trip to the city, by her father, and immediately after the holidays.
+
+"You know, Goodsoul, that he hasn't been there alone in a long time. Is
+it safe for him to go now? If he should have one of his attacks, what
+would happen? Should Hallam go with him? and--worst of all--how can we
+spare the money?"
+
+"Faith, Miss Amy, I'd leave the master be. It's the fine sense he's
+gettin' the now. It would hearten the mistress could she see how he does
+be pickin' up. Always that gentle I d' know, as if the sorrow had been a
+broom sweepin' his soul all free of the moilder an' muss was in it long
+by. Only yesternight, whilst I was just washin' off me table afore
+layin' me cloth, into the kitchen he steps an' sits himself down by the
+door, lookin' out toward Fairacres. It was as soft as summer, like it is
+this eve, but faith! a 'green Christmas makes a fat graveyard.'"
+
+The very word made them both silent for a moment, and then Amy
+resumed:--
+
+"Father has packed up a half a dozen or more of his small canvases,
+studies of heads most of them are, I believe, and all are unframed. What
+do you suppose he means to do with them?"
+
+"Sell them. What for no?"
+
+"But mother never liked to have him. These are all pictures he did long
+ago."
+
+"The quicker they'll go off the hand then."
+
+"Do you approve?"
+
+"With all me heart."
+
+Amy dropped her face on her palms and considered the matter. Even with
+her habit of dealing with facts rather than fancies, she still found
+life a most perplexing and complex affair. The only help she gained
+toward understanding it was that clew taught her by her mother of
+matching the days and the events as one matches a fascinating puzzle.
+Out of this thought she spoke at last, though quite to the bewilderment
+of honest Cleena.
+
+"It seems as if our losing all that belonged to us were making us
+sturdier folks, improving us all. Mother needed no improvement, so she
+hadn't to face the battle long. Well, one thing I know, she would be
+glad for us all, and some way I feel her very near to-day. Only, if I
+could just talk with her and ask her things."
+
+"Sure ye can, me colleen. I mind it's no far to the land where she's
+gone. But about the money. See here; how got I this?"
+
+And Cleena whipped out a handkerchief from her jacket pocket and
+unfolded it with utmost care. In this were a number of silver pieces,
+from half-dollars to dimes, and added together made the "smart decent
+sum" of five dollars and fifteen cents.
+
+"Why, Cleena! Where? I thought all ours was spent as soon as earned."
+
+"Where? An' I to be mendin' a few clothes for me neighbors. Even that
+man John fetches me a blouse now an' again, to put in a fresh pair o'
+sleeves or set on a button that's missin'. Sure, ye didn't think Cleena
+was one would be leavin' her childer bring in all the wage. Only--" and
+the good creature's fine face clouded dismally.
+
+Amy's arms were around the other's neck, and her soft cheek pressed
+against the shoulder that had borne so many burdens for her and hers.
+
+"Only what, you darling Scrubbub?"
+
+"Only I was mindin' to buy a few trinkets for you an' Master Hal. 'Tis
+Christmas comes but once a year, an' sure me heart should give good
+cheer--"
+
+"Cleena, Cleena! A poet! What next?"
+
+"Arrah musha, no! Not one o' them sort. But it's in the air, belike.
+Christmastide do set the blood running hitherty-which. So they say in
+old Ireland. It's this way, me darling. Gifts for you an' Hal--or the
+trip to town for the master. Which, says you? For here's the silver will
+pay either one, an' it's you an' him shall decide."
+
+"Then it's decided already. At least, I'm sure Hallam will so agree when
+he comes in. You know he's stopped at Mr. Metcalf's to see some books on
+designing. Hallam thinks that either he might learn to do it or that
+perhaps even father might give some odd moments to it, though I don't
+know as he would hardly dare propose it. The idea was Mr. Metcalf's, and
+he hasn't much 'sentiment' about him. He said that if there was any way
+in which father could make a living, he would be happier if so employed.
+It sounded dreadful to me at first, and then it seemed just sensible."
+
+"That last it was, and so I b'lieve the master'll say himself. But
+child, child, you do be gettin' too sober notions into your bonny head.
+Oh, for that Balaam the spalpeen stole! But since ye can't ride, why
+then it's aye ye must walk. Either way, get into the open. There's not
+many such a day 'twixt now and Easter. Away with ye! Haven't I me pastry
+to make an' to-morrow Christmas? Go where ye've no thought, an' let the
+spirit carry ye. Then there'll be rest. But be home by nightfall, mind."
+
+"Cleena, you dear, the kindest, truest, best woman left in this world!"
+
+"Indeed, that's sweet decent speech, me dear; but seein' your 'world's'
+no bigger nor Ardsley township, I 'low I'll not be over set up by that
+same. Run away, child, run away!"
+
+"Cleena, you're watching down the road. Why? Why?--I demand; and you
+talk of pastry, the which hasn't been in 'Charity House' since we came
+to it, save and except that dried apple pie sent in by Mrs. Jones."
+
+"Ugh!" cried Cleena, making a face of contempt. "The match o' that good
+soul's pastry for hardness an' toughness isn't found this side of the
+Red Sea."
+
+"Cleena, is that old John coming here to-day? Is it _he_ you are
+watching for?"
+
+"Why for no? If a man's more nor his share an' nobody to cook it, why
+shouldn't he be a bringin' it up an' lettin' a body fix it eatable?
+Sure, it's John himself. Ye're too sharp in the wits, an' I don't mind
+tellin' ye; it's all charity, Miss Amy. Him livin' by his lone an'
+gettin' boardin'-house truck. If he says to me, says he, 'Shall I fetch
+the furnishin' o' the best Christmas dinner ever cooked an' you be after
+preparin' it,' says he, 'only givin' me one plateful beside your nice
+kitchen fire,' says he, could I tell the man no, and me a good
+Christian? Ye know better, Miss Amy. Think o' the master, an' Master
+Hal, to-morrow comes. What's the good o' John, then, but to find food
+for me folks? Run along!"
+
+Mr. Kaye had already gone off for one of his long tramps, over the
+fields and through the woods, to which he was now much given. He had
+taken such, at first, to subdue the restlessness which followed upon his
+wife's death, and as some sort of break in his unutterable loneliness.
+But nature had helped him more than he had dreamed; and to the pure air,
+the physical fatigue, and consequent sound sleep was due much of the
+cure of his mental illness that all who knew him now noticed.
+
+So there was nobody who needed Amy just then, and she set off from
+"Charity House" at a brisk pace, resolved, as Cleena had advised, to
+forget all worry and labor, and "just have one good, jolly time."
+
+She took the road upward toward the woods behind Fairacres, meaning to
+gather a bunch of late ferns for the decoration of the morrow's dinner
+table, since Cleena promised it should be a feast day, after all.
+
+Before she quite realized it even, she had deflected from her course,
+remembering just then a certain glen in the grounds of her old home
+where rare ferns grew to prodigious size, and where no cold of winter
+seemed to harm them. Then once upon the familiar path every step was
+suggestive of some bygone outing, and led her to explore farther and
+still farther.
+
+"Ah, the frost-bleached maiden-hair. Nowhere else does it last like
+this. It's almost as white as edelweiss, and far more graceful. I must
+put that in my basket, if nothing else." So she pulled it gently and
+with infinite care, lest she should break the delicate fronds that had
+outlasted their season by so long. Then there were others, dainty green
+and still fragrant, which she gathered eagerly; with here and there a
+bit of crimson-berried vine, or a patch of velvet moss.
+
+Always she kept to the depth of the little ravine, through which ran a
+tiny, babbling brook. This had long ago been named "Merrywater," nor had
+it ever seemed gayer and more winsome than then. It was like reunion
+with some old beloved playmate, and Amy forgot everything but the
+present enjoyment as she stooped and dabbled in the water here and
+there. Sometimes she came to the fantastic little bridges which Hallam
+had used to lie upon the bank and construct out of the roots and pebbles
+she brought him. Where these had fallen into decay she repaired them;
+and at one time was busily endeavoring to force a grapevine into place
+when she heard a sound that made her pause in her task and spring to her
+feet.
+
+"Ah-umph! A-h-u-m-ph! A-H-U-M-P-H!!!"
+
+"Pepita! No--Balaam! Balaam, Balaam--Balaam!"
+
+She was off up the bank in another instant. The sound was from the old
+stable, so dear, so familiar to her. As she ran she caught up here and
+there great tufts of sweet grass, such as had been neglected by the
+mowers, but were dear to donkey appetites.
+
+"Oh, the precious! The blessed little beast! Won't Hallam be glad! Won't
+this be a Christmas gift indeed, to bring him back his own pet! How glad
+I am I took this way to walk, and how queer it is that he should be back
+in his very own old home. Is it so queer, though? Wouldn't I come, too,
+if I were just a burro and were set free to follow my own will? I can
+hardly wait to reach him."
+
+In a moment she had done so, and had filled the manger with the still
+luscious grass, while climbing upon its front she had thrown her arms
+about the animal's neck and was assuring him, as she might a human
+being, that he had been sadly missed and would be most welcome home.
+
+On his part the burro was fortunately silent, though his great, dark
+eyes looked volumes of affection, and he laid his big ears gently back
+to be out of Amy's way, while she caressed him. She smoothed his
+forelock, ran her fingers through his mane, patted his shaggy head, and
+told him that his "big velvet lips were the softest things on earth."
+
+"Ahem!"
+
+This remark, if such it could be called, fell upon Amy's ears so
+suddenly that she half tumbled backward from her perch upon the manger,
+and just saved herself by springing lightly down, or she thought it was
+lightly, until she wheeled and faced the intruder.
+
+None other than Archibald Wingate, making a horrible grimace, and
+holding up one of his pudgy feet as if he were in great pain.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't know it was your foot, or you were
+you--I thought it was only the hay on the floor."
+
+"Ugh! Great goodness! Umm. If you ever have the gout, young woman, you
+will understand how it feels to have anybody jump down full force upon
+your toes. Ouch! O dear! O dear!"
+
+Amy had never been accustomed to seeing people make ado over physical
+suffering. She did not understand this man before her, and a thrill of
+distress ran through her own frame, like the touch of an electric
+battery.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry! I wouldn't have done it for anything if I had known.
+Can't I do something now to help you? Let me rub it or--or--lead you.
+You look--" In spite of her good intentions, the horrible contortions
+by which Mr. Wingate's countenance expressed his feelings affected her
+sense of the ridiculous, and she smiled. As instantly ashamed of the
+smile, she buried her face in her hands, and waited what would come
+next.
+
+"Huh! Yes, you look sorry, of course you do, laughing at an old man
+after you've nearly broken his foot in two. Hmm. You're a sorry lot, the
+whole of you; yes, you are! O-oh!" Yet he, too, and in spite of himself,
+laughed; but it was at his own pitiful joke about his kinsmen being a
+"sorry lot."
+
+Fortunately, Amy did not understand a jest of this nature, but she was
+swift to see the brightening of his face. She put her hand on his arm,
+and tried to draw his hand within her own.
+
+"Maybe it won't be so bad. Lean on me, and I'll help you to a seat or to
+the house. And thank you, thank you so much for putting Balaam in the
+stable, and taking such good care of him. If Hal had known, he wouldn't
+have worried so about the little beast. He's been so tenderly cared for,
+we couldn't bear to think of him as off in the open fields with nobody
+but Fayette."
+
+Mr. Wingate said not a word. He simply ceased groaning and grimacing,
+and he slipped his arm through Amy's, while a curious expression settled
+on his face. He did not lean at all heavily upon her, however, and he
+merely glanced toward the burro as the pair walked to the stable door.
+Then the animal thought it time to protest. Amy had brought him fresh
+grass, but she had dropped it all outside his manger, where he could not
+reach it. This was aggravation in the extreme. More than that, whenever,
+in the old days, she had been afflicted with one of these outbursts of
+affection, there had generally been a lump of sugar connected with it.
+To lose affection, hay, and sugar, all in one unhappy moment, was too
+much even for donkey patience.
+
+"AH-UMPH! H-umph! A-h-u-m-p-h!"
+
+"Whew! he's split my ears open. Plague take the beast!" cried Mr.
+Wingate, hurrying forward, and now stepping with suspicious freedom from
+lameness.
+
+Amy hurried, too, wondering at his sudden recovery. "Oh, do you dislike
+his talk? I love it. I always laugh when I hear it, it is so absurd, and
+Pepita's was even funnier. She had a feminine note, so to speak, and she
+whined like a spoiled baby."
+
+"What do you know about spoiled babies?"
+
+"Why--nothing--only William Gladstone, he's a trifle self-willed, I
+think."
+
+"William Gladstone! What do you mean? Who are you talking about? Are you
+all crazy together?"
+
+"Not the English statesman, certainly. Just Mrs. Jones's youngest son.
+And I don't think we're crazy."
+
+"I think you are, the whole lot. Well, will you come into the house
+with me? How did you know the donkey was here? Who told you?"
+
+"He told me," laughed Amy. "Yes, I'll go in if you wish, if I can help
+you."
+
+"How did he tell you?"
+
+"I was gathering these ferns in the glen, and I heard him bray. See,
+aren't they beautiful? They're for the table to-morrow. The prettiest
+ferns in all Fairacres grow along the banks of 'Merrywater.'"
+
+"Yes, I know. I used to gather them when I was a child. My grandmother
+liked them, though she called them plain 'brakes.' So you're not afraid
+to trespass, then? And you're able to have a dinner-party even so soon
+after--and with all the pretended devotion. But Cuthbert--"
+
+Amy's hand went up to her kinsman's lips. It was a habit of hers,
+sometimes playfully sometimes earnestly used, to ward off anything she
+did not wish another to say to her, and she had done it before she
+thought; but having so done she would not withdraw her silent protest.
+This man should never say, nor would she ever hear, a word against her
+father. Of that she was determined, even though she must be rude to
+prevent.
+
+For a moment Archibald Wingate resented the girl's correction. Then, as
+her hand dropped to her side and her gaze to the ground, he spoke:--
+
+"You are right. I had no business to so speak. I honor you for your
+filial loyalty and--Come into the house. I have something I wish to
+discuss with you. So you want to thank me for taking care of Balaam, do
+you? You may feel differently after you have heard what I have to say.
+Oh, you did give me a twinge, I tell you!"
+
+"Would it relieve the pain if I bathed the foot for you? Or is there
+anybody else to do it?"
+
+"Would you do that for _me_?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ring that bell."
+
+Amy obeyed. It was the familiar one which summoned, or had summoned,
+Cleena from her kitchen.
+
+A man answered the call.
+
+"Marshall, have a foot-bath brought in here. This young lady is going to
+dress my foot for me. For once there'll be no blundering heavy-handed
+servant to hurt me."
+
+Over and over and over Amy washed and soothed the red, misshapen foot.
+The repugnance she had felt to touching it had all vanished when she saw
+how acute must have been the old man's suffering and his now evident
+relief.
+
+"I thought you made a big fuss. Now I don't see how you walk about at
+all."
+
+"I walk on my will," answered he, grimly. "You're a good girl; yes, you
+are. You're a real Kaye. Our women were all good nurses and
+tender-handed. It's a pity--such a pity!"
+
+Amy thought the prodigious sigh that moved his mighty breast was for
+his own distress, and echoed his regret sincerely. "Yes; it is a pity.
+It seems to me it should be cured. I wish it could."
+
+"So do I. Say, little woman, suppose you and I try to cure it."
+
+Amy looked up. She had been speaking simply of his disease. She now saw
+that he had not been thinking of that at all. For the moment, while she
+so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound it with the lotions
+Marshall handed her, he had been quite comfortable, and the keen twinkle
+in his eye set her thinking. Was it the family feud he wished might be
+healed? He, who was the very foundation and cause of it?
+
+[Illustration: "SHE SO GENTLY MANIPULATED THE SWOLLEN ANKLE AND BOUND IT
+WITH THE LOTION."]
+
+She caught his hand in both hers, eagerly.
+
+"Do you mean that we might live at peace; in love, as kinsfolk should?
+Now--this peace day--when the Christ child comes? Is it that?"
+
+But Marshall made a little motion which might be warning or contempt.
+The old man's face hardened again.
+
+"What are you asking? Look, you've wet my cuffs! Your hands just out of
+hot water and all liniment!"
+
+"Never mind your cuffs. _Look out for your heart._ You're a poor, lonely
+old fellow, and I'm sorry for you."
+
+Before he knew what she was about, Amy had thrown her arms about her
+cousin's neck and imprinted a kiss--somewhere. It didn't much matter
+that it landed squarely on the tip of his pudgy nose. Archibald Wingate
+was so little in the habit of receiving kisses that he might easily have
+imagined this was quite the customary place for their bestowal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A PECULIAR INVITATION.
+
+
+It would be difficult to tell which was the most startled. Amy stepped
+back from the unresponsive object of her affectionate impulse and
+blushed furiously. She feared that he would think her bold and silly,
+yet she had only meant to be kind, to comfort him because she pitied
+him. Now, she was painfully conscious that Marshall was standing near,
+coolly observant, with a cynical smile upon his thin lips. It was a
+curious fact, which Amy instantly recognized, that this master of whom
+so many people stood in awe should himself stand in awe of his own
+valet.
+
+"Ahem--shall I remove the bath, sir? Has the young person finished?"
+
+Amy had not been accustomed to hearing herself spoken of as a "person,"
+and the word angered her. This restored her self-possession. She looked
+up, laughing.
+
+"I don't know how I came to do that, cousin Archibald. I hope you'll
+forgive me."
+
+"Oh, I'll forgive you. I don't know how you did it, either. Well, man,
+why are you standing there, grinning like a Cheshire cat. I tell you
+she has finished. You can take away the things."
+
+"Very well; it is time for your nap, sir."
+
+The worm turned. "What if I don't take one to-day? What will happen?"
+
+"I don't know, sir, except that you will probably be ill. The doctor's
+orders are, when you have an attack--"
+
+"Hang you and the doctor and the attacks, all together! You can leave
+the room, can't you? When I want you, I'll ring."
+
+Because he was too astonished to do otherwise, Marshall obeyed. He was a
+privileged person. His master did not often cross his will. There being
+no other apparent heirs, Marshall had, in his own imagination,
+constituted himself Mr. Wingate's heir. Why not? A lifelong service, an
+untiring devotion to whims of all sorts, a continual attention to the
+"creature comforts" which were so greatly a part of Archibald's
+life--these merited a rich reward. Marshall intended to receive this
+reward, should he be lucky enough to outlive his employer. He felt that
+he would fill the position of owner of Fairacres with dignity and
+profit. He did not like this new interest Mr. Wingate was taking, by
+fits and starts, in the deposed family who were his relatives
+and--enemies. In Marshall's opinion the breech between these kinsfolk
+ought not to be healed. Amy's presence in the house was a disastrous
+portent. She must be gotten out of it as soon as possible, and in such
+a way that she would not care to come again. But how?
+
+The servant revolved this question, as he carried away the bath, and so
+profoundly that he failed to notice where he was going and stepped down
+a forgotten stair so unexpectedly that he fell and drenched himself with
+the water from the tub.
+
+"Plague on her! Now, I'm in for it!" Which meant that before he could
+remove the damage to his attire Amy would probably have gained whatever
+she came to seek. He did not believe that anybody would visit his master
+without having "an axe to grind," for he judged all men by himself.
+
+However, having tasted the sweets of rebellion against this iron rule of
+Marshall, Mr. Wingate determined to enjoy it further.
+
+"He's a meddling old fool. He's a good servant, too. There isn't another
+man in the world would put up with my tempers as he does. Never a word
+in return, and as smooth as silk."
+
+Amy laughed. "He looks to me as if he had had his hair licked by
+kittens. It's so slick and flat. Do you have to mind him always?"
+
+"Mind him? _I_--mind my _servant_, eh?"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon. Of course--"
+
+Mr. Wingate's face was scarlet. The weakness which he had hardly
+acknowledged to himself had been instantly discovered by this
+bright-eyed girl. It wasn't a pleasant thing to have so observant a
+person about. He had something to say to her, however, and he would do
+it at once and get rid of her. All his newly aroused affection died in
+his resentment against her judgment.
+
+"I want to go to the studio. There is something there I don't mean to
+keep, and don't wish to destroy, without consulting some of you."
+
+Amy followed him quietly out of the house toward the building where her
+father had spent so many hours, and which she held in strictest
+veneration. Did it not still enclose the "great picture" which even she
+had never seen, and which had been kept screened from the sight of all?
+
+So she still expected to find the white curtain undisturbed; and as she
+entered the studio, paused--amazed. The canvas covered the end of the
+apartment; but after one hasty glance Amy shielded her eyes in a
+distress that was almost terror.
+
+"Hmm. It _is_ very realistic, isn't it? The thing is horrible. I don't
+wonder that Cuthbert's wits got scattered, working on it. It would drive
+me crazy in a week, and I'm a hard, matter-of-fact man. I kept it,
+because by right I might have kept everything that was here. I supposed
+I was getting something worth while. But this! I don't want it. I
+couldn't sell it. I hate to destroy it. What's to be done?"
+
+"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!"
+
+"So do I. I see it sometimes in the night and then I can't sleep. I
+mean I imagine I see it, for I never come here after dark. It's a
+wonderful picture, sure enough. A horrible one."
+
+The canvas fascinated Amy. It depicted a great fire. It was ugly in
+extreme. The big, bare building was in flames, everywhere. The windows
+seemed numberless, and at almost every window a face; on these faces all
+the gamut of fright, appeal, and unutterable despair. They were
+human--_living_. The girl felt impelled to run and snatch them from
+their doom; also the impulse to hide her eyes, that she might not see.
+
+Mr. Wingate had taken a chair before the painting, and was looking at it
+critically.
+
+"I tell you that's a marvellous thing, and it's as dreadful as masterly.
+There's only one way I can see by which a man could get any money out of
+it: that's by cutting out the separate faces and selling them singly. A
+body might endure to see one such countenance in his collection, but not
+more; or, it might be destroyed altogether. It explains why Cuthbert
+never recovered from the shock of the accident he was in. He never lost
+sight of it. He must have begun this while it was fresh in his brain,
+and he did his utmost to keep it fresh. Poor Salome, she had a hard
+life."
+
+"She had a happy life. She loved my father. He loved her. Whatever he
+did was right, just right in her eyes. You needn't pity her. But, oh, if
+she were only here to consult! Why did you show it to me? Why did I
+have to see it?"
+
+"Because it couldn't be helped. The thing _is_; it exists. Now what is
+to be done with it?"
+
+"I--will ask my father."
+
+"I don't know that that is wise. It might bring about a return of his
+malady, and I'm told he is improving in all respects."
+
+"I must do it; it is his. There is no other way."
+
+"What if it makes him worse again?"
+
+Poor Amy! All her Christmas cheer had died from her heart. She felt that
+it would be almost wicked to remind her father of this, his "life work,"
+of which she had not heard him speak since he left Fairacres. Yet it was
+his. He had given years to its completion, so far as it had neared that
+point.
+
+Mr. Wingate regarded her keenly. "Well?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't know what to say. Have you nothing to propose?"
+
+"Only what I did. To cut it up and sell the faces as so many small
+canvases. That would partially repay me for the things he still owes
+for--the paints and so on. But I detest the thing so I hate to spread
+the misery of it."
+
+"Repay you? Do you mean that you believe you have a right--you _own_
+that picture?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Why, it is the labor of--it means many years out of my poor father's
+life. Can such a thing be 'owned' by anybody except him?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Hark you. You go home and tell him what I offer. I will
+take the picture off his hands and allow him--hmm--maybe two hundred
+dollars; or, he can take it and owe me that much more. In any case I
+want to get rid of it. I won't have it left here much longer. I shall
+have other uses for this room, maybe. Anyway, I mean to get that off the
+place."
+
+Amy moved slowly toward the door. She did not know how to reply, and she
+felt her cousin was a very hard, unjust man. Yet she agreed with him
+that the picture was enough to make a person wish it out of sight, even
+out of existence.
+
+At the doorway he arrested her steps, by laying his hand upon her
+shoulder.
+
+"Help me down; I'm afraid of stairs. And there's another thing--that
+donkey."
+
+"Oh, yes; I had forgotten Balaam. May I ride him home? Will you have him
+brought around for me?"
+
+"Eh? What? Not so fast--not quite so fast! No, I don't mean the stairs.
+I can manage this pace for them. I mean the donkey. It came here of its
+own accord. It gave me an idea. If your brother wants to sell him--By
+the way, how do you expect to pay the rent?"
+
+Amy stopped short, halfway down the stairs, and so suddenly that Mr.
+Wingate remonstrated.
+
+"If you'd give warning of these spasmodic actions of yours, it would be
+more comfortable for those depending on you. There, please move along."
+
+"The rent? I had not thought. Didn't my mother attend to that?"
+
+"For the first quarter year, she did. To whom must I look now?"
+
+Unmindful, since this new distressing question had been raised, how much
+she inconvenienced him, Amy sat plump down and leaned her head against
+the hand-rail.
+
+It always appeared to aid her reflective powers if she could rest her
+troubled head against something material.
+
+"I'll try to think. I earn two dollars and a half a week."
+
+"Oh, my foot hurts again. Let's get into a decent room and talk it over
+there. I hate draughty halls and unwarmed rooms. There's a fire in the
+little side parlor off the dining room. That's my own private den. I
+want to get there and lie down. That rabbit pie I had for lunch doesn't
+agree with me, I'm afraid. Do you like rabbit pie?"
+
+"No, indeed; I wouldn't eat one for anything."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I should fancy the pretty creatures looking at me with their soft eyes.
+They're the gentlest animals in the world."
+
+"The most destructive, you mean."
+
+She did not contest. Besides, she was now in great haste to leave
+Fairacres and regain the shelter of her own home. Strange, she
+reflected, how quickly she had ceased to think of this house, her
+birthplace, as a home; since all that went to make it such had gone
+elsewhere.
+
+"About that rent money. If Hallam is able to keep at work we may
+together earn five dollars a week. That would be twenty dollars a month.
+The rent is ten. We will be able to pay it, I think."
+
+"Do you imagine you will be able to live upon the remainder? Upon two
+and a half dollars a week, four grown persons?"
+
+"If we have no more, we shall have to do so, shan't we?"
+
+"Excuse me; but what would you eat? I saw no sign of scrimping and
+pinching that day I first came here--to stay."
+
+"Oh, then Cleena was determined you should say no blame of her
+housekeeping. She gave you all in one meal. We've often laughed over it
+since."
+
+"Humph! But this two and a half per week, what would it buy?"
+
+"Meal and milk. Sometimes oat meal, sometimes corn. Once and again an
+egg or something for father. Oh, we'd manage."
+
+"Hmm, hmm; you'd rather live on that than run in debt? You younger
+Kayes, who are all I seem to take account of now--Salome is gone."
+
+"We will run in no debt we cannot pay, unless we are ill and it is
+impossible to help. Hal and I settled that long ago. So far we have
+managed, and now he is working too, I feel as rich as--rich."
+
+"Exactly. Amy, if this old house were yours, what would you do with it?"
+
+The answer was prompt and decided.
+
+"Make it into a Home for Mill Girls."
+
+"Whew! What in the world! Fairacres? The proudest old mansion in the
+country, or in this part of it! Are you beside yourself?"
+
+"I should be with delight, if I could make that dream a reality."
+
+"I gave you credit for more sense. But, business--that donkey. How much
+did Mr. Metcalf intend to pay for it?"
+
+"I suppose the same as he did for Pepita. Seventy-five dollars--burro,
+harness, and all."
+
+"At ten dollars a month, that would take you along well into next
+summer. Tell Hallam that I will keep the animal and allow him eight
+months' rent for it. That's giving you a half month, you see. Will you?"
+
+"Yes, I'll tell him," answered she, with a catch in her voice. "Only I
+had hoped to take him home with me. It would have made such a delightful
+Christmas for us all. You don't know how much we love those pretty
+creatures."
+
+"Pretty! Opinions differ."
+
+"And would it be quite right to make any such arrangements, after having
+asked the superintendent to buy it, and he agreeing? Wouldn't he be the
+one to say something about it?"
+
+"Amy, you're incorrigible. You're a radical. A thing is either
+absolutely right or it is absolutely wrong--according to your standard.
+You'll be in trouble as long as you live, for you'll find nobody else
+with such antiquated notions as yours. There are a great many things
+that are expedient."
+
+"I hate expedient things. I like just the easy, simple 'no' and 'yes'
+that was my darling mother's rule. I'm glad I'm at least a birthright
+Friend."
+
+Mr. Wingate was silent. He seemed to drop into a profound reverie, and
+the girl hesitated to disturb him, eager as she now was to be away.
+Finally, as she had made up her mind to speak, he did so himself.
+
+"Amy, do you ever use the plain speech now?"
+
+"Sometimes--between ourselves. For mother's sake we can never let it
+die."
+
+"Will thee use it to me now and then? It was the habit of my boyhood.
+Salome was my oldest friend. We've played together in this very room,
+again and again. She was my good angel. Until--No matter. You are her
+child. Not like her at all in face or manner. She was always gentle,
+and shrank from giving pain. Truthful and puritanical as she was in her
+ideas, she had the tact, the knowledge to say things without hurting
+those whom she corrected. She corrected me often and often, when we were
+young, but she hurt me--never. Now, you--heigho!"
+
+"Now, I hurt--thee. Of course. I speak first and think afterward. But
+does thee know, cousin Archibald, thee is the very queerest man I ever
+met?"
+
+"Have you--has thee--known many?"
+
+"Very few. Thee is so good on one side and so--so--not nice on the
+other. Like a half-ripened pear. But I am sorry for thee. I wish I could
+do thee good. Do I speak it as thee wishes?"
+
+"Indeed, yes. It is music, even though the words are unflattering
+enough. Well, I'll not keep thee longer. And I don't ask you to call
+attention to this whim of mine by saying 'thee' in public," he remarked,
+himself falling back into the habit of their intercourse.
+
+"No; if I say 'thee,' it is to be always, whenever I remember--like a
+bond to remind me I must be kind to thee for my mother's sake. If she
+did thee good, I must try to do thee good too."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+Amy reflected. The first, most obvious way, would be by cheering his
+solitude. Yet she hesitated. The thing which had come into her mind
+involved the desires of others also. She had no right, until she
+consulted them, to commit herself. Yet she disliked to leave this lonely
+old fellow, without trying to make him glad.
+
+She sat down again in the chair from which she had risen and regarded
+him critically.
+
+"Oh, cousin Archibald, if thee were only a little bit different!"
+
+"Thee, too!" he laughed--actually laughed; and the action seemed to
+clear his features like a sunburst.
+
+"Oh, of course. Well, it's this way. To-morrow's Christmas, isn't it?"
+
+"So I've heard."
+
+"And somebody--Teamster John--has sent Cleena 'the furnishing of a good
+dinner,' she told me. I don't know when we may have another such a meal,
+one that thee would think fit to eat. I'd like to ask thee to come and
+share it with us, instead of staying here alone, all grumpy with the
+gout. But it isn't my dinner, thee sees, and I'm going home to tell my
+people everything. About the picture and the donkey and all. If, after
+that, they agree with me that it would be nice to ask thee to spend the
+holiday with us, I'll bring thee word. If I do, will thee come?"
+
+Mr. Wingate leaned back in his easy-chair and hugged his gouty foot for
+so long and so silently that Amy grew impatient and rose.
+
+"Anyway, I must go home. I've been here ever so much later than I meant
+to stay. Good-by."
+
+"Wait! How impetuous you--thee is. Well, I've received a great many
+invitations to dine, from the banquets of bank presidents down to the
+boiled dinners of my own workmen, but I doubt if I ever received one so
+honest and so honestly expressed."
+
+"Will thee come, if thee is asked?"
+
+"Yes; I'll come--_if I'm asked_. Don't thee bother to walk all the way
+back again, though. If by nine o'clock to-night I have heard nothing to
+the contrary, I shall understand that I am expected to dine with my
+tenants at 'Spite House.' At what hour, please?"
+
+"On Christmas, dinner is usually at three o'clock. And, if thee pleases,
+it is no longer 'Spite' but 'Charity House.' My mother changed all that.
+Thee must not dishonor her wishes if thee loves her."
+
+A wonderful, an almost beautiful change passed over the old man's face.
+
+"Amy, thee speaks as if she were here still."
+
+"She is to me. She always will be. Good-by."
+
+She was gone, and the house seemed bigger and emptier after she had left
+it. But Archibald Wingate would not have had anybody know with what
+almost childish anxiety he waited the striking of the clock, as the hour
+of nine drew near. He had been judged a hard and bitter man. He was very
+human, after all. The small brown hand of his young cousin was pointing
+a new, strange way, wherein he might happily walk, and in secret he
+blessed her for it. But he was a man who liked his own will and to
+follow his own road still; though he might do his utmost to bend that
+road in the direction she had elected. Meanwhile, he would have his
+supper sent in and sitting at ease before his own hearth-blaze review
+many plans.
+
+So he did, and after the supper a comfortable nap, from which he roused
+with a start, fancying the old clock in the hall was striking the hour.
+
+"Eh? What? Is it nine already? That timepiece must be fast."
+
+"It's only me, sir, Marshall, with a bucket of coals. And, if you
+please, there's a young person outside insists upon seeing you, sir. Am
+I to bid him go away until morning?"
+
+In his disappointment the master's face really paled. Marshall noticed
+it and wondered, but he knew enough, sometimes, to hold his tongue. This
+seemed to him to be one of the times, and he therefore made no comment,
+nor even inquired for the master's health.
+
+"No, don't send anybody away. I fancy that was never the custom at
+Fairacres, on Christmas Eve, be the visitor who he might. We'll not
+disturb the old ways, more than we can help. After all--Bid the
+messenger come in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+TWO WANDERERS RETURN.
+
+
+The "young person" to whom Marshall referred in such contemptuous terms
+was Lionel Percival Jones. He so announced himself, as he was ushered
+into the presence of the great man.
+
+"I've come to bring a letter from Amy Kaye."
+
+"Indeed; would it not sound better if you said 'Miss Kaye,' or 'Miss
+Amy'? She is a kinswoman of mine."
+
+Lionel Percival was astonished. He had prepared himself for this visit
+with the utmost care. He had oiled his curly auburn locks with a scented
+pomatum, and parted them rakishly in the middle. He wore his most
+aggressive necktie and his yellowest shoes, also his Sunday suit of
+clothes. With the exception of the necktie and the pomatum, he would not
+have attracted attention to himself anywhere, and so would have been
+well dressed. With these, he seemed to be all-pervading. He had
+instantly, by means of them, offended Mr. Wingate's taste, and put
+himself at disadvantage.
+
+"Why, I'd just as lief say 'Miss,' but she's a mill girl, same as my own
+sister. I didn't go to mean no harm."
+
+The mill owner winced. Then inquired:--
+
+"Is there an answer expected?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well. Wait here."
+
+The master of Fairacres limped into the adjoining room and turned his
+back toward the door between, hiding his face from the lad's observation
+as he read.
+
+"Humph! She left it open, which is correct enough with reliable
+messengers. Probably, though, he had the curiosity to read what she had
+to say,"--in which he wholly wronged the bearer. But Mr. Wingate had yet
+to learn that even lads who attire themselves atrociously may still be
+true gentlemen at heart, and sin in taste through ignorance only.
+
+This was the note:--
+
+
+"DEAR COUSIN ARCHIBALD WINGATE: My father and Hallam will be very happy
+to have thee dine with us to-morrow, Christmas Day. Cleena says that
+dinner will be served at three o'clock. If thee knew her as well as I
+do, thee would understand that she means not a minute before nor one
+afterward. If thee pleases, I would rather not have any 'business' talk
+of any sort to-morrow. I would like it to be a day of peace, as my
+mother always kept it for us. Thee may meet some other guests, but we
+will try to make thee happy.
+
+"Good night,
+"AMY."
+
+
+It was a very cheerful and smiling old gentleman who returned to the
+room where Lionel Percival waited for the reply, a brief but stately
+acceptance of the invitation; for since Amy had set him the example, the
+mill owner considered that she regarded such formality essential.
+
+Then he called in Marshall and bade him see that the messenger had a bit
+of supper before his return walk, which proceeding made the valet stare,
+and the boy feel exceedingly proud. It would be something of which to
+boast among his comrades at the mill.
+
+The morning proved a cloudless one, mild and merciful to such as
+suffered from gout, and Mr. Wingate drove himself to "Charity House" in
+his own little phaeton. He felt this was an occasion when Marshall's too
+solicitous attentions might be in the way. He held a debate with
+himself, before setting off, whether he should or should not add to the
+feast from his own larder, and he decided against so doing by the simple
+test of "put yourself in his place."
+
+But there was plenty and to spare. Teamster John did nothing by halves.
+Those who have least of this world's goods are always the most generous.
+Cleena had prepared each dish with her best skill and waited upon her
+guests with smiling satisfaction. Afterward, in the kitchen, she and
+John discussed the strange reunion of their "betters," and Cleena
+speculated upon it in her own fashion:--
+
+"Sure, there's never fish, flesh, nor fowl could withstand the loving
+ways of me little colleen. And to hear them talkin' together, like lambs
+in the field. Them--"
+
+"I never heerd lambs talkin'," observed John, facetiously.
+
+"Then it's deaf ye've been belike. Oh, me fathers, if here doesn't come
+me own Gineral--Napoleon--Bonyparty! Where have ye been avick, avick?"
+she demanded, pushing hastily back from the board and hurrying out of
+doors. "Well, it's proof o' yer sense ye comes back in due time for a
+bit o' the nicest turkey ever was roast. But it's shamefaced ye be,
+small wonder o' that! Howsomever, it's a day o' good will. Come by. Wash
+up, eat yer meat, an' give thanks. To-morrow--_I'll settle old scores_.
+Come by."
+
+Yet when Fayette entered the kitchen and learned from John who were the
+guests in the dining room beyond, he scowled and would have gone away
+again. However, he had forgotten Cleena. That good woman, having
+received her prodigal back, did not intend to relinquish him. She saw
+his frown, his hasty movement, and shutting the door put her back
+against it.
+
+"You silly omahaun! If your betters forgives an' eats the bread o'
+peace, what's you to be settin' such a face on the matter? Come by. Be
+at peace. There's the blessed little hunchback eatin' cranberry sauce
+cheek by jowl with her 'boss,' an' can't you remember the Child was born
+for such as you, me poor silly lad? Come by."
+
+Fayette "came by" at last, silently and because he was half famished,
+and could not resist the savory odors of the tempting food Cleena
+offered him. Yet in his heart there was still anger and evil intent; and
+though he was amazed to find Mary Reese a guest at the Kayes' table, as
+well as their "mortal enemy," Mr. Wingate, he made no further comment,
+and as soon as the meal was over retreated without a word to his chamber
+and shut the door.
+
+"It's like he might ha' just stepped out yesternight, he drops into ways
+so quick," said Cleena.
+
+"But he's not the same lad. He'll give somebody trouble before long. You
+do wrong, woman, to harbor him. He's vindictive and dangerous."
+
+The trustful Cleena laughed the teamster to scorn.
+
+"Faith, give a dog a bad name an' he'll earn it. Let the lad be. In old
+Ireland we call such the 'touched of God.' We judge not, an' that's the
+size of a man--how he betreats the helpless ones. Put that in your pipe
+an' smoke it."
+
+Surely, John thought, there was a deal of good sense and heart kindness
+in this stalwart daughter of Erin. He was Yankee himself, to the
+backbone; yet, as he pushed back from the table, satisfied and at ease,
+he pulled from his pocket a small paper parcel. It was his Christmas
+gift for his hostess, and intended to suggest many things. She was
+bright enough to comprehend his meaning, if she chose. Would she? She
+gave no sign, if she did, as she unrolled the package and placed its
+contents--a small flag of Ireland and its mate, in size, of the United
+States--behind the kitchen clock, where the blended colors made a bit of
+gayety upon the whitewashed wall.
+
+"Long may they wave!" cried the donor.
+
+"Troth, I'm not seein' no wavin'. They're best as they be, with the
+timepiece betwixt. Each in its place, as the Lord wills, an' mine's
+here. So here I bides till I'm no longer wanted."
+
+"It's a biggish house," quoth the undismayed suitor. "There's room in it
+for me, too, I cal'late."
+
+But if Cleena heard this remark she ignored it, passing swiftly into the
+dining room to remove the dishes of the first course, and substituting
+the luxury of a basket of fruit which she had accumulated somehow, as
+only herself could have explained.
+
+Maybe there is no trivial thing that so greatly helps to bridge over a
+trying situation as good breeding. The breeding which is really good,
+out of the inner life: kindness and the reluctance to inflict pain. It
+was such breeding that enabled the oddly assorted company at that
+Christmas dinner table to pass the hours of their intercourse not only
+in peace, but with absolute enjoyment.
+
+Finally, when the elders pushed back their chairs, Mr. Kaye proposed
+that Amy should sing some of the old-time ballads familiar to the
+childhood of both himself and his kinsman. So Hallam took out his
+mother's guitar and tuned it, and his sister placed herself beside him.
+
+"Ah, how well I remember that little instrument," cried Mr. Wingate,
+"and the commotion it caused among the Friends. Music used to be the
+most 'worldly' and undesirable thing, but they are more tolerant now.
+Give us 'Lang Syne,' youngsters. It's the song for the day and--this
+hour."
+
+It was. They sang it lustily, and Amy was amazed to hear how finely that
+deep voice of their cousin could fill in the pauses of her own treble,
+sweet but not strong. Then there was "Annie Laurie," and "Edinboro'
+Toon," and "Buy my Caller Herrin'," and others; till Cleena drew John to
+the door to listen and applaud, forgetting for once the big pile of
+dishes standing unwashed upon her kitchen table.
+
+"For, aye, it's a time o' peace, thank God. An' her that has gone is
+among us never a doubt I doubt. What's a bit o' idlin' when a sight for
+saints is afore ye? If Fayetty, now--"
+
+But Fayette was not there. Neither was he in his own room when Cleena
+sought him there. He had left it while she was off guard and had made
+his escape unseen. Forces of good and evil were tormenting him: the
+struggle to do right and please these good friends, and the greater
+yearning to seek the wrong path to revenge.
+
+Yet, after all, what was this poor human waif to these happier folk? So
+he asked himself as he sneaked away in the twilight which hid his
+departure.
+
+Had Amy heard the question, she would have answered it promptly: "Much,
+Fayette. Everybody one knows is something to one's self."
+
+But she did not even hear of his brief visit, for, having discovered his
+fresh defection, Cleena decided to keep the matter to herself.
+
+It was getting quite late when Archibald Wingate drove away from
+"Charity House" toward Fairacres, and as he went he pondered of many
+things. Once or twice he fancied he saw a lurking shadow in the road,
+that was not due to either bush or tree which bordered it. But he
+thought little of the matter, so engrossed was he with the recollections
+of the evening.
+
+"Queer, what a pleasant time I had. Yet we are all, practically,
+enemies. Each side feels that the other side has been at fault. Anyway,
+I seem to hear Salome saying: 'Judge not my children by the mistakes of
+their parents.' Nor will I; of that I am resolved. I'll give even that
+top-lofty lad, Hallam, a fair show, by and by. I must test him a little
+longer first, then I'll begin. That is, if he's made of the right stuff.
+As for Amy, she's a witch. She's wheedled the heart right out of me with
+her bright, unflinching, honest eyes. Talked to me about getting up a
+'club' for the mill folks. 'The right sort of club, with books and
+pictures and everything helpful.' The saucebox! and she earning the
+mighty wage of two-fifty per week. Well, all in good course. I haven't
+toiled a lifetime to attain my object, then relinquish it without a
+little enjoyment of it; though, after all, possession isn't everything.
+The struggle was about as enjoyable as the result. But I succeeded! I am
+master of Fairacres, of Ardsley Mills, of half all Ardsley township. The
+old family is still on top. But, I'll buy Cuthbert's great picture and
+burn it up--sometime. Hmm. Wonder where that visionary Frederic Kaye is,
+of whose unpractical schemes I am reaping the benefit. Odd--buried
+himself in California, so to speak, and the only visible proofs that he
+had ever reached that happy land are a couple of braying burros.--Hello!
+hello, I say! Who's that? What's up?"
+
+The shadow which had dogged the track of the mill owner's phaeton had
+suddenly become a reality. His horse was seized, forced backward, the
+horsewhip wrenched from its socket, and before he could defend himself
+Mr. Wingate's head and shoulders felt the cuts of the whip, delivered in
+swift and furious intensity.
+
+"Hold on! hold--on! What--who--stop, stop, _s-t-o-p_! You're killing me!
+What's wanted? It's murder--_murder_!"
+
+And again after another visitation of stripes, that awful cry of
+"mur-der!"
+
+The word holds its own horror. No one can thus hear it shouted, in the
+stillness of the night, unmoved. It affected even the ferocious
+assailant of the lonely old man, and arrested his further blows.
+
+"Murder." That meant death, prison, everything that was hateful. Even to
+Fayette's dull brain there penetrated some realization of what his
+present deed implied. For this was he who had waylaid an "enemy" on the
+highroad and beaten him into unconsciousness.
+
+Then he remembered his own wrongs, and his anger flamed afresh.
+
+"Thought you could do all the lickin', did ye? How many times did _you_
+have _me_ thrashed? What did you care if the man who thrashed me 'bout
+killed me? What was I, only 'Bony,' out o' the poor farm! Ugh, you old
+rascal! Take that, and that, and that. Huckleberries! but it's fun to
+settle such scores."
+
+The old horse which Mr. Wingate drove stood quiet in the road, else the
+matter might have had a different ending; for had she run and dragged
+her now helpless master, he would surely have been killed. As it was,
+she did not move, so there was nothing to deaden the sound of the sharp
+blows Fayette administered; and in the silence of the place and night
+this sound carried far.
+
+It reached the ears of a foot passenger, toiling up the mill road toward
+Fairacres and quickened his pace. So that when the half-wit finally
+paused for breath, he felt himself caught by his collar and heard a
+stern voice demanding:--
+
+"What's this? Hold! Stop! This--_here_, in _Ardsley_?"
+
+Fayette looked up. The man who had gripped him was much taller than he,
+and seemed in that dim light a giant for strength. The capture brought
+back all those visions of punishment and the prison. In a twinkling the
+agile lad had writhed himself free from his short coat and leaped away
+into the darkness.
+
+The newcomer heard a sound of retreating footsteps and mocking laughter,
+then turned his attention to the injured man in the phaeton.
+
+"An old fellow, too, he seems. Hello! Are you alive? Hey! Can't you
+speak? That's serious."
+
+The stranger's actions were alert and decided. He gently raised the bent
+figure of the unconscious Mr. Wingate to as comfortable a position as he
+could, stepped into the vehicle, and took up the reins.
+
+"If nothing is changed, the nearest house is old Fairacres. But I didn't
+look for such a home-coming. Get up there, nag!"
+
+Not since the days of her youth had the sorrel mare been forced into
+such a pace as then. The rescuer drove for life and death, and as if all
+turnings of the old road were familiar to him. Nor did he slacken rein
+until he reached the front door of the mansion, and sung out in a voice
+to wake great echoes:--
+
+"Hello, there! Come out! A man in distress!"
+
+This hello reached the stable, where Fayette was loosing Balaam, and
+roused that intelligent beast to speak his opinion concerning these
+disturbances of his rest.
+
+Marshall, hurrying to answer the imperative demand at the front door,
+heard the burro's bray of protest, though he paid it small attention
+then, because of the nearer demand. Holding his candle high above his
+head, he slid back the bolts and peered out, but the sight which met his
+gaze set him trembling like an aspen.
+
+"Why--my land! Master, what--what's happened? Have they murdered you out
+of hand? Ah, but my mind misgave me how 'twould be. To think it--to
+think it!"
+
+"Hush! Put down the candle. Give a lift; he's powerful heavy. Is this
+your master?"
+
+The servant retreated. This might be the very person who had done the
+mill owner such terrible injury. He would put his own precious anatomy
+out of harm's reach.
+
+"Oh, you fool! Come back. You're safe. Leave that door open. I'll bring
+him in myself. Make way there--quick!"
+
+Marshall tried to barricade the entrance to the room beyond the hall by
+means of his own plump body, and was promptly kicked aside, as the
+stranger strode past him, bearing the unconscious man upon his
+shoulder, very much as if he had been a bag of meal.
+
+"Is this your master?"
+
+"Y-ye-s. Who--are you--ordering--"
+
+"Hot water--lights--a doctor--everything--_at once_. I'm Frederic Kaye."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+FREDERIC KAYE'S WELCOME HOME.
+
+
+The excitement at Ardsley was intense. Never had its quiet precincts
+been disturbed by a crime so unprovoked and dastardly.
+
+"To strike a man in the dark."
+
+"To waylay an old fellow like that. The man is a coward, whoever he be,
+that did it."
+
+"Poor old 'boss.' He wasn't to say over lovable, in ordinary, but I'd
+pity even a scoundrel got treated that way."
+
+"He ought to be punished with his own stripes."
+
+"Oh, he'll get what he deserves. Never fear. If old man Wingate had been
+poor--well, you might say. But a rich man has friends."
+
+Such talk all through the mill, on that day after Christmas, interfered
+seriously with the customary labor. But it was small wonder; and though
+he tried to enforce discipline and keep things running smoothly, even
+Mr. Metcalf himself was greatly disturbed and anxious.
+
+The news of the assault upon the mill owner had spread rapidly. At
+first the story told by the stranger, who had so suddenly and
+opportunely appeared upon the scene, was given credence. Then, when it
+was remembered that this stranger, now known to be Frederic Kaye, had
+been injured and supplanted by Archibald Wingate, a faint suspicion
+began to rise in men's minds.
+
+Only those who have suffered from it know with what terrible rapidity an
+unjust rumor grows and spreads. Inoculated by this evil germ, even the
+fairest judgment becomes diseased. Those who had best known Frederic
+Kaye, the old people who recalled his frank, impetuous, happy-go-lucky
+boyhood, here in the town where he was born and bred; those who had
+received good from his hand, and nothing but good; even these joined
+with the baser sort in considering the night attack upon the mill owner
+"quite natural. Just what might have been expected."
+
+"Of course no one knows what sort of life Kaye's led out there in
+Californy. The jumping-off place of creation."
+
+So, instead of finding himself among friends, the returned citizen
+discovered that he was among enemies, under the basest of suspicions. He
+had remained all night at Fairacres, with the doctor so hastily summoned
+there. This gentleman was an old acquaintance, and from him Mr.
+Frederic, as he had always been called in distinction from Mr. Kaye, the
+artist and his brother-in-law, learned the history of the past weeks.
+Yes, even of years.
+
+"It's a pity, a great pity! When I failed to pay what I owed on the
+property here, and Salome, my sister, saw that I would lose everything
+unless somebody came to my aid, she did so. I hoped, I fully expected,
+to be able to return what she advanced. All the world knows now that I
+was not."
+
+"She was not the first person who has been ruined by injudicious
+indorsement."
+
+The Californian winced. His home-coming was proving a terrible
+disappointment to him, and he little dreamed how much worse than
+disappointment was yet in store.
+
+"Well, bad luck has pursued me. I have lost in every speculation I ever
+undertook. The last I tried was the evaporation of fruits. There's money
+in it, if I had the capital--"
+
+"Then you did not know how badly things were going with your sister?"
+
+"I never dreamed it. You knew her well--Salome was never a whiner. If
+she had even intimated the straits which she was in, I would have thrown
+up every chance and come back at once, to put my shoulder to the wheel
+in some shape. I wouldn't have permitted it."
+
+"How happen you here just now?"
+
+"My niece, Amy, wrote me of her mother's death. It was a brief,
+heart-broken little letter. I have it here. It brought me home, but I
+still fancied that home was this house." The gentleman took from his
+pocket a small envelope and read its enclosure aloud. It was, as he had
+stated, extremely short and gave only the facts.
+
+
+"MY DEAR UNCLE FREDERIC: Our mother is dead. She is buried at Quaker
+cemetery. My father and Hallam are well. So is Cleena. I don't know how
+to write to you because you are really a stranger to me. The burros are
+both well. Your loving
+
+"AMY KAYE."
+
+
+"There, that's all. It was enough to bring me clear across the
+continent, however. My heart aches; I should have come sooner. Oh, for
+one sight of Salome's beautiful face before--" He dropped his head on
+his hand and a sob shook the strong frame.
+
+The doctor rose and busied himself about his patient. He respected the
+brother's grief, and he liked this man, unthrifty and neglectful as he
+might have been.
+
+Then Marshall made a sign, and the physician left the room so quietly
+that Mr. Kaye did not hear him go. Outside, in the hall, the valet was
+waiting, almost breathless with eagerness.
+
+"Will he live?" he questioned in a whisper.
+
+"Time will tell. I hope so," was the unsatisfactory response.
+
+"Well, if he don't, that's his--murderer."
+
+The other sprang back as if he had been struck.
+
+"Man, take care what you say! How dare you?"
+
+"Ain't it reasonable? Didn't he say he was the man that owned the mill,
+this house, everything before master did? Who else had a grudge against
+the poor old man?"
+
+"Lots of people, I reckon. It won't hurt him to tell the truth. He was
+as testy as a snapping turtle--you know that. Plenty of folks disliked
+him. Most likely the person who attacked him was a tramp who hoped to
+find money. By the way, did anybody look to see if there had been
+robbery as well as assault?"
+
+"I did. No; there wasn't anything stole, so far as I know. That's what,
+one thing--why it must have been--"
+
+Dr. Wise laid his hand on Marshall's shoulder.
+
+"Look here, man, you stop that talk. Not another word of it. How dare
+you, I say how dare you, thrust suspicion upon an innocent man? I'd
+stake my life on the integrity of any Kaye was ever born. Unfortunate
+this returned wanderer may be, but--If you let me hear one single word
+more of such fol-de-rol, I'll make it hot for you. Understand? Haven't
+we got enough on our hands to keep your master alive? There must be
+quiet here, absolute quiet. It's your business to have it maintained;
+and if you don't, I'll have you punished as accessory to the deed. Hear
+me?"
+
+All this had been delivered in the lowest tone possible, yet each
+syllable was as distinctly enunciated as if it had been shouted. The
+doctor knew Marshall. He chose that idle threat of "accessory" as the
+safest means to accomplish his own object.
+
+This was all very well, so far as it went. Unfortunately, the doctor was
+not the only person to whom the valet had already announced his
+suspicion. There were other servants in the kitchen, and they had been
+swiftly poisoned by his opinion. So that when, after a sleepless night
+of watching beside his kinsman's bed, Frederic Kaye set off for "Charity
+House" and his relatives, he was even then a marked man.
+
+Into the sacredness of reunion, when the little family on the knoll were
+discussing all that had befallen them, on either side, and the two men
+were renewing old affections, while Hallam and Amy were forming new ones
+for this new uncle, there came an alarming summons.
+
+A local officer of the law presented himself before the group and on
+behalf of the public safety arrested the stranger.
+
+"Arrest me? Why, what in the name of justice do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say. For the attack upon a peaceful citizen, who lies at
+the point of death, brought there by your villainous hand," repeated the
+sheriff, solemnly. He so seldom had opportunity to exercise his office
+that he now embellished it with all the dignity possible.
+
+"Indeed, take care of your words, friend! It was a case of rescue, not
+attack. You are slightly mixed in your ideas, sir. I found him suffering
+a terrible horsewhipping at the hands of somebody whom I do not know,
+who slipped away from me when I seized him, and disappeared in the
+darkness. I was too anxious over Mr. Wingate to notice, or even care,
+which direction the rascal took. But--aha, it's too absurd!"
+
+"Remember that whatever you say will be used against you," cautioned the
+officer of the law.
+
+"Let it. I could ask no better treatment."
+
+"You say you grabbed a fellow. What was he like?"
+
+"It was too dark to see distinctly. He appeared rather tall and slim. I
+don't remember that he said a word, but he laughed harshly as he ran.
+Somehow, that laugh gave me the impression that the man was demented.
+But I have nothing else to judge by, and I would not be unjust. The
+thing for which to be thankful is that Dr. Wise hopes my kinsman's
+injuries are not fatal."
+
+"Hmm. All the same, sir, you will have to go with me."
+
+Frederic Kaye turned toward his friends a countenance which expressed as
+much amusement as annoyance. Cuthbert Kaye had risen, and his face was
+white with indignation. The sight of this, determined his brother-in-law
+to yield quietly to the inevitable. He had heard much during his night
+with Dr. Wise of the artist's recent condition, and he felt it would be
+criminal to let him become excited now. So he laid his hand
+affectionately upon the trembling shoulder, and remarked, with laughing
+disdain:--
+
+"Why, lad, don't think of it. It's a ludicrous mistake, of course, and
+the best, the simplest way to correct it is for me to go with this
+gentleman; and I doubt not I'll be back in time for dinner. Why, Cleena,
+woman, take care! It's delightful to find you so loyal to your 'black
+sheep,' but fisticuffs won't answer, nor even a shillalah."
+
+This was a diversion, and everybody laughed. For Cleena had advanced
+threateningly toward the sheriff, raising her rolling-pin, that she
+happened to have in hand, as if she would bring it down upon his
+offending head. Her hand dropped to her side, but her eyes did not cease
+to hurl contempt upon the officer, as, under cover of the merriment
+resulting, Frederic Kaye himself led the way out of the house toward the
+"bar of justice."
+
+Because Cleena fancied that Amy had taken cold, the girl had remained at
+home that morning, but she now begged to be allowed to return to the
+mill.
+
+"I want to go and see Mr. Metcalf. He'll be the very one to help Uncle
+Frederic, if he needs help, and I'd rather tell him the story myself."
+
+"If you go, I will too," said Hallam, quickly. "I'll have no holidays
+you do not share."
+
+"Nonsense! Your work is 'piece work.' If you get behind at one time,
+you can make it up at another. The superintendent told me you could soon
+bring it home to do, if you wished."
+
+"But I shall not wish--not for the present. Let us both go."
+
+Mr. Kaye looked up as if he would remonstrate. Then he took up a western
+newspaper that their guest had laid down, and began to read. But his
+children had seen his glance, and interpreted it to themselves by a
+swift exchange of their own. Amy's eyes spoke to her brother's, as
+plainly as words:--
+
+"We mustn't leave him alone to-day," and Hallam's had telegraphed
+back:--
+
+"No, I see that. One of us must stay."
+
+"Well, father, Hal is not half so necessary to the success of Ardsley
+Mill as I am. He's going to help you mount those sketches this morning,
+while I hunt up Uncle Frederic, and try to get a 'day off' to visit with
+him. Cleena must dish up the remains of the yesterday dinner for us, and
+we'll keep Christmas over again. Isn't it just lovely, lovely, to have
+one's relatives turn up in this delightful fashion? First, Cousin
+Archibald, behaving just like other folks; and now this romantic arrival
+of the long-lost uncle. Good-by. I'll be back as soon as I can."
+
+Mr. Kaye and Hallam repaired to the upper floor as Amy went away, but
+Cleena remained standing for a long time, motionless in the middle of
+the room. Her head was bent, and her gaze fixed, as if she were studying
+some matter deeply. Finally she roused with a mighty sigh and stalked
+out of the room.
+
+"Sure, the pother o' life. It's an' up an' down, so fast it makes a body
+dizzy in their wits. That boy, Fayetty, one day as good as a fine fish
+o' Friday; the next--eatin' me heart out with the worry. Never a doubt I
+doubt 'twas himself belabored the old man on his road home. There's bad
+blood 'twixt 'em. But I'll aye see if he's in his bed the now."
+
+So she ascended to the back chamber that Fayette used. To her knock
+there came, at first, no response; but she kept on with her tapping and
+interspersed this with coaxing tones, and finally a voice answered her.
+
+"What you want?"
+
+"Yerself, avick."
+
+"Well, you can't have me."
+
+"Can I no? It's two makes a bargain."
+
+"Clear out."
+
+"After you is manners for me. Come by."
+
+"Leave me alone."
+
+"I'd take shame to myself. Have ye heard the fine doin's? No?"
+
+"What doings?"
+
+"The lad's back from foreign parts, Miss Amy's uncle. He's the one has
+donkeys in his pocket. Heard ye ever o' him?"
+
+"Where's he at?"
+
+"Faith, I d' know. Belike he's after takin' a stroll about, meetin' old
+friends. What for no? Come on an' help me get a fine dinner out o'
+scraps."
+
+"Suppose he'd give me one?"
+
+"Never a doubt I doubt, _he'll give ye all ye deserve_. Come by. There's
+kindlin' to split an' praties to peel, an'--Whist! What's that I hear?"
+
+Fayette's curiosity was very strong. It had led him into trouble more
+than once. It now induced him to open the door and peep through.
+
+"What's that, Cleena? Anything happenin'?"
+
+"Arrah musha, but I think yes!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Sure, if ye're askin', I'm believin' it's Willyum Gladstone happenin'
+down in your minin' hole."
+
+"Huckleberries!"
+
+The door flew open, Fayette rushed by as if he could not move half fast
+enough. It seemed to Cleena he cleared the stairs with two bounds, and
+an instant after she heard him hurrying into the cellar at the same
+headlong pace.
+
+"Hmm. I thought that'd fetch him," she chuckled. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she had once heard the lad speak of using "giant
+powder," or some such explosive in his work of the underground passage.
+She had strictly forbidden this, and had carefully watched lest any
+suspicious material might be brought upon the premises. She had even
+persuaded Teamster John to examine the trench and the articles which
+Fayette had placed there. He had found nothing wrong, and the pick and
+the shovel had been so long disused that they had rusted. Of late Cleena
+had let William Gladstone play down there in the soft dirt, while she
+was busy at other things.
+
+"Alanna, the day!"
+
+Cleena followed her leader only a trifle less swiftly, and reached the
+top of the cellar stairs just in time to receive a whirling object plump
+in her arms. The object was the incipient statesman, and in a second
+more the half-wit had also reached the kitchen floor and had shut the
+door behind him.
+
+"I'll teach him to interfere with my gold mine!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FAIRACRES IS CLOSED.
+
+
+"Oh, Mr. Metcalf, may I come in?"
+
+The superintendent was alone in his office and admitted Amy at once.
+"Such strange things have happened, I've not come to work to-day, but to
+ask your help. My Uncle Frederic--"
+
+"Sit down, child, you are breathless with haste. You needn't talk. I
+have heard your news. Dr. Wise has sent me a message. I am expecting him
+here immediately."
+
+"Isn't it dreadful?"
+
+"Very," answered the gentleman, and his grave face emphasized his words.
+He knew Archibald Wingate better than anybody else could know him. He
+was the rich man's confidential employee, from whom no weaknesses were
+hid. He believed the mill owner to be vindictive, and he had heard his
+often-expressed contempt for the "whole family of Kaye, so far as its
+men are concerned." Of course, this had been some time ago; before
+Fairacres had become Mr. Wingate's home. Since then his enmity toward
+his relatives had seemed to slumber, it had even altered to a sort of
+friendliness; yet Mr. Metcalf had no faith in the endurance of this
+friendliness should any test be put upon it. The attack of the night
+before had pointed suspicion very strongly toward one of "the Kayes,"
+and should the victim recover, he would, doubtless, prosecute to the
+full extent of the law the person who had assaulted him.
+
+"Do you know how he is?"
+
+"Of whom do you ask?"
+
+"Cousin Archibald, of course. I am so sorry for him. If I hadn't to
+work, I would go and take care of him, if he'd let me."
+
+"I don't think he would. Besides, you would not be either strong or wise
+enough. He must have trained nursing, the best obtainable. I hear that
+he has recovered consciousness and is resting quietly. What
+complications may arise one cannot foresee. He has been a high liver,
+and he is an old man; but I hope for the best. I hope it not only for
+his sake, but everybody's concerned."
+
+"Wasn't it queer that that man, that officer,--a sheriff he called
+himself,--should come after my uncle? It frightened my father, so Hallam
+stayed with him. I'm sorry to be away from my place to-day, but Cleena
+fancies I have taken cold. Then, too, since Uncle Frederic came, of
+course I should devote myself to him. He's just splendid. So big and
+strong and jolly. Even under his sorrow about my mother he is as
+sunshiny as possible. He's like a fresh west wind that 'airs' a house
+so wonderfully. I do want you to see him; and I came to ask if you'd
+just go and explain to that sheriff how silly it is to suspect him."
+
+Mr. Metcalf regarded Amy for a moment in silence. With all her good
+sense, she was as ignorant as a child of many things in practical life.
+He answered her very gently:--
+
+"I expect to see him soon, that is my intention. Dr. Wise and I will
+become his 'bail', so that he can soon be set at liberty."
+
+"I do not understand you. What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, this: your uncle has been arrested upon suspicion of waylaying and
+assaulting Mr. Wingate. He will be imprisoned unless somebody becomes
+surety for him, that he will appear at court when summoned to stand his
+trial and prove his innocence if he can. It is right you should know
+this, though extremely disagreeable for me to speak of it."
+
+Amy's face paled as he talked. She did not wonder that her father had
+been frightened. The thing was horrible, and the disgrace of it crushed
+her. She bowed her head beneath its weight, and sat silent so long that
+the superintendent was moved to rise and comfort her.
+
+"Don't take it so to heart, my child; there is, of course, some great
+mistake. The thing is--to find out who the real assailant was and bring
+him to justice. This, unfortunately, will be a difficult matter."
+
+"No; I won't mind it. Why should I? If he had done this wicked thing, I
+should be right to feel shame; but he didn't. Oh! I've just thought of
+something that might help. Uncle Frederic said he caught the man by the
+collar, and the man slipped out of his coat and ran away. Where is the
+coat? Has anybody looked for it?"
+
+"Several persons, my own messenger among others. There is no trace of
+any garment anywhere near the highroad. If we could find that, as you
+say, it would simplify matters greatly. Come with me; I heard Nanette
+wishing she could show you her Christmas gifts. To hear her describe
+each, one would imagine she could see them. She is so interested about
+Balaam, too. She wonders where he is, and if he misses Pepita as much as
+she would miss one of her numerous sisters. When Dr. Wise has been here
+and we have concluded our business, I will call for you, probably, with
+your uncle. I have a new horse I'm anxious to try, and things are so
+unsettled here to-day--"
+
+"Unsettled?"
+
+"Yes; Ardsley doesn't often have such a sensation as its wealthiest
+citizen being horsewhipped. It's difficult to get the hands to work
+regularly. It's just as well you do not try, till it's blown over. You
+would be asked no end of questions, idle as the people who would put
+them."
+
+In his kind heart he wished to save her not only the questions, but the
+shadow which might rest upon her because of her misjudged relative. By
+nightfall, or earlier, he was determined to have the Californian set at
+liberty. It was an outrage that one who acted the good Samaritan should
+receive such reward, and he believed that two as influential townsmen as
+Dr. Wise and himself could, by their indorsement of the prisoner, turn
+the tide of public opinion in his favor.
+
+So Amy went again to the Metcalf home and forgot all her cares in the
+midst of its bright young people. The hours went swiftly round, and it
+was not till the gate clicked and a trio of gentlemen came striding up
+the path that she remembered how anxious she had been.
+
+Then she sped out of the house and flung herself into her uncle's arms.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad they found out their mistake! How ashamed that sheriff
+will be! Please, Mr. Metcalf, may I show him his own little Pepita, that
+was? And thank you for helping him to explain, or for the 'bail,' and
+everything. Thank you, too, Dr. Wise. Do you know how Mr. Wingate is?"
+
+"Improving. He's pretty badly scared and shocked, but I think he will
+come out all right."
+
+"Can he tell who struck him? That would clear everything up all right."
+
+"Yes; it would be a simple solution of the matter. I am hoping he will
+be able to tell, after a while; but for the present my object is to
+prevent, as far as possible, his recalling the incident. He must not be
+excited, else there may be fever. But all in good time, I think. Now Mr.
+Metcalf has invited us to ride behind his new horse. I have an hour of
+leisure, and I propose to show this old Ardsley boy the changes a few
+years have made, even in our quiet town. Did I hear anything about a
+small girl named Amy being one of the party?"
+
+"Indeed, you did. Oh, what a treat! A real Christmas gift. To ride
+behind a brand new horse, beside a brand new uncle, in a brand new
+carriage, is enough to turn my head; so forgive me if I'm silly--sillier
+than common. And oh, Mr. Metcalf, can't Nanette go too? She's so little
+she takes up no room worth mentioning, and I love her."
+
+It was a merry party. Amy believed that all the morning's trouble had
+been overcome, and did not realize that being out on bail was in itself
+sort of an imprisonment to a man of honor. Until the real culprit was
+found Frederic Kaye would still be under suspicion; yet he could enjoy
+his parole, and this ride had been purposely planned by his friends as a
+means of influencing that variable public opinion which had first
+promptly misjudged him.
+
+Therefore, they drove through the principal streets of the town, past
+all its business places, and lingered by the haunts of the village
+gossips, that Ardsleyites might see and comment.
+
+"Well, if that don't beat all!" exclaimed Mrs. Hackett to her
+customers. "There's Dr. Wise and the 'Supe' driving Mister Fred all over
+creation. I guess they don't believe anything against him, bad as things
+look. I don't know as 'tis right, either. I guess I'll wait and see
+before I make up my mind."
+
+But having already spread the "news" by means of every villager who had
+visited her place of business that morning, this was rather late in
+season to stem the tide of rumor; though on the principle of "better
+late than never," it may have done some good.
+
+When the ride was over and the Kayes deposited at the door of "Charity
+House," Amy was in the wildest of spirits. It seemed to her as if the
+world were the loveliest, friendliest place, and her gayety infected all
+about her. The gentlemen accompanied Mr. Frederic into the new home and
+spent an hour delightfully with the artist, amid his pictures. Then
+Cleena, aided by Amy, brought in a tray of luncheon, and they stayed to
+share it.
+
+"Blessings on Teamster John's turkey. What a lot of comfort it has given
+lots of folks!" remarked Amy to Cleena, in the kitchen, as she surveyed
+the neatly arranged tray.
+
+"Yes, so be. Arrah musha, were the man as sensible as his fowl I'd know.
+But, colleen, keep an eye to that back door. Fayette's behind, in the
+store closet. It's behind he must stay or there's mischief a-brewin'."
+
+"Indeed, I wonder he isn't putting himself forward, to attract Uncle
+Frederic's notice, as he always does of strangers. Well, poor lad, I
+fancy the introduction can wait. When you've carried in the tray, I'll
+go and serve them."
+
+But after the light meal was over and the guests departed, Hallam became
+absorbed in the new magazines that his uncle produced from his valise;
+while the elder Kayes dropped back into the reminiscences that were so
+interesting to themselves and so dull to Amy. Try as she would, now that
+all was quiet, she could not keep from her mind a picture of Archibald
+Wingate, riding home from a pleasant visit and suffering such mischance.
+
+"My first little dinner-party, too. I must go and see him. I must tell
+him that I am sorry. I must offer to help."
+
+So, after a while, as the afternoon waned, Amy put on her outdoor
+things, and telling only Cleena her errand, set off for Fairacres. She
+was admitted by a strange servant, and was passing straight toward the
+room which her cousin occupied when she was met and prevented by
+Marshall.
+
+"If you please, miss, he's allowed to see nobody."
+
+"Not even me? Surely, I will not disturb him. I won't even speak to him,
+if that will hurt him. I just want to satisfy myself how badly he's
+injured, and maybe smile at him. Just that little bit. Oh, Mr. Marshall,
+isn't it so sad! I'm so very, very sorry."
+
+"Yes, and well you might be, miss. No, not even to look at him. He's
+not to be worried by nobody."
+
+So Amy went sorrowfully home again, and as she had to resume her labor
+in the mill at such an early hour the following day, she could not
+repeat her visit until another night came round. Frederic Kaye had gone
+to the mansion, however, and had been coldly assured by the officious
+Marshall that "the master was doing well." This bulletin had been issued
+through the upper half of the old-fashioned door, which opened across
+its middle, and to effect an entrance the caller would have had to force
+the bolts of the lower half. The valet regarded the Californian with
+suspicion that, as the latter admitted, was not ill-founded; and he had
+not forgotten the feel of the stranger's boot-toe on the night of the
+accident. So he kept a safe barricade of the premises, and Frederic also
+went away unsatisfied.
+
+For several days these visits were repeated, with similar results; but
+when Sunday came round and she had daylight for her purpose, Amy again
+hurried to Fairacres.
+
+"I'll see him this time, if I have to climb over Marshall's objecting
+shoulders," she merrily cried to Cleena, as she departed.
+
+But when she reached the old homestead she found it desolate. The light
+snow which had fallen overnight lay everywhere undisturbed. No paths had
+been cleared nor entrances swept. The windows were closed and shuttered
+as Amy never had seen them. Even the stables were shut up and deserted;
+and after a half hour of vain efforts to arouse somebody, the
+disappointed girl returned to "Charity House."
+
+"Troth, ye went away like a feather, an' you come home like a log.
+What's happened, me colleen?"
+
+"He's gone. I can't see him. I can't tell him. Oh, I'm so sorry, so
+sorry!"
+
+To comfort her, Uncle Frederic paid a visit to Dr. Wise, and came back
+with news that was not very satisfactory. Without consulting the
+physician, Mr. Wingate had suddenly decided to go south for the winter.
+Marshall had attended to everything. The horses and cattle had been sent
+from Fairacres to one of the outlying farms belonging to the estate.
+There was no reference to future return, and Mr. Metcalf had been
+instructed to settle all accounts. Beyond this there was no mention of
+anybody, and no address was left except that of the mill owner's city
+bankers, who would forward any necessary papers. Mr. Wingate had gone
+away for absolute rest, and wished not to hear from Ardsley unless under
+extreme necessity.
+
+So Amy's dream of a reunited family, of that peace and happiness which
+should exist between Fairacres and "Charity House," came to an end. But
+other hopes and plans took its place, and she returned to her mill work
+on the Monday, too busy and eager to spend time in useless regret.
+
+"The best thing about life," observed this wise young person to her
+Uncle Frederic, "is that it has to keep right on. There's so much to do,
+and the days are so short, if a body grieves one moment he's sure to
+laugh the next. And, uncle, I've such a lovely idea about a 'club' for
+the mill folks. To take the place of one that--doesn't seem to help them
+much. I believe you're the very man to arrange everything, and that you
+were sent home just in time."
+
+"Wh-e-w! A Daniel come to judgment? No, a faithful daughter of a brave,
+unselfish woman. You'll never be Salome, little girl, but maybe you will
+be an improvement even on her. All her good sense with a little
+more--snap."
+
+"Considerable more snap than wisdom, I fancy," laughed she, and sped
+down the hill to join Gwendolyn for her walk millward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+MYSTERIES AND MASTERIES.
+
+
+"Sure, Mister Frederic, I'd be proud to show ye the cellar that's doin'
+below. Would he mind comin' the now?"
+
+"A 'cellar below' is surely in its proper place. I'll be delighted to
+view it, Mistress Goodsoul."
+
+"Alanna, it was ever yourself had a jest an' a twist of a body's words!
+To my notion, it's a tidy job, but I sometimes misgives it's no all
+right for the house."
+
+"Then it surely should be looked after. Who's doing it for you?"
+
+"That silly one I was tellin' you about. He's--he's--" The woman glanced
+over her shoulder, as if she feared to be heard. This was a curious
+circumstance in the case of one so frank as she, and her old friend
+commented on it.
+
+"Why so mysterious, Cleena? Secrets afoot? But it's after Christmas, not
+before it."
+
+"Come by."
+
+He followed her gayly down the stairs into the one central cellar, and
+from this slightly farther into another, being opened toward the side.
+She carried a lighted candle in her hand, and pointed with pride to the
+neatness of the work as far as it had proceeded.
+
+"Nobody could ha' done it finer, eh?"
+
+"It seems all right. The walls will have to be supported, of course,
+though it looks a solid rock. Old Ingraham obeyed the Scripture
+injunction in letter, if not in spirit. What does Cuthbert think of
+this?"
+
+"The same as of most things--nothin' at all. So long as he's his bit
+pictures an' books to pore over, the very house might tumble about his
+ears an' no heed. There's been no nerve frettin' nor crossness since the
+mistress was called--not once. He's a saint the now. But it's aye good
+ye're come home, Mister Fred."
+
+"And it's good to hear you say so, old friend. Yet if it suits you just
+as well, I'd prefer to have you say it up in the open. I'm not a lover
+of dark cellars, or of holes that may be cellars some day. Come out of
+it; it gives me the 'creeps.'"
+
+"Ye believe it's all safe, eh?"
+
+"Safe enough so far."
+
+"Come by. If you like not this place, you must e'en bide the kitchen a
+bit. I've somewhat to speak to you."
+
+Cleena started back over the way they had come, and Mr. Kaye was
+following her, when he stumbled against something soft, and fell
+headlong in the mud; but he was up again in an instant, no worse for the
+accident save by the soil upon his clothing. He had grasped the thing
+over which he had tripped, and held it up to the candle-light.
+
+"Hello! Seems to me I've seen this garment, or felt it, before. That
+peculiarity of a cloth coat with a leather collar is noticeable. Whose
+is it, Cleena?"
+
+"Fetch it," she commanded tersely, and he obeyed her. Once in the better
+lighted kitchen she extinguished the candle, carefully closed all the
+doors, and seated herself near her visitor. She had taken the coat from
+him, and laid it upon her own knees. Her manner was still full of that
+mystery which consorted so oddly with her honest, open face.
+
+"I thought so. I thought so, so I did."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"Cease yer haverin', lad. There's matter here."
+
+"Considerable. Upon my clothes, too. The matter seems to be of the same
+sort--rather brown and sticky, what the farmers call 'loom.'"
+
+"Know you whose coat this be?"
+
+"Never a know I know," he mimicked, enjoying his bit of nonsense with
+this old friend of his youth.
+
+"It's Fayetty's."
+
+"Your superior cellar digger? Whew!"
+
+He had now become quite as serious as she desired. "Cleena, this is a
+bad business. This coat was on the back of the man who horsewhipped Mr.
+Wingate."
+
+"I thought it; but, mind you, me lad, he's not for punishin'."
+
+"Hold on, he certainly _is_. Don't you know that I--I, a Kaye, am under
+suspicion of this dastardly thing? Of course you do. Well, then, I'm
+going to step out from under the suspicion with neatness and despatch.
+How long have you been hiding this, Cleena?"
+
+"The poor chap's been here ever since. Only once a day he slips out, but
+he's back by night. Oh, he's safe enough the now."
+
+"Glad of it. Like to have him handy; and as soon as you've finished what
+you have to say, I'll walk into the village and inform the sheriff, or
+somebody who should know."
+
+"You'll do naught like it."
+
+"Why, Cleena, woman, have you lost your good sense?"
+
+"Have I saved it, no? Hear me. I know 'twas me poor little Gineral
+Bonyparty 't did the deed. I knew, soon as I heard the tale o' the coat.
+You're no so stupid yerself. You recognized it immediate. It was a part
+o' his uniform he wore a-paradin'. His notion 'twould save the collar
+clean o' the jacket I fixed him. He's never no care in all his hard life
+till he met up with me. The poor little gossoon!"
+
+"Cleena, Cleena, turncoat! Wasn't I once, on a day gone by, another
+'poor little gossoon'? But come, drop nonsense; it's a disgracefully
+serious business for me and for your whole family."
+
+"It's because o' the family I say it. The lad's for no punishin'. Not
+yet. You're big an' strong, an' uncommon light o' heart. It'll do ye no
+harm. The suspicioned you must be till--Wait lad. You loved the
+mistress, Salome?"
+
+"Why, Cleena, you know it!"
+
+"Love you her childer?"
+
+"Dearly; for their sakes I must shake off this obnoxious misjudgment."
+He shrugged his shoulders as if the obloquy were a tangible load that
+could be shifted.
+
+"Hallam, the cripple, that's walked never a step since a diny dony
+thing, an' a bad nurse set him prone on the cold stones o' the nasty
+cellar house where her kind lived. That winter in the town, an' me
+mindin' the mistress with Miss Amy a babe. How could we watch all the
+time? He must have the air, what for no? An' her with a face as smooth
+as bees-wax. Down on the cold, damp stones she'd put him, whiles off
+with her young man she'd be trapesin', an' him made a cripple for life."
+
+"Yes, Cleena, I remember it all. And how, as Amy tells me, almost a
+fortune has been spent to restore him. But if ever I earn enough to try
+again, I'll never rest till every doctor in the world, who understands
+such things, shall tell me there is no hope."
+
+"Good lad. Aye, aye, _good lad_!"
+
+The gentleman looked at her in amazement. This had been the old
+servant's term of commendation when he had refrained from some of his
+youthful and natural mischievousness. She seemed to mean it just as
+earnestly now. Suddenly she leaned forward and placed her hands upon his
+knees.
+
+"Say it again, avick. You'd do all in your power for me darlin' Master
+Hallam, what for no?"
+
+"What idleness to ask! I would give anything in this world to see him
+cured."
+
+"The Kayes are aye proud, in troth. Yer honor, lad; _even yer honor_?"
+
+"Hmm, well--yes. Even my honor."
+
+"Hark to me."
+
+For five minutes thereafter Cleena talked, and not once did her listener
+interrupt. Her words were spoken in that sibilant whisper that is louder
+than ordinary speech, and not one of them was lost. When she had
+finished, she rose and demanded, laying her hand upon Mr. Kaye's
+shoulder:--
+
+"Now, Mister Fred, will ye leave me gineral be?"
+
+"Yes, Cleena. For the present, till a final test comes, he shall be safe
+from any interference from me. I'll take him under my personal
+protection. I'll make myself his friend. He shall have a fair chance. If
+he fails--"
+
+"He'll no fail! he'll no fail, laddie! Such as him is the Lord's own.
+Whist, alanna, here he comes."
+
+Fayette approached the entrance, walking stealthily, and casting furtive
+glances toward that part of the building where the guest had hitherto
+remained. Apparently satisfied that the coast was clear, he crept to
+the door and tapped it twice.
+
+Cleena nodded her head, and Frederic Kaye opened to admit the boy, who
+would have retreated when he saw the stranger, had not his arm been
+caught and held so firmly he could not writhe himself free.
+
+"Leave me alone. What you doin'?"
+
+"Why, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you since Christmas night."
+
+"'Twasn't me. I never done it. Leave me be. Huckleberries! I'll smash
+ye!"
+
+"Why, Fayette, I'm astonished. Be quiet, listen. I know you--I know all
+about you. You have got to behave. You must stay here and do exactly
+what Cleena and I tell you to do. You'll be treated well. I'll show you
+how you can make a lot of that money you like so much; upon condition,
+though--upon the one condition that you simply behave correctly. You are
+wise enough to understand me. If you disobey or prove tricky--well, I
+have but to hand you over to the law and you're settled. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"You mean, if I don't mind, they'll jail me?"
+
+"That's it, exactly. You're cleverer than I hoped."
+
+"All right; I'll do it. Say, I believe Balaam's sick."
+
+"Balaam? Have you got him, too? Are you a horse thief as well as
+highwayman? Well, poor fellow, it's lucky your lot is cast in this
+peaceful valley instead of on the frontier. Where is he?"
+
+"I rode him to a place I know. There was plenty o' fodder once, but
+it's been took. He hain't had much to eat, an' maybe that's it. I was
+bound old Wingate shouldn't get him."
+
+"Look here, young man, call nobody names. That's not allowed. And now
+you travel after Balaam. If he's too sick for you to manage alone, I'll
+go with you; if not, you must do it. How far away is he?"
+
+"Not more 'n a mile."
+
+"Fetch him. I've something to tell you, for your own benefit. I'll teach
+you how to grow mushrooms, down in that cellar you're digging.
+Well-grown ones will bring you a dollar a pound. I know, I've raised
+them. I'd made a fortune only I love daylight and hate darkness. If you
+can stand the underground part just for fun, you'll make it pay."
+
+"Huckleberries! I'll get him. I'll hurry back."
+
+As if he expected the new enterprise to begin that very night the lad
+started down the hill. Already there was a manlier bearing about his
+ill-shaped body. The necessity for hiding which he had felt had been
+removed, and he was a free lad again.
+
+An hour later Frederic Kaye saw him reappear, riding the apparently
+restored burro, and smiled grimly.
+
+"Hmm. Well, I'm in for it. I'm to remain under the cloud for an
+indefinite time. If it succeeds--I'll not regret. If it doesn't, maybe
+the Lord will square it up to my account, against the thoughtless
+neglect I showed Salome. Now, I'll go out and interview my old
+acquaintance of the Sierras. I wonder is his voice as mellifluous as
+erstwhile!"
+
+"Br-a-a-ay! Ah-umph! A-h-h-u-m-p-h!!" responded Balaam, from afar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+A PICNIC IN THE GLEN.
+
+
+It is amazing how fast time flies when one is busy. At "Charity House"
+all were busy, and to all the winter passed with incredible swiftness.
+
+To Amy each day seemed too short to accomplish half she desired, and
+each one held some new, fascinating interest in that study of life which
+so absorbed her.
+
+"You're the funniest girl, Amy. Even the lengthening of the days,
+getting a little lighter in the mornings, week by week, so we can see
+the sun rise and such things, as we walk to work--I'd never think of it,
+'cept for you."
+
+"Now you do think of it, isn't it interesting?"
+
+"Yes, I like it. Things seem to mean something, now I know you. Before,
+well--'pears like I didn't think at all; I just slid along and took no
+notice."
+
+"But it's so wonderful. Everything is wonderful,--even the way the
+months have gone. Here it is spring, the bloodroot lying in a white
+drift along the brookside, and the yellow lilies opening their funny
+tooth-shaped petals everywhere in the woods. Yet only a minute ago, as
+it seems, the dead leaves were falling, and I was on my way for the
+first time to work in the mill. I belong there now, a part of it. I have
+almost forgotten how it used to be when I was so idle."
+
+"Seems to me you could never have been idle, Amy. Anyway, you've got on
+splendid. The 'Supe' says he never had a girl go ahead so fast. Isn't it
+grand, though, to be out of the mill this lovely day? Saturday-half
+means ever so much more fun now than it used to do, and doesn't cost
+half so much money. Don't worry you half so much either, as it did to go
+shopping all the time. Say, Amy, I've about got Mis' Hackett paid up."
+
+"I'm delighted; it must be wretched to feel one's self in debt, I
+think."
+
+"It's mighty nice to feel one's self out of it. I've got you to thank
+for that, too, 'long of lots of other things. Isn't the club doing fine?
+We wouldn't have had that, either, but for you."
+
+"Nonsense! Indeed, you would. Hallam was as interested as I in the
+subject; and as soon as we told Uncle Fred, he was even more eager than
+we. But it is to father we all owe the most, I think."
+
+"So do I. To dream of a splendid gentleman like him, and such a painter,
+taking so much time and trouble just for a lot of mill folks, I think
+it's grand. I don't understand how he can."
+
+"Seeing that his own two children are 'mill folks,' I can, readily,"
+answered Amy, laughing. "But, indeed, I know he would go on with it now
+just as thoroughly, even if we were not in the case at all."
+
+This talk occurred one lovely afternoon when the half-holiday made a
+club picnic a possible and most delightful thing. The two girls,
+Gwendolyn and Amy, were a little earlier than the others, and were on
+their way to the appointed meeting place, "Treasure Island," a small
+piece of wooded ground rising in the middle of the Ardsley's widest
+span. From the island to the banks, on either side, were foot-bridges,
+and in the grove tables and benches had been built by the lads of the
+organization. It was an ideal picnic ground, and these were ideal
+picnickers; for those who toil the hardest on most days of the week
+enter most heartily into the recreations they do secure.
+
+The girls were passing down into the glen where Amy had once lost her
+way and been rescued by Fayette. It seemed so long ago that she could
+hardly realize how few months had really elapsed.
+
+She spoke of the matter to her companion, who seemed to be in a
+reflective mood that afternoon, and who again remarked upon the change
+in the mill boy, also.
+
+"Your uncle and Cleena Keegan have made him different, too. He's as
+proud as Punch of his mushroom raising, isn't he? He owes that to Mister
+Fred; but, odd! he's as scared of Cleena as if she owned him. He didn't
+forgive that thing about Balaam, and seems to feel he has a right to
+him, same's Mr. Metcalf has."
+
+"Poor old Balaam, he's made a lot of trouble, first and last; but I
+guess he's all right now, only Cleena won't let Fayette talk of him. She
+says it's 'punishment,'--the only sort she can inflict. I don't
+understand why she wants him punished, anyway."
+
+"Maybe for stealing him that Christmas night out of Mr. Wingate's
+stable."
+
+"Possibly; I don't know. She's like a mother puss with her kitten. One
+minute she pets him to foolishness, the next she gives him a mental slap
+that reduces him to the humblest, most timid mood. Well, I'm glad the
+burro business is settled, though it's odd how Fayette covets that
+animal; and the exercise of going up and down to his work, the days he
+has to go, isn't hurting Hallam at all. I never knew him to be so well
+and strong as he seems this spring."
+
+"Amy, how was it about Balaam? Ma says she never heard the rights of it
+yet. And say, she likes that book you lent her, about the woman went
+round the world alone, visiting them hospitals, better 'n any novel she
+ever read. She's going to give up the other story papers soon as the
+subscription runs out an' take one o' them library tickets you were
+telling about, or your uncle, where they send the books to you by mail
+and you can have your choose of hundreds. Say, wouldn't it be prime if
+we could get a big library here?"
+
+"Grand! We will, some day, too."
+
+"My! You say such things as if you expected them to be. How, I'd like to
+know?"
+
+"Well, if in no other way, by just us mill folks banding together and
+making a beginning. Indeed, I think my father would give his own little
+library as a start. There's a fine one at Fairacres, and I'm hoping when
+Cousin Archibald comes back he'll get interested in our work and help
+along."
+
+"Might as well look for miracles."
+
+"I do. I'm always finding them, too. There's one at your very feet.
+Don't tread upon it, please."
+
+Stooping, the girl pulled Gwendolyn's dress away from a tiny green
+speck, growing in dangerous proximity to the wood road.
+
+"What's it?"
+
+"This baby fern."
+
+"All that fuss about a fern!"
+
+"It's life, it's struggle. See, so dainty, so fine, yet so plucky,
+forcing its soft frond up through the earth, among all these bits of
+rocks; never stopping, never fearing, just trusting the Creator and
+doing its duty. It would be a pity to end it so soon."
+
+"Amy, did I ever! Well, there it is again. I shall never be able to
+crush anything like that without remembering what you've said just now.
+I--I wish you wouldn't. It makes me feel sort of wicked. And that's
+silly, just for a fern."
+
+"Gwen, anything that makes us more merciful can't be silly. Heigho!
+there are the picnickers all coming along the banks and over the
+bridges. Truly, a goodly company, yet we began with just you and Lionel,
+Mary Reese, Hallam, and me. Now there are a hundred members, old and
+young. There's one of the everyday miracles for you!"
+
+The vigorous young association which went by the name of the "Ardsley
+Club" flourished beyond even Amy's most sanguine expectation. Three
+rooms of "Charity House," the sunny western side of the higher story,
+had been cheerfully offered by Mr. Kaye as a home for the club. These
+rooms he had had fitted up under his own supervision, though the work
+had been done by the members themselves, in hours after mill duties were
+over. The color mixer had supplied the material with which the once ugly
+white walls were tinted; and upon the soft-hued groundwork there had
+been stencilled a delicate conventional design. At one end of the large
+room designated the "reading room" a scroll bore the legend which old
+Adam Burns had given Amy as a "rule of life": "Simplicity, Sincerity,
+Sympathy," and opposite gleamed in golden letters the other maxim: "Love
+Conquers All."
+
+"Love, Simplicity, Sincerity, and Sympathy, which is the synonym of
+Love, and forms with it the golden circle," was adopted as one of the
+by-laws, and it is true that each member endeavored to keep this one
+law inviolably. The result was a spirit of peace and goodwill rarely
+found in a gathering of so many varying natures. It had been Mr. Kaye's
+idea to make the affair one of no expense to the members, outside of his
+own household, but Frederic promptly vetoed that.
+
+"In the first place, there are none of us rich enough to do such a
+thing. There will be lights, firing, musical instruments, books, current
+literature, games--any number of things that cost money. Amy's idea is
+fine. A club of the right sort will be a powerful factor for good in
+this community of mill workers, but it must be made self-supporting. If
+you give the use of the rooms and will act as instructor along some
+lines,--art and literature, which you comprehend better than
+financiering, respected brother,--you will have done your generous
+share. Amy and Cleena will keep the rooms in order, with occasional aid
+from the girl members--after we secure them. A small sum, contributed by
+each member, will run the whole concern. People who are as constantly
+employed as these mill operatives have not the leisure nor means to
+acquire a book education, but a more intelligent, wider-awake, more
+receptive class is not to be found. Yet let nobody dare to approach them
+with anything at all in the nature of 'charity' or mental almsgiving.
+Your democrat beats your aristocrat in the matter of pride every time,
+and that is a paradox for you to consider. I relinquish the floor."
+
+"After having exhausted the subject," laughed Hallam. But the subject
+had not been exhausted. Amy proposed the matter the very next day, at
+"nooning," and secured the members as mentioned by her to Gwendolyn. In
+a week the membership had doubled; and as soon as the affair was really
+comprehended, that it was a mutual benefit organization in the highest
+sense of the word, applications were plentiful.
+
+Uncle Frederic had been a literal globe-trotter, and his journeyings on
+foot made him able to discourse in a familiar way of things no
+guide-book ever points out. Nor did Cleena's good cookery come in for
+any poor show among these healthy, happy folk. The club paid for the
+simple refreshments provided at their weekly "socials," and Cleena
+prepared them. Even this day, for their out-of-door reunion, she had
+made all the needful preparations, and had been so busy she had scarcely
+remembered to keep a close watch upon Fayette.
+
+"But troth, it's no more nor right he should take his bit fun with the
+rest," she remarked to herself, as she pulled the last tin of biscuits
+from the chimney oven and spread them with sweet butter and daintily
+sliced tongue. "He's aye restless betimes; and--but it's comin', it's
+comin', me blessed gossoon!"
+
+But to whom Cleena's exclamation referred it would have been difficult
+to say,--though possibly to Fayette, as her next words seemed to
+indicate. For the good creature still "conversed with Cleena" in every
+instance when she happened to be left alone, it being a necessity of
+her friendly nature that she should talk to somebody.
+
+"Me gineral's never got over the burro business yet, alanna! An' it do
+seem hard how 't one has so little an' t' other so much. That Mr.
+'Super' Metcalf now, as fine a man as treads shoe leather, never a doubt
+I doubt, yet himself judgin' it fair, since the man Wingate wanted the
+beast, the man Wingate should have him. Anyway, there he stands, brayin'
+his head off in the 'Supe's' stable, in trust for the old man'll never
+bestride him. Nobody rides him at all, Miss Amy says; yet here's me
+gineral heart-broke for him; an' the cripple goin' afoot; an' all them
+little Metcalfs envyin' an' covetin'; an' all because a man who's word
+is law said he'd take him for rent an' just kept him, whether or no. But
+a good job it was when Mister Fred come home, with money for rent an' a
+few trifles, but not much besides. Well, where's the need? Eight dollars
+a week is Miss Amy's wage now, God bless her! an' Master Hal's nigh the
+same,--let alone them bit pictures the master's be's doin' constant.
+Mister Fred's the knack o' sellin' 'em too. Well, if the mistress could
+see--and hark, me fathers! What's that?"
+
+Down in the fragrant glen and on the little island the hungry
+"Ardsleyites" waited long for the promised supper; and up on Bareacre
+knoll things were happening that would provide another sensation for the
+little town, quiet now since the Christmas horsewhipping episode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A DOUBLE INHERITANCE IN A SINGLE DAY.
+
+
+Almost before she asked it, Cleena answered her own question.
+
+"The powder! the powder! It's Fayetty a-meddlin'! Oh, is he killed, the
+witless gossoon?"
+
+Then she turned toward the stairway leading into the cellar, and from
+whence she had heard the dull roar, and now imagined she saw smoke as
+she certainly did smell suggestive fumes. She needed not to descend,
+however, for at the stair's head the lad rushed against her, bruising
+her with something hard and heavy that he carried, and thus dispelling
+her first fear of his personal injury.
+
+"Fayetty--Fayetty! Hold by! What's amiss? What's--"
+
+He deposited a box upon the kitchen table, plump in the tray of
+biscuits, and catching Cleena about the waist began to execute a
+grotesque dance with her for helpless partner. After a moment she was
+able to extricate herself from his frantic clutch and to demand
+sternly:--
+
+"Ye omahaun, are ye gone daft?"
+
+"It's money, Cleena Keegan! _It's money!_ The cellar's full of it!
+Money, money, money! Chests full, cellars full--oh! oh! oh!"
+
+Then did her eye fall upon the box and the spot where it rested, and
+indignation seized her soul. With one grasp of her strong hands she
+flung it to the floor, where it fell heavily, cracked, and burst
+asunder.
+
+Both were then too astonished to speak. Fayette's wildest dreams had,
+evidently, come true. Cleena could not believe her eyes. Never in all
+her life had she seen so many precious coins. They were dimmed by age
+and moisture, yet, unmistakably, they were of gold, with a few that
+might be silver. All the fairy tales of her beloved Ireland rushed
+through her mind, and she regarded the half-wit with a new veneration.
+
+"Sure, you're one o' them elf-men, I believe; that different from
+ordinary you can even make dollars o' doughnuts. Arrah musha, 'twas a
+smart decent day when Miss Amy fetched you home to Fairacres! Sent, was
+ye, to make the old family rich; and the marvel o' cure in your long,
+lean hands. Troth, I'm struck all of a heap."
+
+But Fayette was not. He had never been so active. He began to gather up
+the coins which had been scattered by the breaking of the chest and, for
+want of something better in which to store them, pulled Cleena's apron
+from her waist and piled them in that. She sat on, silently regarding
+him. For a few minutes she honestly believed that he was a genuine
+specimen of the "little people" who were said to make green Erin their
+favorite home. But when he began to gabble in a hoarse, excited tone of
+how he had long been expecting this "find"; how he had watched his
+opportunity when all the household should be absent that he might
+disobey and use the explosive that would lessen his labor so greatly,
+she came back to common sense.
+
+[Illustration: "HE BEGAN TO GATHER UP THE COINS."]
+
+"So you've been lookin' for it, have ye? Well, now you've got it, but ye
+might ha' been killed in the job. What for no? With Mister Fred gone to
+town an' him tellin' ye most explicit ye should no touch nor meddle at
+all. Was aught like this found in either of them mushroom ones?"
+
+"I--don't--know," answered Fayette, slowly, still stooping and tying his
+bundle. "If there was--that man's--got it. It was _mine_. _I_ begun the
+digging. I--"
+
+"An' he finished, eh? Well, you take up your pack an' put it here in my
+dresser. Then go wash your face. Such a sight! Hold, did ye any more
+harm there below?"
+
+"Harm! harm! to dig such a treasure as this out of my mine? Well, if I
+used only a little bit of powder and got so much, what a lot I might
+have found if I'd used more. I'll bet the whole ground is full."
+
+"Oh, ye silly! Put that stuff down. It's makin' ye lose what little
+sense you've got. An', me neighbor, look here. See them beautiful
+biscuits all spoiled the day, the day!"
+
+This reminded the lad that he was hungry. He had been hard at work all
+day in the underground passage, the third and last of those he had set
+out to make beneath "Charity House." The first two had been completed,
+the walls shored, the rich beds for mushroom-raising made upon the dark
+damp floors. Already these beds were dotted with the white growths, that
+in a marvellous short time would be full-grown mushrooms and finding a
+place upon many an epicure's table.
+
+That very hour, even, Frederic Kaye was in the city negotiating for
+their regular sale at profitable prices; and wondering not a little, it
+may be, at the strange fact that "Spite House," instead of being the
+barren, unproductive spot at first supposed, would prove instead a
+veritable mine of support to the whole household. Of that other
+"mining," with its anticipated results in gold of which Fayette had
+sometimes babbled, Mr. Kaye took no account. Old Jacob Ingraham who
+built the house had been a hard, close-fisted man, if all accounts were
+true, and not at all likely to deposit his money in the ground, when
+there were investments which would help to increase it. But of old
+Jacob's wife, history said little, and Frederic never thought.
+
+Fayette placed the apron in the cupboard, as he had been bidden, and
+when he would have added the broken box also, Cleena prevented.
+
+"Oh, ye dirty boy! That--that mouldy, muddy, nasty thing! No, no! No,
+no!" and she tossed it unceremoniously into the box of kindling-wood.
+In the roomy "Dutch" oven in the wall she had baked many of her picnic
+biscuits, and she regarded the ruin Fayette had wrought among her
+sandwiches with an air absurdly sad.
+
+Now he had no scruples against a bit of dirt, and had already crammed
+his mouth full of the broken food, when Cleena looked round and saw him.
+His mouth was distended with laughter as well as bread, and this
+provoked her still further. Sweeping her long arm over the table, she
+brushed all the sandwiches into a big pan that stood conveniently near,
+and remarked grimly:--
+
+"Not another bite o' better food do you get till them's all ate."
+
+"All right. I like 'em. But what's the picnickers goin' to do?"
+
+"The best they can. An' you're to help. Go wash your hands."
+
+"I have."
+
+"Again, once more; then show 'em to me."
+
+The lad laughingly obeyed. Then demanded:--
+
+"What for?"
+
+Cleena replied by action rather than word. She tied a fresh gingham
+apron about his shoulders and brought the strings around in front so
+that his mud-stained clothing was entirely covered. Then she led him to
+her kneading-table and set a bucket of sifted flour before him.
+
+"Make biscuit."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"Three hundred. Fall to, measure, I'll count."
+
+She did. For two whole hours the pair labored in that kitchen, Fayette
+kneading, cutting out, slipping the pans into the ovens and removing
+them; while Cleena spread and cut tongue after tongue, till even more
+than the original supply had been reproduced. Then she paused and looked
+up.
+
+There stood Teamster John in the doorway, smiling and watching Fayette's
+new occupation with genuine surprise.
+
+"Shucks! makin' a cook out of him? Ain't ye rather late with your
+luncheon? I drove up to carry the baskets down to the 'Island.'"
+
+"Humph! Ready they was, fast enough. But--man, look here," and she
+opened the cupboard door to draw forth the apron of gold.
+
+"No, you shan't! He shan't touch it! It's mine--it's mine!" cried
+Fayette, and snatched the bundle from her hands. He had not tied it
+securely, and again the long-buried coins rolled into the sunlight and
+spread themselves over the floor.
+
+"To the--land's--sake!"
+
+"They're mine--they're all mine--every single one. I found 'em. I
+blasted 'em out. Nobody shall touch them--nobody!"
+
+"You--blasted them--out? From the cellar of this house? You--simpleton!"
+
+"Like to ha' done it yourself, hey?"
+
+"No; but I'm sorrier than I can tell that ever you were let to fool with
+powder. How'd Mister Frederic allow it?"
+
+Cleena answered promptly, "He didn't. He strict forbid it. Yes, I know,
+I know. It was a chance. If me guardian angel hadn't been nigh, you
+might never ha' seen old Cleena again. Arrah musha, but I'm that shook
+up I'd know! What say? Is it time yet for their supper down yon, or
+what?"
+
+"It'll be a little late, maybe, but never mind. My, my! Chests o' gold!
+Who'd believe it? Like a story book, now, ain't it? And where, in the
+name of common sense, did you get all this flour and meat an' fixings,
+Cleena, woman?"
+
+"Mister Fred. The last day he went to town. He was to buy enough for one
+picnic, so he brought home enough for two. That's ever his way. He's the
+good provider, is Mister Fred. Bless him!"
+
+"Exactly. Well, I'll tell you, it _is_ late, so I'll just drive down to
+tell the youngsters they'd better come up here and eat their supper.
+They'll be crazy wild for a sight of that chest and what was in it; and
+if they don't come to-day, they'll be besieging you all day to-morrow.
+When a thing like this happens, it belongs to the town."
+
+"Don't neither; belongs to _me_. I found it. I'll keep it. I dare ye!"
+
+"All right, lad. Don't worry. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
+I've heard of such things afore now, and never once that they didn't
+bring trouble. All I'm thankful for is you didn't kill anybody nor smash
+up the house with your fool blastin'. You won't get another chance to
+try, if I have to come right here and stay myself;" and he smiled
+sweetly toward Cleena, who ignored the smile, but agreed with the
+suggestion.
+
+"Yes; that's right. That's sense. What for no? Troth, to-morrow's a
+Sunday, an' not to be disturbed o' none such havers. What's a bit of old
+dollars dug out o' the mud? An' Monday's me wash. Faith, it's sense in
+small matters ye're havin', Teamster John. Drive yon an' make haste
+back. I'll spread me a cloth on the grass an' each may eat like a
+heathen, does he like, that same as he was down in the woods."
+
+"But they shan't touch it--they shan't even see it! It's mine. I'll keep
+it, understand?"
+
+Cleena understood not only the words, but the lad with whom she had to
+deal.
+
+"Whist, alanna, would you hide yourself, then? Faith, no; run avick. Put
+on your Sunday suit, brush yer hair, make yerself tidy, then stand up
+like a showman at Donnybrook fair, an' pass the time o' day with who
+comes. What for no? The box an' the gold must be showed. Such a thing
+can't be hid. Well, then, gossoon, just show it yerself."
+
+So when, not long after, the whole band of merrymakers came trooping
+over the knoll of Bareacre, they found not only their belated supper
+spread for them, but a sight to amuse their curiosity in the buried
+treasure, estimated at various sums by the excited beholders, and with
+an ever increasing value as the story passed from mouth to mouth.
+
+"It will belong to 'Bony,' of course."
+
+"No; to the Kayes. He doesn't own the house."
+
+"Nor they. If they did, they wouldn't take it from him. They're not that
+sort of folks."
+
+"But they're as poor as anybody now."
+
+"Archibald Wingate owns the property. I should think it belonged to
+him."
+
+"The 'Supe' will probably take it in charge."
+
+So the talk bandied back and forth till poor Fayette's weak brain was in
+a whirl; and amid it all there was one name that fell upon his hearing
+with a sense of pain,--"Archibald Wingate." The man he hated. Well, of
+one thing he was resolved--this unearthed treasure might be the mill
+owner's, but if it were, he should never, never touch it.
+
+Poor Fayette! So he still stood and proudly exhibited the wonder, and
+told over and again exactly how he had long suspected its existence, and
+had watched his opportunity, with this result. Since he was happy and
+watchful, Cleena felt he was secure--for the present. But all the time
+she longed for Mr. Frederic's return, or even for that of Mr. Kaye, who
+was abroad upon a sketching ramble. There should be somebody in
+authority present, since Hallam and Amy were both too young, and
+Teamster John--well, he might "do at a pinch." In any case, he must
+remain on guard till a better man appeared.
+
+This better man did arrive, just as the evening fell, in the person of
+Uncle Fred, riding up the driveway in old Israel Boggs's farm wagon. Amy
+was first to discover their approach and ran gayly to meet them,
+beginning her tale of the afternoon's adventure with her very
+salutation; but long before she reached the side of the wagon she saw
+that something was amiss with her jolly uncle. His face was very grave,
+and even his voice was hushed, so that though his greeting to his niece
+was even kinder than usual, it startled her by its solemnity.
+
+"Why, Uncle Fred, what is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"I'll tell you presently. But how come so many here? I thought the
+picnic was at 'Treasure Island.'"
+
+She nodded cheerfully to Israel, whose face was even more sad than
+Frederic Kaye's, and gave a rapid history of events. Strangely enough,
+neither of the two newcomers appeared much interested. It was as if some
+greater matter absorbed them, and their manner subdued Amy to silence;
+while the farmer tied old Fanny, and then followed his friend into the
+front part of the house, quite away from the excited groups surrounding
+Fayette and his wonderful exhibit.
+
+Once inside the shelter of the passage, Mr. Frederic laid his hand upon
+Amy's shoulder, and said, very gently:--
+
+"Prepare for a great sorrow, Amy dear. I have just come from the
+death-bed of our good friend, Adam Burn."
+
+Never till that moment had the girl known how well she loved the saintly
+old man. Rarely meeting, he had still exercised over her young life one
+of its most powerful influences, and an influence all for good.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Fred, it can't be. It mustn't be. He was so good, so kind,
+so--"
+
+"Altogether lovely. Yes, dear, all that. Old Israel, here, needs
+comfort. Talk to him a little."
+
+So she led the heart-broken Israel into the farthest room, and sitting
+down beside him persuaded him to speak with her of the one that had
+passed on, and in the act to find relief. Then she slipped away a moment
+and found Hallam, who, when he had heard this later news, quietly
+dismissed the club and brought the happy holiday to a reverent close.
+
+"Land! that makes all such ilk," said Teamster John, pointing to
+Fayette's glittering heap, "to seem of small account. What's a litter of
+gold alongside of such as him?"
+
+And not one among them all who had ever known Adam Burn found anything
+now worth discussing save the goodness and simplicity of their dead
+neighbor and friend.
+
+But late that night, after Israel had gone back to the desolate Clove,
+to make such arrangements for the old man's burial as his friends at
+"Charity House" had deemed fitting, Uncle Frederic remarked, casually:--
+
+"By the way, Amy, Mrs. Burn ('Sarah Jane,' you know) told me a bit of
+news, to the effect that you are the old man's heiress, because of your
+name that was his wife's. She says he gave you a sealed letter before he
+left Ardsley, which letter explained everything,--where the will was to
+be found, and the few directions necessary for the settlement of the
+estate. Your father and I are trustees, she thinks, until you come of
+age, but you are the heir. Good night."
+
+"No, no, uncle, I don't want to be! I want nothing that is gained by his
+death. And--I lost that letter, anyway."
+
+"Lost it? That's serious. However, it can doubtless be arranged. Good
+night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+ONE WONDERFUL AUTUMN DAY.
+
+
+The months flew by. The summer came and went. It was the hour for
+closing on a "Saturday-half," a whole year since Amy Kaye first visited
+the mills of Ardsley, and now she felt as they were a part of her very
+life. Beginning at the bottom she had industriously worked her way
+upward till she had just been promoted to the pleasant and well-paying
+task of "setter," in the big clean room, where the open windows admitted
+the soft air of another Indian summer.
+
+Away, at the extreme end of the long apartment, was a sunshiny office,
+lately constructed for the personal use of Archibald Wingate. This
+office was partitioned from the setting room by a glass sliding door,
+and through this, as Amy now lifted her eyes, she could see the broad
+back of her relative bending above a desk full of correspondence.
+
+At every setting frame there are two operators, for left hand and for
+right; and it was Amy's good fortune to have Mary Reese for her comrade,
+and a more sunshiny pair of workers could be found nowhere.
+
+For Hallam, also, it had been a busy, happy year. Like Amy, having
+begun with the humblest task and smallest wage, he had now advanced to
+be bookkeeper in one department, while he still retained his work of
+coloring and preparing the patterns for use in the weaving of the famous
+Ardsley carpets. He looked a far stronger, healthier lad than of old,
+and his disposition to think upon the dark side of things had now no
+time to develop, for activity effectually prevents brooding.
+
+Fayette was still a member of the Kaye household, and seemed to belong
+there as much as any of the others. He had been busy, too, all the year
+through, with his mushroom-raising, his gardening, and now that the
+autumn had come round again, with odd jobs at the mill. His deftness
+would always procure him employment of some sort, yet only that morning
+Mr. Metcalf had remarked to Hallam, confidentially:--
+
+"Queer, but I can never trust 'Bony.' He seems as honest and reliable as
+possible for a time, and then, suddenly, he will do something to
+disappoint me. I don't like his demeanor toward the 'boss.' Ever since
+Mr. Wingate returned, late this summer, and took to coming here every
+day, 'Bony' has come too. Have you noticed?"
+
+"I know he comes. I hadn't connected the two comings, however. I guess
+he's all right. There's a splendid side to that poor lad's nature, if
+you but knew it. Some day, I hope before very long now, he and I are to
+surprise the world."
+
+"Why, Hal, you're as gay as a blackbird. What's the surprise, eh? Too
+precious to disclose even to me?"
+
+"At present, yes. In a little while, a few days--Heigho!" and the lad
+looked significantly toward his crutches, leaning against the desk where
+he wrote.
+
+But the superintendent did not observe the glance. His mind was full of
+misgiving. Within a day or two he had had occasion to suspect that the
+half-wit had some uncanny scheme on hand. The lad's dislike of the old
+mill owner appeared to grow with the passage of time. The dull brain
+never forgot an injury, and it always seemed to Fayette that Mr. Wingate
+had wronged him. From the old days of his "bound out" life on the farm,
+when whippings and punishments were of almost daily occurrence, to the
+present, there had been no diminution in the mill boy's resentment. Now
+there was this later injury, or injustice, as he believed, about the
+money found in the cellar of "Charity House."
+
+The facts were these: the glittering coins had, when estimated, been of
+about one thousand dollars' value. To Fayette this seemed an enormous
+sum; to Mr. Wingate, a trifle. In the chest with the treasure had been
+also a time-yellowed letter, or memorandum, signed by the wife of Jacob
+Ingraham, and decreeing that the property thus hidden had been placed by
+her own hands in the wall of the cellar of "Spite House" for the
+"benefit of my nearest of kin."
+
+The document, in itself, was as curious as its hiding-place, and proved
+that the ancient dame had been a keen observer of men's failings, if not
+their virtues.
+
+"For I have seen, in this, my lifetime, that gold profits a man nothing.
+It is ever a bone of contention, and he who has it is poorer than he who
+has it not. I hope this chest will do him good who finds it; and if it
+is never found, then the earth will be so much the richer by this small
+portion of the wealth it has lost. In any case, to prevent evil, and, if
+possible, to secure a blessing, I have said one prayer over each coin
+herein disposed, and so, in duty to my conscience, I lock the box and
+throw the key down the old well of this Bareacre knoll."
+
+The letter had further added that nobody, not even Jacob Ingraham, had
+known of this bestowal of the chest, because had anybody, "most of all,
+he," so known, it would have been excavated and its contents scattered.
+
+Now Archibald Wingate was, on his mother's side, the last direct
+descendant of Mrs. Ingraham, and the property was clearly his. To him,
+as soon as he returned from his prolonged stay out of town, the broken
+chest and intact contents had been given by the superintendent, who, Mr.
+Kaye promptly decided, would be the proper guardian of the treasure
+until his employer returned.
+
+There had been a terrible scene with Fayette when Cleena told him this
+decision, and for several days thereafter the lad had not been visible.
+Some thought he had gone off in one of his wanderings through the woods
+and fields; but the truth was, he had been kept under lock and key by
+the energetic and masterful Cleena Keegan. She had assured that patient
+listener, herself, that:--
+
+"Sure, it do be right. Will I lose all the good we have gained for the
+sake o' bad temper? The end's in sight,--the blessed end o' the secrecy,
+an' the weary struggle o' keepin' me gineral's nose to the grindstone,
+and now to leave go? Not while Cleena Keegan draws a free breath, an'
+can handle a silly gossoon, like him yon."
+
+From the first it had been a strange and powerful influence that this
+good woman exercised over the foundling she adopted, and fortunately his
+imprisonment was not so very long, else it would have been impossible to
+conceal it from the rest of the household; not one of whom did, however,
+suspect such a proceeding.
+
+When the object for which she had restrained him of his liberty seemed
+quite gained, Cleena let Fayette go; and, oddly enough, after his
+liberty was granted him, he no longer cared for it. He kept close to
+Bareacres, bare no longer, but teeming with the rich vegetation
+resulting from his own labor, guided by Frederic Kaye's trained
+judgment. The summer had proved a most interesting as well as busy one
+to both these gardeners. The results of their mutual labor were
+harvested and stored for the family's winter use, and Fayette had
+returned to the mill. Idleness, or the want of that regular employment
+he had enjoyed, now reawoke the dark thoughts which had disturbed his
+clouded brain during the time of his "retreat" under Cleena's compelling
+will.
+
+This day, when Amy watched her cousin through the glass partition, and
+waited with Mary for Hallam to complete his own task in a room adjoining
+the private office of Mr. Wingate, Fayette was hanging about the mill,
+as if himself waiting for some one.
+
+Amy called to him once, and received a surly answer:--
+
+"I'll go when I get ready. I ain't hurting nobody--yet."
+
+"Of course not, who'd suppose so? I'd think you'd like a run in the
+woods after hours. There was a frost a few nights ago. There may be
+hickory nuts to gather."
+
+"Gather 'em, then, if you want 'em. I don't. I've got other fish to fry.
+I'll fry 'em, too."
+
+"Well, you're cross, 'Fayetty, me gineral.' I'll not wait much longer,
+even for Hal. You can come home with him, and help him bring the
+patterns he is to show father, please."
+
+"I thought you wanted to see Mr. Wingate, too, Amy," observed Mary,
+"about that legacy of yours. You're the queerest girl. Any other would
+be wild to have things fixed, but you don't seem to care a bit."
+
+"Why should I? We are very comfortable at 'Charity House.' Mrs. Burn,
+dear Adam's daughter-in-law, has gone abroad again. If she had time,
+she'd cheerfully help us--if she could. We think the letter of
+instruction will sometime be found, and that will make all clear. We
+don't like law, and Adam would have hated it. No; we'll wait for a time
+longer, but I promised father I'd consult Cousin Archibald, and see when
+he would meet either father or Uncle Fred to discuss it.
+
+"Meanwhile, old Israel and his wife are doing just the same at Burnside
+as if their master were still there. All I could think of taking the
+property for, it seems to me, would be to give my father such a lovely
+home again."
+
+"Well, Amy, I must go. I want to finish reading that book Mr. Kaye lent
+me, this afternoon. I'll see you at the club to-night. Good-by."
+
+With a kiss and a hand pressure, which revealed the depth of their
+friendship, Mary departed, and Amy turned to the open window to watch
+the cloud shadows drift over the lovely valley, wherein the Ardsley
+leaped and sparkled. As she gazed, thinking of many things, she became
+conscious, in an idle sort of fashion, that Fayette had passed out of
+doors, and was walking close beneath, or along the building's wall, and
+in a stealthy manner, suspicious in itself.
+
+"Heigho! What now, I wonder. He's up to some mischief, I'm afraid. How
+queer he is at times. Why, even when he was told that Mr. Wingate knew
+him for the person who horsewhipped him last Christmas and had refused
+to take any notice of it, except to thank Uncle Fred for his
+rescue--even then Fayette would not say that he thought my cousin good.
+All he did say was: 'Well, he better not. He knows too much. If he
+locked me up or had me fined, I'd lick him again soon's I got out. He
+ain't no fool. But that don't make me feel any different. He ain't
+jailed me, but he's got my money. _Mine_; I dug it out the cellar an'
+blasted, to the risk o' my life. He keeps it, when he's got a bank full,
+they say. Kept Balaam, too, or give him to one of them Metcalf
+youngsters. Well, his time'll come. I'm not forgettin', if I do keep my
+mouth shut for a spell.'"
+
+Recalling this speech, Amy tried to put herself in the half-wit's place,
+which effort made her pity him the more, yet watch his present
+manoeuvres none the less closely. But presently he disappeared in a
+distant lower doorway, and she forgot him and returned to her happy
+day-dreams.
+
+Fayette had bided his time. On such an afternoon, at such an hour, he
+judged that nobody would be in the mill building save the distant
+watchman and that indefatigable toiler, Archibald Wingate, with whom was
+the half-wit's present business. He had seen the last whisk of Mary's
+blue skirt disappearing above the back-stairway, and, knowing that Amy
+and she were waiting for Hallam, concluded that the trio had departed
+together.
+
+So he entered the little basement door gleefully. All seemed propitious,
+yet he meant once more and carefully to examine the preparations he had
+made, to see if there was any flaw anywhere. He was so absorbed, so
+excited, that he scarcely breathed as he crept slowly along the inside
+of the wall, just as a moment before he had passed along its outer
+surface. At one spot he paused and tried a simple-looking tube that had
+been brought from the outside, through a convenient aperture, into the
+inside of the building. The thing looked harmless, yet it ran along the
+groove where the floor and wall joined, clear into that cheery inner
+office, where Archibald Wingate sat that very moment, signing his name
+to one of the most generous letters of his life.
+
+"There," he reflected, as he leaned back in his chair and tossed aside
+his pen; "there, that is foolish enough to satisfy even my impractical
+small kinswoman, bless her! A thousand dollars isn't much, but it's--a
+thousand dollars; and when I double it by another thousand, which has
+never been buried by any ancient ancestress, it makes a tidy sum for a
+foundling lad. Poor 'Bony,' he hates me like poison. I wonder, when he
+finds out that I've done this for him, when I place it in his hands
+myself, and tell him, furthermore, that I have asked Fred Kaye to send
+west for several more of those burros he's given us a sample of, and
+that one is for the 'Rep-Dem-Prob' himself--I wonder, will there rise in
+his stunted heart some perception of what life should mean; of what it
+shall mean, during my last brief hold of it, to me? and all because of a
+girl's bright trustfulness and love."
+
+It was a day for musings. Even Fayette, intent on evil, had his
+own--like Amy and the lonely old man in the silent office. He wondered,
+pausing for a moment, how "it would feel to be blown up. That day when I
+found the money he's took from me, if I'd had a bigger charge of powder,
+would I ha' knowed what struck me, if it had gone off sudden? Hmm. I
+almost hate to do it. He seems--he'll never guess, though, and he hadn't
+any right. He's been again' me from the first. I'll do it. He hain't had
+no mercy--I won't, neither."
+
+So he crept softly back to the low entrance, and stooping, struck a
+match. The match burned well, and in an instant had communicated its own
+flame to the cheap fuse that ran along the wall. In the far-off office,
+concealed beneath the mill owner's desk, there was already waiting a
+powerful explosive, which Fayette had purloined from the store of the
+workmen who were excavating for the new wing of the building. In a
+moment more the fuse would have burned unnoticed to its fatal end, and
+an awful crime, of whose enormity the dull criminal had no real
+comprehension, would have been committed.
+
+But Hallam had caught the prevailing mood. He, like the others left
+lingering about the silent building, had fallen into a reverie which,
+judging by his bright expression, was full of happiness. For many
+months, and for the first time in his life, he had kept a secret from
+his father and Amy. If that can be called a secret which was known also
+to Cleena, to Uncle Frederic, and to Fayette, upon whose aid alone the
+success of this mystery had depended. The lad had been faithful. At most
+times his help had been rendered freely, out of love and sympathy; at
+others there had been compulsion on Cleena's side and from the other one
+of the quartette, who had himself suffered false blame and the disgrace
+of suspicion because of the secret.
+
+"To-morrow, please God, it shall end. I couldn't bear to tell them, who
+love me so, until I was sure, sure. The old surgeon said it might be a
+miracle would be enacted for my benefit. Well, it has, it has! I've
+known it, really, almost from the beginning, though it's been so hard
+and at times so seemingly hopeless. But if I hadn't loved them even more
+than myself, I wouldn't have kept on trying. To-morrow--the experiment
+in their presence! Will it ever come!"
+
+The lad stood up and arranged the papers in his own desk. Then he heard,
+or fancied that he did, a slight sound in the deserted building. The
+corps of operatives had been well drilled to watch for any sign of that
+dreaded element, fire, and he was alert now,--the more that, following
+this, there was a slight odor, pungent and more alarming than even the
+first sound.
+
+He wheeled about and--what was that? In the dimness of the angle where
+it lay, away out toward that closed office with its unsuspecting
+occupant, a tiny spark was making its steady, creeping progress. For an
+instant Hallam gazed at it astonished, the next he realized its full
+meaning and horror. Could he reach it? Was there time?
+
+With a shriek of warning he rushed forward,--stumbling against, leaping
+over obstacles,--gaining upon that menacing point of fire and fume,
+which now seemed to race him like a living thing.
+
+The miracle was wrought--two miracles! A few more seconds, and it would
+have been too late; but now the lame walked and, as it were, the dead
+came back to life.
+
+Hallam's shriek, the uproar of overturned obstructions, reverberated
+through the empty building and brought Archibald Wingate, Amy, and poor
+Fayette face to face with the panting, excited rescuer. All comprehended
+at once what had been attempted and how prevented. The mill owner laid
+an iron grip upon the half-wit's shoulder, who made no effort to escape;
+for at last, at last, there had penetrated to his dim intelligence the
+wide, the awful difference between good and evil. When he saw the once
+crippled lad, whom his own hands had restored to health, thus fling
+away his life with unstinted hand, that he might save the life of
+another,--once his enemy also,--there had roused within the dormant
+brain of the foundling a sudden perception of Hallam's nobility and his
+own baseness. Therefore, stunned by this new knowledge, he stood humble
+and unresisting.
+
+Amy's great heart comprehended just what and how her poor protégé was
+suffering. With her, to think was to act. She sprang to him and laid her
+small hand on his other shoulder, and the tender sympathy of this touch
+thrilled him more than the hard grasp of his master.
+
+"Oh! but Hallam--Hallam--you _walked_! _walked!_ you ran! You--you--who
+never--"
+
+Her voice choked, ceased, and she turned from Fayette to fling herself
+headlong into her brother's arms. For the first time in their lives he
+could receive her and support her firmly. Then she stepped back and
+shook him. Gently at first, then violently. His crutches were--nobody
+cared where, though certainly not at hand; yet he stood fixedly,
+resisting her attacks, and again catching her to him with that
+overflowing joy that only such as he could guess.
+
+"But I don't understand. Tell--tell; not here, though. Is all safe? No
+danger any more?"
+
+"No," said Fayette to her demand, "there ain't no danger. Not 'less the
+fuse had burned out to the end. It's under the desk. He'll find it.
+I--I--but it's put out. I--"
+
+"You didn't mean it, did you, boy? You could not. You didn't
+understand."
+
+"No, I didn't, I didn't," whimpered the stricken fellow.
+
+Mr. Wingate relaxed his hold. How could he retain his fury against such
+an enemy? It was too unequal. The lad was dangerous, he must be
+punished, he--
+
+Hallam read these unspoken thoughts.
+
+"For my sake, Cousin Archibald, forgive him. It is he who has made me
+able to save you this day, even though it was he who put you in such
+peril. Months ago, Amy read in a paper how a lad was cured whose case
+was just like mine. There was only will power on the cripple's part, and
+the daily, sometimes hourly massage by one of those persons whose
+physical magnetism, or whatever it is, was strong. 'Bony' was such a
+person, and I just such a cripple. We began. For weeks I couldn't move
+my legs without using my hands to help. Then one day I found, just after
+the rubbing was over, that I could push one foot along the floor a tiny
+way. That gave us both courage. He has been untiring. We were soon on
+the road to what I believed, though with lots of set-backs, would be a
+cure. Uncle Fred knew; that's why he wouldn't let Fayette be arrested or
+punished for assaulting you. He took the blame himself, if the boy would
+stick to me. Cleena knew, too--"
+
+"And not us, father nor me!" exclaimed Amy, in a hurt tone.
+
+"No; that was to be my blessed surprise for you two. It was to your own
+suggestion, which I suppose you forgot soon after, with the newspaper
+scrap you brought, that I owe the beginning. It was Cleena kept us at
+it. She wouldn't let us give it up,--no, not if she had the whole crowd
+under lock and key on a bread and water diet; eh, Fayette?"
+
+The shamefaced fellow looked up, with a slight gleam in his eye, then
+dropped his gaze again.
+
+Hallam went on: "To-morrow, the First Day that mother loved, I was going
+to make an experiment before you all--my surprise. I have practised in
+private continually, and uncle, as well as Cleena, has urged me to tell
+you before; but I kept it till the anniversary--you know."
+
+"Ah," said Archibald Wingate, with a sudden recollection, "so it is. She
+was my best friend, my best beloved. You are her children. All my hard
+middle life seems to have slipped out of my memory, like a bad dream,
+and I am back in our youth-time again, with Salome and Cuthbert and
+Fred,--all gay and glad together. I wonder, I wonder what she would bid
+me do to you, poor fellow," he finished, regarding the abject natural
+with a pitying air.
+
+"I know! Forgive him, else thy Salome and my mother were not one."
+
+"Amy, thee is right. Come into the office, all of you."
+
+"Is it safe?" she asked, hanging back.
+
+"We'll make it safe. 'Bony,' or Fayette, take that stuff you put under
+the desk and step out there to the Ardsley. Behind that rock is a deep
+hole. I used to fish there as a lad. I can see if you obey. Drop that
+death powder into the stream and come back."
+
+Fayette obeyed, and they watched him, shivering. But when the water
+flowed on after an instant, undisturbed and merrily singing its
+deathless song, they breathed deeply and with complete relief.
+
+"Look here, Fayette; you think I've been a hard man. So I have--so I
+have. You've been a bad boy too, eh?"
+
+"Yes; I won't never--"
+
+"Of course you won't. Look here, I say. What's this--this heap of stuff
+I took out of the safe? Did you ever see it before?"
+
+"Yes; it's the money I blasted out."
+
+"Well, if it were yours, would you promise never again to blast anything
+or anybody or anywhere? Your very own to keep forever, if you liked."
+
+"Huckleberries! Do you mean it?"
+
+"If you promise, I mean it."
+
+"Oh, I do--I do. I'll keep my word. I meant to try and I did. But it's
+over. I'm glad; I wasn't happy, never. I promise, whether or no, money
+or not."
+
+"I believe you'll keep that promise: Hallam and Amy, here, are
+witnesses. Now, listen: I, too, promise. I'll not only give you this old
+hoard, but this besides." He swept into view a pile of golden eagles,
+larger than any there save himself had ever seen, and placed it beside
+that time-worn lot of similar material. In bestowing his gift he had
+provided to have it in such shape as he knew the half-wit would best
+comprehend. "This is for you, also. It is just as much more as you
+found. I give it to you because my little cousin here has taught me it
+is better to give than to receive. You must take both piles, in this new
+hand-bag, and ask Mr. Metcalf to take care of it for you. You trust
+_him_, don't you?"
+
+"Yes--yes," answered Fayette, in breathless eagerness.
+
+"Now, the condition: if you ever again, by word or deed, do any sort of
+injury to any human being or to any helpless animal, I will have you
+punished, punished in full for all you have done wrong in the past. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes," sobbed the grateful and greatly excited youth. Somewhere he had
+heard, maybe from Cleena's lips, something about heaping coals. He felt
+at that moment as if the living coals were lying upon his own poor head.
+
+"Then go; and if it will give you any pleasure to know it, I believe
+that you are now about the richest of the mill operatives living in
+Ardsley village."
+
+Stumbling, through his tears, and truly far more grateful for the
+prevention of his crime than even for his unexpected good fortune and
+full forgiveness, Cleena's Fayetty went.
+
+As his footsteps died away, Amy, who seemed given to outbursts to
+relieve her full heart, threw her arms about the old man's neck and
+kissed him over and over.
+
+"That's better, child, that's better. The first time thee planted it on
+my nose, I seemed to have a dim perception that this was not the
+regulation feature for such gifts, but it answered; though I like them
+better on my cheek, child. Thee's improving. Now let's go home. Yes;
+it's the carryall. There's room for us all. On the way I'll tell thee--"
+
+"No, no; wait till we get home. Don't let's leave anybody out any more.
+By thy face I can see it's something delightful thee is going to tell.
+Oh, make the old horse travel, travel--fast, fast!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+On half-holidays Cleena had always the best dinner of the week. To its
+enjoyment were usually brought the best appetites of the week as well;
+for there was leisure and talk and laughter, and that interchange of
+experiences which kept their family life so united.
+
+Archibald Wingate joined the party at this present half-holiday dinner;
+yet even with such cheerfulness about him could not but shiver now and
+then, as he recalled his narrow escape of the afternoon. To have taken
+his meal alone, on that day, would have been to suffer greatly.
+
+But Amy had brought him in and placed him in the seat of honor, and amid
+the general rejoicing over Hallam's wonderful recovery and surprise,
+they had made him feel that he was a sharer. They had just drawn back
+from the table, and were going into the sitting room, when there came a
+tap at the door that Cleena answered. It was a small tap, very low down
+on the panel, but it was given due importance; for wasn't the visitor
+Master "Willyum Gladstone Jones," and wasn't Cleena just making fine
+progress in teaching him his "manners"?
+
+So they all paused to wait the child's important entrance, and to smile
+over Goodsoul's greeting:--
+
+"The top o' the evenin' to you, Mister Jones. An' what may be givin' us
+the pleasure of a visit from your lordship the now? A what? Speak up; a
+box is it? Miss Amy's box. Never a doubt I doubt you've made messes of
+its insides, by the way. No? Then your improvin', to that extent I must
+even be givin' ye a bite o' this fine apple pie. Hmm; exactly. Well,
+give the young lady her bit property, again' I slips on a plate an'
+teaches ye how to eat decent, as ye should."
+
+So the little fellow, who had just been promoted to his first trousers
+and felt as all boys do in such a case, walked proudly across the room
+and offered Amy a japanned casket.
+
+"Why, Sir William, how came you by that? I haven't seen it for ever so
+long. I used to keep my few letters in it. I wonder if they're here
+now."
+
+"Ev'y one. My mamma seen 'em all. She said the top one--I don't know.
+Somefin."
+
+"Arrah musha! but I remember one day, long syne, he was aye botherin'
+an' I set him to orderin' the box neat an' nice. He must ha' took it
+away with him an' me not payin' no attention. Well, a box o' such
+truck's neither here no more there, I forecast."
+
+Amy had stopped to admire the new garment, fashioned from an old one of
+Hallam's, and having thus satisfied the little one's innocent pride, now
+opened her recovered keepsake. She lifted the letters idly, dropped
+them, and again catching one that had, indeed, lain upon the top, sprang
+up and waved it overhead.
+
+"The letter! the letter! The lost one of Adam!"
+
+"No; is it really? To come in such a way--"
+
+"On such a day--oh, Hal!"
+
+She caught her brother's hands and wrung them in delight, then ran to
+her father and placed the letter before him.
+
+He looked at it critically.
+
+"Yes; that is Adam Burn's handwriting. His own familiar seal. These
+people who have had it in keeping--"
+
+"I hided it. Zen I dugged it out. Same like Fayetty," explained Sir
+William, between mouthfuls.
+
+"The blessed baby! that explains."
+
+"Let us go into the parlor and read it. It is yours, daughter; you must
+yourself break the seal."
+
+"Oh, I'll break it fast enough."
+
+"Hmm. Young lady, I thought you were the girl who didn't want to be an
+heiress," commented Uncle Fred, teasingly.
+
+Amy's face sobered.
+
+"You are right. I didn't so wish then, when the shock and sorrow were
+fresh; but now I do. Just think of all the comfort for all you folks in
+that lovely home."
+
+"Then I must lose my tenants, eh?" asked Mr. Wingate, smiling.
+
+"Thee'll lose nothing! Wait. If thee has plans to tell, so have I."
+
+The letter was a simple one, plain, and leaving no room for any sort of
+legal difficulty. Amy could enter upon her heritage that day, if she
+wished. The place where the will was stored was designated, and they
+knew it would there be found. But after the reading a little silence
+fell upon them all.
+
+The old mill owner was the first to break this. He did it almost
+reverently.
+
+"Speaking of wills, and after the events of the day, I've been thinking
+of mine. By the way, Amy, I suppose thee'll cease to work for me now."
+
+"I don't see why I should, unless my father needs me at home. We will
+see about that afterward. Tell us thy plans, please. I'd like to hear
+them."
+
+"And I'd like to have thee make them for me."
+
+"Make them? I?"
+
+"Yes; in truth and deed. If thee were me and had as much money as I
+have, and were just such a lonely, childless, forlorn old man, what
+would thee do, that would accomplish the most good? according to thy
+judgment, which I have found a fairly sound one."
+
+The elder Kayes listened in astonishment. They had been prepared by
+various matters for a great change in their kinsman, though not for one
+so radical. But the father began to perceive how this change had been
+wrought, and his heart gave thanks for the devoted, sunshiny daughter
+who seemed to shed an influence for happiness and goodness on all whom
+she knew. It was due to her, he believed, that this new Archibald had
+replaced the old.
+
+"Does thee mean it, truly?"
+
+"Yes; I mean it. Let me hear. If it is possible, I will carry out the
+wishes thee expresses, knowing they will be all for the benefit of
+somebody deserving."
+
+"Well, then, I'd help the unpractical Kaye family to get settled at
+Burnside Farm, on the condition that for my services I was given a big,
+delightful room in the old farmhouse, to live in and with them, forever
+and ever and ever, so long as the dear Lord permitted--that's if I were
+thee, Cousin Archibald."
+
+"But would that ne'er-do-well Kaye family take in an old curmudgeon,
+does thee think?"
+
+"Never. A curmudgeon is a thing they detest. They'd take in a nice, fat,
+old fellow, whose heart was so big it made his body grow to hold it, and
+who meant to do all the good with his money that his money would do, and
+not leave it for anybody to squabble over after he died."
+
+"Excellent, Miss Wisdom; proceed."
+
+"After I'd got a niche at Burnside, I'd take 'Charity House' and remodel
+it into a Modern Industrial School. I'd have 'designing' taught, in
+regular classes, by a well-known artist, named Cuthbert Kaye. I'd have
+agriculture under the instruction of another expert, Frederic Kaye. I'd
+have a school of scientific cookery--not by you, my Cleena, but by
+somebody who hates pies and adores oatmeal and _et cetera_. No, really,
+I do think the mill folks should understand more about foods and their
+uses. They'd save so much money and--dyspepsia."
+
+"Hurry up. Where do I come in?"
+
+"At the mercantile college end of the establishment, learned brother.
+There should be a splendid library, a gymnasium, a swimming pool--"
+
+"A swimming pool on the top of Bareacre knoll!"
+
+"Please don't interrupt, Hal. It's impolite. I'd have it--somewhere. I'd
+have a paddock full of burros--"
+
+"They're already ordered," cried Archibald, forgetting everything in his
+enjoyment of her happy face.
+
+"Am I to continue? May I let my fancy riot?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; give thyself full freedom for once."
+
+"Then I'd take beautiful Fairacres, that has been a happy home for
+generations, and I'd make it a Happy Home, with capital letters. I'd
+call to it all the tired and ailing mill folks in the country. I'd make
+its disused studio and book rooms into a hospital, and where father
+painted his picture of pain, that he destroyed, let all pain be soothed;
+and all the other big chambers into havens of rest for other girls who,
+unlike me, have no fathers, nor Uncle Freds, nor Hallams, nor Cousin
+Archibalds, nor anybody. I'd have Mary Reese trained to be its Little
+Mother; and Archibald Wingate should be full manager of all, beloved and
+venerated, reaping the happiness he has himself bestowed; and oh,
+cousin, if it might be true! and if I were not out of breath! There!
+have I 'rioted' enough?"
+
+Mr. Wingate turned his head sidewise and looked admiringly upon the
+unselfish girl who had planned so much for others, and had not,
+apparently, remembered to plan anything for herself.
+
+"Yes; thee has rioted enough. But, little one, if thee pleases, if my
+other kinsfolk here so please; if the dead past is indeed the dead past,
+and the future may be our happy own, there is no reason under the blue
+heaven why thee has not prophesied aright. What say, my friends? Shall
+Amy's word be that which the Spirit has moved her to say? Shall we make
+it real and tangible, this beautiful, helpful dream of hers? You are all
+interested alike. You are my next of kin. After me you will inherit--or
+these others whom she has named. Was Amy's word the true Word, Cuthbert?
+The word Salome would have spoken?"
+
+"It was the true Word, Archibald. Let it be as Salome's child has
+spoken," said Cuthbert Kaye, grasping his kinsman's hand.
+
+And all Ardsley now knows that as it was then agreed, so it is, and will
+remain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST
+
+THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN PRINCESS
+
+_By Evelyn Raymond_
+
+_347 pp. Cloth. $1.50_
+
+
+California ranch life is the setting of this bright story for young
+people. It will read like a fairy tale to those who know nothing of the
+wideness of life on a great ranch as compared with our overcrowded
+Eastern city existence. The story "moves." Incident follows incident
+with rapidity enough to maintain interest, and the teachings of the book
+tend to a sturdy wholesomeness throughout.--_Epworth Herald._
+
+It is not often that a woman succeeds in writing an Indian story,
+exciting enough to commend itself to boys, yet with a girl for its
+principal character, and with the noblest of teachings throughout the
+tale; but in "A Daughter of the West" Evelyn Raymond has accomplished
+precisely that feat. The scene is laid among the broad valleys and lofty
+mountains of California, and every chapter is crowded full of
+incident.--_Christian Endeavor World._
+
+This story of our western plains will appeal to many a youthful reader.
+The heroine, beloved by her people, the community, and even by the
+neighboring Indian tribes, carries the interest of the reader to the
+final page. Her courage in time of personal danger, her sweet
+disposition in her relations with those around her, are well depicted by
+the author. The book is well illustrated and attractively bound, and
+cannot fail to be a success.--_Journal of Education._
+
+This "Daughter of the West" is one of the freshest, breeziest, most
+wholesome stories we have read in a long time. The scene has a
+California ranch for its setting. But the writer tells her story in such
+a natural and charming style, that we relish every word of
+it.--_Christian Observer._
+
+"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, is a story of California
+ranch life, of which Patience Eliot is the heroine. By severe experience
+she comes to hold herself and all her large belongings of wealth as a
+sacred trust, to be spent in the service of others. The story is one
+which will tend to quicken the nobler aspirations of all young
+women.--_The Advance._
+
+This story of Evelyn Raymond's is not lacking in exciting incident, at
+least, even though it is not a love tale. Patience Eliot, the heroine, a
+California girl born and bred, as much at home in the saddle as the
+wildest rider of the plains, exhibits her training in season and out,
+and though she startles certain more conventional people with her ways,
+she illustrates well the excellence of the training of Nature's child.
+The atmosphere of the greater part of the story is that of Southern
+California, with its mingled society of Mexicans, Indians and reckless
+frontiersmen, and among them the heroine lives and thrives. It is a
+healthful out-of-door story, wholesomely interesting and
+alive.--_Colorado School Journal._
+
+"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, the story of an American
+princess, is a narrative of California ranch life. It affords a pleasant
+picture of that sort of life, and portrays effectively a certain type of
+training for the young. It also illustrates the striking changes that
+sometimes occur in personal careers in a country like our own. It is
+full of incident, and will promote patriotism and a high ideal of
+life.--_The Congregationalist._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A GIRL OF '76
+
+_By Amy E. Blanchard_
+
+_331 pp. Cloth. $1.50_
+
+
+"A Girl of '76," by Amy E. Blanchard, is one of the best stories of old
+Boston and its vicinity ever written. The value of the book as real
+history, and as an incentive to further historical study can hardly be
+over-estimated.--_The Bookseller._
+
+This is one of the season's books that deserves a wide reading among the
+girls. The events in which Elizabeth Hall, the heroine, took part
+occurred in those stirring times, beginning with the Boston Tea Party.
+The call to Lexington, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the burning of
+Charlestown follow, and in all these the little maid bears her share of
+the general anxiety and privation with a fortitude which makes wholesome
+reading.--_Watchman._
+
+The manners and customs of that time are vividly pictured in this
+interesting and well written story, and while we joyfully reach the
+"peace" chapter with which it ends, we are truly sorry to part with this
+charming girl of '76.--_Journal._
+
+The tale is told with sentiment and vivacity, giving bright pictures of
+a singing school, a quilting bee, and other old-time entertainments. It
+is just the book for the youngest of the D. A. R. societies, and is
+dedicated to "My Revolutionary Sires."--_Literary World._
+
+It is a thoroughly well-told tale, and of so genuine a charm as to
+challenge the interest of readers other than the youngsters. Here too,
+the pictures are of actual merit, and demand a share in the well
+deserved praise bestowed upon the book as a whole.--_S. S. Times._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A REVOLUTIONARY MAID.
+
+A STORY OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
+
+_321 pp. Cloth. $1.50._
+
+
+It is charmingly written, and the young reader will not only enjoy it as
+a story, but will also get a very clear knowledge of that part of
+history which relates to the war of the Revolution. The little
+"Revolutionary Maid," Kitty DeWitt, is a plucky little Whig, and full of
+courage; her presence of mind, on many occasions, saves her and others
+from the Red coats.--_Christian Observer._
+
+Amy E. Blanchard's "A Revolutionary Maid" sets a charming heroine in the
+middle period of the Revolutionary War, and keeps her a stanch little
+patriot in spite of her Tory surroundings.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+The plot of the story before us, without being intricate, is ingenious
+and the interest in the characters is fully sustained throughout. The
+trying experiences of Kitty DeWitt were those of a multitude of girls
+and women, and their decision for patriotism was a power in shaping the
+great national events which followed. Such books are educational in
+patriotism. The more American girls are made to feel and know their
+power and influence in national affairs the better.--_The Inter-Ocean._
+
+Among the large number of Revolutionary Books in the new literature, "A
+Revolutionary Maid" is not merely remarkably entertaining, but also
+unique.--_Boston Journal._
+
+There could be no better material with which to give an historical
+flavoring to a story than the New Jersey campaign, the battle of
+Germantown, and the winter at Valley Forge. Miss Blanchard has made the
+most of a large opportunity, and produced a happy companion book to her
+"Girl of '76."--_The Christian Endeavor World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AN HISTORICAL NOVEL
+
+A SON OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+IN THE DAYS OF BURR'S CONSPIRACY
+
+_By Elbridge S. Brooks_
+
+_301 pages. Cloth, $1.50_
+
+
+Mr. Brooks knows how to catch and hold the attention of boys and girls.
+In this story of Aaron Burr's conspiracy he is very happy, choosing
+scenes and incidents of picturesque American history and weaving them
+into a patriotic and stirringly romantic narrative. The young hero is a
+fine character strongly presented, and from first page to last the
+interest is lively. We heartily recommend the book to our young readers
+as one sure to please and instruct them.--_The Independent._
+
+Elbridge S. Brooks has written nothing better than "A Son of the
+Revolution." Designed for boys, it is so spirited and interesting,
+dealing as it does with little known episodes in our past history as a
+nation, that it will gain many readers in the ranks of the grown up. It
+is really as the sub-title says, "an historical novel" of the days of
+Aaron Burr, when he was conspiring to create a western empire. A young
+fellow full of enthusiasm and patriotism, named Tom Edwards, comes under
+the fascination of Burr, and works with him for quite a period before
+considering his true aims and real character. When the day of awakening
+comes, the fight with his conscience is thrilling. No better book for
+boys can be mentioned, nor one so rich in lessons of true
+patriotism.--_The Publisher's Weekly._
+
+Elbridge S. Brooks has told in "A Son of the Revolution" a story which
+will stimulate the patriotism of all young Americans. He relates the
+adventures of an Ohio lad who was a relative of Aaron Burr and had
+implicit faith in that brilliant but unprincipled statesman. The story
+is remarkably well told and it is finely illustrated.--_The San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+Mr. Brooks in this volume presents to his readers a new field of
+interest and importance. No one incident in the history of our country,
+as a nation, is so full of the picturesque as the wild scheme of treason
+which stirred the soul of Aaron Burr to plot against the country he had
+struggled to establish. Every boy ought to know the history of this arch
+traitor.--_The Awakener._
+
+In this volume the author touches upon a field of interest but little
+known, and concerning which but slight attention has been given by
+historians and novelists.
+
+Burr's conspiracy, although not now considered as an historical event of
+marked importance, yet, during the period of opening up the middle
+western states was a serious episode in the nation's career. With this
+period and the events connected therewith the author has interested
+himself, and has presented to the reader a novel of intense feeling of
+patriotism and loyalty to the government.
+
+Coming at this time, when national affairs are strongest in the minds of
+the people, we predict for this story a widespread success.--_Journal of
+Education._
+
+An historical of Aaron Burr's time, by Elbridge S. Brooks, presenting
+the story of the adventures of the "young son" as faithful facts of
+history, but in an interesting and inspiring way which will hold and
+help the young reader.--_The International Evangel._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
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+
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Reels And Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+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: Reels and Spindles
+       A Story of Mill Life
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+Illustrator: Frank T. Merrill
+
+Release Date: December 25, 2008 [EBook #27613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REELS AND SPINDLES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>REELS AND SPINDLES</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2><i>A Story of Mill Life</i></h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>EVELYN RAYMOND</h2>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST," "A LITTLE<br />LADY OF THE HORSE," ETC.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK T. MERRILL</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" width='152' height='150' alt="Logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BOSTON AND CHICAGO<br />W. A. WILDE COMPANY</h3>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1900,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By W. A. Wilde Company.</span><br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i></h4>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h4>REELS AND SPINDLES.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/icover.jpg" width='464' height='700' alt="cover" /></div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i003.jpg" id="i003.jpg"></a><img src="images/i003.jpg" width='449' height='700' alt="SHE PULLED A BOOK FROM HER POCKET AND BEGAN TO READ" /></div>
+
+<h4>"SHE PULLED A BOOK FROM HER POCKET AND BEGAN TO READ."</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>It was love for others which made Amy Kaye make use of the first
+opportunity which offered, even though it was an humble one and she was
+handicapped by ignorance. But having once decided what course was right
+for her, she followed it with a singleness of purpose and a thoroughness
+of effort which brought a prompt success. The help she was to others was
+no small part of this success. For in an age of shams and low ideals the
+influence of even one sincere girl is far-reaching; and when to that
+sincerity she adds the sympathy which makes another's interests as vital
+to her as her own, this influence becomes incalculable for good.</p>
+
+<p>It is the author's hope that the story of "Reels and Spindles" may aid
+some young readers to comprehend and make their own this beauty of
+simplicity and this charm of sympathy which are the outcome of
+unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p class="right">E. R.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Baltimore</span>, April 3, 1900.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">CHAPTER</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Byway of the Ardsley</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Mill in the Glen</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Fairacres</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Hallam</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Kinsman of the House</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Settlements</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The "Spite House" of Bareacre</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Needs and Helpers</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Waterloo of Bonaparte Lafayette</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Home-making</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="smcap">The Young Old Man and Old Young Girl</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Bad News from Burnside</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Amy Pays a Business Call</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Pepita Finds a New Home</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Facing Hard Facts</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Amy Begins to Spin</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Disappearance of Balaam</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Fascination of Industry</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Motives and Misunderstandings</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">In the Old Home</span></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Peculiar Invitation</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Two Wanderers Return</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Frederic Kaye's Welcome Home</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Fairacres is Closed</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Mysteries and Masteries</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Picnic in the Glen</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">A Double Inheritance in a Single Day</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">One Wonderful Autumn Day</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#i003.jpg"><span class="mono">"She pulled a book from her pocket and began to read"</span></a><span class="mono">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <i>Frontispiece</i></span></li>
+<li><a href="#i066.jpg"><span class="mono">"'Take care! You'll drop sperm on the rug, tipping that candlestick so!'"</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#i171.jpg"><span class="mono">"'Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita'"</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#i262.jpg"><span class="mono">"She so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound it with the lotions"</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#i335.jpg"><span class="mono">"He began to gather up the coins"</span></a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>REELS AND SPINDLES.</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>A BYWAY OF THE ARDSLEY.</h3>
+
+<p>The white burro had a will of her own. So, distinctly, had her mistress.
+As had often happened, these two wills conflicted.</p>
+
+<p>For the pair had come to a point where three ways met. Pepita wanted to
+ascend the hill, by a path she knew, to stable and supper. Amy wished to
+follow a descending road, which she did not know, into the depths of the
+forest. Neither inclined toward the safe middle course, straight onward
+through the village, now picturesque in the coloring of a late September
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Pepita. You must obey me. If I'm not firm this time, you'll act
+worse the next. To the right, amiable beastie!"</p>
+
+<p>Both firmness and sarcasm were wasted. The burro rigidly planted her
+forefeet in the dust and sorrowfully dropped her head.</p>
+
+<p>Amy tugged at the bridle.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>"Pepita! To&mdash;the&mdash;right! Go on. In your native Californian&mdash;<i>Vamos!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The "Californian" budged not, but posed, an image of dejection. The
+happiness of life had departed; the tale of her woe seemed pictured in
+every hair of her thickly coated body; she was a broken-hearted donkey.</p>
+
+<p>Amy Kaye was neither broken-hearted nor broken-spirited, and she was
+wholly comfortable. Her saddle was soft and fitted well. The air was
+delightful. She pulled a book from her pocket and began to read. In five
+minutes she was so absorbed that she had forgotten Pepita's little
+mannerisms.</p>
+
+<p>After a while the "Californian" moved her head just enough to gain a
+corner-wise glimpse of a calm and unresponsive face beneath a scarlet
+Tam; and evidently realizing that she had become a mere support to the
+maid who owned her, uttered her protest.</p>
+
+<p>"Bra-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-umph&mdash;umph&mdash;mph&mdash;ph&mdash;h!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy read on.</p>
+
+<p>Pepita changed her tactics. She began to double herself together in a
+fashion disconcerting to most riders; whereupon Amy simply drew her own
+limbs up out of harm's way and waited for the burro's anatomy to settle
+itself in a heap on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, honey."</p>
+
+<p>Then she resumed her book, and the beast her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> meditations. Thus they
+remained until the rumble of an approaching wagon caused the now
+submissive animal to rise and move aside out of the road.</p>
+
+<p>Again Amy tested the bridle, and found that she might now ride whither
+she pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so, beloved? Well, then, that's right; and when you do right
+because I make you, it is one lump of sugar. Open your mouth. Here. But,
+Pepita, when you do right without compulsion, there are always two
+lumps. Into the forest&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>Pepita went. Suddenly, swiftly, and so recklessly that Amy nearly slid
+over her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! What suits you suits me. I'm as good a sticker-on as you are
+a shaker-off. Besides, a word in your ear. It would be quite the proper,
+story-book sort of thing for you to try and break my neck, as a
+punishment, since I'm almost running away."</p>
+
+<p>Though she had always lived within a few miles of the spot the girl had
+never before visited it. That she did so now, without knowledge of
+anybody at home, gave her a sense of daring, almost of danger, as new as
+it was fascinating. True, she had not been forbidden, simply because
+nobody had thought of her wandering so far afield; yet the habit of her
+life had been such as to make anything out of the common seem strange,
+even wrong.</p>
+
+<p>"However, since I'm here, I'll see what there is to see and tell them
+all about it afterward&mdash;that is, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> they will care to hear," she ended
+her remark to the burro with a sigh, and for a bit forgot her
+surroundings. Then she rallied, and with the spirit of an explorer,
+peered curiously into all the delightful nooks and corners which
+presented; not observing that the road grew steadily more steep and
+rough, nor that Pepita's feet slipped and stumbled, warningly, among the
+loose stones, which were so hidden by fallen leaves that Amy could not
+see them. Along the sides, seasoning at convenient intervals, were rows
+of felled timber, gay with a summer's growth of woodbine and clematis,
+now ripened to scarlet and silvery white.</p>
+
+<p>Amy was an artist's daughter. At every turn her trained eye saw
+wonderful "bits" of pictures, and she exclaimed to Pepita:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If father were only here! See that great rock with its gray-green
+lichens and its trailing crimson tendrils! Just that on a tiny canvas,
+say six by eight or, even, eight by twelve, how it would brighten
+mother's room!"</p>
+
+<p>The "Californian" kicked the leaves impatiently. She had no eye for
+"bits" of anything less material than sugar, and she had long since
+finished her one lump; she was tired of travelling in the wrong
+direction, with her head much lower than her heels, and she suddenly
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite time. Another step forward would have sent them tobogganing
+into a brawling stream. With a shiver of fear Amy realized this.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>"O-oh! Oh! You knew best, after all! You wouldn't come till I made you;
+and now&mdash;how shall we get out! Hark! What's that?"</p>
+
+<p>The burro had already pricked up her ears. There was a shout from
+somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>Amy managed to slide off and fling herself flat against the slope. When
+she tried to climb back to a less dangerous spot the twigs she clutched
+broke in her hands and the rocks cut her flesh. The adventure which had
+been fascinating was fast becoming frightful.</p>
+
+<p>"Hil-loa! Hil-l-loa!"</p>
+
+<p>Clinging desperately to the undergrowth, she managed to move her head
+and look down. Far below in the ravine somebody was waving a white
+cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"Hilloa, up there!"</p>
+
+<p>She was too terrified to speak; yet, after the salute had reached her
+several times, she dared to loose one hand and wave a returning signal.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;just&mdash;hold on! I'll come&mdash;and get&mdash;you!"</p>
+
+<p>As "holding on" was all that either Amy or Pepita could do just then,
+they obeyed, perforce; although, presently, the burro had scrambled to a
+narrow ledge, whence she could see the whole descent and from which, if
+left to herself, she would doubtless have found a way into the valley.</p>
+
+<p>They clung and waited for so long that the girl grew confused; then
+tried to rally her own courage by addressing the "Californian."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>"It's so&mdash;so absurd&mdash;I mean, awful! If that man doesn't come soon, I
+shall surely fall. My fingers ache so, and I'm slipping.
+I&mdash;am&mdash;slipping! Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, her rescuer was near. He had worked his way upward on all
+fours, his bare feet clinging securely where shoe-soles would have been
+useless. He approached without noise, save of breaking twigs, until he
+was close beside them, when Pepita concluded it was time to bid him
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Br-r-r-ray! A-humph! A-humph&mdash;umph&mdash;mph&mdash;ph&mdash;h!"</p>
+
+<p>The climber halted suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sho-o!"</p>
+
+<p>Also startled, Amy lost her hold and shot downward straight into the
+arms of the stranger, who seized her, croaking in her ear:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hilloa! What you up to? Can't you wait a minute?"</p>
+
+<p>Then, with a strong grasp of her clothing, he wriggled himself sidewise
+along the bank to a spot where the rock gave place to earth and shrubs.</p>
+
+<p>"Now catch your breath and let her go!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl might have screamed, but she had no time. Instantly, she was
+again sliding downward, with an ever-increasing momentum, toward
+apparent destruction, yet landing finally upon a safe and mossy place;
+past which, for a brief space, the otherwhere rough stream flowed
+placidly. She caught the hum of happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> insects and the moist sweet odor
+of growing ferns, then heard another rush and tumble. But she was as yet
+too dazed to look up or realize fresh peril, before Pepita and the other
+stood beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! That beats&mdash;huckleberries!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy struggled to her feet. She had never heard a voice like that, which
+began a sentence with mighty volume and ended it in a whisper. She
+stared at the owner curiously, and with a fresh fear. "He looks as queer
+as his voice," she thought.</p>
+
+<p>She was right. His physique was as grotesque as his attire; which
+consisted of a white oilskin blouse, gayly bordered with the national
+colors, trousers of the most aggressive blue, and a helmet-shaped hat,
+adorned by a miniature battle-axe, while a tiny broom was strapped upon
+his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! pretty, ain't I? The boys gave 'em to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Did&mdash;they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You needn't be scared. I shan't hurt you. I'm a Rep-Dem-Prob."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I march with the whole kerboodle. I tell you, it's fun."</p>
+
+<p>It was "Presidential year," and Amy began to understand, not only that
+the lad before her was a "natural," but, presumably, that he had been
+made the victim of village wit. She had heard of the "marching bands,"
+and inferred that the strange dress of her rescuer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> was made up by
+fragments from rival political uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'm out every night. Hurrah for Clevey-Harris!"</p>
+
+<p>"You must get very tired."</p>
+
+<p>"No. It's fun. I drag the gun carriage. That's on account o' my
+strength. Look a' there for an arm!" And he thrust out his illy
+proportioned limb with a pitiable pride.</p>
+
+<p>"I see. But now that you've helped me down the bank, will you as kindly
+show me the way home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never slid that way before, did you? Only thing, though. I'll show you
+all right if you'll let me ride your donkey. Funny, ain't she? Make her
+talk."</p>
+
+<p>"I think she's very pretty; and you may ride her, certainly, if she will
+let you."</p>
+
+<p>A puzzled and angry expression came over the youth's face as he looked
+toward the burro, who had already begun to make hay for herself out of
+the lush grasses bordering the Ardsley.</p>
+
+<p>"Make her talk, I say."</p>
+
+<p>"She'll do that only to please herself. She's rather self-willed, and
+besides&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Who do <i>you</i> march with?"</p>
+
+<p>"March? <i>March!</i> I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, nobody. Of course not. Why should you think it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>The lad scrutinized her dress and gazed abstractedly upon the white
+"Californian." Just then, a "parade" was the dominant idea in the poor
+fellow's limited intelligence. Amy's simple white flannel frock, with
+its scarlet sash, and the scarlet cap upon her dark curls, suggested
+only another "uniform." The girls with whose appearance he was familiar
+were not so attired.</p>
+
+<p>Neither did they ride upon white donkeys. Yet a donkey of venerable and
+unhappy appearance did nightly help to swell the ranks of the country's
+patriots, and the beast which he knew enjoyed a sort of honor: it drew
+an illuminated "float" wherein rode a greatly envied fifer.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you ask that?" again demanded Amy, now laughing; for she had
+just imagined what her mother's face would express, should her daughter
+become a part of a "parade."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! because."</p>
+
+<p>Pepita now took share in the conversation. "Br-r-rr-a-y! Ah-huh-um-umph!
+Ah-umph&mdash;u-m-ph&mdash;ah-umph&mdash;umph&mdash;mph&mdash;ph&mdash;h-h-h!" she observed.</p>
+
+<p>Never was a remark more felicitous. The lad threw himself down on the
+grass, laughing boisterously. Amy joined, in natural reaction from her
+former fear, and even the "Californian" helped on the fun by observing
+them with an absurdly injured expression.</p>
+
+<p>"She is funny, I admit; though she is as nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> compared to her
+brother Balaam. If you like that kind of music, you should hear their
+duet about breakfast time. Which is the shortest way to some real road?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come on. I'll show you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; and, you are so tall, would you mind getting me that bunch
+of yellow leaves&mdash;just there? They are so very, very lovely I'd like to
+take them home to put in father's studio."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that? Where's it at? Who are you, anyhow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amy Kaye."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm 'Bony,'&mdash;Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson. Who's he?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is Cuthbert Kaye, the artist. Maybe you know him. He is
+always discovering original people."</p>
+
+<p>The speech was out before she realized that it was not especially
+flattering. Her father liked novel models, and she had imagined how her
+new acquaintance would look as a "study." Then she reflected that the
+lad was not as pleasing as he was "original."</p>
+
+<p>"No. I don't know him. He don't live in the village, I 'low?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. We live at Fairacres. It has been our home, our family's
+home, for two hundred years."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! You don't look it. An' you needn't get mad, if it has. I ain't
+made you mad, have I? I'd like to ride that critter. I'd like to, first
+rate."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p><p>Amy flushed, ashamed of her indignation against such an unfortunate
+object, and replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to have you 'first rate,' too, if Pepita is willing. You get
+on her back and show me which way to go, and I'll try to make her behave
+well. I have some sugar left. That turning? All right. See, Pepita,
+pretty Pepita! Smell what's in my fingers, amiable. Then follow me, and
+we'll see what&mdash;we shall see."</p>
+
+<p>"Bony" was much impressed by Amy's stratagem of walking ahead of the
+burro with the lump of sugar held temptingly just beyond reach. For the
+girl knew that the "Californian" would pursue the enticing titbit to the
+sweetest end.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this end seemed long in coming. For more than a mile their path lay
+close to the water's edge, through bogs and upon rocks, over rough and
+smooth, with the bluff rising steeply on their right and the stream
+preventing their crossing to the farm lands on its left. But at length
+they emerged upon a wider level and a view that was worth walking far to
+see.</p>
+
+<p>Here the lad dismounted. He was so much too large for the beast he
+bestrode that he had been obliged to hold his feet up awkwardly, while
+riding. Besides, deep in his clouded heart there had arisen a desire to
+please this girl who so pleased him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. If you like leaves, there's some that's pretty," he said, pointing
+upward toward a brilliant branch, hanging far out above the stream.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, those are exquisite, but quite out of reach. We can get on faster
+now; and tell me, please, what are all those buildings yonder? How
+picturesque they look, clustered amid the trees on the river's bank."</p>
+
+<p>Her answer was a rustle overhead. She fancied that a squirrel could not
+have climbed more swiftly; for, glancing up, she discovered the witless
+youth already upon the projecting branch, moving toward its slender
+tips, which swayed beneath his weight, threatening instant breakage.
+Below him roared the rapids, hurrying to dash over the great dam not
+many yards away.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how dare you? Come back&mdash;at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Scare you, do I? Sho! This is nothing. You just ought to see what I can
+do. Catch 'em. There you are. That's prettier than any. Hello! Yonder's
+a yellow-robin's nest. Wait. I'll get it for you!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy shut her eyes that she might not see; though she could not but hear
+the snapping of boughs, the yell, and the heavy splash which followed.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MILL IN THE GLEN.</h3>
+
+<p>"Hi! ducked myself that time, sure!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy ventured to open her eyes. There, dripping and grinning, evidently
+enjoying the fright he had given her, stood her strange new
+acquaintance. His hand still clutched the scarlet branch with its
+swinging nest that he had risked his safety to secure, nor would
+relinquish for so trivial a matter as a fall into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you might have been drowned!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I wasn't."</p>
+
+<p>"I should have felt that it was all my fault!" she exclaimed, now that
+her fear was past, growing angry at his hardihood.</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her in genuine surprise; all the gayety of his expression
+giving place to disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you like it? They always build far out."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. It's beautiful, and I thank you, of course. But I want to get
+home. You must show me the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Make the donkey carry 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>So they piled the branches upon the back of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> dumbly protesting
+"Californian," Amy retaining the delicate nest and gently shaking the
+water from it.</p>
+
+<p>"She don't like 'em, does she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Idle Pepita likes nothing that is labor. But I love her,
+even though she's lazy."</p>
+
+<p>"What'll you take for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't swop?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! dozens of 'whys.' The idea of my selling Pepita! For one thing, she
+was a gift."</p>
+
+<p>"Who from?"</p>
+
+<p>"My uncle Frederic."</p>
+
+<p>"When? Where? What for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what a question asker. Come, Pepit! Tcht!"</p>
+
+<p>Shaking her body viciously, but unable to rid herself of her brilliant
+burden, the burro started swiftly along the footpath running toward the
+distant buildings, and over the little bridge that crossed just there.
+Both path and bridge were worn smooth by the feet of the operatives from
+the mills, which interested Amy more and more, the nearer she approached
+them. Once or twice, on some rare outing among the hills where her home
+lay, she had caught glimpses of their roofs and chimneys, and she
+remembered to have asked some questions about them; but her father had
+answered her so indifferently, even shortly, that she had learned
+little.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>Seen from this point they impressed her by contrast to all she had ever
+known. There was a whirl and stir of life about them that excited and
+thrilled her. Through the almost numberless windows, wide open to the
+air, she could see hundreds of busy people moving to and fro, in a sort
+of a rhythmic measure with the pulsating engines.</p>
+
+<p>As yet she did not know what these engines were. She heard the mighty
+beat and rumble, regular, unchanging, like a gigantic heart of which
+this many-storied structure was the enclosing body; and she slowly
+advanced, fascinated, and quite heedless of some staring eyes which
+regarded her curiously from those wide windows.</p>
+
+<p>A discontented bray and the touch of a hand upon her shoulder suddenly
+recalled her, to observe that she had reached the bottom of a steep
+stairway, and was face to face with another stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, but can I be of service to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! sir. Thank you. I&mdash;I don't know just where I am."</p>
+
+<p>"In the yard of the Crawford carpet mill."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the wonderful building yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Have you never seen it before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at near hand. I am here by accident. I was lost on the river bank,
+a long distance back, and a strange lad helped me so far. I don't see
+him now, and I'm rather frightened about him, for he fell into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+water, getting me this nest. He doesn't act just like other people, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Poor 'Bony'! He has run up into the street above us, yet even he
+knew better than to have brought you just here," and he glanced
+significantly toward a large sign of "No Admittance."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it wrong? I'm very sorry. I'll go away at once, when I'm shown how."</p>
+
+<p>Gazing about, her perplexity became almost distress; for she found
+herself shut in a little space by buildings of varying heights. Behind
+her lay the difficult route over which she had come, and on the east
+uprose a steep bank or bluff. Against this was placed a nearly
+perpendicular sort of ladder, and this steep stair was the only visible
+outlet from the ravine.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman smiled at her dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that isn't as bad as it looks. I fancy you could easily climb it,
+as do our own mill girls; but this pretty beast of yours, with the
+fanciful burden, how about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. She might. She's right nimble-footed&mdash;when she chooses to
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"So 'he' is a young lady, too? Well, I have great faith in girls, even
+girl donkeys, as well as in those who own them. There will certainly be
+a way out; if not up the bank, then through the mill. By the by, if
+you've never visited such a place, and have come to it 'by accident,'
+wouldn't you like to go through it now?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> I'm the superintendent, William
+Metcalf, and am just about to make my rounds, before we shut down for
+the night. I'd be pleased to show you about, though we must first find a
+safe place where we can tie your donkey. She looks very intelligent."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed, sir, she is! She's the dearest burro. She and her brother
+Balaam were sent to my brother and me from California. Her name is
+Pepita, and I am Amy Kaye. I live at Fairacres."</p>
+
+<p>At this announcement the gentleman looked as if he were about to
+whistle, though courtesy prevented. He bowed gravely:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad to know you. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll find
+something with which to tie the burro."</p>
+
+<p>He soon returned, bringing a leather strap.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll fasten her to the stair, but it will be better to put these
+branches on the ground. Having them on her back frets her."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. You're very kind."</p>
+
+<p>Pepita did not endorse this opinion. In the matter of tying she gave
+them all the trouble she could, and allowed them to depart only after a
+most indignant bray. Her racket brought various heads to the windows,
+and the visitors were as much of interest to the artisans as themselves
+were to Amy.</p>
+
+<p>She followed her guide eagerly, too self-unconscious to be abashed by
+any stare; and though he had shown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> many strangers "over the works," he
+felt that explaining things to this bright-eyed girl would be a
+pleasanter task than ordinary.</p>
+
+<p>"I like to begin all things at the foundation," he remarked, with a
+smile, "so we'll go to the fire-room first."</p>
+
+<p>This was down another short flight of steps, and over a bridge spanning
+the race, which deep, dark watercourse immediately caught Amy's
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>"How smooth and swift it looks; and so black. Isn't that man afraid to
+stand there?" indicating a workman stationed upon the sluice gate,
+engaged in the endless task of raking fallen leaves away from the rack.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! not afraid! The work is monotonous, but it must be done, or
+there'll be the mischief to pay. Now, here are the fires."</p>
+
+<p>A soot-grimed man approached the door of the furnace room, and
+respectfully touched his forehead to his superior, then glanced toward
+Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afeared the little lady will soil her pretty frock," he remarked,
+with another pull at his forelock.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for thinking of it. I'll try to be careful," she answered,
+tiptoeing across the earthen floor, to stoop and peer into the roaring
+furnaces. "I should be afraid it would burn the whole place up. How hot
+it is! Is it all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they're doing prime to-day. We takes care<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> of the danger, miss.
+But hot? Well, you should ought to be here about midsummer, say. Ah!
+this isn't bad, is it, boss?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very comfortable. You like your job, eh, Ben?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure; it's a good one. Steady, an' wages regular. Good day, miss,
+you're welcome, I'm sure," he concluded, as she thanked him again for
+opening the furnace doors and explaining how it was he managed the great
+fires.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the engine room; to see the object of all that heat," said Mr.
+Metcalf.</p>
+
+<p>"If only Hallam were here!" exclaimed Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he your brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Oh! it all seems just like fairyland; even better, for this is
+useful, while fairyland is merely pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you deem useful things of more account than pleasant ones? Hmm;
+most young ladies who have visited us have seemed afraid rather than
+pleased. The whir of the machinery frightened them."</p>
+
+<p>"It frightens me, too, and yet&mdash;I like it. The power of it all awes me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, your enthusiasm is certainly agreeable."</p>
+
+<p>Nor was he the only one who found it so. Even the usually silent workmen
+in the fireproof storehouse, where the bales of wool were piled to the
+ceiling with little aisles of passage between, were moved to explanation
+by the alert, inquiring glances of this dainty visitor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> So she quickly
+learned the difference between Turkish and Scottish fleeces, and
+remarked to her guide on the oddity of the sorted ones, "that look just
+like whole sheepskins, legs and tail and all, with the skins left out."
+In the scouring room she saw the wool washing and passing forward
+through the long tanks of alkaline baths; and in the "willying" house
+her lungs were filled by the dust that the great machines cleaned from
+the freshly dried fleeces. Indeed, she would have lingered long before
+the big chute, through which compressed air forced the cleansed fibres
+to the height of four stories and the apartment where began its real
+manufacture into yarn.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf took her next to this top floor; and though the deafening
+noise of the machinery made her own voice sound queerly in her ears, she
+managed to ask so many questions, that before she again reached the
+ground floor and passed outward to the impatient Pepita, she had gained
+a clear general idea how some sorts of carpets are made.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Miss Amy, that our little tour is over, I'd like to hear what,
+of all you've seen, has most impressed you," said Mr. Metcalf, kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"The girls."</p>
+
+<p>"The&mdash;girls? In the spinning room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everywhere; all of them. They are so clean, so jolly, and&mdash;think! They
+are actually earning money."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; else they wouldn't be here. Does it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> strike you oddly that a
+girl should earn her own living?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's grand."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. You caught but a fleeting glimpse of them. There's a deal of
+reality in their lives, poor things."</p>
+
+<p>"Why! Are you sorry for them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No,&mdash;and yes. They haven't much leisure, and I dare say that you are an
+object of envy to every mill girl who has seen you to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I hope not. I liked them so. It seems so fine to really earn some
+of the money which everybody needs so much, just by standing before one
+of those 'jennies' and doing what little they did. They laughed often,
+as if they were glad. Nobody looked sorrowful, so I don't see why you
+pity them."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be misplaced, for, after all, they <i>are</i> happy in their way. I
+do not think it is always the best way; still&mdash;Why, here's 'Bony.' Well,
+young man, what mischief's up now? Do you march again to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I'm going with her."</p>
+
+<p>"Best wait till you're invited," suggested the superintendent.</p>
+
+<p>The lad said nothing, but kept on tying into a compact bundle all the
+branches heaped upon the ground, and to which he had made a considerable
+addition during Amy's inspection of the mill. He had begged a bit of
+rope from the office in the street above; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> when he had secured the
+boughs to his satisfaction, he slung them across his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on. I'll pack 'em for you to where you live."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed none the worse for his fall into the water, and Amy laughed;
+not only at the readiness with which he constituted himself her
+assistant, but also at Pepita's frantic efforts to ascend the steep
+stairway.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. But if we can get her up there, above, she can carry the
+stuff herself. I can walk, when I am told the road."</p>
+
+<p>"Up she goes she!" shouted the startling Lafayette, and gave the
+unprepared burro a sharp prod with a stick he held.</p>
+
+<p>Astonished, Pepita leaped to escape the attack and landed her forefeet
+upon the fourth stair.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! There you be! You're a regular Rep-Dem-Prob! Up you go&mdash;I tell
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you dreadful boy!" exclaimed Amy, and tried to take the stick from
+the fellow's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't. He isn't hurting her, and she <i>is</i> going up!" laughed the
+superintendent, as the burro made another skyward spring. But his
+merriment suddenly ceased.</p>
+
+<p>The "Californian" could use her nimble feet for more than one purpose.
+She resented the indignity of her present position in the only manner
+possible to her, and when a third prod touched her dainty flesh, she
+flung one heel backward, with an airy readiness that might have been
+funny save for its result.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>FAIRACRES.</h3>
+
+<p>"How dreadful! Is he killed?" cried Amy, pale with fear.</p>
+
+<p>For the indignant Pepita had planted her active hoof squarely in the
+mouth of the lad who was tormenting her, and had knocked him backward
+from the stair. During a brief time he lay, dazed by the blow, with a
+trickle of blood rapidly staining his features.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait. Don't get frightened. There may not be much damage done. That boy
+has as many lives as a cat. I'll see to him," returned Mr. Metcalf,
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>With a strong, kindly touch, the gentleman helped the unfortunate "Bony"
+to his feet; whereupon, the lad flew into a fearful rage and started up
+the ladder, in pursuit of the burro.</p>
+
+<p>His movement roused Amy also to action, and she followed him so swiftly
+that she reached the top, and the broad road there, almost as soon as
+he. Before then, however, he had caught up a barrel stave, which
+happened to be lying in a too convenient spot, and was belaboring Pepita
+with all his might.</p>
+
+<p>The latter, after her ascent of the steps, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> remained standing at
+their head, gazing dreamily downward in her own demure manner and
+evidently considering that she had quite properly adjusted matters.</p>
+
+<p>Amy succeeded in reaching them just as the third blow was descending
+upon Pepita's flank and by a deft movement arrested the stroke. The
+stave flew out of the lad's grasp, and his astonishment at her strength
+cooled his anger.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you strike her again! You shall not. Aren't you ashamed of
+yourself to beat a helpless creature like that? If you are still able to
+act so&mdash;so brutally&mdash;you can't be much hurt. I was terribly frightened
+and sorry, but now I don't care. She served you just right."</p>
+
+<p>Then the red Tam dropped on the burro's neck and a torrent of
+affectionate words was poured into the creature's indifferent ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! Huckleberries! She's drove my teeth clean down my throat!" slowly
+ejaculated the youth.</p>
+
+<p>This was about half true. One tooth had been broken out by the blow upon
+the lad's jaw and another had been loosened. The copious bleeding of
+these wounds gave him a startling appearance, and when Amy looked up a
+shudder of repellent pity ran through her. Then she seemed to see her
+mother's gentle face and, conquering the aversion she felt, she pulled
+out her handkerchief and began to wipe the discolored, ill-shapen lips
+of the half-wit.</p>
+
+<p>He submitted to the operation in amazed silence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Even Mr. Metcalf had
+nothing to say, though he watched with keen interest the outcome of this
+little transaction.</p>
+
+<p>"There. If I had some water, I could do it nicely. I'm sorry you were
+hurt. But don't you ever strike my Pepita again! Next time she might
+kill you. It was her only way of defending herself, for she hasn't sense
+like you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Regarding the imbecile face before her, Amy's sentence ended in
+confusion. Nor did it add to her comfort that the unhappy fellow now
+began to weep in a whimpering sort of way, that might have suited a
+spoiled child of a few years.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is it? Do you suffer so terribly! Oh! I am so sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>"There, my dear Miss Amy, let it pass. This is only one of 'Bony's'
+charming habits," said Mr. Metcalf, smiling derisively. "He has rather
+outgrown his age. Haven't you, lad? Well, it's all right. I'm sorry for
+you. You're sorry for yourself; and our young lady here is sorry for us
+both. Come. Brace up. Be a man. What would the 'boys' think of you, in
+this uniform, crying? Eh!"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh&mdash;huh&mdash;huh&mdash;huh-h-h!" responded the natural.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going home, Bonaparte. Good night. Thank you for the leaves. Mr.
+Metcalf, will you tell me the nearest way, please?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>Amy picked up the fallen bundle of boughs, which the superintendent had
+brought with him from the yard below, and laid them upon Pepita's back.</p>
+
+<p>"These have given us some trouble, but they are still too beautiful to
+lose."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman directed her, courteously escorted her through the
+gateway, which bore another of those prohibitory "No Admittance" signs,
+and watched her walk briskly away, thinking what a bright feature of the
+landscape she made.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a beautiful girl, by any means, yet one of the most wholesome,
+honest, and engaging ones who ever stepped foot within this old mill.
+Odd, too! A Kaye. I wonder if she will ever come again to what, if all
+had gone as was expected, might easily have been her own great property.
+Well, that was pretty to see: the way in which she wiped the face of
+poor 'Bony.' The lad grows sillier every day, it seems, and the 'boys'
+are making him worse by their nonsense. Where is he now? I'll have a
+talk with him and try to keep him out of the parades. They are not good
+for him," reflected Mr. Metcalf.</p>
+
+<p>But the talk had to be postponed; for there was "Bony" already far along
+the road toward Fairacres, following doggedly in Amy's footsteps, though
+she repeatedly assured him that she could manage quite well without him
+and preferred to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm going," he asserted; and when she could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> not dissuade him, she
+gave up trying to do so and led him to talk of himself&mdash;his most
+interesting subject. So that, by the time they had come to the front of
+the old mansion, she knew his simple history completely, and her pity
+had almost outgrown her aversion.</p>
+
+<p>"See, Cleena! Cleena Keegan! See what I have brought!"</p>
+
+<p>The shout summoned a large woman to the door, who threw up her arms with
+the answering cry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, an' I thought you was lost! Whatever has kept you such gait,
+Miss Amy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! adventures. Truly, Cleena. Real, regular adventures. See my leaves?
+See this lad! He got them for me. He is Bonaparte Jimpson."</p>
+
+<p>"An' a curious spalpeen that same," casting a suspicious glance over the
+youth's strange attire.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson," he explained gravely and, to Amy's
+surprise, timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"The mischief, you be! An' what's Napoleon Bonyparty's gineral's
+pleasure at Fairacres, the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, wait. I'll tell you. Yes, you will have time enough. The train
+isn't due till after six, and they'll be a half-hour longer getting home
+from the station. Sit you down, Goodsoul, just for one little bit of
+minute. The scrubbing must surely be done by now. Isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! The scrubbin's never done in this dirty world. Well, an' what is
+it? Be quick with you!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>Amy coaxed the old servant down upon the doorstep of the freshly
+cleaned kitchen, whither they had now gone, and speedily narrated her
+afternoon's experiences.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, dear old Scrubbub, that he must have a fine feast of the
+best there is in the house. Besides," and she pulled the other's ear
+down to her lips, "I'd just like to have father see him. He isn't
+pretty, of course, but he's <i>new</i>. I wonder, could he pose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pose, is it?" groaned Cleena, with a comical grimace. "Pose! Sure, it's
+I minds the time when the master caught me diggin' petaties an' kept me
+standin', with me foot on me spade, an' me spade in the ground, an' me
+body this shape," bending forward, "till I got such a crick in me back I
+couldn't walk upright, for better 'n a week. Posin', indeed! Well, he
+might. He looks fit for naught else."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh, Cleena! you know it's an honor. But, come now, I want to put all
+these leaves up in the dining room. Will you help me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will I what&mdash;such truck! No, me colleen, not a help helps Cleena the
+day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will. I'll bring the step ladder and hand them to you,
+while you put them over the doors and windows. We'll make the place a
+perfect bower of cheerfulness, and if our dears, when they come&mdash;Oh,
+Cleena! they may need the cheerfulness very much."</p>
+
+<p>However, it was not Amy's habit to borrow trouble, and she ran lightly
+away, calling to the boy on the porch:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>"I'm going to put Pepita in the stable. If you'd like to see her
+brother, you can come with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! Ain't he black!" exclaimed "Bony," as they led Pepita into the
+great stables and he discovered Balaam.</p>
+
+<p>Amid ample accommodations for a dozen horses, the two burros seemed
+almost lost; but they occupied adjoining box-stalls which, if rather
+time-worn and broken, were still most roomy and comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, huckleberries! It's bigger 'n the mill sheds. And only them two.
+Will he swop?"</p>
+
+<p>As he asked this question the lad pulled from his pocket a miscellaneous
+collection of objects, and invitingly displayed them upon the palm of
+his long hand.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not. I fancy we are not a 'swopping' family. But I must
+choose some name for you besides that dreadful 'Bony.' Bonaparte is too
+long. So is Lafayette. Let me see. Suppose we make it just 'Fayette'?
+That is short and pleasant to speak, and I like my friends to have nice
+names. Would you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bully!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;why, Fayette! That doesn't sound well."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! Don't it? One all black an' t'other all white. Hum."</p>
+
+<p>"Br-r-r-ray! Ah-umph&mdash;h-umph&mdash;umph&mdash;mph&mdash;ph&mdash;h-h-h!" observed Balaam to
+his sister.</p>
+
+<p>Fayette laughed, so noisily and uproariously that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the burros brayed
+again; and they kept up this amusing concert until Amy had brought each
+an armful of hay, and had directed her companion where to find a pail
+and water for their drink.</p>
+
+<p>Then they returned to the house and beheld Cleena in the dining room,
+already mounted upon the step-ladder, trying to arrange the branches
+with more regard to the saving of time than to grace. But she made to
+the picture-seeing girl a very attractive "bit."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Cleena Keegan was a person of sufficient importance to warrant a
+paragraph quite to herself. She was a woman of middle age, with a wealth
+of curling, iron-gray hair, which she tucked away under a plain white
+cap. Her figure was large and grandly developed. She wore a blue print
+gown, carefully pinned back about her hips, thus disclosing her scarlet
+flannel petticoat; both garments faded by time and frequent washings to
+a most "artistic" hue. Upon her shoulders was folded a kerchief of
+coarse white muslin, spotlessly clean; and as she stood, poised among
+the glowing branches, with the dying sunset light touching her honest
+face to unusual brightness, she was well worth Amy's eager wish:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cleena! That father were only here to see and paint you just as you
+are this minute!"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! It's meself's glad he isn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Why! That's not nice of you, Goodsoul. Yet it's a great pity that a
+body who is such a 'study' in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>herself can't fix those branches a bit
+more gracefully. You're jamming the leaves all into a little mess and
+showing the stems! Oh, Cleena, I wonder if I can't reach them."</p>
+
+<p>"Truth, it's meself's willin' you should try. Belike I'd be handier at
+the pullin' them down nor the puttin' them up."</p>
+
+<p>With head erect she descended from the ladder, and stood, arms akimbo,
+regarding the results of her labor. Even to her it suggested something
+not "artistic," and at Fairacres anything inartistic was duly frowned
+upon.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, it's not the way the master would do it, I see that, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Before either she could finish her sentence or Amy mount the ladder,
+Fayette had run to its top and stood there rapidly pulling from the wall
+the branches Cleena had arranged. Thrusting all but one between his
+knees, he fastened that over the window-frame so deftly and charmingly
+that Amy clapped her hands in delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's lovely! Try another&mdash;and another!"</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed. His vacant face flushed with a glow of enthusiasm equalling,
+if not exceeding her own, and even Cleena spent some moments of her
+rarely wasted time in watching him.</p>
+
+<p>Her own face had again become a "study," yet of a sort to provoke a
+smile, as her gaze roved from his handiwork, over the length of his
+ungainly person, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> rest upon his bare and not too cleanly feet; then
+travelled slowly upward again, trying to settle once for all his
+rightful position in the social scale. Her thought might have been thus
+expressed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"His foot's heathen. His head's the same. His clothes&mdash;they're the
+heathenest of all. I'd disdain 'em. But, arrah musha! The hand of him!
+The master himself couldn't better them fixin's."</p>
+
+<p>Then she hastened to her kitchen, and soon the appetizing odor of a
+well-cooked meal was in their nostrils, and the two young decorators
+realized that they were very hungry.</p>
+
+<p>"There, that will do. It is perfect. Thank you ever and ever so much,
+Fayette."</p>
+
+<p>"Shucks!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'll light the candles. I always do when the people are coming home
+from town. They go there quite often; at least father does, though
+mother hasn't been before in months. The candles are terrible
+extravagance, Cleena says, but they're so pretty."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette carried away the step-ladder, then returned to watch Amy as she
+set the old-fashioned candelabra upon the already daintily spread table.
+She had bordered the white cloth with some of the most dazzling-hued
+leaves, and when the wax tapers threw their soft radiance over the whole
+charming interior, poor Fayette felt his weak head grow dizzy and
+confused by the beauty of it all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>He dimly realized that he was in a new world, which soothed and
+appealed to his clouded nature as did the birds and the flowers. That
+impulse, which he could neither express nor understand, which sent him
+so constantly into the woods and solitudes, was gratified now. This was
+as delightful as his favorite pastime of lying upon the grass and gazing
+upward into the sunlit sky.</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! It's pretty. I like it. I'm glad I come. I'll stay."</p>
+
+<p>Amy had almost forgotten him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course you'll stay till after supper. I'll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But a shadow fell across the threshold of the still open door, and
+looking up she saw a stranger,&mdash;an old man of rather forbidding aspect,
+whose glance passed swiftly from herself to the youth near the big
+fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>There followed an instant of mutual and frowning recognition between
+these two; then Fayette disappeared through an inner doorway, while the
+newcomer remained at the entrance, his hat in his hand, and an assumed
+suavity in his manner.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was still a note of anger in the tone with which he
+observed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have called upon business with Cuthbert Kaye. Your father, I presume.
+Is he at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. He went to the city, yesterday, with my mother and brother. I
+expect them back on the next train. Will you come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thank you. I'll wait."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>He accepted the great chair Amy rolled toward him, and let his gaze
+slowly sweep the cheerful apartment. Yet he knew it by heart, already,
+and his face brightened as he saw how little it had been changed since
+these many years. Apparently not one of its quaint and rich old
+furnishings was missing, and the passage of time had but added to the
+remembered charm of the place. Even the chair into which he sank had a
+familiar feel, as if his back had long ago fitted to those simple,
+comfortable lines. The antique candelabra&mdash;how often had he watched his
+grandmother's fingers polishing them to brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>But the girl was new. The only modern thing, save the freshly gathered
+leaves,&mdash;which also seemed but a memory of his childhood,&mdash;to remind him
+of the present and the errand upon which he had come.</p>
+
+<p>"She's Kaye, though, to the bone. Dark, crisp hair. Those short curls
+are like a boy's. Her eyes are the Kaye eyes; and that toss of her head,
+like her great-grandmother come to life again. All our women had it. Ah,
+well. If things&mdash;hmm."</p>
+
+<p>The visitor became absorbed in his thoughts, and his wandering gaze came
+home to rest, seemingly, upon the tips of his own boots, for he did not
+notice when Amy disappeared and Cleena entered.</p>
+
+<p>"Alanna! But this is a smart decent piece of work, now, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>At this sudden and derisive remark the gentleman looked up.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, ho! You, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith an' it is. An' likin' to know what brings you this gait."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep a civil tongue in your head, woman. I'm not to be put off this
+time by any false stories. Here I am, and here I shall stay until I see
+your master."</p>
+
+<p>Steadily and silently confronting one another for some seconds, they
+measured each other's wills. The unwelcome guest was not sure but that
+the woman would lift him bodily and fling him out of doors. She looked
+ably strong and quite minded so to do; but, after a further reflection,
+she appeared to change her mind as well as her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm&mdash;yes. There's no irreverence meant. Come in by, to the library yon.
+There's pictures to see, an' books a plenty. Leave the master be, like a
+gentleman now, as you was born, till he eats his meal in peace. A body
+can bear trouble better on a full stummick nor an empty. Come by."</p>
+
+<p>To his own amazement, the caller rose and followed her. He told himself
+he was a simpleton to have left the cheery supper room and the certain
+presence of the man he wished to see for an hour of solitary waiting in
+an unknown place.</p>
+
+<p>"Library." There had been none in his grandmother's time. But he knew it
+well&mdash;from the outside. A detached, strong little building, of hewn
+stone like the mansion; one of Cuthbert Kaye's many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> "follies." Planned
+with a studio on the second floor above the spacious book room on the
+first. Well, it made the property so much the more valuable. Yes, after
+all, he would better visit it while the coast was clear.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, sir, an' it's here the master do be spending all his time. Here
+an' above. You was never in the paintin' study, now was you?" she asked
+suggestively.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Alanna! An' you two of the same blood!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm&mdash;yes, of course I'll go, since I'm here."</p>
+
+<p>So he followed her up the graceful staircase, with its softly covered
+steps, and into a room which rumor said was worth travelling far to see;
+and though thus prepared, its half-revealed beauty astonished him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is a fine apartment. It must have cost a power of money.
+And&mdash;it explains many things."</p>
+
+<p>"Money, says you? It did that," echoed Cleena, with a pious sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes. I suppose so. It's rather dark, however, for me to see as I
+would like. Isn't there a lamp here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lamp, is it? Askin' pardon for forgettin' me manners, but it's never a
+lamp will the master have left in this place. If one comes, indeed, 'tis
+himself brings it. Forby, on occasion like this, I'll fetch it an' take
+all the blame for that same. It's below. I'll step down;" and she
+departed hastily, leaving him alone.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>HALLAM.</h3>
+
+<p>As the stage from the railway station rolled up to Fairacres, Amy was
+waiting upon the wide porch. She had put on her daintiest frock, white,
+of course, since her father liked her to wear no other sort of dress;
+and she had twisted sprays of scarlet woodbine through her dark hair and
+about her shoulders. Before the vehicle stopped, she called out
+eagerly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! how glad I am you're here! It's been such a long two days! Are you
+all well? Is everything right, mother dearest? Did you have a nice
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>The father reached her first, remarking, with a fond smile:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You make a sweet picture, daughter, with that open doorway behind you,
+with the firelight and candlelight, and&mdash;Ah! did you speak, Salome?"
+turning toward his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"The man is waiting, Cuthbert. Has thee the money for him?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kaye fumbled in one pocket, tried another, frowned, and appeared
+distressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, dear. Hallam can attend to it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><p>But the crippled lad had already swung himself over the steps upon his
+crutches, and the artist remarked, with a fresh annoyance:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He must put it in the bill, Salome. Why always bother with such
+trifles? If one could only get away from the thought and sound of money.
+Its sordidness is the torment of one's life."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye sighed, as she paid the hackman from her own purse, then
+followed her husband into the house.</p>
+
+<p>His face had already lost all its expression of annoyance, and now
+beamed with satisfaction as he regarded Amy's efforts to celebrate the
+home-coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Good child. Good little girl. Truly, very beautiful. Why, my darling,
+you'll be an artist yourself some day, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"The saints forbid!" murmured a voice from the further side the room,
+where Cleena had appeared, bearing a tray of dishes.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody heard the ejaculation, however, save Hallam, and he didn't count,
+being of one and the same opinion as the old serving-woman. All the
+lad's ambitions lay toward a ceaseless activity, and the coloring of
+canvases attracted him less than even the meanest kind of manual labor.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did Amy share in her father's hope, though she loved art for his
+sake, and she answered, with conviction:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Never such an one as you are, father dear."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p><p>But all this while the daughter's eyes had been studying her mother's
+face, with the keen penetration of sympathy, and the whispered advice:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Be especially gentle with Hallam to-night, my child," but confirmed the
+answer she had already found in that careworn countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Hallam showed no need of consolation as he sturdily stumped across
+the room and exclaimed, cheerfully enough:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch on the provender, Goodsoul. We're all as hungry as bears. What's
+for us?"</p>
+
+<p>"What should be? save the best rasher of bacon ever blessed eyesight,
+with tea-biscuits galore. For second course&mdash;My! but that pullet was a
+tender bird, so she was. An' them east-lot petaties would fain melt in
+your mouth, they're so hot-foot to be ate."</p>
+
+<p>"The pullet? Not the little brown one you have cared for yourself,
+Cleena?"</p>
+
+<p>"What for no? Eat your victuals askin' no questions, for that's aye bad
+for the appetite."</p>
+
+<p>Both Amy and Cleena knew, without words, that this last city trip had
+been a failure, like so many that had preceded it. Once more had the too
+sanguine father dragged his crippled son to undergo a fresh examination
+of his well-formed though useless limbs; and once more had an adverse
+verdict been rendered.</p>
+
+<p>This time the authority was of the highest. A European specialist, whose
+name was known and reverenced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> upon two continents, had come to New York
+and had been consulted. Interested more than common by the boy's fair
+face and the sweet womanliness of the mother, the surgeon had given
+extra attention to Hallam, and his decision had been as reluctantly
+reached as it was final.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a miracle will ever enable him to walk. Yet a miracle may occur,
+for we live in an age of them, and nothing seems impossible to science.
+However, in all mortal probability, he is as one dead below his knees.
+My lad, take your medicine bravely and be a man in spite of it all. Use
+your brain, thanking God for it, and let the rest go."</p>
+
+<p>"That's an easy thing for you to say, but it is I who have to bear it!"
+burst forth the unhappy boy, and was at once ashamed of his rude speech,
+even if it in no wise offended the sympathetic physician.</p>
+
+<p>The return journey had been a sad and silent one, though Hallam had
+roused at its end with the sort of bravado that Amy had seen, and which
+deceived her no more than it did any of the others; but she loyally
+seconded his assumed cheerfulness, and after they had gathered about the
+table, gave them a lively description of her afternoon's outing, ending
+with:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"For, mother dear, you hadn't said just where I might or might not ride,
+and I'd never seen the carpet mills, though I now hope to go there
+often; and, indeed, I think I would like to work in that busy place,
+among all those bright, active girls."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>Then her enthusiasm was promptly dashed by her father's exclamation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Amy! Amy Kaye! Never again say such a thing! Let there be no more of
+that mill talk, not a word."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kaye's tone was more stern than his child had ever heard, and as if
+he recognized this he continued, more gently:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But I am interested in that silly Bonaparte. I almost wish you had kept
+him till I came."</p>
+
+<p>Amy happened to glance at Cleena, who had warned her not to mention the
+fact of the strange gentleman calling; nor had she known just when
+Fayette went away, though she supposed he had done so after so suddenly
+leaving the dining room.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Goodsoul, you are as beaming as if you had found a treasure."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, an' I have. Try a bit of the chicken, mistress, now do;" and she
+waved the dish toward the lady, with a smile that was more than
+cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Cleena, it's heartening to see anybody so bright. The work must
+have gone finely to-day, and thee have had plenty of time for scrubbing.
+No, thank thee; nothing more. Not even those delicious baked apples. The
+best apples in the world grow on that old tree by the dairy door, I
+believe," replied the mistress, with another half-suppressed sigh.</p>
+
+<p>As she rose to leave the table, she turned toward her husband:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>"I hope thee'll soon be coming upstairs, Cuthbert."</p>
+
+<p>It was noticeable that Cleena paused, tray in hand, to hear the answer,
+which was out of common, for the old servant rarely presumed upon the
+fact that she was also the confidential friend of her employers.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after a little, dear; but, first, I must go over to the studio."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah, musha, but, master! The painting's all right. What for no?
+Indeed, then, it's the mistress herself needs more attention this minute
+nor any picture ever was drawed."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cleena!" exclaimed the lady, in surprise. Such an interference had
+never been offered by the devoted creature to the head of the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Asking pardon, I'm sure; though I know I know. I've lighted a fire in
+the sittin' room above, an' it's sure for the comfort of both that yous
+make yourselves easy the night."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true, husband. Do leave the picture till morning. We're all
+tired and needing the rest."</p>
+
+<p>Always easily persuaded where physical comfort was at stake, the artist
+acquiesced, and with his arm about his wife's slender waist he gently
+led her from the room.</p>
+
+<p>Cleena heard him murmuring tender apologies that he had not before
+observed how utterly fatigued she looked; and a whimsical smile broke on
+the Irishwoman's face as she cleared the table and assured the cups and
+saucers, with a vigorous disdain, that:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p>"Them two's no more nor a couple of childer still. But, alanna! Never a
+doubt I doubt there'll be trouble with old Cleena when the cat leaps the
+bag. Well, he's in it now, tied fast and tight."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon, there being nobody to see, the good woman executed a sort of
+jig, and having thus relieved her feelings departed to the kitchen,
+muttering:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't for naught Miss Amy fetched a simpleton home in her pocket.
+Sure, I scared the life clean out of <i>him</i>, so I did, an' he'll stay
+where he's settled till he's wanted, so long as I keep fillin' his
+stummick with victuals like these. Will I carry a bit o' the fowl to the
+lib'ry&mdash;will I no? Hmm. Will I&mdash;nill I?"</p>
+
+<p>Having decided, Cleena passed swiftly from the house into the darkness
+and in the direction of the distant library.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, up in the little chamber which had once been their nursery
+and was still their own sitting room, Amy had drawn a lounge before the
+grate, and, after his accustomed fashion, Hallam lay upon it, while his
+sister curled upon the rug beside him.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not look at him. She rested her chin in her palms and gazed
+at the dancing flames, as she observed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Even a king might envy us this fire of pine cones, mightn't he? Isn't
+it sweet and woodsy? and so bright. I've gathered bushels and bushels of
+them, while you were away, and we can have all the fun we want up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> here.
+So now&mdash;can't you just begin and tell, Hal dear? Part of it I guess, but
+start as you always do: 'I went from here&mdash;' and keep right on till you
+get back again to me and&mdash;this."</p>
+
+<p>She purposely made her tone light, but she was not surprised when her
+answer was a smothered sob. Indeed, there was such a lump in her own
+throat that she had to swallow twice before she could say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, darling, you needn't tell one word. I know it all&mdash;all&mdash;all; and I
+can't bear it. I won't&mdash;I will not have it so!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned and buried her face in the pillow beside her brother's,
+crying so passionately that he had to become comforter himself; and his
+thin fingers stroked her hair until she grew ashamed of her weakness and
+looked up again, trying to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, brotherkin. I'm such a baby, and I meant to be so brave! If
+I could only take your lameness on myself, and give you my own strong,
+active legs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, Amy! Besides, how often have you said that very same thing? Yet
+it isn't any use. Nothing is of any use. Life isn't, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>Even the vehement Amy was shocked by this, and her tears stopped,
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Hal!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds wicked, doesn't it? Well, I feel wicked. I feel like, was it Job
+or one of his friends? that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> would be good to 'curse God and die.'
+Dying would be so much easier than living."</p>
+
+<p>The girl sprang up, clinching her brown hands, and staring at her
+brother defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam Kaye, don't you talk like that! Don't you dare! Suppose God
+heard you? Suppose He took you at your word and made you die just now,
+this instant? What then?"</p>
+
+<p>Hallam smiled, wanly, "I won't scare you by saying what then, girlie. If
+He did, I suppose it would all be right. Everything is right&mdash;to the
+folks who don't have to suffer the thing. Even the doctor&mdash;and I liked
+him as much as I envied him&mdash;even he preached to me and bade me not to
+mind, to 'forget.' Hmm, I wish <i>he</i> could feel, just for one little
+minute, the helplessness that I must feel always, eternally."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam was dearer to his sister than any other human being, and the
+despair in her idol's tone promptly banished her anger against his
+irreverence. She went down on her knees and caught away the arm with
+which he had hidden his face, kissing him again and again.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! there will be some way out of this misery, laddie. There must be.
+It wouldn't be right, that anybody as clever and splendid as you should
+be left a cripple for life. I won't believe it. I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>"How like father you are!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy's head tossed slightly, and a faint protest came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> into her eyes, but
+was banished as soon because of its disloyalty.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I? In what way? and why shouldn't I be?"</p>
+
+<p>"You never know when you're down nor why you shouldn't have all that you
+want."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it a good thing? Would it help to go moping and unbelieving?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not. Anyway, it makes things easier for you and him, and so,
+maybe, for the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>The sister dropped back into her favorite attitude upon the rug and
+regarded her brother curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Hal, you're as queer as can be, to-night. Seems as if there was
+something the matter with you, beyond what that know-nothing doctor
+said. Isn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call the poor man hard names, girlie. He was fine, and I was
+impertinent enough for the whole family. Only, I reckon he was too high
+up to feel anything we could say. But there <i>is</i> something. Something I
+must tell you, and I don't know how to begin. Promise that you won't get
+into a tantrum, or run and disturb the little mother about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam Kaye! Do I ever?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm! Sometimes. Don't you? Never mind. Sit closer, dear, and let me get
+hold of your hand. Then you'll understand why I am so bitter; why this
+disappointment about my lameness is so much worse than any that has gone
+before. And I've been disappointed often enough, conscience knows."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>Amy crept up and snuggled her dark head against Hallam's fair one,
+remarking, with emphasis:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'm all ready. I'll be as still as a mouse, and not interrupt you
+once. What other dreadful trouble has come? Is it a grocery bill, or
+Clafflin's for artists' stuff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Something far worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever think we might have&mdash;might have&mdash;oh, Amy! I can't tell you
+'gently,' as mother bade&mdash;all it is&mdash;well, we've got to go away from
+Fairacres. <i>Its not ours any longer.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Wh-a-at?" cried the girl, springing up, or striving to do so, though
+Hallam's hold upon her fingers drew her down again.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wonder you're amazed. I was, too, at first. Now I simply wonder
+how we have kept the place so long."</p>
+
+<p>"Why isn't it ours? Whose is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It belongs to a cousin of mother's, Archibald Wingate. Did you ever
+hear of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never. How can it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly understand myself, though mother's lawyer tried to explain.
+It's something about indorsing notes and mortgages and things. Big boy
+as I am, I know no more about business than&mdash;you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, truly. But I do know. I attended to the marketing yesterday
+when the wagon came. Cleena said that I did very well."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>"Glad of it. You'll have a chance to exercise your talents in that
+line."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Hal, mother will never let anybody take away our home. How could
+she? What would father do without his studio that he had built expressly
+after his own plan? or we without all this?" sweeping her arm about to
+indicate the cosiness of their own room.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother can't help herself, dear. She was rich once, but she's
+desperately poor now."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew there was trouble about money, of course. There never seems to
+be quite enough, but that's been so since I can remember. Why shouldn't
+we go on just as we have? What does this cousin of our mother's want of
+the place, anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I don't know him. I hate him unseen."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. Still, if he's a cousin, he should be fond of mother, and not
+bother."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, we're all a set of simpletons, I guess, as a family, and in
+relation to practical matters."</p>
+
+<p>"'Speak for yourself, John.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't all. There's something&mdash;something wrong with father."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam Kaye! Now I do believe you're out of your head. I was afraid you
+were, you've talked and acted so queerly. I'm going for Cleena. Is your
+face hot? Do you ache more than usual?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly. I'm as right as I ever shall be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> Listen. I found it
+all out in the city. Father had gone to some exhibition, and mother and
+I were waiting for the time to go to the doctor. A gentleman called, and
+I never saw anybody look so frightened and ill as mother did when she
+received him, though I knew it wasn't about me. She hadn't hoped for
+anything better in that line. She called the man 'Friend Howard Corson,'
+and he was very courteous to her; but all of a sudden she cried out:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't tell me that the end has come! I can't bear both sorrows in one
+day!' And then she looked across at me. I smiled as bravely as I could,
+and, Amy, I believe our mother is the very most beautiful woman in this
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course; and father's the handsomest man."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," agreed the lad, with rather more haste than conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what next?"</p>
+
+<p>Before the answer could be given, there burst upon their ears an
+uproarious clamor of angry voices, such as neither had ever heard at
+Fairacres; and Amy sprang up in wild alarm, while Hallam groped blindly
+for the crutches he had tossed aside.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>A KINSMAN OF THE HOUSE.</h3>
+
+<p>"It's from the library!" reported Amy, who had first reached and opened
+the window. "I can't make out anything except&mdash;yes, it is! That's
+Fayette's voice. Hear that croak?"</p>
+
+<p>"The foolish boy? Here yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"So it seems. I'll go and find out."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait. That's Cleena talking now, and another voice, a man's. What can
+it all mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy ran down the stairs and out of the house so swiftly that she did not
+observe her father following with almost equal haste. Behind him sped
+Mrs. Kaye, far more anxious concerning her husband than the noise
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>"Slowly, Cuthbert. Please do take care. Thee must not hurry so, and I
+hear Cleena. She'll look out for everything. For my sake, don't run."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam upon his crutches came last of all, and for a moment the entire
+family stood in silent wonder at the scene before them.</p>
+
+<p>Two men were wrestling like angry schoolboys; and the light from a
+lantern in Cleena's hand fell over them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> and showed the distorted face
+of "Bony" in one of his wildest rages. His contestant was gray haired
+and stout, and was evidently getting the worst of the struggle. The
+library door was open, and it seemed as if the half-wit were trying to
+force the other backward into the building.</p>
+
+<p>One glance revealed something of the situation to Mrs. Kaye, and, as the
+wrestlers paused for breath, she moved forward and laid her hand upon
+the old man's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald, what does this mean?"</p>
+
+<p>The low voice acted like magic. Fayette slunk away, ashamed, and the
+other paused to recover himself. But his anger soon returned and was now
+directed against the astonished woman herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Mean! mean? That's for you to say. Since when has a Kaye stooped to the
+pettiness of locking up an unwelcome visitor like a rat in a trap? A
+pretty greeting and meeting, Cuthbert, after all these years!" he cried,
+turning next toward the artist, with indignant contempt.</p>
+
+<p>But the object of his wrath scarcely heard what he said. His own eyes
+were fixed upon the ruined panel of his beautiful library door, and he
+caught up the lantern and peered anxiously to learn the extent of the
+disaster.</p>
+
+<p>The wife again answered, as if speaking for both:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald, no. Whatever indignity thee has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>suffered, none of thy kin
+know anything about it or could be parties to it. Thy own heart must
+tell thee that; and now explain what it all means."</p>
+
+<p>At the old familiar speech, the man's expression altered, and when he
+replied it was in a far gentler tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I came to see Cuthbert; for the thousandth time, isn't it? Failing him
+again, though I didn't mean to fail, I had to talk with&mdash;thee," his
+voice tripping slightly over the pronoun, "and that virago brought me
+here to wait. Then she locked me up and set this idiot to watch. There
+are no windows to get out of from above, nothing but that skylight, so I
+finally forced the door at the foot of the stairs, and then again this.
+Here was that ruffian, armed with a cudgel, and&mdash;the rest thee knows."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry, cousin. I can but apologize for what I would never
+have permitted had I known," and the mistress's gaze rested upon Cleena
+most reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>Yet that bold-spirited creature was in no wise disturbed, and replied,
+with great enjoyment:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, mistress, I did but do what I'd do again, come same chance. What
+for no? If it wasn't for him, yon, there'd be peace an' plenty at
+Fairacres the now. Faith, I harmed him none."</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena!"</p>
+
+<p>"Askin' pardon if I overstepped me aut'ority, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>mistress. Come, Gineral
+Bonyparty, I'm surmisin' you an' me better be fixin' things up whiles
+the family goes home to their beds."</p>
+
+<p>Just then Mr. Kaye's silent examination of the injury done his beloved
+studio came to an end. He set down the lighted lantern with the ultra
+caution of one who dreads fire above all accidents, and turned toward
+his wife. However, he took but few steps forward before he paused,
+staggered, and would have fallen had not the ill-treated visitor sprung
+to his aid,&mdash;to be himself pushed aside, while Cleena caught up her
+master and strode off toward the house, as if she were but carrying an
+overgrown child in her strong arms. Indeed, the artist's weight was
+painfully light, nor was this the first time that Cleena's strength had
+thus served his need; though this fact not even Hallam nor Amy knew.</p>
+
+<p>The wife hurried after her fainting husband, and Amy started also; then
+reflected that it was she who had brought Fayette to the house, and was,
+in a measure, responsible for what had since happened there.</p>
+
+<p>But the lad gave her time for neither reproof nor question, as he
+eagerly exclaimed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Twa'n't none o' my doin's. She made me. She told me to set here an'
+keep Mr. Wingate in, an' if he broke out I wasn't to let him. I don't
+know what for. I didn't ask questions. 'Twa'n't none o' my business,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+anyway. So I was just trying to jab him back. She fed me first rate.
+Say, is that your brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Oh, Hal! what shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"You run to the house and see if mother wants anybody to go for the
+doctor, while I try to help this boy stop up the doorway. It's going to
+rain, and it would break father's heart if anything here were harmed."</p>
+
+<p>A curious smile crossed the stranger's face, but he advanced to lend his
+aid to the lad, Fayette, and succeeded in getting the parts of the door
+so far into place that they would prevent any damage by rain, except in
+case of severe storm. The broken lock was, of course, useless, and as
+the mill lad saw the cripple fingering it, he remarked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be scared. I'll stay an' watch. I won't march to-night. Oh,
+I can do it all right. I often stay with the watchmen round the mill,
+an' I've got a good muscle, if anybody wants to tackle it," with which
+he glared invitingly toward the late prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>A protesting groan was the only reply; and the lad received this with a
+snort of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"Druther let old scores rest, had ye? All right. Suits me well enough
+now, but I ain't forgot the lickin's you've given me, an' I ain't goin'
+to forget, neither."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette's look was again so vindictive that Hallam interposed, fearing
+another battle between these uninvited guests.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>"Well, I wish you <i>would</i> watch here for a while. As soon as Cleena can
+be spared, she shall bring you a blanket. And anyway, if you'll keep
+everything safe, I'll try to find something to pay you for your
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, I'd take your donkey an' give back considerable to boot."</p>
+
+<p>"My donkey? Balaam? Well, I guess not."</p>
+
+<p>"I could do it. I could, first rate. I've got money. It's in the savings
+bank. 'Supe' put it in for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't think of it, not for a second. Mr. Wingate&mdash;is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald Wingate, and your kinsman, young sir."</p>
+
+<p>"So I heard my mother say. She would wish you to come to the house with
+me, and we'll try to make you comfortable. I must go&mdash;I am wild to know
+what is wrong with my father."</p>
+
+<p>"We will, at once," answered the other, coldly. "Your father was always
+weak&mdash;was never very rugged, and he hasn't lived in a way to make
+himself more robust. A man's place is in the open; not penned like a
+woman behind closed doors and windows."</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pardon, but you are speaking of my father."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly, and of my cousin. Oh, I've known him since we sat together
+under our grandmother's table, munching gingerbread cakes. Ah, she was a
+famous cook, else the flavor of a bit of dough wouldn't last that long."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of my great-grandmother's talent for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> cookery. Father and
+mother often speak of it, and some of her old recipes are in use in our
+kitchen to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate had kept an even pace with Hallam's eager swings upon his
+crutches, and they were speedily at the old house door, with a kindly
+feeling toward one another springing into life within the heart of each;
+though but a little while before Hallam had exclaimed to Amy, in all
+sincerity, "I hate him unseen."</p>
+
+<p>With the ready trustfulness of youth, Hallam began to think his mother's
+and the lawyer's words had not meant literally what they expressed.</p>
+
+<p>On Mr. Wingate's side, the sight of Hallam's physical infirmity had
+roused regret at the action he must take. Up till this meeting he had
+lived with but one object in view&mdash;the possession of Fairacres; nor did
+he now waver in his determination. There had simply entered into the
+matter a sentiment of compassion which was a surprise to himself, and
+which he banished as completely as he could.</p>
+
+<p>Amy met them at the door with the gratifying report:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Father is about all right again. It was a sudden faint. Cleena says
+that he has had them before, but that mother had not wished us told.
+There is no need of a doctor, and Cleena is to get the west chamber
+ready for Mr. Wingate to sleep in. I'm to freshen the fire and&mdash;here is
+mother herself."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>The house mistress came toward them, vial and glass in hand, on her way
+back to the sick-room. The hall was dimly lighted, and as she turned at
+the stair's foot and passed upward, with that soft gliding motion
+peculiar to herself, she seemed to the entering guest like a sad-faced
+ghost of a girl he had known. Halfway up she paused upon the landing and
+smiled down upon them; and the serenity of that smile made the hard
+facts of the case&mdash;illness, poverty, and home-breaking&mdash;seem even more
+unreal than anything else could have done.</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked into Mr. Wingate's eyes, which were fixed upon their mother.
+"Isn't she like the Madonna? Father has so often painted her as such."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;hmm. He ought to. A Madonna of Way and Means. Say, little girl,
+you are bright enough, but you act a good deal younger than your years.
+How happens it you've never learned to look after your father yourself,
+and so spare your mother? Can you do anything useful?"</p>
+
+<p>"That depends. I can arrange father's palette, and crack his eggs just
+right, and buy things&mdash;when there's money," she finished na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>"It all seems 'father.' What about your mother? What can you do, or have
+you done, to help <i>her</i>, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy flushed. She thought this sort of cross-questioning very rude and
+uncalled for. As soon as she had heard this man's name she had realized
+that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> must be he of whom Hallam had spoken, and whom she, also, had
+decided she "hated unseen." But, in truth, hatred was a feeling of which
+the carefully sheltered girl knew absolutely nothing, though it came
+very near entering her heart at that instant when the shrewd,
+penetrating gaze of her kinsman forced her to answer his question.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;nothing, I'm afraid. Only to love her."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. Well, you'll have to add a bit of practical aid to the loving, I
+guess, if you want to keep her with you. She looks as if the wind might
+blow her away if she got caught out in it. Now, good night. You and your
+brother can go. I'll sit here till that saucy Irishwoman gets my room
+ready. Take care! If you don't mind where you're going, you'll drop
+sperm on the rug, tipping that candlestick so!"</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i066.jpg" id="i066.jpg"></a><img src="images/i066.jpg" width='444' height='700' alt="TAKE CARE! YOU'LL DROP SPERM ON THE RUG, TIPPING THAT CANDLESTICK SO!" /></div>
+
+<h4>"TAKE CARE! YOU'LL DROP SPERM ON THE RUG, TIPPING THAT CANDLESTICK SO!"</h4>
+
+<p>Hallam had been standing, leaning against the newel post, with his own
+too ready temper flaming within him. But there was one tenet in the Kaye
+household which had been held to rigidly by all its members: the guest
+within the house was sacred from any discourteous word or deed. Else the
+boy felt he should have given his new-found relative what Cleena called
+"a good pie-shaped piece of his mind."</p>
+
+<p>He had to wait a moment before he could say "good night" in a decent
+tone of voice, then swung up the staircase in the direction of his
+mother's room.</p>
+
+<p>Amy was too much astonished to say even thus much.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> She righted the
+candlestick, amazed at the interest in rugs which Mr. Wingate displayed,
+and followed her brother very slowly, like one entering a dark passage
+wherein she might go astray.</p>
+
+<p>She stopped where Hallam had, before their mother's door, which was so
+rarely closed against them. Even now, as she heard her children
+whispering behind the panel, Mrs. Kaye came out and gave them each their
+accustomed caress; then bade them get straight to bed, for she would be
+having a long talk with them in the morning, and she wanted them to be
+"as bright as daisies," to understand it.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, that man! He&mdash;he's so dreadful! He scolded me about the
+candlestick, and&mdash;and you&mdash;and he made me feel like a great baby."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish he might have waited; but, no matter. Good night."</p>
+
+<p>It was a very confused and troubled Amy who crept into bed a little
+while afterward, and she meant to lie awake and think everything out
+straight, but she was too sound and healthy to give up slumber for any
+such purpose, and in a few minutes she was asleep.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>SETTLEMENTS.</h3>
+
+<p>On the following morning the guest was the first person astir at
+Fairacres, not even excepting Cleena, who rose with the birds; and when
+she opened her kitchen door, the sight of him pacing the grass-grown
+driveway did not tend to put her in good humor.</p>
+
+<p>But there was little danger of her breaking bounds again, in the matter
+of behavior. A short talk had passed between her mistress and herself,
+before they bade each other good night, that had not left the too
+devoted servant very proud of her overzeal; and she now turned to her
+stove to rattle off her indignation among its lids and grates. But she
+kept "speakin' with herself," after her odd fashion, and her tone was
+neither humble nor flattering.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! The impidence of him! Hasn't he decency to wait till all's
+over 'fore he struts about that gait? But, faith, an' I'll show him one
+thing: that's as good a breakfast as ever he got in the old lady's time,
+as one hears so much tell of."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon, with this praiseworthy ambition, a calm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> fell upon poor
+Cleena's troubled spirit, and when, a couple of hours later, the family
+assembled in the dining room, everybody was astonished at the feast
+prepared; while all but the stranger knew that a week's rations had been
+mortgaged to furnish that one meal. However, nobody made any comment,
+though Mr. Wingate found in this show of luxury another explanation of
+the Kayes' financial straits.</p>
+
+<p>"Cuthbert will not be down this morning, Archibald. I hope thee rested
+well. Hallam, will thee take thy father's place?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye's manner, as she greeted her kinsman, betrayed little of what
+must have been her real feeling toward him, nor had her children ever
+seen her more composed and gentle, though Hallam noticed that she was
+paler than ever, and that her eyes were dull, as if she had not slept.</p>
+
+<p>"It's going to be a miserable day outside," remarked the guest, a little
+stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Inside, too, I fancy," answered Amy. "I hate undecided things. I like
+either a cheerful downpour or else sunshine. I think wobbly weather is
+as bad as wobbly folks&mdash;trying to a body's temper."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate laughed, though rather harshly. Amy was already his favorite
+in that household, and he reflected that under different circumstances
+than those which brought him to Fairacres, he would have found her very
+interesting.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>"The weather should not be allowed to affect one's spirits," said Mrs.
+Kaye.</p>
+
+<p>"No, mother; I suppose not. Yet, it was so pretty here, last night; and
+now the leaves over the windows are all shrivelled up, while this border
+on the tablecloth is as crooked as can be. It all has such an afterward
+sort of look. Ah, it <i>is</i> raining, good and fast."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye excused herself and went to look out toward the library. The
+wind was howling in that direction, and she exclaimed, anxiously:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, go at once and see if it is doing any harm out there! That
+broken door and window&mdash;put something against them, if it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think there's any danger of harm. I've sent for a carpenter
+more than an hour ago," observed Mr. Wingate.</p>
+
+<p>"Thee?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was a flash in the matron's eyes, but she did not
+remark further, though Hallam took up her cause with the words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you meant it for kindness, but my father does not allow any
+one to interfere with that place. Even if it rained in, I think he would
+rather give his own orders."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably," answered the guest, dryly, while Cleena deposited a dish of
+steaming waffles upon the table with such vigor as to set them all
+bouncing.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, mistress, you'll be takin' a few of these, why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> not. I never
+turned me finer, an' that honey's the last of the lot, three times
+strained, too, an' you please."</p>
+
+<p>"Waffles, Cleena? Did thee take some up to the master? I am sure he
+would enjoy them."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I did that. Would I forget? So eat, to please Cleena, and to be
+strong for what comes."</p>
+
+<p>Even Mrs. Kaye's indifference was not proof against the tempting
+delicacy, and doubtless the food did give her strength the better to go
+through a trying interview. For immediately breakfast was over, she
+rose, and, inviting the visitor into the old parlor, bade her children
+join them.</p>
+
+<p>"What our cousin Archibald has to say concerns us all. I leave it to him
+to tell the whole story," and she sat down with Amy snuggled beside her,
+while Hallam stood upon his crutches at her back.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, Mr. Wingate found it a little difficult to begin, and after
+several attempts he put the plain question abruptly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"When can you leave, Salome?"</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath, and Amy felt the arm about her waist grow rigid,
+but she answered by another question:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Must thee really turn us out, Archibald?"</p>
+
+<p>The plain, affectionate "thee" touched him, yet for that reason he
+settled himself all the more firmly in his decision.</p>
+
+<p>"What has to be done would better be done at once.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> It is a long time,
+Salome, since I have had any recompense for the use of this&mdash;my
+property&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Your property?" cried Hallam.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mine. Mine it should have been by lawful inheritance, save for a
+rank injustice and favoritism. Mine it is now, by right of actual
+purchase, the purchase of my own! Your mother seems to desire that you
+should at last learn the whole truth, and I assure you that I have
+advanced more than twice the money required to buy this place, even at
+an inflated market value. So, lad, don't get angry or indignant. I make
+no statements that I cannot prove, nor can your parents deny that I
+notified them to vacate these premises more than two years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, is that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Hallam."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't we go, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our cousin had a heart and did not force us."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you now, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I'm tired of waiting. The case grows worse each day. I'm sick
+of throwing good money after bad, while, all the time, such folly as is
+yonder goes on," pointing toward the distant studio. "One man is as good
+to labor as another. Cuthbert Kaye has had money all his life; <i>my</i>
+money, of which I was defrauded&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald! Beg pardon, but that is not so."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is so, Salome. If you have been hoodwinked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and believed false
+tales, it is time these youngsters learned the facts. They are Kayes,
+like you and me. It is honest blood, mostly, that runs in all our veins.
+Well then, the life they are living is not an honest life. No man has a
+right to more than he can pay for. Can Cuthbert&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald, thee shall leave him out of the question!" cried the wife,
+roused from her firm self-control. There was something so appealing in
+her tone that her children watched her in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. So be it. Since he is not man enough to stand by you in the
+trouble he has brought upon you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If thee continues, we will leave the room."</p>
+
+<p>"Why haven't I been able ever to meet him then? Why has he always thrust
+you between himself and me? If he thought because you were a woman I
+would forever put off the day of judgment, he has for once reckoned
+without his host. I tell you the end has come."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye sank back in her chair, trembling; but still her lips were
+closed until the angry guest had finished his speech and had walked off
+some of his excitement in a hasty pacing of the long room. At length he
+paused before her and said, more quietly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is no need of our having recourse to legal force. You should
+leave without being put out. That is why I came, to arrange it all to
+your satisfaction. You are a good woman, Salome, as good as any of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> your
+race before you, and just as big a simpleton when your affections are
+touched. A little more firmness on your part, a little less devotee sort
+of worship of a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald, remember thee is speaking of what does not concern thee.
+There is no need for rudeness, nor, indeed, 'legal' violence. Had I
+understood, two years ago, that thee needed&mdash;needed&mdash;this old home for
+thyself, I would have left it then. It has, of course, been to our
+advantage to occupy it, but it has also been to thine. An empty house
+goes swift to ruin. Everything here has been well cared for, as things
+held in trust should be. We will leave here as soon as I can find a
+house somewhere to shelter us."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye rose, as if to terminate the interview; but Mr. Wingate
+cleared his throat and lifted his hand as if he had something further to
+say.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you have thought about this many times, Salome. What are your
+plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are not definite. House-hunting is the first, I suppose, since we
+cannot do without a roof to cover us."</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;I can't forget that we are kinsfolk, Salome&mdash;how do you propose to
+live? I am a plain business man, as practical as&mdash;I mean, use common
+sense. There are few houses to rent in this out-of-the-way town, where
+everybody, except the mill folks, owns his own home,&mdash;and even some of
+them do. I've come into possession of a house which might suit
+you&mdash;'Hardscrabble.' I'll let you have it cheap."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>"'Hardscrabble'! The 'Spite House'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Archibald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. I knew how it would strike you. We both know the story of the
+place, but our grandfather's enemy took good care to make his tenement
+comfortable inside, even if it was ugly as sin outside."</p>
+
+<p>For a while Mrs. Kaye remained silent, debating with herself. Very soon
+she was able to look up and smile gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Thee knows as well as I what a stab thee has given my pride, Archibald;
+but there is that saving 'common sense' in the offer, and love is
+stronger than pride. Tell me what rent thee will ask, and I will take
+the place if I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten dollars a month."</p>
+
+<p>The prompt, strictly business-like answer fairly startled its hearer.
+Then she smiled again.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never lived anywhere save at Fairacres, thee knows. I must trust
+thee in the matter. I have no definite ideas about the values of houses,
+but I think I can pay that. I must. There is nowhere else to go. Yes, I
+will take it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's dirt cheap, Salome. You will never think kindly of me, of course,
+but I'm dealing squarely, even generously by you. If 'thee'd,'" for the
+second time he dropped into the speech of his childhood, which his
+cousin Salome had always retained, and she was quick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> to observe this,
+"if thee had trusted me years ago, things might have gone better with us
+both. When will thee move?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-day."</p>
+
+<p>"To-day? There's no need for quite such haste."</p>
+
+<p>"Thee said 'the sooner the better,' and I agree. Get the lease ready as
+soon as possible, and I will sign it. I've only one thing to ask about
+that: please don't have the name put as either 'Hardscrabble' or 'Spite
+House.' I'd like it called 'Charity House.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, Salome, you're the queerest mixture of business and
+sentiment that I ever met. You're as fanciful as a girl, still. But the
+name doesn't matter. Call the place 'Faith' and 'Hope' as well as
+'Charity,' if you wish, after you get there; but I won't alter the lease
+which I brought along with me last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Brought already, Archibald? Thee expected me to go to that place,
+then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Under the circumstances, Salome, and, as you've just admitted, I didn't
+see what else you could do. I've sent 'Bony' into the village for my
+lawyer, because I want you should have things all straight. He'll
+witness our signatures to the lease, and if you'll pick out such
+furniture as you most especially care to have, I'll try to spare it,
+though the mortgage covers all."</p>
+
+<p>But the speaker's glance moved so reluctantly and covetously over the
+antique plenishing that Mrs. Kaye promptly relieved his anxiety.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>"It would be a pity to disturb these old, beloved things in their
+appropriate places&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You're right," interrupted the gentleman. "I've a better notion than
+that. I'll leave whatever is in 'Spite House' for your use, and not
+break up Fairacres at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it still furnished, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, according to old Ingraham's ideas&mdash;for hard use and no nonsense.
+He had a big family and nothing much but his temper to keep it on.
+However, if there's anything actually needed, I suppose I could advance
+a trifle more. It would be for your sake, only, Salome."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank thee, but I hope not to run further into thy debt, Archibald,
+save in case of direst need. And do not think but that I fully
+understand and appreciate all the kindness which has permitted us to
+stay at Fairacres so long. In some things, as thee will one day
+discover, thee has mistaken and misjudged us; but in one thing I have
+understood and sympathized with thee, always, and with all my heart: the
+passionate love which a Kaye must feel for his home and all this."</p>
+
+<p>There was pathos and dignity in the quiet gesture which Salome Kaye
+swept over the apartment that had been her own for all her life; but
+there was also courage and determination in her bearing as she walked
+out of it, leaning lightly upon Amy's shoulder, and with Hallam limping
+beside her. Somehow, too, Archibald Wingate did not feel quite as
+jubilant and successful as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> he had anticipated, and he welcomed, as an
+agreeable diversion, the approach of a buggy, conveying his friend,
+Lawyer Smith, to witness the lease and to give any needful advice in the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Smith. Quite a rainy day, isn't it? I've been studying that row
+of old pines and spruces. How do you think the avenue'd look if I was to
+have 'em trimmed up, say about as high as your head, from the ground?
+Give a better view of the old Ardsley Valley, wouldn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer stepped down from his vehicle, backward and cautiously, then
+turned, screwed up his eyes, and replied deliberately:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it might; and then again it mightn't. It's taken a good many
+years for those branches to grow, and once they're off they can't be put
+back again. If I was in your place, I'd rather let things slide easy for
+a spell; then&mdash;go as you please. Have you come to a settlement? Will
+they quit without lawing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they'll quit at once. Say, woman! You, Cleena, bring me a hatchet,
+will you? I'll just lop off a little limb on one side, and see the
+effect. Hurry up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, I'll fetch it!" responded Cleena, loudly. But when she did so,
+she advanced with such a menacing gesture upon the new proprietor of her
+old home that he shrank back, doubtful of her intent. "Ain't it enough
+to break hearts, without breakin' the helpless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> trees your own forebears
+planted long by?&mdash;Aha, my fine gineral, so you're bad penny back again?
+Well, then, you're the handle o' time. By the way you tacked up them
+boughs, you'll be clever at packin'. Come by. I'll give ye a job."</p>
+
+<p>Thus, partly to Lawyer Smith's caution and partly to Cleena's
+indignation, the fine evergreens of Fairacres owed the fact that they,
+for the time being, escaped mutilation.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE "SPITE HOUSE" OF BAREACRE.</h3>
+
+<p>By nightfall it was all over; and Cleena, Hallam, and Amy, with their
+self-constituted bodyguard, Fayette, were gathered about a big table in
+the kitchen of the "Spite House," to eat a supper of bread and milk, and
+to discuss the events of that memorable day. Strangely enough, as Amy
+thought, none of them realized anything clearly except the facts of
+fatigue and hunger.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! but the face of that lawyer body, when I tells him I was
+takin' the loan of his bit buggy wagon for the master an' mistress to
+ride to Burnside the morn, an' how as old Adam would sure send it back
+by a farm-hand, which he did that same. An' them two goin' off so quiet,
+even smilin', as if&mdash;But there, there! Have some more milk, Master Hal.
+It's like cream itself, so 'tis; an' that neighbor woman in the cottage
+yon is that friendly she'd be givin' me three pints to the quart if I'd
+leave her be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear old Adam will be glad to see them on any terms, he is so
+fond of father and mother. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> knowing they're in such trouble, he'll
+have the best of everything for them to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Adam Burns is as likely as any man creature can be, which I've
+never been bothered with meself, me guardian angel be praised."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Cleena, I've seen you work hard before, but you did as much as
+ten Cleenas in one to-day."</p>
+
+<p>The good woman sighed, then laughed outright. "It's been a hard row for
+that wicked body to hoe."</p>
+
+<p>"Who, Cleena?"</p>
+
+<p>"That sweet, decent kinsman o' your own. Was many an odd bit o' stuff
+went into the van 't he never meant should go there. The face of him
+when I went trampin' up the libr'y stairs, an' caught him watchin'
+Master Hallam packing the paint trash that he'd allowed the master might
+have. 'Take anything you want here, my boy,' says he. So, seein' Master
+Hal was working dainty an' slow, I just sweeps me arm over the whole
+business; an' I'm thinkin' there'll be 'tubes' a plenty for all the
+pictures master'll ever paint. In a fine heap, though, an' that must be
+your job, Master Hal, come to-morrow, to put them all tidy, as 'tis
+himself likes."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be glad to do it, Cleena; but in which of these old rooms am I to
+sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena had taken a rapid survey of the dusty, musty bedchambers, and her
+cleanly soul revolted against her "childer" using any of them in their
+present condition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> So for Amy she had put Mrs. Kaye's own mattress on
+the floor of what might be a parlor, and spread it with clean sheets;
+for Hallam there was in another place his father's easy lounge; and for
+herself and Fayette, who insisted upon staying for the night, there were
+"shakedowns" of old, warm "comforts."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's time we were all off to Noddle's Island. It's up in the
+mornin' early we must be. So scatter yourselves, all of ye, an' to sleep
+right away. Not forgettin' your prayers, as good Christians shouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," answered Amy, drowsily; but Fayette looked as if he did
+not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, <i>you'll</i> have to be taught then, my fine sir, an' I'll tackle
+that job with the rest of to-morrow's."</p>
+
+<p>But when daylight broke and roused the active Cleena to begin her
+formidable task of scrubbing away the accumulated dirt of years there
+was no Fayette to be found. Dreamily, she recalled the sound of musical
+instruments, the shouts of voices, and the squealing of the rats that
+had hitherto been the tenants of "Spite House"; but which of these, if
+any, was answerable for the lad's absence, she could not guess.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I was mindin' to keep him busy, had he stayed; but since he's
+gone, there's one mouth less to feed."</p>
+
+<p>It did not take the observant woman long to discover that the outlook
+for the comfort of "her folks" was even less by daylight than it had
+seemed the night before. Her heart sank, though she lost no time in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>useless regrets, and she did most cordially thank that "guardian angel"
+to whom she so constantly referred for having prevented her spending the
+last twenty-five dollars she possessed. This would long ago have wasted
+away had it not been placed in the care of that true friend of the
+family, Adam Burns, with whom her master and mistress had now taken
+refuge.</p>
+
+<p>"Alanna, that's luck! I was for usin' it long syne, but the old man
+wouldn't leave me do it. 'No, Cleena, thee's not so young as thee was,
+an' thee might be wantin' it for doctor's stuff,' says he. Twenty-five
+dollars! That'd pay the rent an' buy flour an' tea, an' what not;" and
+with cheerful visions of the unlimited power of her small capital, the
+old servant stooped to fill her apron with the stray chips and branches
+the bare place afforded.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment there fell upon her ears the familiar sound of Pepita and
+Balaam braying in concert for their breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what's to feed <i>them</i> is more nor I know; yet never a doubt I doubt
+it would clean break the colleen's heart must she part with her neat
+little beast."</p>
+
+<p>The braying roused Hallam and Amy, also, from a night of dreamless
+sleep; and as they passed out from the musty house into the crisp air of
+a frosty morning, they felt more cheerful than they considered was quite
+the proper thing, under the circumstances. Then Amy looked at her
+brother and laughed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p><p>"Isn't it splendid after the rain? and isn't it funny to be here?
+Yesterday it seemed as if the world had come to an end, and now it seems
+as if it had just been made new."</p>
+
+<p>"'Every morn is a fresh beginning,'" quoted Hallam, who loved books
+better than his sister did.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go down to the gate, or place where a gate should be, and take a
+good look at our&mdash;home."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Though we've seen it at a distance, I suppose it will appear
+differently to us at near hand."</p>
+
+<p>"And uglier. Oh, but it's horrid! <i>horrid!</i>" and with a sudden revulsion
+of feeling Amy buried her face in her hands and began to cry. "I hate
+it. I won't stay here. I will not. I'd rather go home and live in the
+old stable than here."</p>
+
+<p>"That wouldn't have been a bad idea, only we shouldn't have been
+allowed."</p>
+
+<p>"Who could have hindered that? Who'd want an empty stable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our cousin Archibald!" answered Hallam, with scornful emphasis. "I
+believe he feels as if he had a mortgage on our very souls. Indeed, he
+said I might sometime be able to earn enough to buy the place back, as
+well as pay all other debts. He said he couldn't live forever, and it
+was but fair he should have a few years' possession of 'his own.'
+He&mdash;Well, there's no use talking. I wish&mdash;I wish I were&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! you don't! No, you don't either, Hallam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Kaye! I know what you
+began to say, and you shall not finish. You shall not die. You shall get
+well and strong and do all those things he said. I'm ashamed of myself
+that I cried. I felt last night as if my old life were all a beautiful
+dream, and that I had just waked up into a real world where I had to do
+things for myself and for others; not have others do for me any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"That was about the state of the case, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that isn't so bad. It shouldn't be, that is; for I have such
+health and strength and everything. Nothing matters so much as long as
+we are all together."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows how long we shall be. I don't like these 'attacks' of
+father's, Amy. I'm afraid of them. It will kill him to live here."</p>
+
+<p>It needed but the possibility of giving comfort to somebody to arouse
+all Amy's natural hopefulness, and she commanded with a shake of her
+forefinger:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam Kaye, you stop it! I won't have it! If you keep it up, I shall
+have to&mdash;to cuff you."</p>
+
+<p>"Try it!" cried the brother, already laughing at her fierce show of
+spirit; yet to tempt her audacity he thrust his fingers through her
+short curls and wagged her head playfully.</p>
+
+<p>She did not resent it; she could resent nothing Hallam ever did save
+that morbid talk of his. She had been fighting with this spirit ever
+since she could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> remember, and their brief "tussle" over, she crept
+closer to him along the old stone wall and begged:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena has tied the burros out to graze in the weeds, and that will be
+their breakfast, and while we're waiting for ours, I wish you'd tell me
+all you know about 'Spite House.' I've heard it, of course, but it's all
+mixed up in my mind, and I don't see just where that cousin Archibald
+comes in."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he comes in easily enough. He's a descendant of old Jacob Ingraham
+as well as of the house of Kaye. I believe it was in this way: our
+great-grandfather Thomas Kaye and Jacob were brothers-in-law, and there
+was some trouble about money matters."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems to me all the mean, hateful troubles <i>are</i> about money. I don't
+see why it was ever made."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they had such trouble anyway. Great-grandfather had just built
+Fairacres, and had spent a great deal to beautify the grounds. He was a
+pretty rich man, I fancy, and loved to live in a great whirl of society
+and entertain lots of people and all that. He was especially fond of the
+view from the front of the house and had cut away some of the trees for
+'vistas' and 'outlooks' and 'views.' There were no mills on the Ardsley
+then. They came in our own grandfather's time. It was just a beautiful,
+shimmering river&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hal, you're a poet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," said the boy, with a blush.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>"But you are. You tell things so I can just see them. I can see that
+shimmering river this instant, in my mind, with my eyes shut. I can see
+boats full of people sailing on it, and hear music and laughter and
+everything lovely."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's the poet now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not. But go on."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems that old Mr. Ingraham thought he had been cheated by
+great-grandfather&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Likely enough he had. Else I don't see where he got all that money to
+do things."</p>
+
+<p>"But, missy, he was <i>our</i> relative. He was a <i>Kaye</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"There might be good Kayes and bad Kayes, mightn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, you're too honest for comfort. You may think a spade's a spade,
+but you needn't always mention it."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on with the story. In a few minutes Cleena will call us to our
+'frugal repast,' like the poor children in stories, and I want to hear
+all about this 'ruined castle' I've come to live in, I mean 'dwell,' for
+story-book girls&mdash;'maidens'&mdash;never do anything so commonplace as just
+'live.' Hally, boy, there's a lot of humbug in this world."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you find that out, Miss Experience?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't trouble to find it, I just read it. I thought it sounded sort
+of nice and old, so I said it."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Well, do you want to hear, or will you keep interrupting?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>"I do want to hear, and I probably shall interrupt. I am not blind to
+my own besetting sins."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen. Just as great-grandfather had everything fixed to his taste and
+was enjoying life to the utmost, old Jacob came here to this knoll that
+faces Fairacres&mdash;Oh, you needn't turn around to see. The trees have
+grown again, and the view is hidden. On this knoll, if there was
+anything tall, it would spoil the Fairacres' view. So Jacob built this
+'Spite House.' He made it as ugly as he could, and he did everything
+outrageous to make great-grandfather disgusted. He named this rocky
+barren 'Bareacre,' and that little gully yonder he called 'Glenpolly,'
+because his enemy had named the beautiful ravine we know as 'Glenellen.'
+Polly and Ellen were the wives' names, and I've heard they grieved
+greatly over the quarrel. Mr. Ingraham painted huge signs with the names
+on them, and hung up scarecrows on poles, because he wouldn't let a tree
+grow here, even if it could. There are a few now, though. Look like old
+plum trees. My, what a home for our mother!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy's face sobered again, as she regarded the ugly stone structure which
+still looked strong enough to defy all time, but which no lapse of years
+had done much to beautify. Nothing had ever thrived at Bareacre, which
+was, in fact, a hill of apparently solid stone, sparsely covered by the
+poorest of soil. The house was big, for the Ingraham family had been
+numerous, but it was as square and austere as the builders could make
+it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> The roof ended exactly at the walls, which made it look, as Amy
+said, "like a girl with her eyelashes cut off." There were no blinds or
+shutters of any sort, and nothing to break the bleak winds which swept
+down between the hills of Ardsley, and which nipped the life of any
+brave green thing that tried to make a hold there. A few mullein stalks
+were all that flourished, and the stunted fruit trees which Hallam had
+noticed seemed but a pitiful parody upon the rich verdure of the
+elsewhere favored region.</p>
+
+<p>"Has nobody ever lived here since that wicked old man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I think so. But nobody for long, nor could anybody make it a
+home."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks as if it had been blue, up there by the roof."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it was. I've heard that every color possible was used in
+painting it, so as to make it the more annoying to a person of good
+taste, such as great-grandfather was."</p>
+
+<p>"Heigho! Well, <i>we've</i> got to live here."</p>
+
+<p>"Or die. It's hopeless. I can't see a ray of light in the whole
+situation."</p>
+
+<p>"You dear old bat, you should wear specs. I can see several rays. I'll
+count them off. Ray one: the ugly all-sorts-of-paint has been washed
+away by the weather. Ray two: the air up here is as pure as it's sharp,
+and there's nothing to obstruct or keep it from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> blowing your 'hypo'
+away. Ray three: there are our own darling burros already helping to
+'settle' by mowing the weeds with their mouths. What a blessing is
+hunger, rightly utilized! And, finally, there's that
+worth-her-weight-in-gold Goodsoul waving her pudding-stick, which in
+this new, unique life of ours must mean 'breakfast.' Come along. Heigho!
+Who's that? Our esteemed political friend, 'Rep-Dem-Prob.' I'd forgotten
+him. Now, by the lofty bearing with which he ascends to our castle of
+discontent, I believe he's been out 'marching.'"</p>
+
+<p>It was, indeed, Fayette whom they saw climbing over the rocks. He wore
+his oilcloth blouse and his gay helmet, and soon they could hear his
+rude voice singing and see the waving of his broom.</p>
+
+<p>"He? Coming back again? Why, we can't keep him. We can't even 'keep'
+ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet never a doubt I doubt he means to tarry," quoted Amy, laughing at
+her brother's rueful countenance.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>NEEDS AND HELPERS.</h3>
+
+<p>"Sure, I thought ye had lost yourself or been ate by the rats!" cried
+Cleena, as Fayette rather timidly peered in at the open kitchen door.
+"But all rogues is fond o' good atin', so I suppose you've come for your
+breakfast, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I've et."</p>
+
+<p>"Must ha' been up with the lark then. No, hold on. Don't go in there.
+They're master Hallam an' Miss Amy still, an' always will be. They eats
+by themselves, as the gentry should. If there's ought left when they're
+done, time enough for you an' me."</p>
+
+<p>"I've had my breakfast, I told you."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't seem to set well on your stummick either, by the way your temper
+troubles ye. Are ye as ready to work as ye was yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. What I come back for."</p>
+
+<p>Cleena paused and studied the ill-shaped, vacant, though not vicious,
+face of the unfortunate waif. Something drew her sympathy toward him,
+and she pitied him for the mother whom he had never known. In the
+adjoining room she could hear the voices of her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> "childer," with
+their cultured inflection and language, which was theirs by inheritance
+and as unconsciously as were "Bony's" harsh tones and rude speech his
+own.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! but it's a queer world, I d'know. There's them an' there's
+him, an' the Lord made 'em both. Hear me, me gineral. Take a hold o'
+that broom o' yours, an' show me what it's made for. If you're as clean
+as you're homebly, I might stand your good friend. What for no?"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette had returned Cleena's cool stare with another as steady. He
+liked her far better and more promptly than she liked him, yet in that
+moment of scrutiny each had measured the other and formed a tacit
+partnership. "For the family," was Cleena's watchword, and it had
+already become the half-wit's.</p>
+
+<p>Cleena went to the well, tied her clothesline to the leaky old bucket
+and lowered it. On the night before she had obtained a pail of spring
+water from the cottage at the foot of the knoll, from the same friendly
+neighbor who had sold her the milk. But their own well must be fixed. To
+her dismay she found that it was very deep, and that the bit of water
+which remained in the bucket when it was drawn up was quite unfit even
+for cleaning purposes.</p>
+
+<p>This worried her. A scarcity of water was one of the few trials which
+she had been spared, and she could hardly have met a heavier. As she
+turned toward the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> house she saw that Fayette had carefully set out of
+doors the old chairs and the other movable furniture which the kitchen
+had contained, and that, before sweeping, he was using his broom to
+brush the cobwebs from the ceiling. The sight filled her with joy and
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Saints bless us! That's the first man body I ever met that had sense
+like that!" and she lifted up her voice in a glad summons:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You, Napoleon Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"</p>
+
+<p>"Before I finish here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Before the wag o' dog's tail. Hurry up!"</p>
+
+<p>"The wind'll blow it all over again."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave it blow. Come by. Here's more trouble even nor cobwebs, avick!
+First need is first served."</p>
+
+<p>This summoned Hallam and Amy out to see what was going on, and after
+learning the difficulty and peering into the depths of the old pit they
+offered their suggestions. Said Amy:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We might draw it up, bucket by bucket, and throw it away. Then I
+suppose it would fill with clean water, wouldn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If we did, 'twould break all our backs an' there's more to do than
+empty old wells. Master Hal, what's <i>your</i> say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, we might rig up some sort of machinery and stir it all up, and
+with chemicals we could clear it and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p><p>"Troth we could, if we'd a month o' Sundays to do it in an' slathers o'
+time an' money spoilin' to be spent."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam was disgusted. Already he had blamed himself for his haughty
+refusal of Mr. Wingate's offer, on the previous day, to send a practical
+man to look over the premises and "set them going," as any landlord
+would.</p>
+
+<p>But the lad had replied, as one in authority to decide for his absent
+parents: "We won't trouble you, sir. What happens to us, after we leave
+Fairacres, is our own affair. If you get your rent, that should be
+sufficient for you."</p>
+
+<p>After that the offer was not renewed; for Mr. Wingate was not the man to
+waste either money or service, and the lad's tone angered him.</p>
+
+<p>Regrets were now, as always, useless, and Cleena's open disdain of
+Hallam's suggestion sent him limping angrily away; though Amy laughed
+over her own "valuable contribution to the solution of the dilemma," and
+by her intentional use of the longest words at hand caused Fayette to
+regard her with a wonderment that was ludicrous in itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Goodsoul, we've helped a lot. Ask our 'Rep-Dem-Prob' what his
+'boys' would do."</p>
+
+<p>"What for no? Sure, he's more sense nor the whole of us. Say, me
+gineral, what's the way out?"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette colored with pride. He had an inordinate vanity, and, like most
+of his sort, he possessed an almost startling keenness of intelligence
+in some respects, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> contrasted with his foolishness in others.
+Moreover, he had been disciplined by poverty, and had always lived among
+working people and, for a long time, about the carpet mills.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the 'Supe's' force-pump."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, I know, I know. But what's the 'Supe' an' his pump? Is he fish,
+flesh, or fowl, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's the 'Supe' to the mill. Ain't ye any sense?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. None left after botherin' with you. What's it, Miss Amy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know. You mean Mr. Metcalf, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What would he do? How could he help us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lend me the donkey. I'll ride and tell him. All them houses&mdash;see them
+mill cottages, down yonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. They look very pretty from here, with all the trees about
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"They've got wells. Once in six months the wells has to be cleared out.
+That's orders. Me an' another fellow goes down 'em, after the pump's
+drawed out all it can. We bail 'em out. I clean cisterns, too. Ain't
+another fellow in the village as good at a cistern as me. See, I'm slim.
+I can get down a man-hole 't nobody else can. Shall I go?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ask Hallam."</p>
+
+<p>Who, upon consultation, replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it's the only thing we can do, but it does go against my
+inclination to ask favors of anybody."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p><p>"Hal, that's silly. We must send Fayette to Mr. Metcalf, and will you
+write the note, or shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>"You, since you've seen him, personally."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is the only way I could see him," laughed the girl, and ran into
+the house to find a sheet of paper. Then the mill boy was given his
+choice of the burros, to ride as messenger; and having selected Balaam,
+departed down the slope in high glee. When he reached the mill, and Mr.
+Metcalf was at liberty to see him, he began a voluble description of all
+that had occurred since his chance meeting with Amy in the wood; but the
+superintendent cut the story short.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, see here, 'Bony.' This is the chance of your life. Understand?
+They are, I should think, the very nicest folks you ever saw. Well,
+treat them square. None of your monkey shines nor nonsense. Do
+everything you can to help them. Of course you can have the pump, though
+you can't carry it up to 'Hardscrabble' donkey-back. That fellow is as
+black as his brother, or sister, is white. They're the prettiest donkeys
+I ever saw. How my youngsters would like such. Well, go round to John.
+There's no teaming to be done this morning, and he shall take the pump
+there in the wagon. He'll help you too, no doubt, for a small payment."</p>
+
+<p>"Say, 'Supe.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>"I don't believe they've got any money. Don't look so they had a cent.
+Ain't it queer? With all them purty things an' the way they act an'
+talk. Ain't like nobody I ever saw before. Ain't never saw anybody liked
+each other so much. I'm goin' to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Have they asked you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, run along and get hold of John before he goes home for a nap, as
+he might, with nothing needed here."</p>
+
+<p>Then, when Fayette had left him, Mr. Metcalf took up Amy's note and
+reread it.</p>
+
+<p>The second perusal pleased the gentleman even more than the first. He
+thought that the little letter was very characteristic of the girl he
+had met, and he specially liked her statement that his former kindness
+presupposed a later one. So he stopped John, the teamster, as he was
+driving out of the mill yard, with the request:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You stay up there all day, if you can be of any use. Got your dinner
+with you? and the horses'? Good enough. I've heard about that family
+being turned out from their old home, and whether it was justly done or
+not doesn't alter the fact of its hardness. Lend them a hand, as if it
+were for me, John, and I'll make it all right with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right already, sir. I saw that girl, when she was down here
+that day; saw her take her fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> little handkerchief out of her pocket
+and wipe that idiot's, or next door to idiot, wipe his lips as nice as
+if he was her own brother. Ain't one of the mill girls'd do <i>that</i>.
+They'd be too dainty. She wasn't, because she was quality. It always
+tells. Pity though that such folks have so little common sense. Now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Metcalf warded off any further talk of the good John, who had
+lived at Ardsley all his life and knew the history of the Kaye household
+almost better than they knew it themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ask you to tell me about them another time. Just now I guess you'd
+better hurry to get them a decent drink of water. Hold on, 'Bony.' Ride
+over to the office door. I'll send a note back to Miss Kaye, and want
+you to carry her a little basket."</p>
+
+<p>So this was the note which answered Amy's, and that proved its writer to
+be a gentleman, even though he had begun life a humble ash-boy in just
+such a mill as he now managed so ably:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Miss Amy</span>: The kindness is wholly on your side in allowing me to
+serve you, and I hope you will command me in any further matter wherein
+I can be of use.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sending the pump by John Young, our teamster, with instructions to
+remain under your orders for the rest of the day. You will find that
+'Bony' thoroughly understands the business of well-cleaning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> but you
+will have to restrain him from venturing into any great hazard, because,
+poor lad, he has not the caution to balance his daring.</p>
+
+<p>"I am offering, also, a little basket of fruit which came my way this
+morning, and which looks, I fancy, as if it wanted to be eaten by just
+such a girl as you.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"<span class="smcap">Faithfully yours,</span></p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"<span class="smcap">William Metcalf.</span>"</span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>When Amy read this note aloud to Hallam and Cleena, she did so in a
+proud and happy voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've written letters for mother, and father, too, sometimes, but
+I've not had many of my own. This is. I'm going to keep it always. The
+very first one that has come here. Isn't he just the dearest man? Oh! I
+am so happy I must just sing. It's such a beautiful world, after all,
+and maybe we've had all our old things taken away just to teach us that
+<i>folks</i> are better than <i>things</i>. I feel as if I'd come out of a musty
+room into the open air."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy Kaye! You should be ashamed of yourself. Have you no heart at all?
+As for musty rooms, if you can find any to beat these at 'Spite House,'
+you'll do well."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. I'm 'bad,' of course, but come on. I'll fetch you all father's
+tubes and brushes that are in such a muddle, and you can sort them right
+near the well, and watch John fix it, and take care of Fayette; I'm
+going in and help Cleena, in any way I can."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>Amy's cheerfulness was certainly infectious. It was also helpful to
+Hallam's gloomy mood that just then there should be the well and cistern
+cleaning, Mr. Young having discovered a cistern beneath a pile of
+decayed boards, at a little distance from the house. But the water in
+both being unfit for use, Amy bravely picked up a couple of pails and
+started down hill to their new neighbor's cottage.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Amy, I'll rig up something," called the cripple; and by the aid
+of a rope, a barrel stave, and some wire he managed to hang the pails on
+either side Pepita's saddle. "So all you'll have to do will be walk up
+and down and make her behave," referring to Pepita's uncertain temper.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had a barrel I'd better that job," said John the teamster. "I'd
+drive down once and get all you needed for the day."</p>
+
+<p>"But there isn't any barrel that will hold water," answered the girl.
+"So I'll play 'Jack and Jill' with Pepita, as long as Cleena wishes.
+Besides, the cottage children think she's beautiful, and they are so
+kind they help me fill the pails each trip, as well as give us the water
+in them."</p>
+
+<p>John wiped his brow and looked admiringly upon her. "Keep that spirit,
+lass, and it'll make small difference to you whether your purse is empty
+or full. But 'give' you the water? I should say yes. The Lord gave it to
+them in the first place, free as the air of heaven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> Well, there'll be
+water to spare up here, too, soon, for we've got the pump about ready
+for work."</p>
+
+<p>It was a long time, though, before any impression was made upon the
+accumulation of water in the deep well. After a while, however, less
+came with each draft, and it was thicker and fouler. Finally, the pump
+ceased to be of any use, and was drawn up and laid beside the broken
+curb. Then came the interesting part of the task, as well as the
+perilous.</p>
+
+<p>Keeping an eye upon all of Fayette's movements, John had allowed him "to
+boss the job," partly because the lad did fully understand his business,
+and partly to give him pleasure. But now was need for utmost caution.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you fetch me a candle?" the teamster asked Cleena; and when she
+had done so he fastened it to the end of the clothesline and slowly
+lowered it into the shaft. The flame was instantly extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, have to wait a spell, I reckon. Might as well tackle the cistern."</p>
+
+<p>"What made the candle go out? Was there a wind?" asked Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Carbonic acid gas," answered her brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh," said Fayette, contemptuously, "'twa'n't neither. Just choke damp
+an' fixed air. Soon's the candle'll stay lighted, I'll go down.
+Cistern's the same, only wider. Got a powder here'll fix it, if it don't
+clear soon."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>After the cistern was cleaned, and this was a much easier task than the
+well, Fayette returned to the curb, again lighted the candle, and
+lowered it. The foul and poisonous gases had mostly passed away, and the
+flame continued to burn as far down as the clothesline would reach.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right; I'll tackle it now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you'll not. None o' your foolhardiness here."</p>
+
+<p>"Who made you boss o' me, John Young?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did. I'll prevent you, if I have to hold on to you. Best leave it
+open till to-morrow, or longer even," said John. "I'm going to eat my
+dinner now. Come and have some."</p>
+
+<p>"Bime-by. I'm goin' to take off my shoes. Work best when I'm barefoot."</p>
+
+<p>The answer gave John no concern, for he knew this peculiarity of
+Fayette's; so he walked quietly away toward the old shed where he had
+tied his horses, to give them their food and secure his own. Before he
+reached them, however, he heard a loud shout, and, turning, saw the
+foolish boy capering about on the beam which had been laid across the
+top of the well, and from which the rope and bucket were still suspended.</p>
+
+<p>"'Bony,' you fool, get off that! A misstep and you're gone!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, I'll get off!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a wild waving of arms, a burst of derisive laughter, and
+"Bony" had disappeared.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WATERLOO OF BONAPARTE LAFAYETTE.</h3>
+
+<p>The teamster's cry of horror brought everybody to the scene. Cleena was
+the first to reach it and to find John standing by the mouth of the
+well, whitefaced and trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"What's it? What's down there? What mean ye yellin' that gait? Speak,
+man, if ye can."</p>
+
+<p>He could only point downward, while he strained his ears to catch any
+sound that might come from below.</p>
+
+<p>Then Cleena shook him fiercely. "Speak, I tell ye! Where's the boy?"</p>
+
+<p>The other still pointed down into the shaft, but he made out to say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I heard him laugh, then shout, and he must have gone stark crazy."</p>
+
+<p>"He down there? That poor, senseless gossoon? Where was you that you'd
+leave him do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was walking&mdash;wait! I hear something."</p>
+
+<p>Four white, terror-stricken faces now bent above the old well, while
+Cleena's arms clasped her "childer" tightly, fearing they, too, might be
+snatched away from her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>"Saints save us, it's bewitched! Oh, the day, the day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, woman! Keep still. I hear something."</p>
+
+<p>Again they stooped and listened, and Amy's keen ears reported,
+joyfully:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's Fayette! It is, it is! It sounds as if he were speaking from the
+far end of a long, long tube. But he's alive, he's alive!"</p>
+
+<p>"He might as well be dead. His bones must be broken, and he can't live
+long in such an air as that," said Hallam.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. That he's alive at all proves that the air isn't as bad
+as I thought. Besides, he may not have broken any bones. He's had
+fearful falls, before this, and he always came out about sound. But the
+rope doesn't reach much more than two-thirds down. I've heard they dug
+this well a hundred and fifty feet deep. They had to, to reach water
+from top this rock."</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred and fifty feet! How can we possibly reach him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not by standin' talkin'. Whisk to the cottage, Amy, an' beg the length
+of all the rope they have. To save a lad's life&mdash;be nimble!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl was away long before Cleena finished speaking, while the latter
+herself darted into the house, caught off the sheets and blankets from
+the beds, and tore them into strips. Never wasting one motion of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> her
+strong hands, and praying ceaselessly, she tied each fresh length and
+tested it with all her force.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Amy almost flew over the space between "Spite House" and the
+cottage, arriving there nigh breathless; but gasping out her errand, she
+rushed straight to the line in the drying yard and began to tear it from
+its fastenings on the poles.</p>
+
+<p>"You're wanting my rope, miss? Somebody in the well? Heaven help him!
+But wait! If it's <i>cleaning</i> the well he is, why of course he'd be down
+there. Who is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fayette. Maybe you know him as 'Bony.'"</p>
+
+<p>"The half-wit? Pshaw, Miss. Don't look that frightened. He's all safe,
+never fear. Nothing hurts him. The Lord looks after him. I'm afraid this
+rope won't hold, it's so old. Wait, I'll go, too. Never mind the
+children, they'll have to take care of themselves."</p>
+
+<p>All the while she was talking the kindly woman had been rolling the
+line, retying it where their haste broke its worn strands, and following
+Amy up over the slope. Now she paused for one second to remonstrate:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You, Victoria, go back! There's William Gladstone trying to creep after
+us. Beatrice, Belinda, go home. You mustn't follow mother every time she
+turns her back! Go home, I tell you. Go&mdash;right&mdash;straight&mdash;back&mdash;home.
+My! but this <i>is</i> steep!"</p>
+
+<p>A shriek, shrill and piercing as only infant lungs could utter, made
+even Amy stop, eager though she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> was to reach the well where poor "Bony"
+might already have breathed his last. The one backward glance she cast
+showed the numerous children of the house of Jones toiling industriously
+skyward, in their mother's footsteps. Victoria, who was "eight and
+should have known better," had left William Gladstone to take care of
+himself, with the result that, being less than two years old and rather
+unsteady on his legs, he had toddled up to the biggest stone in the
+path, tried to step over it, lost his balance, and fallen. The hill was
+so steep that once the fat little fellow began to roll downwards he
+could not stop, and the terrified outcry first showed the mother his
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll bump his head against a rock and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jones did not finish her sentence, but faced about and ran
+frantically down the slope, catching up her baby and smothering it with
+kisses, although she had assured the little fellow, at least a dozen
+times that day, that "he was the very plague of her life." She had
+dropped the rope, and Amy caught it, then turned and ran as fast upward
+as her neighbor was going in the other direction. Behind Amy still
+followed Victoria, Beatrice, and Belinda.</p>
+
+<p>"You should go back. Your little brother's hurt," shouted she.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm. He is often," coolly replied Victoria, who could have the minor
+excitement of examining the baby's bruises any day, but who did not
+intend to lose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the greater one of "a man down the well" for any
+commonplace home matter.</p>
+
+<p>Just before she came to the crest of the knoll Amy hesitated, and stood
+still. It seemed to her she could not go on and face the possible, even
+probable, tragedy at the top, and into the midst of her awestruck
+waiting there was hurled this startling question:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Say, miss, where do you s'pose you'll have the funeral? May I come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! Oh, you horrid little thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Victoria appeared so amazed at the effect of her inquiry that she stared
+back into Amy's face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.</p>
+
+<p>"Wh-h&mdash;why!"</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't have said that. But you go right straight back home. Your
+mother wants you. I don't. Oh, dear! How could you say it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, 'cause I like to go to funerals. I go to every one Ma does. She's
+got a real nice 'funeral dress,' an' so have I."</p>
+
+<p>Amy fled. She had never seen anything like little Victoria, and she was
+so indignant that she almost forgot her dread of what might lie before
+her. She reached the group about the well, who were now utterly silent,
+and seemed to be watching with more astonishment than terror something
+happening within it.</p>
+
+<p>Amy, also, stretched her neck to see, though she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> shut her eyes, and
+this naturally prevented; nor did she open them till she felt Cleena
+clutch the skirt of her frock and heard her exclaim:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, but he's the biggest monkey out o' the Zoo! Arrah musha! I'll
+teach him scaring folks out o' their wits, an' wastin' good bedclothes
+on such havers! Huh!"</p>
+
+<p>For this was the marvel that now presented. Poor, silly Fayette, looking
+more foolish and grotesque than ever, climbing upwards into the
+daylight, blinking and sputtering, his back against the stones of one
+side the shaft, his feet against the other, his hands clutching,
+pulling; both feet and hands almost prehensile, like the creature's to
+which Cleena had likened him, yet safe, unbruised, and only mud-splashed and laughing.</p>
+
+<p>With a final, agile movement he reached the top, threw his arms about
+the beam, and leaped to the ground beside them. Then he laughed again,
+hilariously, uproariously, and not for long.</p>
+
+<p>In Cleena Keegan's indignant soul a plan had been rapidly forming.</p>
+
+<p>"So you'd be givin' us all the terrors, would ye, avick? Sure, a taste
+o' the same medicine's good for the doctor as his patient. I'll just
+give ye a try of it, an' see what ye say. Hmm, them sheets might ha'
+lasted for years, so they might; an' them blankets, my heart!"</p>
+
+<p>Before anybody, least of all the astonished "Bony,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> could comprehend
+what she would be about, Cleena had tripped and thrown the lad to the
+ground. She was more powerful than even his boasted muscle, and he quite
+unprepared for what she meant to do. The life-line made from her
+cherished bedclothing was twisted about his wet shoulders like a flash.
+Yet there seemed nothing violent nor vindictive as she rolled him over
+and over, wisely winding and binding first his hands and feet. After
+that the punishment she administered was but a question of endurance on
+her part, and the length of the line.</p>
+
+<p>"There, you blatherskite! What's your guardian angel thinkin' of ye the
+now, you poor, ignorant, heathen gossoon? Well for ye that old Cleena
+has met up with ye to beat some bits o' sense into your idle pate.
+Tight, is it? Well, not so tight as the bands o' me heart when I looked
+to see ye brought up to me dead. 'Twon't hurt. Lie there an' rest."</p>
+
+<p>Cleena finished her harangue and her task together. After that she stood
+up straight and strong, and regarded the teamster with a questioning eye.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, what he says, that he's nor kith nor kin, hereabouts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess it's true," answered John, laughing at the ludicrous appearance
+of Fayette upon the ground. "He was born in the poorhouse, an' I've
+heard his mother died. His father had before then, I know. I used&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>Cleena was in no mood for long stories, and she foresaw that one was
+imminent. She interrupted without ceremony&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So, if I take him in hand to train him a bit, what for no? There'll be
+no one botherin' an' interferin', is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess there won't anybody worry about 'Bony.' He's right handy around
+the mill, an' he does odd jobs for a many people; but if you want him, I
+'low you can have him 'for a song.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have no song singin', not I, nor from him. But if I don't make a
+smart, decent lad where there lies a fool, my name isn't Cleena Keegan,
+the day. Now what's about the well?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I want to know, Cleena," cried Amy. "How did he, could he,
+fall into it and climb out of it alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Easier than you think, miss. He slid down the rope as far as it went, I
+suppose, then caught his feet in the stones of the sides, then his
+hands, and went down just as he came up. He didn't go into the water in
+the bottom, of course; but he's proved that the well is safe enough, and
+to-morrow morning he ought to be made to go down, properly fixed, with a
+rope around his waist and the tackle for bailing it out. It'll be a job,
+then, even after to-day's beginning. But I'll tell the boss about it,
+and I don't doubt he'll send the other man that helps 'Bony' in the mill
+village, and get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> things right this time. What say, boy? Think you'll
+take matters a little soberer to-morrow, if I come back to help?"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette lay with closed eyes and made no answer, but Cleena spoke for
+him, and as one in authority:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Faith an' he will. An' I'm thankin' ye, sir, for all ye've done the
+day. Sure, by this hour to-morrow, we should begin to see daylight
+'twixt the dirt."</p>
+
+<p>"I 'low you will. You're a master scrubber, and no mistake. Well,
+good-by. Anything I can do for you village way?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beholden to you, sir, an' so are my folks, but there's not. I'm for
+sending the childer down on their donkeys to see how fares the mistress
+an' master; an' they'll fetch back what's lackin' o' food an' so on,
+when they come. It's hungerin' sore will the sweet lady be for a sight
+of her own."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cleena, is that so? May we go? But&mdash;that will leave you quite alone," said Amy.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam smiled. "She'll not be so very much alone, after all, dear," and
+he nodded significantly toward the still apparently sleeping Fayette.</p>
+
+<p>Then they went away to saddle the burros, and after having received a
+mysterious message which they were to deliver to Adam Burn, to the
+effect that "he'll know what to send o' them things in his box."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's as clear as the sunshine just what you are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> asking, dear old
+Goodsoul. That Friend Adam shall give us your dollars out of his box.
+You transparent old pretender! Well, never mind, Scrubbub. Some day our
+ships will come home, and then&mdash;you shall live in lavender," said Amy,
+hugging the faithful woman, and smiling, though tears of gratitude were in her dark eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Which eyes, happening to look downward, saw Fayette's own half open, and
+watching this little affectionate by-play with deep interest. No sooner,
+however, did he perceive that Amy had discovered this fact than his lids
+went down with a snap.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha, Fayette! I saw you. I'm sorry for you, but just you tell
+Goodsoul, here, that you'll remember not to shame your 'guardian angel'
+any more, and she'll let you up. I know her. Her heart's made of honey
+and sugar, and everything soft and sticky. I believe she's caught you in
+it, now, bad as you are, and if she has, you'll never get quite clear of
+her love and too demonstrative kindness."</p>
+
+<p>Then she cried to Hallam, who was limping toward the tethered burros:
+"Now for a race. These dear little beasties would trot a good pace if
+they realized they were on the road to mother and father and Friend Adam
+Burn's big oat-bin!"</p>
+
+<p>As they passed through the gateless entrance to "Bareacre," Hallam
+turned, and with something of Amy's cheerfulness waved his hand to Cleena.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><p>"We'll be back before dark, Goodsoul. Don't keep that lad tied any
+longer. Don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! Can't I do what I will with me own? There's somewhat to
+pass 'twixt him an' me afore he gets free o' them bonds."</p>
+
+<p>Evidently, there was; nor was she sorry to see all go and leave her
+alone with Fayette. Of what occurred during their brief absence at the
+Clove, nobody ever heard; but when the brother and sister rode up the
+slope, just as the evening fell, Fayette appeared to meet them and take
+their burros for them. His manner was subdued and gentle, and on his
+homely face was a look of exceeding peace.</p>
+
+<p>Amy nudged Hallam mischievously. "Another lull before another storm,
+isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Hallam regarded the half-wit critically. "No. But I think he's 'met his
+Waterloo.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, is that what we are to call her in future? She's already as many
+names as a Spanish princess." Then she lifted her voice to summon Cleena.</p>
+
+<p>"Heigho, 'Waterloo'! Father and mother are doing finely, and send love,
+and dear old Adam sent something much more substantial, but not what you
+asked for. Just plain beefsteak and potatoes, and a jolly chicken pie
+that's in a basket on Hallam's crutch. Those crutches are the handiest
+things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, so they be. An' there's a fire out of some wood the cottage
+woman sent, an' the steak'll broil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> while the taties roast, like the
+whisk of a squirrel in the tree."</p>
+
+<p>So "Waterloo" became another of good Cleena's "love names." For it's
+ever the tone and not the words that makes a sweet sound in one's ears,
+and the woman's heart thrilled, and her weary shoulders lifted because
+of the love which sang through Amy's innocent jest.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOME-MAKING.</h3>
+
+<p>For one whole week the artist and his wife remained at the Clove. During
+that time "Spite House" had undergone the most thorough cleaning and
+overhauling of its existence. The walls had been scraped of the ancient
+and discolored whitewash that covered them, and a fresh coat of
+sweet-smelling lime applied.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like a new-mown field, I think," said Amy, on the day that this
+whitewashing had taken place, to Fayette who was artisan in
+chief&mdash;always under Cleena's orders.</p>
+
+<p>"An' I must be the daisy that grows in it," he returned, catching a
+glimpse of his lime-splashed face in the tiny pocket mirror he always
+carried.</p>
+
+<p>"A whole bunch of daisies, indeed. But isn't it jolly? I never did so
+much hard work in my life; my hands are all blistered and sore, my feet
+ache&mdash;whew! And I never, never was so happy."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette paused midway to the shed, which he had repaired with bits of
+boards, begged or offered in various sources. The whitewash brush over
+his shoulder dripped a milky fluid upon his bared head, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+occasionally a drop trickled as far as the corner of his capacious
+mouth.</p>
+
+<p>But he minded nothing so trivial as this, and he stared at Amy in the
+same wonderment with which he had regarded her from the beginning of
+their acquaintance. She also paused and returned his gaze with an amused
+scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"Fayette, that stare of yours is getting chronic. I wish you'd give it
+up. Everything I do or say seems to astonish you. What's the matter with
+me? Am I not like other girls? You must know many down at the mill."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you ain't."</p>
+
+<p>"How different? I'd really like to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't seen you cry once,&mdash;or not more 'n once," he corrected
+truthfully. "An' you left all them things up there, an' the trees, an'
+the posies, an' everything like that way."</p>
+
+<p>For one moment Amy's breast heaved and her voice choked. Then she jerked
+her head in a fashion she had when she wished to throw aside unpleasant
+things and replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What would be the use of crying? If it would bring them all back, I'd
+cry a bath-tub full. But it won't. Thinking about it only makes it
+worse. <i>It had to be</i>, and in some ways I'm thankful it did. It was all
+unreal and dreamlike up there. I knew nothing about the sorrows and
+hardships in the real world. But how I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> am talking! I wonder, do you
+understand at all what I have said?"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't help cryin' when the bluebird's nest fell an' smashed all
+the eggs," remarked Fayette, whimpering at the recollection. His words
+were "like a bit of blue sky, showing through a cloud," as the girl
+often expressed it, when the untaught lad revealed something of his
+intense love of nature, so strongly in contrast to his otherwise limited
+intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we must forget what's past and go to work. I'll tether the burros
+out of the roadside while you clean up their shed; and when they come
+back to find it all sweet and white, like Pepita herself, they'll be as
+pleased as Punch. Wonder we never thought of having the old stable at
+Fairacres whitewashed."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't have me, then," answered the lad.</p>
+
+<p>"Fayette, you're as vain as a peacock. You always say 'ME' as if it were
+spelled with the biggest kind of capital letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I? Hmm," responded Fayette, with a vacant smile.</p>
+
+<p>Then Amy went into the house where Hallam and Cleena were arguing about
+what rooms should be arranged for the personal use of master and
+mistress, because Hallam thought his father's likes and habits should
+take precedence of all others.</p>
+
+<p>During this time of separation from him, the son had grown to think of
+his parent as a whimsical invalid,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> only. Oddly enough, with his own
+physical infirmity, he had come to look upon any bodily weakness of
+other lads or men as something almost degrading. He had always felt
+himself disgraced by his own lameness. It was this which had given him
+so bitter and distorted an outlook upon life, and involuntarily there
+had crept into his love for his father a feeling of contempt as well.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this showed in his talk with his sister, over this
+selection of rooms, and shocked her. Then, with loyal indignation she
+proceeded to enlighten him as to her own view of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, see here, Hallam Kaye. I don't believe, I can't believe, and I
+never will believe that from being a brilliant scholar and a wonderfully
+talented artist my darling father has suddenly become a&mdash;a&mdash;the sickly,
+selfish man you seem to imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy! I never said that. I never thought it. I only remember that he has
+always had the best of everything, and I supposed he always should."</p>
+
+<p>The tears of excited protest rushed into her eyes, but she dashed them
+away. "Queer, I never cry, hardly ever, unless I'm mad. I am mad at you,
+Hal Kaye, right straight clear through. You wait and see how father is,
+after this trouble. All his life he has been petted by mother, who
+adores him; and that not too agreeable cousin Archibald said the truth
+about his having had so easy a path all his life. I tell you it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> isn't
+for his children to sit here in judgment upon him, nor criticise
+anything he does; but one thing I believe, he's had a good hard waking
+up. He hasn't realized the truth. How should he? Mother has always
+smiled and smiled and seen to everything. He was a genius. He was never
+to be disturbed. He never has been. Not till now. Now he has been
+tumbled off his cushions whack! and presently he'll get up&mdash;all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Whe-e-ew! You don't mince matters in speaking of your relatives, do
+you, sweet sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. Just you wait. All the histories we've ever read, all the
+tales we've ever heard, of gentlemen and gentlewomen, 'aristocrats,' who
+have had to suffer anything dreadful, show that they have borne the
+troubles as no meaner person could. The good there is in being of
+'family,' it seems to me, is the self-respect that holds us upright, no
+matter what blows are dealt."</p>
+
+<p>Again Hallam blew a long note. But he looked at his excited little
+sister with a new admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, Amy, my dear, you are positively eloquent. Who knows but
+you may one day take to the 'stump,' become a public orator, and
+lecture, to fill the coffers of that 'family' of which you are so
+proud."</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you. I don't need to go abroad to lecture. I find enough
+subjects right in my own household. Between you and 'Bony' and Miss
+Scrubbub my life's a burden to me. Now hear me, both of you; for in the
+language of 'Bonaparty Gineral Lafayette,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> 'there ain't none o' ye got
+no sense 'cept me,' and 'me' says: Fix up the north chamber for a
+studio. Put all father's things in there. Fix the middle room, which
+faces east and the sunrise, for a bedroom; and this warm southwestern
+one for a private sitting room, for mother darling, where she can
+retreat to think upon her husband's greatness and her children's folly;
+and where the sweet blessed thing will never be alone one single minute,
+unless every other member of the family is sound asleep. So that's for
+the 'retreating' of Friend Salome Kaye. Oh, that she were here this
+minute! that I could hug the heart right out of her! Fly around, Amy,
+'an' set the house to one side,' <i>&agrave; la</i> Friend Adam's old housekeeper."</p>
+
+<p>It was wonderful what four pairs of arms could accomplish when love
+actuated them. "Spite House" had seemed hopelessly bare and dirty when
+the little household first entered it, but it was far from that by the
+end of a week's stay. Bare and bleak and unadorned it was still, and the
+surroundings seemed to forbid that it would ever be any better. But
+there was not an inch of its surface, outside or in, that had not been
+cleaned and polished, by scrubbing or whitewash brush. Even the
+moss-grown roof had been swept by Fayette, standing barefooted and
+unsupported on the sloping shingles, while he vigorously attacked them.
+To Hallam this seemed a desecration. The moss had been the one redeeming
+feature of the roof's ugliness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p><p>"Saints save us! If we leave go that muck up yon, it'll be like me
+dressin' for mass an' no rackin' down me hair, so it would. No, Master
+Hal, if riches we can't have, cleanness we can. An' that's aye more
+pleasin' to God."</p>
+
+<p>The plain, strong furniture which had been in the house had been placed
+to best advantage; and in the parents' rooms above, as well as the one
+family living room below, were gathered all that had been brought from
+dear Fairacres.</p>
+
+<p>A load of wood and another of coal, which Cleena supposed had been sent
+by Friend Adam and paid for with her money, gave a comfortable look to
+the woodshed, and in the storeroom was a bag of flour, a side of bacon,
+a fair supply of vegetables, and a barrel of apples. These the village
+grocer's lad had brought in his delivery wagon, and it was useless to
+ask him by whose order. Since they were needed, however, it was well to
+take them in and to consider them as belonging with the wood and coal.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the Saturday afternoon arrived on which Hallam and Amy were to
+go to the Clove, to pass First Day with Adam Burn and their parents,
+returning before nightfall with the latter, to begin their reunited
+family life.</p>
+
+<p>Dressed in their freshest clothes, upon Balaam and Pepita, groomed by
+the willing hands of Fayette, they journeyed gayly down the slope over
+the familiar road,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> eager for their visit and the warm welcome awaiting
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Amy, it's queer that we've never been about alone much,
+even on these country roads, till now? Losing our home seems to have
+broken down ever so many restrictions."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, don't you like it? Doesn't it make you feel freer and healthier?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe. I'm not enthusiastic over our poverty. I'd be glad enough to go
+back to Fairacres."</p>
+
+<p>"So would I, if we could live there honestly. I wouldn't go, not for one
+day, if I could help it, to live in debt as we did."</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we living in debt just the same now, and much more
+uncomfortably?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so; though it's different. This time it isn't going to last,
+and we haven't shut our eyes to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why isn't it going to last? How can we stop it? I see nothing ahead
+except starvation."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam Kaye, the very first thing you ought to learn is to be cheerful.
+You don't want to be a dead weight on anybody, do you? Well, you will be
+if you can't look ahead at all to anything bright. You and I are going
+to work and mend the family fortunes. Then we're going back to Fairacres
+and do all the good we can with the money we've earned."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were sound&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>"And sensible, you'd race me again to the gate of the Clove."</p>
+
+<p>Burnside-in-the-Clove was a bonny place. The "burn," from which the farm
+took its name almost as much as from the family which had dwelt there
+for generations, ran through the velvet lawn and was spanned by a rustic
+bridge where the well kept driveway curved toward the roomy house.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it's so lovely here. The many, many windows, each more cheery and
+inviting than its neighbor; the old-fashioned door, opened almost all
+the time; the hammocks, the benches, the flowers, the cool, sweet
+dairy&mdash;this is a <i>home</i>. I guess I'll make ours here instead of at
+Fairacres, after all," laughed Amy, as they paced sedately over the
+gravel, the better to enjoy the scene, and now that they had arrived, in
+no such haste for the meeting with their people.</p>
+
+<p>"I like to go slowly now, don't you, Hal? Because that makes the
+pleasure 'long-drawn out' and all the sweeter. In a minute mother's face
+will be in the doorway, with father looking over her shoulder. Friend
+Adam, blessed man, will hobble after, if he is not too lame; and then we
+shall jump off and the 'man' will take the burros, and we will go in and
+hug everybody all round, and eat the biggest kind of a supper&mdash;living on
+dry bread and milk two meals a day can give an appetite! And then one of
+dear old Adam's 'Spirit' talks; and bed and sleep, and breakfast and
+meeting, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>"'Spite House'!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Hallam, truly not. Our mother couldn't live in such a place.
+To-morrow a new life will begin on the barren knoll. 'Charity House' she
+will have it, and wherever our mother goes, softness and kindness and
+loveliness are sure to follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is so," answered the cripple, thoughtfully. "Well, hear me,
+Amy. I guess I have been about as much of a wet blanket as I could be,
+but I'm going to try my very hardest to make things easy for father and
+mother. Just now, as we rode down the valley into all this peace and
+quiet, I seemed to see myself exactly as I am. Heigho! but look how
+green the grass is still, late in the year as it is, and how beautiful
+the vines on the stone walls. The maples are like a golden glory. My
+father must have been wonderfully soothed by so much loveliness about
+him, though he's going to feel it all the&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, Sir Optimist, that is to be. You're taking the wrong turn,
+comrade. Come away from the down to 'has been,' and climb to 'will be,'
+short metre."</p>
+
+<p>It was all as they said. The mother's gentle face in the doorway,
+looking rested and less faded for the week passed in the society of a
+simple, noble man; the father's gay and debonair, as Amy remembered
+it&mdash;how long ago, was it? And last of all Friend Adam, in gray attire,
+his broadbrim crowning his snowy hair, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> expression one of childlike
+happiness and freedom from care.</p>
+
+<p>He welcomed them both with all heartiness, but Amy was dearest. She had
+always been, perhaps because she bore the name of his long dead wife,
+and had always seemed to stand as a child to his childless life.</p>
+
+<p>So after the fine supper was over, while before a blazing fire in
+another room Mr. and Mrs. Kaye discussed with Hallam all the events of
+the past week, Amy and the old man who had lived for more than eighty
+years a blameless, helpful life sat by a window in another place and
+looked out into the moonlight saying little, but enjoying all.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear father Adam, shall I tell thee"&mdash;for with him she always drifted
+into the sweet speech which was hers by birthright and his for all his
+life&mdash;"shall I tell thee how it seems to me, as if thee had learned
+every single lesson life and God has had to teach. Thee has had poverty
+and sorrow, and endured the wrong that others have done thee. Thee has
+seen thy kindred go away and leave thee alone. It is just like a good
+soldier who has been in a thick fight and a sailor who has swam in deep
+waters, but has come out safe on the other side. Thee is so calm and
+happy, like Mrs. Jones's little Belinda, who sits in the sun and sings
+and croons to herself, with never a plaything or anything good about her
+except her own serene happiness. Isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe, child. It may be. It should be, certainly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> There should be no
+care in either extreme of life. <i>Both ends are so close to the Father's
+house.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Thee is right though, about the middle of life, little Amy. It is a
+time of struggle and rebuff."</p>
+
+<p>"But to-night it seems as if it could never have been so with thee. Tell
+me, father Adam, how thee has kept thyself so simple and good."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, little one, not that. Simple, indeed, but not good. There is none
+good but One. Yet there are certain things that help. I'll tell thee
+what has helped me most, that is, in my daily life in the world, from
+which we can never escape while the heart beats."</p>
+
+<p>The dear old man rose, limped toward an ancient secretary, and took from
+it a small book. Just an ordinary account book, ruled for the keeping of
+small affairs, but arranged with every page inscribed by the trembling
+fingers of this all-thoughtful friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking what a muddle it would be to thee, Amy, and I
+fixed this for thee. On one side is the debt and the other side the
+credit. Thee will have to keep the reckonings for thy family, I foresee;
+for thee is practical. Look. Is the light sufficient?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy held the little volume so that the rays of the harvest moon fell
+clearly over them, and the old, quaint script was as legible as
+copperplate. She questioned, and he explained just how the book should
+be kept, and she found his "system" exceeding plain and direct, as was
+everything about him. But there were two legends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> inscribed upon the
+covers which had little in common with the figuring to be done between
+them,&mdash;or so Amy thought; and when she asked him what they meant, he
+quietly explained:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They have been my rules of life, Amy, and I think it would be well for
+thee if thee also adopted them. They are short and easy to remember, but
+they cover all. 'Simplicity, Sincerity, Sympathy,' on the front page;
+and on the last, when the first rule seems sometimes to fail and the
+heart needs cheer, there is this other: 'Love is all powerful.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank thee, dear Adam, so much. Not only for the book and the help it
+will be, but for the 'Rules' and&mdash;for thyself. I will make them mine,
+and thee shall tell me if I am succeeding. Now, I know thee is sitting
+up beyond thy time. I'll help thee to the living room and then to thy
+own."</p>
+
+<p>Nor was Amy ever to forget that peaceful hour with this ripe old
+Christian; and she never again sat in the rays of the harvest moon
+without recalling the lessons she learned that night.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE YOUNG OLD MAN AND THE OLD YOUNG GIRL.</h3>
+
+<p>It seemed to Amy that she had never remembered so lovely a First Day as
+that one at Burnside Farm. Things happened just as she had foretold.
+Mrs. Kaye and Adam went to meeting in the little phaeton into which it
+was so easy for him to climb, and Hallam and she rode beside it; for
+"Old Shingleside," as the meeting-house was called, was at some distance
+from the Clove. It crowned a wooded hill-top, and behind it lay the
+peaceful burying-ground, with its rows of modest tombstones and wider
+rows of grass-covered, unmarked mounds.</p>
+
+<p>The windows of the meeting-house were all open, and the mild air came in
+and warmed them; for as yet the plain box stoves held no blazing logs
+within, and the rows of old-time foot-stoves reposed securely upon their
+tops. Later, when the weather turned, these little wood-rimmed,
+perforated tin boxes would be filled with coals from the fire and placed
+beneath the feet of the elderly folk who came to worship.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked into her mother's face and found it beaming with the
+still delight of one whose heart was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> deeply moved. She had always been
+a member of this simple congregation, but of late years Salome Kaye had
+been obliged to forego the pleasure of gathering with it. The distance
+from Fairacres was too great for her to walk, and it was long since the
+horses and carriages that had once filled Fairacres stables had
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam, also, from his place on the men's side, saw the joy in the face
+he loved, and thought:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish mother would consent to ride one of the burros to meeting, then
+she could come as often as she wished. But she doesn't think it
+decorous. Well, I'm glad she's having the comfort to-day; but what is
+Friend Adam saying? It sounds like a farewell."</p>
+
+<p>He shot a startled glance across to Amy, among the women, and she
+responded. Then both regarded Adam anxiously. He stood in the speaker's
+place, where he was always found in meeting time. His body swayed gently
+back and forth, though his hands rested upon his cane as if he needed
+its support. His voice fell into the rhythmic measure to which they were
+accustomed whenever he became the mouthpiece of the Spirit, but his
+words were as of one who departs for a distant country and wishes many
+things to be remembered.</p>
+
+<p>His message was brief, yet delivered with all the fire and eloquence of
+youth; but when he had finished and cast his eyes about him, something
+like a sob burst from his withered lips:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p><p>"It's so queer. He looks so happy and yet so sad. Well, he's giving the
+hand of greeting to his neighbor, and so meeting's over."</p>
+
+<p>There was no trace of sadness now. In the friendly hand-shaking that
+became general was, as Amy had seen, the signal for the closing of the
+meeting, whereupon old neighbors and friends fell promptly to giving and
+receiving news of mutual welfare or trouble, as the case might be; and
+after a while there was a driving away of vehicles, the nods and signals
+of gray bonnets and broad brims, until the while party from the Clove
+were the very last left lingering on the grass before the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's been a good day, Salome. And now the Word comes: 'For here
+we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.'"</p>
+
+<p>The old man's eyes fixed themselves earnestly upon the weather-beaten
+structure; then with a bright smile he turned away and climbed into the
+phaeton which Amy had brought.</p>
+
+<p>Old Fanny mare trotted homeward at an almost giddy pace, and the burros
+did their utmost to keep up with her, though their chronic laziness
+overcame them at times, and they fell behind. After which Hallam and Amy
+would prod their indolent beasts till they had "made a spurt and caught
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"No use, children," laughed Adam Burn. "Fanny is a well-trained
+'Quaker.' She knows meeting days as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> well as I do, and she never fails
+to go there as slowly as she returns swiftly. She thinks, if horses
+think, and I think they think&mdash;doesn't thee think so, Amy? She thinks
+she has done her duty, and her conscience is as clear as her stomach is
+empty. On meeting days she has always an extra feed. That's why she
+spins along like this."</p>
+
+<p>He was very jolly, and as full of fun as Amy herself. They found Mr.
+Kaye pacing the driveway, waiting for them, and as eager for his dinner
+as Fanny for hers.</p>
+
+<p>They were soon gathered about the table, and again old Adam's jest was
+the readiest, his cheerfulness the most contagious, and his suggestions
+the most practical.</p>
+
+<p>"I advise thee, Cuthbert, to have a lot of good soil drawn up and spread
+over the top of Bareacre knoll. Thee can have the use of the team here
+till&mdash;for some time. There is plenty of muck in the hollow, and I'd be
+glad to have it cleared out. Then thee must sow grass, or grain and
+grass mixed, and Salome can have as many roots and cuttings of the green
+things here as she wishes. Get them all in this autumn. By another
+spring they will begin to grow, and a little greenery will transform the
+place."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye thanked him, but Amy looked up from her dish of rice pudding
+and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Thee isn't helping us to keep the rule of 'don't run in debt' that thee
+told me was so good."</p>
+
+<p>"Cuthbert and I will settle that. Eat thy pudding,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> child." But he shook
+his head at her so merrily she did not mind the rebuff.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner came the big carryall, with its back part loaded so that
+the springs touched, and with the "man" upon the front seat, ready to
+drive the Kayes to their new home.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Adam, dear old friend, this is too much; it really is. I cannot
+let thee do it," protested Mrs. Kaye, astonished at the sight. For there
+were vegetables of every sort that grew at Burnside, with hams and
+bacon, some very lively chickens, and baskets heaped with the grapes and
+pears for which the Clove was famous.</p>
+
+<p>"Too much, Salome? I think not. Not judging by the samples of appetites
+I've seen this noon. Say nothing. Thee knows how gladly I give it, and
+would give much more. Here, Amy, is a little letter for thee. I wish
+thee to keep it without reading until&mdash;" he hesitated, looked at her
+gravely, and finished his sentence&mdash;"until thy own heart tells thee that
+the right time is come. For Hallam, too, there is a bit of writing, and
+that he may read at any time he chooses."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right now, then," laughed the lad, and eagerly tore the sealed
+envelope.</p>
+
+<p>Adam Burn winced a little at the ragged edge this made on the paper, for
+he was a careful person and hated slovenliness. But he could not refrain
+a smile as he saw the expression of disappointment growing upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+Hallam's face, where he sat upon black Balaam, his crutches crossed
+before him, looking down at the open sheet he had found. The envelope
+dropped to the ground, and Amy picked it up; but her brother did not
+show her the message he had received, and she was puzzled to hear their
+old friend say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The truth which I have written there is better for thee than a fortune,
+Hallam."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be, but, under the circumstances, I'd rather have the fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Thee'll find it, lad, never fear. Thee'll find it."</p>
+
+<p>Amy thrust the envelope into her pocket, along with the letter Adam had
+given her, and a moment later they all passed out of the yard, and
+turned toward the knoll of Bareacre. The last glimpse they had of their
+friend showed him standing in the sunshine, leaning upon his cane, and
+gazing after them as they vanished from his sight.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something different about that blessed old man to-day," said
+Amy to Hallam, riding with him beside the carryall.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose it makes him feel badly to know we are not going back
+to Fairacres. He always does feel other people's troubles more than his
+own."</p>
+
+<p>"What was in your letter, Hal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! It couldn't be called a letter. From anybody else I would have
+thought it insulting."</p>
+
+<p>"Not from him, dear. He couldn't insult anybody.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> He'd not have the
+heart to do it. Do you mind telling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit. I dare say you could take example by it too. For it was a
+sort of sermon in few words,&mdash;'The perfection of a man is the stature of
+his soul.' That's all."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see yet just what it means, but I think it is that you
+shouldn't mind being lame. That you should let your soul grow so big you
+would forget your poor legs, and other folks would forget them too."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more was said, and even Amy felt that they had had enough of
+"sermons" for one day, and it was a relief to the thoughtfulness upon
+them all to reach Bareacre, and to see Cleena, with Fayette beside her,
+waiting to welcome them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hal, isn't it odd? The poorer we are the more folks we have. Fayette
+means to live there with us, and so, it seems, do all the little
+Joneses. My! Who is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"A scarecrow, I should think. Nobody I ever saw before."</p>
+
+<p>Seated upon a rocking-chair which she had herself brought out from the
+house was a young girl of about Amy's age, though from her dress and
+manner she might have been at least several years older. Amy caught a
+vision of something very gay and brilliant, rivalling the forests upon
+the hillsides in variety of tint, but never in their harmony.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>"Whew! Whoever she is she makes my eyes ache; and what a picture for
+father to see, the first at his new threshold!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet apparently without noticing anything unpleasing, Mr. Kaye assisted
+his wife from the carryall and walked with her to where the stranger
+still sat and rocked. She did not rise at their approach, and returned
+the courteous greeting of the master and mistress of the house with the
+barest of nods.</p>
+
+<p>"How do? I come to pay a call."</p>
+
+<p>But not upon them. For the first time in their lives the artist and his
+lovely wife were relegated by this self-possessed young person to the
+land of "old folks," in whom she felt no interest.</p>
+
+<p>With a twinkle in his eye that met an answering one in hers, the
+gentleman handed Mrs. Kaye on toward the eager Cleena, and turned to his
+children:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My dears, a visitor for you, I think."</p>
+
+<p>So Amy and Hallam rode up and dismounted, while the former went forward
+slowly, smiling a welcome, yet feeling oddly disconcerted before this
+unknown girl.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Gwendolyn Jones. Ma said it wasn't no more 'n friendly to come an'
+call. I don't have no time 'cept Sunday an' Saturday-half. Then I
+generally go to Wallburg to do my shopping. It's such a trouble,
+shopping is, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I never did any," answered Amy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> simply. She was amused
+by Gwendolyn, but regretful that the visit had been timed just then. She
+had counted upon showing the interior of the new home to her parents,
+with all the best features accented, and now she must leave them to see
+things for themselves. Besides, she was conscious that she had herself
+been noticed only in the slightest degree by this maiden whose big brown
+eyes were fixed upon Hallam with a steady gaze that annoyed him
+exceedingly. He was always more conscious of his lameness in the
+presence of a stranger, and the people he had met, heretofore, had been
+so well bred that beyond the first involuntary surprise at his condition
+they had ignored it entirely.</p>
+
+<p>To his amazement Gwendolyn exclaimed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"So you're the lame fellow, are you? Well now, you don't look it, not
+above your waist. You look real likely in your face, and your shoulders
+is broader than Lionel Percival's. He's considered well growed, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he?" asked poor Hallam, understanding that some sort of reply was
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; 'Bony' feels real sot up, don't he, taking care of them donkeys?
+Oh, I tell you, 'Bony' is a case."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he?" again feebly ejaculated Hallam. He looked helplessly toward
+Amy, but she was disappearing indoors, too eager to be with her parents
+to loiter with this unprepossessing guest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he's telling all over the mill, and village too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> how that he
+belongs to your folks now. He's going to live here, ain't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He may be. It will be just as Cleena wishes, I fancy. She is the one
+who has taken him in charge."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the work girl, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>To the young Kayes and their parents their faithful servant had never
+been anything save just "Cleena." Her position in their family was as
+assured as their own, and that she might be thought a "work girl" by
+others, was a novel idea to the lad. It gave him something natural to
+think about; and he stood leaning on his crutches, with a smile upon his
+face, looking down upon the girl in the rocking-chair, chewing gum and
+swaying so composedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; I suppose she is. She certainly works, and all the time. But
+I should hardly call her a 'girl.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Say, you must be tired, standing so long. Take this chair. I'll step in
+and get another."</p>
+
+<p>Again Hallam smiled. The girl, in her ignorant kindness of heart, had
+broken a minor law of that courtesy in which he had been educated. She
+had offered him the chair in which she had herself been sitting, instead
+of the fresh one she meant to get. But he declined both, saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't trouble. I can easily bring one for myself."</p>
+
+<p>Because she was curious to see how he would do this, she watched him and
+sat still. Now he was quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> able to wait upon himself in most ways, and
+handled his crutches so deftly that they often seemed to Amy, as to him,
+"but an extra pair" of feet or hands, as the case might be.</p>
+
+<p>So he swung himself into the house and out again, once more looking for
+his sister, and hearing her voice above stairs explaining, exhibiting,
+and regretting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it too bad, mother, that this young lady should have come just
+now? Hal has worked so hard and done so much. Anyway, father, you must
+not, indeed you must not, go into your studio till he can take you
+there. It would be such a disappointment, for he's arranged and
+rearranged till I'm sure even your fine taste will be pleased."</p>
+
+<p>He lingered a moment to catch the answer, and it filled his foreboding
+soul with great content.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all very excellent thus far, dear, and we'll surely leave the
+studio for him to show. I had no idea you could so transform this barn
+of a place. From the outside it was ugliness itself, but you have all
+done wonders. We shall be very happy here."</p>
+
+<p>"Can that really be father speaking? and we feared he would be utterly
+crushed. Amy was right. Blood tells. And there's something better even
+than blood to help him now. That's love. Dear old Adam was right, too:
+so long as we have each other we can be happy."</p>
+
+<p>Then he caught up a light chair under his arm and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> swung himself back to
+play knight-errant to this unknown damsel.</p>
+
+<p>She found him very agreeable, for he was a gentleman and could not fail
+in courtesy toward any woman, old or young. So agreeable, indeed, that
+she remained rocking, chewing, and talking, till the shadows of the
+autumn evening crept round them, and Cleena, watchful for her "child,"
+and indignant at the intrusion of this stranger, appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha, Master Hallam, will you be sittin' here catchin' your
+death? Come in by, immediate. The supper is on, an' the master waitin'.
+Sure, that's bad luck, for the first meal we're all together in the new
+home. Come by."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam rose. It was impossible for him to avoid asking Gwendolyn to
+remain, and she, utterly ignoring the sniffs and scowls of Cleena,
+promptly accepted.</p>
+
+<p>Of that meal it is not worth while to write. The girl did have the grace
+to keep reasonably quiet, though occasionally she would feel that this
+silence was not doing herself justice, and would break into the cheerful
+conversation of the others with a boldness and self-assertion that made
+Amy stare.</p>
+
+<p>Finally she departed, and Mr. Kaye sighed his relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Friend Adam is the youngest old person, and Gwendolyn Jones is
+the oldest young person I ever saw," remarked Hallam, as he lighted his
+mother's bedroom candle and bade her good night.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>BAD NEWS FROM BURNSIDE.</h3>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is to be 'Charity House' now," said Salome Kaye, with that
+quiet decision of hers which, as Amy described it, "Never makes any
+fuss, and never wobbles."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the best and the worst about mother. She never says 'yes' when
+she means 'no,' and she never says either till it's all settled. I
+remember how, when I was little, I used to ask, 'Is it decided?' and
+when she answered, 'Yes, it's decided,' I gave up teasing. Mountains
+might crush, but never move her."</p>
+
+<p>"So it's 'Charity House' forever and a day. The trouble with you,
+mother, is that all you say&mdash;or the little you say&mdash;always means
+something. 'Charity House' is, I suppose, just as full of meaning as
+everything else. Isn't it? Let me guess. It's 'Charity' because cousin
+Archibald lets us live here for what he calls a 'starvation rent.'
+That's the meanest kind of 'Charity,' and it's a lie, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, mother, it is. I've heard these people talk, and they all say that
+the old curmudgeon&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p><p>"Hallam, thee is proving that a 'Charity House' is the very sort of
+home thee needed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, motherkin, it's true. He is curmudgeon-y. He's tried for years to
+get a tenant for this property, and not even the mill folks would touch
+it. He took advantage of us and made us think we were getting a great
+deal for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Are we not? Look about thee."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, it's big enough."</p>
+
+<p>"What a curious place it is," said Amy; "like a box that eggs come in.
+See, this is it," and she rapidly sketched upon a paper the diagram.
+"Two partitions run this way, north and south, and two run at right
+angles. That's three rooms deep on each floor, look at it from any point
+of view. Each room is as like its neighbor as its twin. Hmm, I didn't
+realize it, but there are eighteen rooms if we count the halls and the
+'black hole.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Almost as large as 'Fairacres,' thee sees."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not so bad, if it weren't so fearfully bare," remarked Hallam,
+examining Amy's sketch. "But it's queer."</p>
+
+<p>The entrance hall was the middle front room of the old building. From
+this a flight of stairs ran up and ended in "the middle room" above,
+with a narrow flight behind into the attic. The upper middle room was
+therefore an open space, from the sides of which a narrow gallery had
+been reserved to surround the well-like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> opening of the stairway. Next
+the stairs the gallery was furnished with a strong plain railing, to
+prevent the accident of falling into the "well," and all the bedrooms
+had doors opening upon it.</p>
+
+<p>This upper space was dark, save when the bedroom doors were open and
+gave it light. So, also, was the room below; and beneath this, still,
+was the "black hole," the extension of a cellar under the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the original purpose of this "hole," which received no light
+nor ventilation except through the kitchen cellar, it was now the terror
+and despair of Cleena's cleanly soul. She had wasted many good candles
+in trying, by their light, to sweeten and make wholesome this damp,
+miserable place. But despite all it remained almost as she found it.</p>
+
+<p>"The pit of original sin," Hallam named it, advising her to give over
+the task of purification. "You've sprinkled pounds of chloride, splashed
+whitewash galore, swept and scrubbed and worn yourself out, and it's
+hopeless. Well, I never heard that any of the Ingrahams died of
+pestilence bred down there, so I fancy it won't hurt us."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, it shan't that. I'll keep the front cellar door open into it
+incessant, an' I'll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Waste your substance in lime. Don't, Goodsoul. But it's on my mind as
+it is on yours. If I were as strong as I wish, I'd turn rabbit and
+burrow galleries out from the middle vault under the middle rooms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> each
+side of the house. That would give light and air and keep everything
+dry."</p>
+
+<p>Neither Cleena nor Hallam noticed that Fayette had been a close listener
+to this conversation, nor heard the muttered exclamation:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do it! Huckleberries! I'll s'prise 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>This had been some days before Amy drew the diagram of the house, which
+she now tossed into the waste-basket. From that it was rescued by the
+half-wit and treasured carefully; for to the purpose formed in his mind
+it would prove a great help.</p>
+
+<p>"But go on, mother dear. What's the other sort of charity you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"That by all the advantages which we have had over these new neighbors
+we should be helpful to them. We possess nothing of our own, absolutely,
+not even our better training and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! Sure the pullet was bad enough, but this baby'll be me
+death! An' me steppin' me great foot&mdash;There, there, darlin'. Cry no
+more, cry no more!"</p>
+
+<p>The interruption was Cleena, and the cause "Sir" William Gladstone.</p>
+
+<p>"Again, Goodsoul," jeered Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Again is it? An' me goin' down that hill betimes this mornin' to remind
+me neighbor as how it wasn't necessary to send all the childer up here
+to wonst. Not <i>all</i>!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>One of the first things which Cleena had made Fayette do was cut and
+smooth a path from the door of "Charity House" to that of the cottage
+below. She foresaw that there would be frequent errands to and fro, and
+the loose stones, with the tangle of running blackberry vines, were
+dangerous to life and limb. Then, because Hallam's lameness was also in
+her mind, she had persuaded the mill boy to add a row of driven stakes
+with rope strung along their tops.</p>
+
+<p>"But never at all has Master Hal, for whom it was made, gone down or up
+by that same. Me fathers, what's a body to do!"</p>
+
+<p>"We're living in 'Charity,' Goodsoul. And I've observed that, look out
+of window when I will, there's always a yellow headed Jones-let
+ascending to us by the easy road you've fixed. Belinda, the small, is
+apt to lead the way. She likes it up here. She likes it very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, that's what the mother be's sayin'. But is that any reason at all,
+avick, why they should be let?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Jones thinks it is. She feels that we are flattered by the
+preference her offspring show for our society; but between ourselves,
+Cleena, I think it's more raisin-bread than affection. You made a dire
+mistake in beginning to feed them."</p>
+
+<p>"An' isn't it I that knows it? Now, this baby&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that baby. What's happened to him? He's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> spotted white and black,
+like a coach-dog. What's he licking from his fingers?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's spoilin' the bakin' o' bread is he the day. Takin' the coals from
+the bucket, each by each, an' pressin' them deep in that beautiful
+dough. Will I wash his face, eh? Never a wash I wash, but home to his
+mother he goes the same as he is. If the sight does not shame her, I'd
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take him, Cleena, and I'll bring back the milk for the day."</p>
+
+<p>So with her pail in one hand and the other guiding the still uncertain
+steps of William Gladstone, Amy started.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity, Sir William, it really is a pity that you ever learned how
+to climb. You've progressed so alarmingly. First time you tried it you
+could only stumble and fall backward. Now&mdash;you hitch along famously.
+Heigho! here's Victoria. All the high personages of Merrie England are
+honoring us 'the day.' Well, Victoria Regina, what's the errand now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, only thought I'd tell you about that old Quaker man you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody likes. What about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone away. Ma says he won't never live to come back again."</p>
+
+<p>"Victoria&mdash;Jones, what are you saying?"</p>
+
+<p>"That Mr. Quaker Burn, up Clove way, had been took to Ne' York."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><p>"I guess you're mistaken. We would have heard about it if it were so.
+Now, if you please, though, I should like Master Gladstone to be 'took'
+home. If you'll hold his other hand we'll get him there the quicker."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I'll go up and set a spell; you take him," remarked Victoria,
+and turned to ascend the slope.</p>
+
+<p>Amy sighed: "Something must be done to stop this!" Then she lifted her
+eyes and scanned the white dusty road which circled Bareacre knoll, and
+across which lay the Jones's cottage. A wagon was driving leisurely
+along this highway, and it had a most familiar appearance. A moment's
+watching showed it to belong to the Clove Farm, and it was Adam Burn's
+"hired man" who was driving in it. Her heart sank. What if Victoria had
+spoken the truth?</p>
+
+<p>So she hurried her young charge to his home, and waiting only to have
+her pail filled with the milk, ran back to intercept the approaching
+vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Israel. How's dear old Adam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only the Lord knows. Sarah Jane's got him."</p>
+
+<p>"She hasn't! Don't tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"But she has, though."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"York."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>"Same old story. If she hadn't gone to Europe, she'd had him last year.
+I knew how 'twould be when she come home this summer an' begun to send
+him the letters. She's the powerfulest hand to do her duty that ever
+was. Everything else has to give way."</p>
+
+<p>Amy's hand trembled so that her milk began to trickle over the sides of
+her pail.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what it meant, then, that dear, precious old fellow. He knew he
+was going to leave us, that First Day we spent at the farm. That was why
+his words in the meeting-house were so like a farewell. It is too bad!
+It must have broken his heart."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it didn't. He didn't want to go, not a mite; but there wasn't no
+heart-break, <i>not in sight</i>. If there was, he kept it hid. But he went
+all round the place, into every shed and building, pointing out things
+that should be done, and being most particular about the flowers and
+garden. He told me to take care of everything just as if he was coming
+back to-morrow. But he'll never. He'll never."</p>
+
+<p>"Israel, you shall not say that! He must come back!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll come, of course, one way: that's feet foremost. He's a sight
+feebler 'n he ever let on, an' this riotous livin' at York, what with
+balls and parties and wine suppers, he won't last long. They'll kill him
+out of hand amongst 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Israel, the idea of Adam Burn at 'balls and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> parties and wine
+suppers,' when he's so simple and sweet and abstemious. I don't believe
+he ever tasted wine during all his pure, beautiful life. I'm not
+worrying about that. It's the leaving the things he loved will hurt him
+so. Why couldn't Sarah Jane have left him in peace? O dear! O dear! This
+will be a fresh sorrow for mother."</p>
+
+<p>"So I suppose. For all of us, too. It's going to be lonesome for me, I
+reckon. Though Mis' Boggs won't have so much to do. She wants to give up
+the job, an' go live with our son, Jim. But Sarah Jane told us to stay,
+an' so we'll have to."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this dreadful woman who's spirited Adam away any kin to <i>you</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Course not. But you needn't laugh. You don't know that lady. She's
+masterful, and she's rich&mdash;'rich as Cr[oe]sus,'&mdash;and don't know what to
+do with her money. When the old man was lookin' around an' chargin' me
+'bout things, she broke in with: 'Oh, don't worry, father-in-law. The
+trumpery stuff isn't worth so much thought. I'm not a relic hunter, and
+let it go,' says she. Then he reminds her that he wanted it kept right
+for&mdash;Whew! I near let the secret out, didn't I? He told me he wrote you
+a letter. He gave it to you, didn't he? Well, if you'll carry the
+message for me, I won't climb 'Spite' hill this morning. There's a few
+things to fetch up in the open wagon, and I'll see your folks about
+hauling that muck. Good-by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> The spirit's taken clean out of me.
+Twenty-five years me and him has lived together, and to part sudden like
+this. Twenty-five years by the clock, and a better man than him never
+trod the footstool."</p>
+
+<p>With that Israel brought the mare around, and giving a mournful nod of
+his head drove dejectedly away.</p>
+
+<p>Amy flew up the hill. She paid little heed now to the spilling of the
+milk, for she began to realize in all its force the calamity which had
+befallen them; and she burst into her mother's sitting room flushed and
+indignant, demanding:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What right had Sarah Jane to take him away?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye's heart sank. She understood what this hysterical question
+implied. It had been a contingency long foreboded by her, though against
+its justice she could find nothing to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Every right, dear. She is his son's widow. She is acting, no doubt, as
+she thinks her husband would wish."</p>
+
+<p>"But he didn't want to go."</p>
+
+<p>"She probably felt he was too old to live alone, without relatives.
+Indeed, I know that she would have taken him long ago, if she had been
+living in this country herself. As soon as she came home she has
+attended to her&mdash;her duty, as she sees it. As I suppose, anybody would
+see it, who was indifferent whether he went or stayed. I hope, though,
+that she'll bring him back to Burnside in the spring."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>"Do you know her, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not well. When we were both younger I used to see her sometimes. She
+was never very fond of Burnside, however. It was too quiet for her. She
+is a wealthy woman, who likes to do a great deal of good. She is at the
+head of many charitable associations, and she has always had wonderful
+executive ability."</p>
+
+<p>"Does that mean being what Israel called 'masterful'?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Will she be good to our dear Adam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. She will see that he has every comfort possible. He will,
+doubtless, have a servant especially appointed to wait upon and care for
+him, and he will be made to share in all the enjoyments of the house.
+She believes that it is the duty of all to live actively in the world
+and do good aggressively, so to speak. But Adam is so old and feeble, he
+has passed his days in such simplicity, I can feel what a change for him
+it will be. Still, if he were to fall seriously ill, he would be better
+off at his daughter-in-law's than here. Ah, yes. I suppose it is for the
+best&mdash;for him. For us&mdash;well, it will be hard to think of Burnside
+without his gracious presence. He was my parents' oldest, closest
+friend, as he has been mine."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Kaye rose, folded up her mending, and left the room. "I must tell
+Cuthbert," she remarked, as if to herself, and her face was very sad.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p><p>When Amy found her brother and told him the news his comment was:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That's a bad business for us, girlie."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Don't you suppose I feel it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As long as Adam Burn was near, mother would never have been allowed to
+really suffer for anything. I mean that he would have managed to keep an
+eye upon her and have helped us out, till we could help ourselves. Do
+you know where that letter is he gave you? Have you read it? I should
+think this might be that 'right time' of which he spoke."</p>
+
+<p>"The letter? In my other dress pocket. I'll get it."</p>
+
+<p>But when she had searched not only in her pockets but in every other
+possible place, the letter could not be found; and though Mrs. Kaye
+assured them that there was probably very little of importance in it,
+her children could not help imagining something quite to the contrary;
+and to learn the unread message became the great desire of their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in any case, we have what he said to you, Hal, about soul growth
+and that."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Such talk is all well enough, but how is it going to help when
+we reach our last dollar? Did you ever think, Amy, seriously think how
+we are going to live? Just where our actual bread and butter is to come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Why, no, not really."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's high time you did."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL.</h3>
+
+<p>At about the same moment, on a "Saturday-half" in November, Amy Kaye and
+Gwendolyn Jones left each her own home to visit that of the other. They
+met on the slope of "Bareacre" and paused for mutual greetings.</p>
+
+<p>"How do? I was just going up to your house," said Gwendolyn, turning her
+back to the wind that just then blew strongly.</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon. Were you? And I was going to yours."</p>
+
+<p>"My! How cold it is. Winter'll be here before we know it. Makes a body
+think about her clothes. That's why I was coming. I thought, maybe,
+you'd like to go shopping with me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're forgetting, I fancy, that I told you I never did that. I
+shouldn't know how to shop, nor scarcely what it means," laughed Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what me and ma was saying. You seem such a little girl, yet
+'Bony' says you're 'most as old as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't feel old, do you? I wish I might never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> grow a day older,
+except that if I do I may be more useful to my people."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you go, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe, if you will do something for me, too. I'm not on the road to buy
+anything, but to sell. I thought that you might know of somebody who
+would like a burro. Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like one myself, first-rate, only I'm saving for a wheel. I'm
+buying it on the instalment plan. I pay a dollar a week, and after I get
+my winter things I'll pay more. Do you ride?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing so fine as a bicycle; just either Pepita or Balaam."</p>
+
+<p>"It's awful hard to have to walk everywhere, and the good thing about a
+wheel is that it don't have to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"And the bad thing about a burro is that it does."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in earnest? Do you want to sell it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I don't <i>want</i> to at all, but I'm going to if I can. Do you know
+anybody who really might buy Pepit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Guess I do. Guess the 'Supe' would."</p>
+
+<p>"The 'Supe'&mdash;Mr. Metcalf?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I heard him say he'd like to get such a pair of mules or donkeys,
+or whatever they are, for his children. He's got a slew of them, and he
+gets 'em every conceivable thing. I wouldn't wonder if he did, if you
+was to ask him."</p>
+
+<p>"Will he be at the mill to-day?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>"No; he's at his house, I guess. The mill's shut up, only the watchman
+there. The 'Supe' don't hang around there himself so much since the new
+'boss' came."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe his house would be out of your way. If you'll tell me how to find
+it, I can go by myself. I wouldn't like to give you trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, 'twouldn't be a mite. I'd like it. There'd be time enough afterward
+for Mis' Hackett's. She keeps open till near midnight, Saturdays. She
+gets lots of the mill trade, and she'd like to have it all. But
+Wallburg's far nicer. Don't you love Wallburg?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was never there except once, when father had a guest from town. Then
+mother sent for a carriage, and they took their friend to see the city.
+Hallam and I rode our burros, but we were very tired when it was over.
+Even then we passed through the residence streets only."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! It's where the stores are that I like. I always wish I was made
+of money when I'm in a store. They do have such lovely things."</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't your mother buy your clothes?"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother? <i>My mother?</i> Well, I guess not. The idea! If a girl earns
+her own money and pays for all she has, I guess she's a right to pick
+'em out. Don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes. I suppose she has a right, if her mother allows. But I should
+think it would be very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> trying to select one's own things. I should be
+so afraid I wouldn't choose correctly, and not please her taste."</p>
+
+<p>"My land! What if you didn't? It's you that has to wear them, isn't it?
+Have a piece of this gum. It's a new sort. Mis' Hackett keeps it and
+charges two cents a stick. Other kinds are only one cent, but this is
+prime."</p>
+
+<p>Gwendolyn was kind-hearted. She was also very vain. She felt that it was
+a fine thing to be acquainted with "aristocratics" like the Kayes; yet
+in her heart she was rather ashamed of Amy's plain attire, the
+simplicity of which seemed to Gwendolyn a proof of Mrs. Kaye's
+incapacity to "shop"; and its being white&mdash;though of soft warm wool&mdash;of
+her want of taste. She supposed, also, that any girl who could, would
+buy gum, and decided that her new acquaintance must be very poor indeed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it. I can get plenty more. I earn real good wages now."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" asked Amy, so wistfully that the other was confirmed in her
+opinion of the poverty.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you would like to work in the mill, wouldn't you? If
+your folks have lost their money, it would seem real handy to have a
+little coming in."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would, indeed. But I couldn't do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? You're strong enough, I guess, if you aren't so big."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, I'm strong and well. But father has forbidden me to think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! He'd come round. If you want to do it, I <i>would</i>; and once you
+were settled he wouldn't care, or he couldn't help himself, anyway. He's
+kind of queer, isn't he? I've heard that."</p>
+
+<p>"Queer? Yes; just as queer as a splendid gentleman like him must always
+seem to common people," flashed the daughter, all the more disturbed
+because she realized that there had been once, if not now, just a little
+truth in the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! I didn't mean to make you mad. O' course, I hadn't ought to have
+spoke so about your own father. I s'pose I'd be mad, too, if anybody
+said things about pa. They do, sometimes, or about ma, their naming us
+children by fancy names, as they did. You see, they're English, pa and
+ma are, and so they named us after English aristocratics. Ma's a master
+hand for reading novels, too, and she gets notions out of them. We take
+the <i>Four Hundred Story Paper</i>, and the <i>Happy Evening Gazette</i>. Do you
+take them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I never heard of them."</p>
+
+<p>"My land! you didn't? Ain't that queer? Why, they're splendid. They have
+five serial stories running all the time. As fast as one is finished
+another is commenced. Umm, they're awful exciting. You can't hardly wait
+from week to week to get the new instalments. Trouble is, ma says, we'd
+ought to each of us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> have a copy, we're so crazy to get hold of it when
+it comes. Some of the girls take fashion papers, and we lend them
+'round. Some lend, I mean. Some are stingy, and won't. They have
+patterns in them. You can get some of the patterns free, and some cost
+ten or fifteen cents. Say, how do you like my dress?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked critically at her companion's attire. She admired it far less
+than Gwendolyn had her own simple frock, and she found the question
+difficult to answer without giving offence. She compromised by saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother must be very industrious to have made it, with all the
+housework and the children."</p>
+
+<p>"If you ain't the greenest girl I know! My mother couldn't make a dress
+like this to save her life."</p>
+
+<p>"O&mdash;oh!" stammered Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, she couldn't. This was made by a dressmaker. The best one in
+Ardsley, too. She charged me five dollars, and ma said it was too much.
+I think it was, myself, but what can you do? You must look right, you
+know; if you don't the girls will make fun of you, and the boys won't
+take you any place. Is there any boy you like, much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course; though I know only three. Is this the way, around the corner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three? Who're they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam, and Fayette, and William Gladstone. Doesn't the mill village
+look cosy? The cunning little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> houses with their porches and gardens and
+neat palings. Such a lot of folks living together should have good
+times, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they do; prime. That's the 'Supe's' house, that big one, upon that
+little hill. That whole row belongs to the different 'bosses,'&mdash;of the
+setting room, the weavers, and the rest. The 'Supe' is real nice, I
+think, though some say he's stuck up. He was a poor boy, once,&mdash;as poor
+as a church mouse. Say, don't you feel sort of afraid to call on him, after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? No, indeed. Afraid? Why should I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, because."</p>
+
+<p>Amy laughed and hastened forward. Nothing more was said until they
+reached the door, shadowed by vines from which not even yet all the
+leaves had fallen. The whole place had a sheltered, homelike appearance,
+which spoke well for the taste and kindliness of its owners.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Mr. Metcalf is in. Would you like to see him? Ah, Gwendolyn, is it
+you? Walk in." Yet even Amy noticed that the maid's manner in welcoming
+her companion was less cordial than in welcoming herself. She concluded
+that there might be some truth in the assertion of this family
+considering themselves rather better than their neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>They were ushered into a cheery sitting room, which seemed also a sort
+of library, for there were bookcases around the walls, and a table was
+spread with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> current literature of the day. The room was small by
+comparison with those to which Amy had been accustomed, but what it
+lacked in size it made up for in comfort. A coal fire glowed on the
+hearth, a bird sang in its cage before the window, and about the floor
+were scattered the playthings that told that it was the resort of
+children.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were not kept waiting. Mr. Metcalf entered almost at once,
+nodded kindly to Gwendolyn, and cordially extended his hand to Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very pleased to see you, Miss Amy. Sit nearer the fire, for it's
+right cold to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, but I'm not cold, and I don't wish to detain you. Gwendolyn
+tells me that it is your holiday, too, and that you go to Wallburg."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf glanced across at the other girl, who bridled and simpered
+as she adjusted her hat and settled her skirts.</p>
+
+<p>"She goes there herself, I fear, rather too much. Eh, Gwendolyn?"</p>
+
+<p>"I go when I please," answered the mill girl, pertly. She resented
+something in the tone of her superintendent, feeling that out of work
+hours he had no authority over her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course. By the way, there's the stage just ready for the other
+end of the village. Do you see it, Miss Amy? The shop mistress, Mrs.
+Hackett, sends one over every Saturday afternoon to carry our folks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+free to her place of business. She's an enterprising person, but,
+unfortunately, as soon as she had adopted this plan, two other merchants
+of the town set up rival stages also. It's very funny, sometimes, to see
+the respective drivers' efforts to secure passengers, and therefore
+custom."</p>
+
+<p>At the mention of stages, Gwendolyn rose and looked through the window.
+Then she turned toward Amy like a person in great haste.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the 'Supe' what you came for, Amy, so we can get a ride
+over,&mdash;that is, if you want to go shopping with me after all."</p>
+
+<p>But poor Amy could not reply just then. It had come over her with a rush
+what her errand really meant to her, and she was wholly indifferent to
+the charms of a stage or even "shopping."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't wait for me, please,&mdash;that is, of course, I will keep my word,
+but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All right, then, some other day. I'll be up to see how you made out,
+and if Mr. Metcalf don't want it maybe I'll hear of somebody else who
+does. By, by. Good day, sir," and off she tore, banging the door and
+shouting loudly to the driver of Mrs. Hackett's stage.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf watched her in silence till she had climbed the steps at the
+rear of the omnibus, and then he remarked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That girl has so much sense that she ought to have more."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>"That's a doubtful compliment, isn't it?" asked Amy, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so, though it's quite true. She is warmhearted, generous to a
+fault, and as silly as they make them. However, she has given me the
+pleasure of seeing you to-day, and I hope that you will tell me how I
+can be of use to you. From Gwendolyn's words I judge that you came upon
+some special errand."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I came to ask if you would like to buy my white burro."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you are tired of her? I mean you wish to sell her? Has she been
+misbehaving or interfering with 'Bony' again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, she has been very, very good, and I don't at all wish to part with
+her; but I want some money very badly, and that is the only thing&mdash;the
+only way I could get it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad you came to me. Ever since I made Miss Pepita's
+acquaintance, that day at the mill, I've wished I could find another
+like her for my little Nanette. How much do you ask for the burro?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't ask anything. That is, I don't know how much she is worth."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you told me that she was a gift to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, from my uncle in California."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, I've heard of him," commented the gentleman, briefly. "Now, I am
+almost as much in the dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> in regard to the value of such animals as
+you are, but, at a rough estimate, I will offer you fifty dollars. Then
+I will make inquiries, and if I find I have named too small a price, I
+will add the balance. Is that satisfactory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, indeed. Thank you. I&mdash;I shall be glad to have Pepita in such a
+nice place."</p>
+
+<p>At home Amy had spoken to none save Cleena about this intention of hers,
+and that good creature had sighed and wiped her eyes, but had not
+uttered one word of protest. The girl sighed, too, now, and the
+superintendent felt it would be kind to cut the matter short.</p>
+
+<p>"When can I send for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, at&mdash;at any time, I suppose. Or, if you don't mind, I'd like to ride
+her here myself. Just once more."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few moments John will be passing by Bareacre on his way to the
+other village. You might drive up with him and ride her down here
+afterward. There will be ample time before dark, and you must tell your
+people not to be anxious, should there be any delay."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; and maybe Hallam, my brother, will come, also. Though he
+hasn't been told yet, and might not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Excuse me for a moment. I will speak to John."</p>
+
+<p>He did not add, nor Amy reflect, that it was a very long and roundabout
+way to reach "the other village,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> by passing over rough and steep
+Bareacre hill; but John was willing enough to take it, when he was told
+who was to be his companion on the route. He had liked Amy from the
+first, and had grown to know her fairly well during his time of helping
+the Kaye household to settle.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, boss. Sorry the little thing is to give up her donkey. She
+set a powerful store by it, I 'low. Well, all ready? How do, Miss Amy?
+So me an' you're going to take a trip together, eh? Then I can find out
+for myself how the well is doing. Don't see much of 'Bony' since your
+folks took him in hand. Giddap, there, Jinny! Here we go!"</p>
+
+<p>To pass the time agreeably John talked of everything which he imagined
+might be of interest to the silent girl beside him, but he elicited few
+replies, and had the stream of his words flow, for once, without
+interruption. Yet it seemed a very, very slow ride to Amy, and when it
+came to an end, she scarcely waited to thank John for his "lift" before
+she sped to the shed where Pepita was tied, and shutting the door behind
+her, threw her arms around the neck of the gentle beast, to cry as
+freely as she pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"Bray! Br-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-u-umph!" inquired the burro, turning her
+head around as far as she could by reason of Amy's embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you darling, you dear old darling. Don't talk to me. Don't look at
+me as if you thought I had no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> heart. Do you think I don't love you,
+that I will sell you, Pepit'? But&mdash;it must be. It must be. Better you
+than Balaam, and even he&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah-umph! A-ah-umph! Br-r-r-ay! Bray-bray-bray! B-r-a-y-a-u-m-p-h!!"
+protested Balaam, with great haste and emphasis; and this sound was an
+added pang in the heart of the unhappy Amy, who felt that she was not
+only breaking her own heart by this separation, but the hearts of this
+four-footed pair as well.</p>
+
+<p>Then she heard a sound along the frozen ground, and instantly she lifted
+her head, pulled her Tam over her eyes to hide the traces of tears, and
+called out, gayly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Hal dear? What do you think? You and I are to ride down to
+Mr. Metcalf's, right away now. Is Fayette in the house? I want him to
+help me groom Pepita to 'the Queen's taste,' as he says. Halloo to him,
+for me, please."</p>
+
+<p>But instead of that the brother hobbled into the shed and asked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why should we go there? I don't want to. I've no fondness for paying
+visits."</p>
+
+<p>"But you must go this time, Hal. You really, really must. I'll tell you
+why, by and by."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>PEPITA FINDS A NEW HOME.</h3>
+
+<p>When the cripple firmly declined the visit, Cleena found some errand for
+Fayette to do at the "general store" in the mill village. Hallam thought
+it a little queer that he was not greatly urged in the matter, and that
+Cleena should ask him to let Fayette ride Balaam.</p>
+
+<p>"For you know, Goodsoul, how I hate to have anybody ride him, except
+myself. Not even Amy is really welcome, though she does sometimes. I
+don't see why she goes, anyway. What have we to do with any of these
+people? When mother is ill, too. If I were a daughter, I'd stay at
+home."</p>
+
+<p>Cleena wheeled about from scrubbing the kitchen table and retorted,
+impatiently:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you go throwing blame on Miss Amy, lad. Arrah musha! but she's
+the more sense of the lot of us, so she has, bless her bonny heart. An'
+that sunbright an' cheerful, no matter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She's not very cheerful this afternoon, Cleena. I believe she'd been
+crying, just now, when I found her in the shed. I fancy she'll find a
+ride anything but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> funny, on such a day as this. I like the warm fire
+better than the road in such weather."</p>
+
+<p>"Get back to it then, child. There's your book yon, on the settle. Wait.
+Carry in a bowl of porridge to the mistress, an you can? Heigh! Move
+them crutches easy now, an' not spill the stuff all over me nice floor."</p>
+
+<p>In her heart Cleena was very proud of her deft-handed "child," who could
+do so many helpful things, even though a cripple, and she watched him
+cross the wide room, swinging easily along on his "other feet," yet
+holding the bowl of steaming liquid upright and safely. Then she sighed,
+and going to the door called:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Me Gineral Bonaparty, come by!"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette was digging, even though the ground was frozen, and it would be
+months before anything could grow again. But the simple fellow was a
+"natural farmer," and it was his intention to "let her lie fallow this
+winter. Next summer I'll show you a garden'll make your eyes bung out.
+I'm the best gard'ner anywhere's round, I am."</p>
+
+<p>He now replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What fer? I want to get this side gone over, this afternoon. Then come
+Monday I'm goin' to get some trees down brook way, an' get John to haul
+'em up an' set 'em out, an' get Miss Amy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, what else'll you 'get' with your 'get' an' 'get,' I'd know. Come
+by, I tell ye, to wonst."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>When Cleena spoke in that tone, it was noticeable that Fayette always
+obeyed. He now threw down his spade, though reluctantly, and sauntered
+to the kitchen door.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman hain't got no sense nohow, stopping a man from his work."</p>
+
+<p>"An' all the sense a man body has, me fathers, is to keep a woman
+standin' in her doorway. I'm wantin' ye to go to the store down below.
+Master Hallam's for lettin' ye ride Balaam. Off with ye, now, an' clean
+the beast's coat, sayin' nothin' of Miss Amy's own little white. Will
+she ride with ye? What for no? Proud you be, says I, to be escortin' of
+the like o' her."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette's eyes shone. The desire of his heart was to possess Balaam for
+himself; failing this, to have the privilege of using the pretty
+creature occasionally.</p>
+
+<p>"How happened it? How does she want to go there in such a wind? Blows
+the hair right off your head, I 'low. I'd ruther go alone, I would."</p>
+
+<p>"'Ruthers' is all froze up. Haste along with ye now, an' be off. Mind ye
+talk pretty to my colleen, 'cause&mdash;No matter."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette made swift work of the grooming, and only a few moments later
+Amy and he rode out of the enclosure. As she descended the slope, the
+girl turned and waved her hand cheerfully to Cleena, then set her face
+toward the valley and relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p><p>Fayette endured this as long as he could, for though he rarely needed
+anybody else to speak, this afternoon he was annoyed by his companion's
+preoccupation.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Amy? You ain't said a word since we started."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I? and we're almost there, already. Well, I was thinking.
+That's all. I'll try to do better on the way home."</p>
+
+<p>"Feelin' bad about your ma? Land, she'll get well. All she wants is a
+bit o' boneset tea, or sage an' sassafras. I'll go yarb hunting
+to-morrow, if I get my garden ploughed. Cleena'll stew it. Say, have you
+heard my new one? Hark to this."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled from his pocket a small jewsharp and began to "play" upon it
+in the most nerve-rasping manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Fayette, another? Why, you must have a half-dozen already. I come
+upon them everywhere about the house, in the rooms where you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't got none now but this. I bought it to Mis' Hackett's. Cleena's
+took my others. Got 'em all in her kitchen draw'. 'Low she'll get this
+if you tell on me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll not need. You'll have it out to show her how talented you are, and
+then&mdash;away goes your pride, your jewsharp, and all."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, she better try. I'll teach her a lesson some day she ain't goin'
+to ferget. That woman bosses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> me too much. I ain't a-goin' to stand it.
+You'll see. I'll clear out an' leave the whole kerboodle first you know.
+Sho! Here we be."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed. Well, I'm sorry to have reached the place so soon, though it is
+pretty cold."</p>
+
+<p>"You go in and see the 'Supe's' folks. I'll ride along an' do my
+arrants. Cleena'd ruther trust me than you, wouldn't she? I'm a master
+hand for a trade, an' she knows it. Say, I do wish he'd sell me Balaam."</p>
+
+<p>"You must drop that subject, really, Fayette. Even if Hallam were to
+part with his burro, it would not be to you."</p>
+
+<p>The simple lad's fierce temper rose in full force at Amy's blunt words.</p>
+
+<p>"Like to know why not? Ain't my money as good as anybody's? Ain't I
+'stuck up' enough to suit? He never rode in a parade, he didn't. Told me
+so himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor do I think he ever will, and, of course, one person's money is as
+good as another's, excepting that we could never trust how long you
+would be kind to dear old Balaam. Hal would take much less to have the
+creature well treated than&mdash;I mean&mdash;Oh, don't get so angry; it's not
+worth while."</p>
+
+<p>The more she tried to smooth matters over, the more indignant the other
+became. His harp was still between such discolored teeth as Pepita's
+former assault had left him, and added to the grotesqueness of his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>appearance as he glared upon Amy. To finish what she had begun, she
+remarked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Just tie him there, at that second post, please, and you'd best put his
+blanket on him."</p>
+
+<p>"Tie him? I'm goin' to ride him to the village to let the boys see him
+an' try him. I promised I would. Tie him! I shan't neither!"</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly will not ride him to wherever those dreadful boys are.
+Nobody shall touch him, except you or me, and you ought not."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette gave her one more angry glance, leaped from his saddle with a
+jerk, and bestowed upon the unoffending burro a vicious kick. Then he
+disappeared down the street, and Amy tied Pepita in haste, that she
+might look after the other animal also.</p>
+
+<p>Just then she heard a step upon the path behind her, and the
+superintendent's pleasant voice, saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, young lady, you are certainly prompt, and promptness is a
+cardinal virtue&mdash;from a business man's point of view. See, here is the
+little girl for whom you are giving up your pet."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>Amy smiled upon the child, who might have been ten years of age, and the
+fragile little creature appeared to smile in return. Then it came over
+the visitor that there was something out of common in that uplifted,
+happy face, and that the smile was not in response to her own greeting.
+The wide blue eyes looked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>upward, truly, but with the blank stare of
+one who sees nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, is it so?" cried Amy, a second time, watching with what hesitation
+the little girl moved along the path, and how persistently she clung to
+her father's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, blind; quite blind&mdash;from her birth," said Mr. Metcalf, sadly.</p>
+
+<p>Amy was on her knees in a moment, clasping the child's slight body in
+her arms and saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita. She is the dearest,
+nicest burro&mdash;except when she's bad&mdash;and will carry you wherever you
+want to go,&mdash;that is, if she is willing. You dear little girl, she shall
+be yours, without that money either. I never knew about you before, or
+you should have had her before, too."</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i171.jpg" id="i171.jpg"></a><img src="images/i171.jpg" width='439' height='700' alt="THEN I'M GLAD, GLAD THAT YOU ARE TO HAVE PEPITA" /></div>
+
+<h4>"'THEN I'M GLAD, GLAD THAT YOU ARE TO HAVE PEPITA.'"</h4>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf smiled, well pleased. His blind daughter was the idol of his
+flock, and anybody who was attracted by her became interesting to him.
+Amy had been so, even before this incident, but he liked her heartily
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"So, Miss Amy, though you hated to part with your burro for money, you
+would do so willingly for love and sympathy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course. If I'd only known&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You will not make a good business woman, at this rate. But this wind is
+sharp. I mustn't keep Nanette out here long, else her mother will worry,
+and that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> wouldn't do. Suppose, since you know more about donkeys than I
+do, that you give my girl her first riding lesson. Reach Miss Amy your
+hand, dear heart."</p>
+
+<p>Amy caught the little white-mittened fingers in her own and kissed them
+impulsively. Then she rose and placed the child on Pepita's saddle.</p>
+
+<p>"Take hold of the bridle, so, in both hands, now, till you learn how.
+I'll keep my arm about you. No, dear, you cannot fall. I wouldn't let
+you, even if Pepita would, and she's in a gentle mood to-day. Aren't
+you, Pepit'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Br-a-ay! Ah-ump!" responded the burro. She did not always have her
+replies so ready, and, for an instant, it seemed as if she would
+frighten her new mistress. But there was always something absurdly
+amusing in Pepita's tones, and after the first shock of hearing them had
+passed, Nanette burst into a merry laugh that made the others laugh too.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, doesn't she talk nicely! Does she always answer so quick?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. Sometimes the naughty little beast will not say a single
+bray. She has many moods, has Pepit'. You'll find them all out, though,
+after a while. Now, how do you like it? Isn't the motion soft and
+gentle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if mamma could see!" cried the happy little girl, turning her sunny
+face toward Amy. Then she suddenly pulled off her mittens and drew her
+new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> friend's head down so that she could feel the unfamiliar features.
+Swiftly, lightly, the tiny finger-tips passed over every one, then
+travelled upward and lost themselves in the close rings of hair under
+the scarlet Tarn. "Now, I'll know you forever. What color is your hair?
+What is your hood, or bonnet?"</p>
+
+<p>"My hair is very dark brown, or almost black, I think. My Tarn is red.
+But do you know colors?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what they are like to me. Papa says that maybe that is not the
+same as they are in the truly world, but I don't care. They are pretty
+and suit me, my blind colors do. I like you. I like you very much. I
+think you are lovely, lovely to give me your don-key&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I didn't. That is, I will, since I know about you; but I asked your
+father to buy her first. I wouldn't&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind. It's all the same, isn't it? It would be in my blind
+world. She was yours and now she is mine, and you're lovely. Oh, I wish
+mamma could see!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, can't she, dear? Is she&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No," interrupted the superintendent, smiling. "No, she isn't blind. The
+only body in our household who is able to see beautiful things with her
+eyes shut is Nanette, here; and the only trouble with the mother is that
+there is a new baby in her room just now, so she hasn't time or strength
+to get up and look out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> window at new burros. She thinks the new
+babies are the nicer of the two sorts. Eh, Nan, child?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose she does, but I don't. Pooh! there have been three new baby
+sisters that I can remember, and once I was a new baby sister myself, to
+my brothers. They're so common, you know; but I don't think of any girl
+anywhere, except you, and now me, that has had a new snow-white donkey.
+Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not," laughed Amy.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf invited Amy into the house, while he led the burro around to
+the little stable in the rear, which was to be Pepita's new home. Amy
+would have liked to throw her arms about the hairy white neck, but pride
+forbade, and so the parting was made without any sign of distress on
+either side. Pepita was eager for shelter, and her late mistress to hear
+what the blind child was saying.</p>
+
+<p>"It's right this way into the sitting room. I love the sitting room
+best. That's where papa has his books and papers, and it smells like
+him. He smokes, you know, but only in this room or out of doors. Oh, do
+help me think! Mamma, dear heart, says I am to name this last little new
+baby. Just fancy it! I, myself! And it bothers me terrifically. I would
+want a nice long name, the longest that's in the books; but papa says
+that there are so many little folks who like us and come to live with
+us, that we mustn't spend time on long names. Oh, I've just thought!
+I'll name her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> 'Amy.' That's short, isn't it? Could a body nickname it?
+We don't like nicknames here. I'm the only one. I'm sometimes 'Nan' to
+papa. When the baby last before this one came, mamma named her Abby
+after Grandmother Abigail. Then she thought we couldn't ever stop to say
+Ab-i-ga-il, so she shortened it to Abby. Next thing, listen. Abby was
+crying one day and Rex heard her, and grandmother asked, 'What's that?'
+'cause she's deaf and doesn't hear straight, and Rex said, 'Oh, that's
+nothing but little Ab!' She was just three days old then, and mamma
+thought if her name got cut in two so quick as that, she wouldn't have
+any at all in a week or two longer. So she's just Ruth now; and when the
+boys say 'Ruth-y,' papa makes them put a nickel in the box. Do you have
+a nickel box on your bookcase?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. Tell me about it. I've never heard of such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it's this way. Feel me your hand. I'll show you." And as if she
+could see perfectly, Nanette guided Amy to the further side of the room,
+where stood a pretty, polished box upon the bookshelf. The box had a
+slit in its cover, and it jingled merrily in the blind child's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear! We must have been pretty bad this month. But that makes it all
+the better for the little 'fresh airers,' doesn't it? Sometimes, when I
+think about them, I just want to do things&mdash;<i>not nice things</i>&mdash;all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> the
+time, so as to make more money for them. But of course it wouldn't be
+honorable, and I wouldn't do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you put the nickels in when you are 'naughty'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for crossness and unpolite words and messing at table and&mdash;lots of
+things. Once&mdash;" Nanette paused and turned her eyes toward Amy for a long
+time. Then she again passed those delicate finger-tips over the other's
+face, and decided:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can trust you. Once one of us, I couldn't tell you which one,
+but one of us told a wrong story, a falsehood, an untruth. One of the
+dreadful things that made our dear Lord kill Ananias and Sapphira dead.
+Wasn't that awful? Mamma and papa didn't know what to do. A nickel
+didn't seem much pay for a lie, did it? So they made it a dollar. Yes,
+ma'am, one whole dollar. That's twenty nickels. Oh, it was so unhappy
+those days! I was gladder than ever that I was blind. I think I should
+have died to see the bad face of the one that did it while it was bad.
+But mamma says such a lesson is never, never forgotten. You see, we
+haven't any right to be bad, have we?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not, dear. What a wise little thinker you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Papa says I think too much. That's why, one why, he was so glad to get
+me the burro. He hopes it will stop me some. But in a home a body must
+remember it isn't his home nor her home, but the home of everybody that
+belongs. If I should be naughty, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> throw things all out of&mdash;of
+smoothness, don't you know. I can't be naughty all by myself. If I
+could&mdash;no, I wouldn't like it either. When I'm selfish or bad, I always
+feel as if I had on a dirty apron, and I do just hate dirty clothes!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you do just love to talk, little one," cried the superintendent,
+coming in and catching up his daughter in his strong arms. "We tell her,
+Miss Amy, that she makes up for what she doesn't see by what she does
+say. Eh, midget?"</p>
+
+<p>Nanette cuddled her fair head against her father's beard, and turned her
+eyes toward Amy. It seemed impossible to believe that those beautiful
+eyes could not really behold whereon they rested, and the tears of
+sympathy rose to Amy's own as she tried to comprehend this.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't he a dear, funny papa? But you just wait until you see my mother.
+She's the nicest thing in this whole world. Oh, papa, shall I call the
+baby 'Amy'?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you like, darling. It's a pleasant, old-fashioned name."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you a better one, though it's longer. That is 'Salome.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Who's she?" asked Nanette.</p>
+
+<p>"My mother. As you feel about yours, I think she is the sweetest thing
+in this whole world."</p>
+
+<p>"Sa-lo-me, Sa-lo-me," repeated the child, slowly. "That is pretty. What
+do you say about that, papa?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><p>"As you and mother please, darling. It is a good name. But now, dear,
+run away. I have to talk business with this new friend of yours, and
+where you are&mdash;eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do talk, don't I? I love to talk. Good-by, Amy. Please come
+again to see me, and every time you must ride on Peppy&mdash;what is her
+name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pe-pi-ta. It is Spanish and very pretty, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Pay-pee-tah," repeated Nanette, imitating the sound and ignorant of the
+spelling.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Miss Amy, I've had your saddle put upon your brother's burro. You
+can ride him home, and I will have 'Bony' carry the other saddle.
+To-morrow he shall bring the girl's saddle back to Nanette, and I echo
+her invitation that you should come often to visit us and ride upon your
+own, old favorite. Here is the envelope with the money, and since you
+must go at all, I'll urge you to go at once. There is another squall
+coming, and it will darken early."</p>
+
+<p>As she rode homeward a doctor's phaeton passed her. It was being driven
+rapidly, and a face peered out at her from beneath the hood. Then it
+stopped and waited for her to approach.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you belong at the 'Spite House'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Make haste. Drive on."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FACING HARD FACTS.</h3>
+
+<p>"Make haste. Drive on."</p>
+
+<p>The words sang themselves into Amy's brain as she urged Balaam up the
+slope, and for days thereafter they returned to her, the last vivid
+memory of that happy time before bereavement came.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a season of confusion and distress; and now that a
+fortnight was over she sat beside a freshly made mound in Quaker
+burying-ground, trying to collect her thoughts and to form a definite
+plan for her future.</p>
+
+<p>The end of a gentle, beneficent life had come with merciful suddenness,
+and the face of Salome Kaye was now hidden beneath this mound where her
+child sat, struggling with her grief, and bravely endeavoring to find
+the right way out of many difficulties. Finally, she seemed to have done
+so, for she rose with an air of grave decision and kneeling for one
+moment in that quiet spot, rose again, and passed swiftly from the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam was at the cemetery gate, resting sadly against the
+lichen-covered stone post, and waiting for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> her return. Indian summer
+had come, a last taste of warmth and brightness before the winter
+closed, and despite their sorrow nature soothed them with her
+loveliness. In any case, whether from that cause or from her own will,
+the girl found it easier than she had expected to speak with her brother
+upon their material affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we stop here a little while, Hal dear, to talk, or will we go on
+slowly toward home? I've been thinking, up&mdash;up there beside mother, and
+I've found a way, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care where, though I'd rather not talk. What good does it do? I
+hate it. I hate home. I hate this place worse&mdash;Oh, it's wicked! It's
+cruel! Why did she ever have to leave Fairacres! She might be&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Amy's hand went up to Hallam's lips. "Hush! Do you suppose God blunders?
+I don't. If He had meant her to stay with us, He would have found a way
+to cure her. To think otherwise is torture. No. No, no, indeed no!
+Father is left and so are we. We have got to live and take care of him
+and of ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know how. I&mdash;a miserable good-for-naught, and you&mdash;a
+girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly, thank you, just a girl. But a girl who loves her brother and
+her father all the more because&mdash;<i>she</i> loved them too. A girl who has
+made up her mind to do the first thing and everything that offers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+which will help to make them comfortable; who is going to put her family
+pride in her pocket and go to work. There, it's out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go&mdash;out&mdash;to&mdash;work, Amy&mdash;Kaye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. Don't take it so hard, dear."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of himself he smiled. Then he remembered. "I don't see how you
+can laugh or jest&mdash;so soon. As if&mdash;but you <i>must</i> care."</p>
+
+<p>"Just because I do care, so very, very much. Oh, Hal, don't dream I'm
+not missing her every hour of the day. I fancy I hear her saying now,
+this moment, as she used to say when I'd been naughty and was penitent:
+'If thee loves me so much, dear, thee will try to do the things I like.'
+The one thing she liked, she <i>lived</i>, was a brave helpfulness toward
+everybody she knew. She didn't wait for great things, she did little
+things. Now, the first little things that are facing us are: the earning
+of our rent and of our food."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam said nothing. He knocked a stone aside with the end of his
+crutch, and groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to work in the mill," she continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Amy! Father expressly forbade that, or even any mention of it. You, a
+Kaye!"</p>
+
+<p>"He has given me permission, even though I am a Kaye." She tried to
+smile still, but found it hard in the face of his want of sympathy, even
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he knew what he was saying when he did it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, Hallam, I do. It seems to me that father is more like other folks
+since this trouble came than he was before. I was worried and asked the
+doctor, for I remembered mother always used to spare him everything
+painful or difficult that she could. The doctor said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'It may be that this blow will do more to restore him than all her
+tender care could do.'</p>
+
+<p>"And then I asked him something else. It was&mdash;what was the matter with
+him&mdash;if it was all his heart. He said, 'No, indeed. It's his head.' He
+was in a great fire, at a hotel where he was staying, a long time ago.
+He was nearly killed, and many other people were killed. For a while he
+thought that mother had been burned, they had gotten separated some way,
+and it made him&mdash;insane, I suppose. But when she was found, in a
+hospital where he was taken, he got better. He isn't at all insane now,
+the doctor says, but is only a little confused. Mother never had us told
+about it, because she wanted we should think our father just perfect,
+and for that reason she drew him into this quiet life that we always
+have lived. If he wanted to spend money foolishly, she never objected.
+She hoped that by not opposing any wish he would get wholly well. Part
+of this Cleena has told me, for she thought we ought to know, now, and
+part the doctor said. Oh, Hal, I think it will be grand, grand, to take
+care of him as nearly like she did as we can. Don't you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>Hallam's eyes sparkled. "Amy, I always said she was the most beautiful
+woman in the world, in character as well as person."</p>
+
+<p>"To us, she certainly was. My plan is this: I will go to Mr. Metcalf and
+ask him to give me a place in the mill. If those other girls can work,
+so can I."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who owns the mills now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; our cousin Archibald Wingate."</p>
+
+<p>"And you would work for him? You would demean yourself to that? Yet you
+know how, when he offered us money last week, or to do other things for
+us, both father and I indignantly declined."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know. I, too, was glad we didn't have to take it, though I do
+not believe he is as bad as we think. We look at him from <i>this</i> side;
+but if we could from the <i>other</i>, he might not seem so hard-hearted. He
+said he was sorry. He seemed to feel very badly."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and when he came and asked Cleena to let him see&mdash;her, just once
+more, she gave him a reproof that must have struck home. She told him he
+was practically the cause of mother's death,&mdash;his driving her from
+Fairacres,&mdash;and I shall always feel so, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hate him. I hope I can sometime make him suffer all he has made
+us."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Hal, that is vindictive. To be vindictive is not half as noble as
+to be just. Mother was just. While it grieved her to leave her home, she
+fully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> appreciated how much he must long for it. It was their
+grandmother's, you know, and he felt he had a right there. I do not
+blame him half as much as I pity him. He's such a lonely old fellow, it
+seems to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! I wouldn't work for him and take his money. I should feel as if
+it were tainted."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Amy was staggered by this view of her brother's. Then it
+dropped into its proper place in the argument, and she went on:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It would be pleasanter to work for somebody else. But there <i>is</i> nobody
+else. I think Mr. Wingate has very little to do with the employees of
+the mill. It's Mr. Metcalf who pays them, and he's a dear, good friend
+already. I'm going to see him this afternoon. I asked Gwendolyn to tell
+him I was coming, but I suppose he thinks it is about selling Balaam.
+He's ready to take him off your hands if you want to part with him. That
+seventy-five dollars he paid for Pepita and the saddle and harness was
+such a blessing. It carried us through; we couldn't have done without
+it, unless we'd let Mr. Wingate help."</p>
+
+<p>"Never! Well, I suppose he'll have to take him. If I can't work, I can
+give up, as well as you."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Hal, I don't want to sell him yet. Wait till the last thing and we
+can't help it. Do try to think kindly of what I'm doing, dear. Down in
+my heart I'm pretty proud, too. But you start home. I'll take a bit of
+lunch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> and then start out to seek my fortune. Wish me luck, laddie; or,
+rather, bid me God-speed."</p>
+
+<p>She lifted her face for his kiss, and he gave it heartily. It was to the
+sensitive, proud, undisciplined boy the very hardest moment of his life,
+save and apart from his bereavement.</p>
+
+<p>"To think, Amy, little sister, that I, who should be your protector and
+supporter, am just&mdash;this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! you shall not point so contemptuously to those poor legs. I think
+they are very good legs, indeed. There's nothing the matter with them
+except that they won't move. They've been indulged so long&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, I don't understand you. First you seem so cheerful; then you make
+light of my lameness. Are you forgetful, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not forgetful, nor hard-hearted. Just 'what,' which means that I
+believe you could learn to walk if you would."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy! <i>Amy!!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose I wouldn't if I could?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hal, do you ever try?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her indignantly; then he reflected that, in fact, he never
+did try. But to convince her he made an effort that instant. Tossing his
+crutches to the ground, he tried to force his limbs forward over the
+ground. They utterly failed to respond to his will, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> he would have
+fallen had not Amy's arms caught and supported him.</p>
+
+<p>"There, you see!"</p>
+
+<p>"For the first attempt it was fine. Bravo! <i>Encore!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Yet she picked up his "other legs" and gave him, then led Balaam away
+from the late thistle blooms he was browsing. Hallam mounted, crossed
+his crutches before him, and lifted his cap. Amy tossed him a kiss and
+turned millward, while he ascended the hill road. But no sooner was she
+out of sight than her assumed cheerfulness gave way, and for a time it
+was a sad-faced girl who trudged diligently onward toward duty and a
+life of toil.</p>
+
+<p>Gwendolyn had delivered her message, and the superintendent welcomed Amy
+to his office at the mill with a friendly nod and smile; but, at that
+moment, he was deep in business with a strange gentleman, negotiating
+for a large sale of carpets, and after his brief greeting he apparently
+forgot the girl. She remained standing for some moments, then Mr.
+Metcalf beckoned an attendant to give her a chair and the day's
+newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>Her heart sank even lower than before. The superintendent appeared a
+different person from the friend she had met in his own home. Her throat
+choked. She felt that she should cry, if she did not make some desperate
+effort to the contrary; so she began to read the paper diligently,
+though her mind scarcely followed the words she saw, and would deflect
+to those she heard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> which were very earnest, indeed, though all about a
+matter no greater than one-eighth cent per yard.</p>
+
+<p>"How queer! Two great grown men to stand there and argue about such a
+trifle. Why, there isn't any such coin, and what does it mean? Well, I'm
+eavesdropping, and that's wrong. Now I will read. I will not listen."</p>
+
+<p>Running in this wise, her thoughts at last fixed themselves upon a
+paragraph which she had perused several times without comprehending. Now
+it began to have a meaning for her, and one so intense that she half
+rose to beg the loan of the newspaper that she might show it to Hallam.</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing. The very thing I heard those doctors talking about in
+mother's room. I'll ask for it, or copy it, if I can, and show my boy.
+Who knows what it might do?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a little movement in the office. The gentleman in the big
+top-coat, with his eyeglasses, his gold-handled umbrella, and his
+consequential air, was leaving. He was bowing in a patronizing sort of
+way, and Mr. Metcalf was bowing also, smiling almost obsequious. He was
+rubbing his hair upward from his forehead, in a way Amy had already
+observed to be habitual when he was pleased. Evidently he was pleased
+now, and greatly so, for even after the stranger had passed out and
+entered the cab in waiting, the superintendent remained before the glass
+door, still smiling with profound satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p><p>Then, as if he had suddenly remembered her, he turned toward Amy.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, miss, what can I do for you to-day? I saw you were interested in
+our argument over the fraction of a cent, and I'm glad to tell you I
+won. Yes, I carried my point."</p>
+
+<p>The girl was disgusted. Though she liked to know her friends from every
+side of their characters, she was not pleased by this glimpse of Mr.
+Metcalf's.</p>
+
+<p>He saw her feeling in her face and took it merrily, dropping at last
+into the manner which she knew and liked best.</p>
+
+<p>"A small business, you're thinking, eh? Well, Miss Amy, let me tell you
+that on this one deal, this one sale, my gaining that fraction of a cent
+means the gaining to my employer of several thousand dollars. And that
+is worth contesting, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't seem possible. Just that tiny eighth! Why, how many, many
+yards you must sell!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes. The mills are constantly turning out great quantities and,
+fortunately, the market is free. We dispose of them as fast as we can
+finish. We could sell more if we could manufacture more. But this is not
+what has brought you here, I fancy. Tell me your errand, please. I have
+much to get through with before closing."</p>
+
+<p>The return to his business manner again chilled Amy's enthusiasm, but
+she thought of her father and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> what she hoped to do for him, and needed
+no other aid to her courage.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to ask a place in the mill. I want to work and get paid."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. If you work, you will be paid. What makes you want to do it?
+Does your father know?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has consented. I think he understands, though he didn't seem to care
+greatly, either way. I must do it, sir, or something. It was the only
+thing I knew about."</p>
+
+<p>"You know nothing about that, really. The girls here are from an
+altogether different class than that to which you belong. You would not
+find it pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"That wouldn't matter. And aren't we all Americans? Equal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Theoretically. How much do you suppose you could earn?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Whatever my work was worth."</p>
+
+<p>"That, at the beginning, would be not more than two dollars a week, and
+probably less. It would be fatiguing, constant standing in attending to
+your 'jenny.' I really think that you would better abandon the idea at
+once. Try to think of something nearer what you have known."</p>
+
+<p>Yet he saw the deepening distress in her face and it grieved him. He was
+bound, in all honesty to her, to set the dark side of things before her,
+and he waited for her decision with some curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll let me try, I would like to do so."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>AMY BEGINS TO SPIN.</h3>
+
+<p>"Well, deary, it's time. Oh, me fathers, to think it! Wake up, Amy, me
+colleen, me own precious lamb."</p>
+
+<p>Six o'clock of a gray November morning is not an inspiriting hour to
+begin any undertaking. Amy turned in her comfortable bed, rubbed her
+eyes, saw Cleena standing near with a lighted candle in her hand, and
+inquired, drowsily:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;what's happened? Why will you get up in the middle of the night?
+Don't bother me&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, an' I won't. Upon honor it's wrong, it's all wrong. What'll your
+guardian angel think of old Cleena to be leavin' you do it! Body an'
+bones, I'll do naught to further the business&mdash;not I!"</p>
+
+<p>The woman's voice was tremulous with indignation or grief, and all at
+once Amy remembered. Then she sprang from her cosy nest, wide-awake and
+full of courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, dear old Goodsoul, I forgot. I forgot, entirely. I was dreaming
+of Fairacres. It was a beautiful dream. The old house was full of little
+children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> and young girls. They were singing and laughing and moving
+about everywhere. I can hardly believe it wasn't real; but, I'm all
+right now. I'll be down stairs in a few minutes. Don't wake anybody
+else, for there's no need. Is it six o'clock already? It might be
+midnight or&mdash;any time. Why, what's this?"</p>
+
+<p>"A frock I've made for you, child."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> made a frock for me? Why, Cleena!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, it's not so handy with the needle as the broom me fingers is. But
+what for no? Them pretty white ones will never do for the nasty old
+mill. This didn't need so much. The body'll about fit, thinks I, if I
+sew it fast in the front an' split it behind. The skirt's not so very
+long. She was a mite of a woman, God rest her. Well, I'll go an' see the
+milk doesn't boil over, an' be back in a jiffy to fasten it for you. Ah,
+me lamb! Troth, a spirit's brave like your own will be prospered, I
+know."</p>
+
+<p>Then Cleena went hurriedly out of the room. The frock which she had
+prepared for Amy's use in the mill was remodelled from an old one of her
+mistress's. As has been said, Amy had never worn any sort of dress
+except white. The fabric was changed to suit the season, but the color
+was not. Even her warm winter cloak was of heavy white wool, faced here
+and there with scarlet, to match the simple scarlet headgear that suited
+her dark face so well. Quite against the habits of her own upbringing,
+Mrs. Kaye had clothed her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> daughter to please the taste of her artist
+husband, and therefore it had not greatly mattered that this taste
+dictated a style more fanciful than useful.</p>
+
+<p>Now everything was altered, and Cleena had consulted Mrs. Jones with the
+result just given. But from a true delicacy, the faithful old servant
+did not stay to watch the girl as she adopted the new garb which
+belonged to the new fortunes, though she need not have been afraid.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Amy held the gray dress in her hand, feeling it almost a
+sacrilege to put it on. She remembered it as the morning gown of her
+mother, plain to the extreme, yet graceful and precious in her sight
+because of the dear wearer. Then she lifted the garment to her lips, and
+touched it lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, darling, it is a good beginning. It seems to me it is like a
+sister of mercy putting on her habit for the first time. It is a
+protection and a benediction. If I can only put on my mother's beautiful
+character with her clothing, I shall do well, indeed." Then she examined
+the alterations which Cleena had been instructed by the cottager to
+make, and was able to smile at them.</p>
+
+<p>"The new sewing and the old do not match very well, but it will answer,
+and it does fit me much better than I would have thought. My! but I must
+already be as large, or nearly so, as she was. Well, no time for
+thinking back now. It's all looking forward, and must be, if I am to
+keep my courage."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><p>Then she knelt beside her bed, prayed simply and in full faith for
+success in her efforts to provide for her beloved ones, and went below,
+smiling and gay.</p>
+
+<p>"Think of it, Cleena Keegan. This is Monday morning. On seventh day I
+expect to bring back two splendid dollars and put into your hands. I,
+just I, your own little Amy. Think of the oatmeal it will buy."</p>
+
+<p>It was not in Cleena's heart to dampen this ardor by remarking how small
+a sum two dollars really was, considered in the light of a family
+support; and, after all, oatmeal was cheap. Fortunately, it also formed
+the principal diet of this plainly nurtured household, and even that
+very breakfast to which the young breadwinner now sat down.</p>
+
+<p>But the meal was exquisitely cooked, and the hot milk was rich and
+sweet. Also, there lay, neatly wrapped in a spotless napkin, the mid-day
+luncheon, which Cleena had been told to prepare, and which Mrs. Jones
+suggested should be of something "hearty and strong" for "working in the
+mill beats all for appetite."</p>
+
+<p>Then Amy took the big gingham pinafore, that Cleena had also prepared,
+and with her little parcels under her arm, skipped away down the slope
+to the Joneses' cottage, where Gwendolyn was to meet and escort her to
+her first day's work.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! I thought you wasn't coming. We'll be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> late if we don't hurry.
+Hmm. Wore your white cloak, didn't you? Well, I guess the girls won't
+laugh at you much. A dark one would have been better."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have no dark one, so it was this or nothing. How fast you walk,
+almost as if you were running!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be late, I tell you. I don't want to get docked, if <i>you</i> do."</p>
+
+<p>"What is 'docked'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, having something taken from your wages."</p>
+
+<p>"Would that be done for just so short a time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. The time-keeper watches out and nobody has a chance to get
+off. To be late five minutes means losing a quarter day's wages. They
+count off a quarter, a half, three-quarters, or a whole, according to
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Gwendolyn, let's run. I wouldn't make you lose for anything."</p>
+
+<p>"All right."</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at the mill, Gwendolyn said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You come this way with me. Hang your cap and coat right here, next to
+mine. Never mind if the girls do stare, you'll get used to that. I felt
+as if I should sink the first day I came, though that was ages ago.
+Hello, Maud, where was you last night?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy did not feel in the least like "sinking." She had overcome her
+drowsiness, and the light was already growing much stronger. She looked
+around upon these strangers who were to be her comrades at toil, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+friendly interest and curiosity. Some of her new mates regarded her with
+equal curiosity, though few with so kindly an interest as her own. The
+unconscious ease of Amy's bearing they esteemed "boldness," or even
+"cheek," and her air of superior breeding was distasteful to them.</p>
+
+<p>"My, ain't she a brazen thing! Looks around on the whole crowd as if she
+thought she could put on all the airs she pleased, even in the mill.
+Well, 'ristocrat or no 'ristocrat, she'll have to come down here. We're
+just as good as she is and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A little better, too, you mean," commented a lad, just passing.</p>
+
+<p>The girl who scorned "'ristocrats" paused in fastening her denim apron
+and looked after the youth, who was, evidently, a personage of
+importance in the eyes of herself and mates. They watched his jaunty
+movements with undisguised admiration, and his passing left behind him a
+wake of smiles and giggles which to Amy seemed out of proportion to the
+wit of his remark.</p>
+
+<p>However, there was little loitering, and the long procession of girls,
+with its sprinkling of men and boys, swiftly ascended the narrow open
+staircase to the upper floors. This staircase was built along the side
+wall of the great structure, flight above flight, an iron frame with
+steps of board. The only protection from falling upon the floor below,
+should one grow dizzy-headed, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> a gas-pipe hand-rail; and even this
+might not have been provided had not the law compelled.</p>
+
+<p>As she fell into line behind Gwendolyn and began the upward climb, Amy
+grasped this slender support firmly; but everything about her seemed
+very unlike her memory of her first visit here. Then the sun was
+shining, she was under the guidance of the genial superintendent, and
+the scene was novel&mdash;like a picture exhibited for her personal
+entertainment. Now the novelty was past, the scene had become dingy, and
+herself a part of it.</p>
+
+<p>All around her were voices talking in a sort of mill <i>patois</i> concerning
+matters which she did not understand. But nobody, not even Gwendolyn,
+spoke to her, and a sudden, overpowering dismay seized her stout heart
+and made her head reel. Then she made a misstep and her foot slipped
+through the space between two stairs. This brought the hurrying
+procession to a standstill, and recalled attention to the "new hand."</p>
+
+<p>"My sake! Somebody's fell. Who? Is she hurt? Oh, that donkey girl. Well,
+she ain't so used to these horrid stairs as we be."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold back! She's sort of giddy-headed, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>Amy felt an arm thrown round her waist, a rather ungentle pull was given
+her dangling foot, and she was set right to proceed. But for an instant
+she could not go on, and she again felt the arm supporting and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>forcing
+her against the bare brick wall, so that those below might not be longer
+hindered.</p>
+
+<p>Then she half gasped:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you didn't. Never mind. You ain't the first girl has had her
+foot through these steps, and you won't be the last. After somebody has
+broke a leg or two, then they'll put backboards to 'em. Not before. Is
+your head swimming yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"It feels queerly. It jars so."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the machinery and the noise. The whole building just shakes and
+buzzes when we get fairly started. Don't be scared. You're all safe.
+Lots of girls feel just that way when they first come. Lots of 'em faint
+away. Some can't stand it at all. But you'll get used, don't fear. I was
+one of the fainters, and I kept it up quite a spell. The 'boss' of the
+room got so mad he told me if I didn't quit fainting I'd have to quit
+spinning. So I made a bold face and haven't fainted since. You see, I
+couldn't afford to. I had to do this or starve."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Amy's fright was past, and she was regarding her comforter
+with that friendly gratitude which won her the instant liking of the
+other, who resumed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! The girls didn't know what they were saying. You don't look a
+mite stuck up. You aren't, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, no. Why should I be? But I do thank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> you so much for your
+kindness just now, and I'm sorry if my blundering has made you late.
+Will you be 'docked'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. We've time enough. Gwen is always in a desperate hurry. She
+likes a chance to talk before she begins work. She's a nice girl, but
+she isn't very deep. Say, have you seen her new winter hat?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; has she another than that she wore this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"My! yes."</p>
+
+<p>The "old hand" and the "new" were now quietly climbing to the top floor
+where their tasks were to be side by side, and Amy had time to examine
+her companion's face. It was plain and freckled, boasting none of that
+"prettiness" of which Gwendolyn was so openly proud, but it was gentle
+and intelligent, and had a look of delicacy which suggested chronic
+suffering, patiently borne. Amy had not far to seek the cause of this
+pathetic expression, for Mary Reese was a hunchback. In her attire there
+was as much simplicity as in Amy's own, but without grace or harmony of
+coloring.</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking at my clothes, aren't you? Well, they're the great
+trouble of my life. After I pay my board and washing, I don't have more
+than fifty cents left. I do the best I can, but I'm no hand with a
+needle, and Saturday-halves are short. I thought you were the loveliest
+thing I ever saw, that day you went round the mill with the 'Supe.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, did you see me then? Did I see you? What is your name? Ah, are we
+up there already?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can ask questions, can't you? Yes, I saw you. My name is Mary
+Reese. If you saw me, you certainly didn't notice me, and I'm always
+mighty glad when folks don't turn for a second stare at my poor
+shoulders."</p>
+
+<p>"Mary, nobody would, surely," cried Amy, and flung her arm protectingly
+across the deformity of her new friend.</p>
+
+<p>"You dear, to think you'd do that when you know me so little. Well,
+there's many a body touches my hump 'for luck,' but I can't remember
+when anybody did for&mdash;love. I'm not going to forget it, either. Even a
+homely little hunchback has her own power among these people. There,
+we're here. This is our 'jenny.' I'm so glad we are to work on the same
+machine. There'll be another girl on your side till you learn; then
+she'll be taken off and we'll be alone. I'll like that. Shall you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;think&mdash;so," responded Amy, absently, her attention now engrossed by
+the excitement about her. Girls were hurrying to take their places
+before the long frames filled with reels, on which fine woollen threads
+were being wound by the revolutions of the machinery overhead. These
+reels whirled round so rapidly that Amy could not follow their motion,
+and the buzz-buzz, as of a thousand bees humming, filled her ears and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>confused the instructions of the girl who was to give her her first
+lesson in winding and "tending."</p>
+
+<p>Across the great frame Mary nodded encouragingly, but it is safe to say
+that Amy had never felt so incompetent and foolish as she did while she
+was striving to understand what was expected of her.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no; you must be quicker. See, this spool is full. This is how.
+'Doffer,' here!"</p>
+
+<p>The lad who had created the ripple of admiration on his passage to this
+room, now approached. His motions were exact and incredibly swift. It
+was his duty to remove full spools and replace them by empty ones, and
+he did this duty for sixteen spinning frames. Seeing the "new hand's"
+astonishment at his deftness he became reckless and, intending an
+unusually dexterous movement, miscalculated his reach, and the result
+was a momentary tangle among the whirling spindles.</p>
+
+<p>"Stupid, see what you're at!" cried Amy's instructor, as by a swift
+movement of her foot she brought the rapidly circling frame to a
+standstill. "Now, you've done it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll undo it," he returned, casting a side glance at the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"If those who've worked here so long make mistakes, I'll not give up,"
+she thought; and Mary came round from behind the frame in time to read
+this thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you mind. You see, we have to be on guard all the time. If we're
+not, something happens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> like this. Wait. While they're fixing those
+spools, you watch me tie these threads. That's what you have to do. To
+keep everything straight and fasten on the new ends as the old ones run
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't see you 'tie' it. There is no knot."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. We couldn't have rough things in the thread that is
+going to make a carpet. We just twist it&mdash;so. Do you see? It can't pull
+apart, and it makes no roughness. Try; keep on trying; and after you
+have practised awhile, you'll be as swift as swift."</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as slow as slow."</p>
+
+<p>The "new hand" smiled into the eager face of her willing helper, and the
+poor hunchback's heart glowed. That so bright a creature should ever
+come to be a worker in that busy mill, side by side with her own self,
+was stranger than the strangest of the cheap novels she read so
+constantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It beats all, don't it?" demanded Mary, clasping Amy's little brown hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What, dear? What beats what? Have I done that one better? Do you think
+I'll ever, ever be able to keep up my side of the 'frame' after this
+other one leaves me?"</p>
+
+<p>Mary's laugh was good to hear. Mr. Metcalf, entering the room, heard it
+and smiled. Yet his smile was fleeting, and his only comment a reprimand
+to "Jack doffer" for his carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>"It must not happen again. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, sir," answered the youth, humbly.</p>
+
+<p>Of Amy herself the superintendent took no notice whatever beyond a curt
+nod. She did not understand this, and a pain shot through her sensitive
+heart. Then she reflected that he might not have seen her.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose he did, or that he knew me? You see, I've always worn
+white before, and maybe he did not recognize me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he saw you all right. He wouldn't more 'n nod to his own wife, if
+he's on his rounds, and full of business. I've heard that he was very
+pleasant outside the mill and among his folks, but I never saw him any
+different from just now. Seems to me he looks on us like he does the
+spools on the spinners. I always feel as if I were part of the
+machine&mdash;the poorest part&mdash;and I guess you will, too. There, it's fixed
+and starting up. Hurry to your place and don't get scared. Sallie's
+cross, but she can't help it. She used to be one of the 'fainters.' Yes;
+that's right. Now all there is, is to keep at it till twelve o'clock
+whistle."</p>
+
+<p>That meant nearly five hours of the steadiest and most difficult labor
+which Amy had ever undertaken. Yet these others near her, and the crowds
+of spinners all through the great apartment, appeared to take this labor
+very easily, and were even able to carry on a conversation amid the
+deafening noise.</p>
+
+<p>Amy watched so intently, and tried so faithfully to do just what and all
+that was expected of her that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> did, indeed, make a rapid progress
+for one beginning; and when the welcome whistle sounded, she was
+surprised to see how instantly every frame was stopped, and to hear Mary
+saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If you don't want to go with anybody else, I'd admire to have you eat
+your lunch with me."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to, certainly, but I don't believe I can eat. My head is
+whirling, whirling, just like those dreadful spools. Isn't it terrible?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think so. I don't notice them now, except to make them say
+things. But come along, we have a half-hour nooning. We might have a
+whole hour, but most of the hands like to give up part of their
+dinner-time every day and then take the afternoon off on Saturday. The
+'Supe' doesn't care, so that's the way we get our 'Saturday-half.' I
+sometimes wish we worked the other way, but of course we couldn't. If
+part stops, the other part has to, 'cause every room depends on some
+other room to keep it going."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I think that's beautiful, don't you? Like a big whole, and all of
+us the needed parts."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't. I don't see one single beautiful thing about this hateful
+old mill. At least, I didn't before this morning, when you came."</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked into Mary's face a moment. Then she stooped and kissed it
+gently. Small though Amy herself was, for her age, she was still taller
+than her new friend, and felt herself far stronger.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p><p>Away in another place Gwendolyn and her mates observed this little
+by-play, and one girl remarked:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. That settles <i>her</i> hash. If she's going to take up with that
+horrid Mary Reese, there won't anybody go with her. Not a single girl,
+and as for the fellows&mdash;my!"</p>
+
+<p>To this flirtatious young person to be ignored by "the fellows" meant
+the depth of misfortune. Happily, however, Amy had never hear the word
+"fellow," as at present applied, and to do anything for the sake of
+attracting attention to herself she would have considered the extreme of
+vulgarity.</p>
+
+<p>Mary guided her to a quiet corner behind some bales, and filling a tin
+cup with water from a faucet, proceeded to open her own luncheon. Then
+she watched Amy, who, almost too weary to eat, loitered over the untying
+of the dainty parcel Cleena had made up. When she at last did so, and
+quietly sorted the contents of the neat box, she was surprised by Mary's
+astonished stare.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, dear? Aren't you hungry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hungry? I'm starved. But&mdash;see the difference. It goes even into our
+victuals. Oh dear, there isn't any use!" and, with a bitter sob, the
+mill girl tossed aside her own rude parcel of food and dropped her face
+in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Girlhood is swiftly intuitive. The boarding-house lunch which the
+hunchback had brought was quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> sufficient in quantity, but it was
+coarse in extreme, and meats had been wrapped in one bit of newspaper
+along with the sweets, so that the flavor of each article spoiled the
+flavor of all. Yet it was the first time that Mary had rebelled against
+such an arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was different. Amy's speech, Amy's manner and belongings, opened
+before the slumbering ambition of the mill girl a picture of better
+things, which she recognized as unattainable for herself.</p>
+
+<p>Then she felt again the clasp of firm, young arms about her own neck,
+and a face that was both smiling and tearful pressed close to her own.</p>
+
+<p>"You dear little girl. I see, I understand. But you've never had a
+chance to try how I've lived and I've never tried how you do. Let's
+change. Yes; I insist, for this once. You eat my lunch, and I'll eat
+yours. It will do Goodsoul's great heart no end of good when I tell her
+about it, and it will make me comprehend just how life looks from your
+side. Remember, we're both poor girls together now, and I&mdash;insist."</p>
+
+<p>Amy had a will, as has been remarked. So, in a few seconds, the two
+lunches were exchanged, and for almost the first time in her life Mary
+Reese knew what it was to feed daintily and correctly.</p>
+
+<p>"It makes me feel as if I was straighter, somehow. And you're a dear,
+dear girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, of course it does. I wouldn't like to do anything that hurt
+my own self-respect, even in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> a little thing as eating. But, you
+see, I had my darling mother. Now I've had to let her go; yet if you'll
+let me, I'll be so glad to teach you all she taught me. It will be
+keeping her memory green in just the very way she'd like."</p>
+
+<p>"Teaching isn't all. The difference is <i>born</i> in us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense. Think of Mr. Metcalf. They say he was a foundling baby, and
+yet he's a gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Even if he doesn't speak to you in work hours?" asked Mary, with a
+mischievous glance that would have surprised her mill mates had they
+seen it. Already the leaven of kindness was working in her neglected
+life, and for the moment she forgot to be upon the defensive against the
+indifference of others.</p>
+
+<p>"Even anything. But, hear me, Mary Reese. Here am I, as poor as poor can
+be, but determined to succeed in doing something grand. Guess what?"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't tell. The whistle will blow again in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to build a Home for Mill Girls, where they shall have all
+things that any gentlewoman should have. I haven't the least idea how
+nor when nor where. But I'm going to do it. You'll see. And you shall
+help. Maybe that's just why God let me come here and be a mill girl
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>After a pause the other spoke. "It seems queer to hear you say such
+things. Yet you're not what I call 'pious,' I&mdash;guess."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p><p>"Don't be afraid. I'm not goody-goody, at all. But it's the most
+interesting thing mother taught me: the watching how everything
+'happens' in life, like a wonderful picture or even a curious, beautiful
+puzzle. Each part, each thing, fits so perfectly into its place, and
+it's such fun to watch and see them fit. Yes, I believe that's the key
+to my coming."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment these girlish dreamers clasped hands and saw visions. The
+next, a whistle sounded and, still hand in hand, they returned to their
+frame and to this toil which was part of a far-reaching "plan." On the
+way they passed "Jack doffer," wearing his most fetching smile, and a
+new necktie, recklessly disported during work hours for the sole purpose
+of dazzling the bright eyes of the pretty "new hand."</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately for his vanity, the "new hand" never saw him, because of
+those still lingering visions of a Home with a capital H; and oddly
+enough, the youth respected her the more since she did not. Later on
+things would be altered; but neither of them knew that then.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BALAAM.</h3>
+
+<p>"Me Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"</p>
+
+<p>The lad in the depths of the cellar vouchsafed no reply. He heard
+distinctly, and Cleena knew that he did. This did not allay her rising
+wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"The spalpeen! That's what comes o' takin' in folks to do for. Ah,
+Fayetty," she called wheedlingly.</p>
+
+<p>Good Cleena had almost as many titles for her "adopted son" as her
+"childer" had for her. Each one suggested to the simple fellow some
+particular mood of the speaker. "Gineral" meant mild sarcasm, and when
+"Bonyparty" was added, there was indicated a need for prompt and
+unquestioning obedience. "Fayetty" was the forerunner of something
+agreeable, to which might or might not be appended something equally
+disagreeable.</p>
+
+<p>Said Hallam, once: "Freely translated, 'Fayetty' stands for ginger
+cookies, and sometimes the cookies must be earned."</p>
+
+<p>The call came the third time:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Napoleon Bonyparty Lafayette Jimpson, come out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> o' that! Two twists of
+a lamb's tail an' I'll fasten ye down!"</p>
+
+<p>The reconstruction of Fayette gave Cleena plenty of employment, and in
+one thing he disappointed her, sorely and continually: he utterly and
+defiantly refused to work in the mill or elsewhere that would bring in
+wages. Since Amy had become a daily toiler, this attitude on his part
+angered the poor woman beyond endurance.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not any laziness about Fayette. Nobody could have been
+more industrious, or more illy have directed his industry. As long as it
+was possible to work in the ground he had labored upon the barren soil
+of Bareacre, and those who understood such matters assured the Kayes
+that they would really have a fine garden spot, when another spring came
+round.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, he that makes the wilderness to blossom is well engaged,
+Cleena," Mr. Kaye had remonstrated once, in his quiet way.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, yes, master, but till them roses bloom there might be better
+doin'," she had returned. In her heart she respected Mr. Kaye's judgment
+less even than the mill boy's, though she veiled this contempt by an
+outward deference.</p>
+
+<p>To-day was a crisis. For good or ill, Cleena had determined to have the
+question of wage-earning settled. Either the lad must go to work and
+bring in something to pay for his keep, or he must "clear himself out."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>"D'ye mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, avick, I means it! Up with ye, or stay below&mdash;for as long as I
+please."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette threw down his pick and crawled forward through the trench he
+was digging. The idle suggestion of Hallam had taken firm hold of the
+natural's mind, and with a dogged persistence, that he showed also in
+other matters, he had now been daily laboring upon the cross-shaped
+excavation which was to ventilate the cellars of "Charity House." He had
+made a fine beginning, and so explained to Cleena, as his mud-stained
+face appeared above the cellar stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"A beginnin' o' nonsense. When all's done, what use? Sit down an' taste
+the last o' the cakes me neighbor sent up. Here, you William, keep out
+o' that! It's for Miss Amy, dear heart. Four weeks an' longer she's been
+up before light, trudgin' away as gay as a mavis, with never a word that
+she's bothered. Alanna, Mister Gladstone, what's now?"</p>
+
+<p>A surplus of small Joneses had swarmed over the lower floor of the house
+on the hill, and their presence was now accepted by Cleena with little
+opposition, because of the generosity of their parents.</p>
+
+<p>"True for ye, the babies be forever under me foot, but one never comes
+atop the rise but there's doubled in his little fist the stuff to make
+him welcome. It may be a cake, or a biscuit, or a bowl o' milk even.
+It's something for some one."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p><p>"The 'some one' is generally the bearer of the loaf, or cake, eh,
+Cleena?" asked Hallam, who was lingering in the kitchen, gathering what
+warmth he could from the stove there. The coals provided in the autumn
+were long ago consumed, and out of the scanty supply she had been able
+to procure since then, Cleena wasted little below stairs. In the
+master's studio above a fire was always burning, and if, as he sometimes
+did, he asked whence the supply, the faithful servant put his inquiry
+aside with some evasive remark.</p>
+
+<p>He had now work at hand which engrossed him entirely, and to which heat
+and physical comfort were a necessity. He was painting a life-sized
+portrait of his wife, and not one of the household could do aught but
+wish him God-speed on so precious a labor.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Hallam lay so silent upon the settle beside the stove that
+neither of them, Cleena nor Fayette, noticed him.</p>
+
+<p>"Here you, William, Beatrice, Belinda, come by! Set yourselves down in
+the corner, yon. Here's a fine bag o' scraps for you two little maids.
+Pick 'em over that neat your mother'll be proud; and, William, take out
+these things from Miss Amy's box till you puts them back as straight as
+straight. Sure, it's long since herself's had the time, an' he's a smart
+little gossoon, so he is."</p>
+
+<p>The little girls emptied the bag of pieces on the floor, and sorting
+them into piles began to roll them into tidy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> bundles. Along with
+improving Fayette, Cleena had early set out upon the same lines with the
+small Joneses. Even William Gladstone, the mite, was already learning to
+distinguish between soiled hands and clean, and to enjoy the latter.</p>
+
+<p>So now, while she talked, Cleena set the child to take out and replace
+with exactness the few treasured letters and cards, or papers, which
+were Amy's own, and kept in her big japanned box.</p>
+
+<p>Once, idly, Cleena observed the child lingering over a square packet,
+like an old-time letter, sealed with red wax. It was this bit of color
+which the little one fancied, and she smiled to see his delight in it.</p>
+
+<p>"The blessed baby! Sure, he's the makings of a fine man in him, so he
+has. Take a look, Fayetty, if yerself would copy yon."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll let that youngster play with your things once too often. He's a
+<i>hider</i>, Lionel Percival says so."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! An' what that silly heeram-skeeram says means naught. Now, hear
+me, me gineral. This ends it. You goes to work, or you goes to play.
+Which is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I won't."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is it?" repeated Cleena, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>The natural fidgeted. In his heart he was afraid of his self-constituted
+"mother." He had no wish to return to the drudgery of the mill. He was
+wholly interested in his cellar-digging. He had heard tales of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> mining,
+and in some way he had obtained a miner's lantern. This he fastened to
+his "parade hat," and wore to lighten his underground labors.</p>
+
+<p>Vague visions of untold wealth floated in his dull brain. Somewhere in
+the world he knew that other men were digging in other trenches for
+gold. He had heard the "boys" say so often, and some of them had even
+gone to do likewise. He had seen gold sometimes in Mr. Metcalf's office
+safe. Not much of it, indeed, but enough to fire his fancy. All the time
+he toiled he was looking for something round and glistening, like the
+coins he had seen. He was not in the least discouraged because he had
+found none. There was time enough, for he had not much more than begun
+what he hoped to complete. Yet, as Cleena knew, he had made a
+considerable opening under the west room and had carried out many
+barrowfuls of earth. This he had utilized upon his garden, which was
+almost as interesting to him as his mining.</p>
+
+<p>"Which is it, avick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Must I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Troth, must ye? Indeed, look here." Leaning over the table she spread
+before her charge's eyes a dilapidated pocket-book. It had been the
+receptacle for the family funds, but it was now quite empty. Fayette
+stared hard. Then he whistled.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so! All gone? Every cent?"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena nodded. Her face was very grave. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>frightened the lad. He
+glanced toward Hallam, apparently asleep on the settle, and whispered:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Where's hers? What she earns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! That little! Well, it's gone. The last week's wage to buy her
+shoes. Faith, the poor little feet! Steppin' along to her duty with
+never a turn aside, an' the holes clean through the soles. Oh, me
+fathers, that ever I should see the day!"</p>
+
+<p>Overcome by her memories of far different circumstances, Cleena bowed
+her gray head upon her arms above the empty purse and shook in
+suppressed grief. So faithful was she that she would not have counted
+even her life of value if by sacrificing it she could have restored unto
+her "folks" the departed joy and comfort of their house.</p>
+
+<p>Fayette reached over and lifted the purse. He was not satisfied until he
+had examined it for himself. Then he rose and took the lantern from his
+hat.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fetch some," he said briefly, and turned toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>But Hallam had not been so fast asleep as he seemed, and he demanded
+whither Fayette was bound.</p>
+
+<p>"It's nothin' to worry about, Master Hal. Just a little matter o'
+business 'twixt me gineral here an' meself. Can't a body wear out her
+shoes without so much ado?" she asked, thrusting into view her great
+foot with its still unbroken, stout, calfskin brogan upon it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p><p>Hallam smiled. "You can't deceive me, dear old Scrubbub. It's not you
+that's wanting new shoes, and if Fayette is going millward, I am going
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Master Hal, what for now? An' what'll the master be sayin' if he's
+wantin' you betimes? Isn't it bad enough to keep him content without
+Amy, let alone yerself? No, no; go up by. It's warmer in the paintin'
+room, an' sure a body's still as you can't bother nobody, even a
+artist."</p>
+
+<p>But the cripple limped across the room and took from a recess his cap
+and the short top-coat he wore when he rode Balaam. It was as warm as it
+was clumsy, and gave his slender figure a width that was quite becoming.
+Like Amy's, his headgear was always a Scotch Tam, and when it crowned
+his fair face Cleena thought him exceeding good to look upon.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha, but you're the lad for me! An' after all, no matter if the
+winds be cold, a ride'll do ye fine, an' make the oatmeal taste sweet in
+your mouth."</p>
+
+<p>"It's time something did. Oatmeal three times a day is a trifle
+monotonous. Heigho! for one of your chicken pies, Goodsoul."</p>
+
+<p>He was sorry as soon as he said that. Not to be able to give her
+"childer" what they desired was always real distress to Cleena. So he
+laughed her regret away, with the question:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"If I bring home a pair of fowls, will you cook them?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><p>"Will I no? Fetch me the birds, an' I'll show you. Go on, Fayetty, an'
+saddle the beast."</p>
+
+<p>But Fayette was not, at that moment, inclined to do this office for the
+other lad. He had resolved upon a kindly deed, one which involved
+self-sacrifice on his part, and like many other wiser people he was
+inclined to let the one generous act cover several meaner ones.</p>
+
+<p>It was his heart's desire to own Balaam. If he took some of the money
+which the superintendent was keeping for him and gave it to Cleena for
+the housekeeping, he lessened his chance of obtaining his object by just
+that much. If he gave Cleena the money, he wanted everybody to
+understand that he fully realized, himself, how magnanimous he was.</p>
+
+<p>However, in many respects Hallam was his hero, and between the two there
+had been, of late, a little secret which Fayette was proud to share.
+Each day he would ask, with extreme caution:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You hain't told nobody yet, have ye?"</p>
+
+<p>Commonly the cripple would answer: "No; nor shall I. There's no use."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho! Yes, there is. Read it an' see. If it's in the paper, it's so.
+Huckleberries! You ain't no more pluck than a skeeter."</p>
+
+<p>Then Hallam would reread the scrap of newspaper he carried in his
+pocket; and each time, after such a reading, a brighter light shone in
+the eyes of both boys, and the foundling would observe:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p><p>"It's worth tryin'. I say, it's worth tryin'. <i>I</i> ain't tired yet. Keep
+her up."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam knew the half-column of print by heart. It had been brought him
+by Amy, on the day she went to Mr. Metcalf's office. She had asked the
+loan of the newspaper, and had received it as a gift. She had hurried
+home, full of enthusiasm, and showed it to Hallam. He had not been
+enthusiastic, and had apparently tossed the article aside as worthless
+to him. Amy was too busy to give the matter further thought, and did not
+know that after she had left the room her brother had read the paragraph
+a second time, and had then carefully preserved it.</p>
+
+<p>Even now, as they started for the mill, Fayette requested to "hear it
+again," but Hallam declined.</p>
+
+<p>"It's too cold. And if I don't hurry and do what I set out to, I'm
+afraid I'll back out."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it somethin' ye hate to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it&mdash;Don't let's talk about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Just the way I feel. I'd ruther live on one meal a day 'n do it. Once I
+give it to her, I shan't never see no more of it. Oh, I know <i>her</i>!
+She's a regular boss, she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena? But she's a dear old creature, even so."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I like her. I like her first rate. She's a good cook an' middlin'
+good-lookin'. I hain't got nothin' again her. They say, to the village,
+how 't John Young talks o' sparkin' her."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>"What? Teamster John? Our Cleena? Well, he'd better not!"</p>
+
+<p>In his indignation Hallam nearly slipped from his saddle. He did let one
+of his crutches fall, and Fayette picked up that, took the other, and
+cheerfully "packed" them to the end of their journey.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? His wife's dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. But&mdash;our Cleena! Cleena Keegan! Well, there's no danger of her
+encouraging him. Between her own 'folks,' yourself, and the Joneses, I
+think she has all she can attend to without taking in a man to worry
+with."</p>
+
+<p>The subject was idlest village gossip, but it served to divert Hallam's
+thoughts from his impending errand, and he arrived at the office of the
+mill in good spirits. Then he remembered a saying he had heard in the
+community:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"All roads lead to the mill," and quoted it for Fayette's benefit.</p>
+
+<p>"That's so. But, say, I hate that old Wingate that's got it now. He
+licked me when I worked for him. Licked me more 'n once, just because I
+fooled a little with his horses. I was bound out to him from the
+poor-farm, an' I run away. He treated me bad. I'm goin' to get even with
+him some day. You watch an' see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here we are. Is this the office? Will you go in with me and help
+me find the superintendent? I've never been here, you know."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>"Huckleberries! Ain't that queer? And Amy comes every day."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette meant no reproach. His thoughts were never profound, but Hallam
+flushed and felt ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>"That's true. The more disgrace to me. Well, cripple or not, that's the
+last time anybody shall ever say, truthfully, that my little sister has
+set me an example of courage and effort. Hurry up. Open the door."</p>
+
+<p>A moment later both lads stood within the little room wherein so many
+big money transactions took place; and it is doubtful if any speculator
+coming there had felt greater anxiety over the outcome of his visit than
+these two whose "operations" were to be of such a modest limit.</p>
+
+<p>"Boss, I've come after my money. I want the whole lot."</p>
+
+<p>"Good day, 'Bony'; good day, Hallam Kaye, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam bowed, and before his courage could wane, replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'm sorry to interrupt you in business hours, but&mdash;will you buy
+Balaam, Pepita's brother?"</p>
+
+<p>Before the gentleman could answer, Fayette had clutched Hallam's
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that? Did you come here to sell that donkey?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came to try to sell it, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'm sorry I ever touched to help you. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> want him myself. I come
+to get my money a purpose. My money is as good as his. He shan't have
+it. I'll have it myself."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf interrupted:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But, 'Bony,' you can't afford to keep such an animal. It would take all
+your capital to pay for him. Wait. Sometime, if you're industrious,
+you'll be rich enough to have a horse and carriage. Indeed, I mean it;
+and, yes, Hallam, I will very gladly buy your burro. I've wanted him
+ever since Amy let us have Pepita. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You shan't have him, then. You never shall. I want him, an' I'll keep
+him. You see!"</p>
+
+<p>The door opened and shut with a bang. Whether purposely or not, it was
+impossible to say, but in his outward rush the half-wit brushed so
+rudely past Hallam that he knocked his crutch from his grasp, so that he
+would have fallen, had not the superintendent caught and steadied the
+lad to a seat.</p>
+
+<p>"That's 'Bony' all over. As irresponsible as a child and ungovernable in
+his rage. Yet, never fear; he'll be back again, sometime."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;he has taken Balaam. What can I do now?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf walked to the window and looked out. There was a dash of
+something black disappearing at the turn of the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! That's bad. He's taken the road to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> mountains. When his
+'wood fit' comes over him, summer or winter, he vanishes. Sometimes he
+is gone for months."</p>
+
+<p>"And he's taken Balaam with him," repeated the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he certainly has;" but when the superintendent looked toward
+Hallam he was startled by the hopeless expression of the lad's fine face.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FASCINATION OF INDUSTRY.</h3>
+
+<p>"Sit down, lad, and rest. It will not be long before noon, and then I
+will send for your sister to come here."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. Do you think he will stay long, this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Bony'? It's just as the fit takes him. There's no accounting for his
+whims, poor unbalanced fellow. In some respects he is clever and
+remarkably clean-handed. In fixing parts of the machinery, I would
+rather have his help than that of most professionals, he is so careful
+about the minutest details. Yet, of course, it would be out of the
+question to rely upon him. There's another thing. He's a most excellent
+nurse. For days at a time, when there's been sickness in the mill
+village, he has devoted himself faithfully to whoever seemed to take his
+fancy. His big, ungainly hand has a truly wonderful power of soothing.
+When I had rheumatic fever, he was the only person I could endure to
+have in the room with me. His step was lighter even than that of my
+wife, and I really believe I should have died but for his care."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p><p>The superintendent was talking, simply to entertain and divert his
+visitor from the lad's own present annoyance, but he little knew how
+full of import his casual remarks were to his hearer.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that he is magnetic? that there is something in the claim
+he makes of being a 'healer'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite as much as in the claim of any such person. There are, of course,
+some human beings so constituted that they can influence for good the
+physical conditions of other people. I am very sorry that his present
+whim has seized him. I would like the burro, and you would like the
+price of him. Well, all in good time. Meanwhile, if I can help you,
+please tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"There was only one way in which you could, so far as I know. That was
+by buying my pet. I&mdash;I don't suppose," Hallam continued, with hesitancy,
+"that there is anything such a&mdash;a useless fellow as I could do to earn
+money here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure about that. What sort of work would you like?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any sort."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf went into another room and presently returned with some
+oblong pieces of cardboard. These had a checked surface, and upon these
+checks were painted or stained partial patterns, designs for the carpets
+woven in the mills.</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is an artist. Have you learned anything about his work, or
+of coloring?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>"Something, of course, though very little. I would not be an artist."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? But there are artisans whose work is simple, mechanical, and
+reasonably lucrative. Our designers, for instance, make an excellent
+living. Do you see these numbers at the sides of the patterns?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"They are for the guidance of the weavers. The threads of the carpets
+are numbered, and these numbers correspond. Therefore, the weaver can
+make his carpet from his pattern with mathematical exactness. We require
+many such copies of the original design. If you would like to try this
+sort of work, I will give you a temporary job. The boy who usually does
+it is ailing, and I have allowed him a vacation. The wages are small, no
+more than Amy earns, but the work isn't difficult, and is the only thing
+I have now, suitable for you."</p>
+
+<p>Incidentally the gentleman's eyes turned toward Hallam's crutches
+leaning against the arm of the chair where he sat; but instead of
+feeling humiliated by the glance, as the sensitive cripple often did,
+this casual one fired his heart with a new ambition. He recalled the
+words of the surgeon, and was no longer angry with them.</p>
+
+<p>"I will be a man in spite of it all," flashed through his brain. Aloud
+he said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I will be very glad to try the work."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. When can you begin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Metcalf smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. A lad so prompt is the lad for me. But I had imagined
+another sort of fellow,&mdash;not so energetic, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"I've not been worth much. I've been lazy and selfish; but I mean to
+turn over a new leaf. I'll try to be useful, and if I fail&mdash;I fail."</p>
+
+<p>"But you'll not fail. God never sent anybody into this world for whom He
+did not provide a place, a duty. You will succeed. You may even get to
+'the top,' that roomy plane where there are so few competitors. I want
+you to count me your friend. I, too, am a self-made man. There are few
+obstacles one cannot conquer, given good health and determination."</p>
+
+<p>Then once more the employer's gaze rested upon the crutches, and his
+heart misgave him that he had roused ambitions which could not be
+realized. The poor cripple was handicapped from the start by his
+infirmity.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam again saw the expression of the other's face, and again it nerved
+him to a firmer will.</p>
+
+<p>"Even that shall not hinder, sir; and now if you will explain to me the
+work, I'll make a try at it right away."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf placed the designs upon a sloping table, at one side the
+office, and Hallam took the chair before it, as requested. Then the
+superintendent went over the system of numbering the designs, and
+illustrated briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you try. I'll watch. Go on as if I were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> here. If I do not
+speak, consider that you are working correctly."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam's intelligence was of a fine order, and he had always been a keen
+observer. Before Mr. Metcalf had finished his explanations the lad had
+grasped the whole idea of the work, and he took up the pen the gentleman
+laid down with the confidence of one who understood exactly what he had
+to do.</p>
+
+<p>"'Knowledge is power,' there is no truer saying," remarked the teacher,
+watching the tyro's eager efforts. "It's as easy as A B C to you,
+apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems very simple. I think I would enjoy it better, though, if I
+could see the application."</p>
+
+<p>"How the patterns are used?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Come this way."</p>
+
+<p>Which was not by the shorter one of the stairway on the cliff, up which
+Fayette had once forced the reluctant Pepita, but around by the sloping
+wagon track and into the lower rooms of the great building. Already the
+lad knew most of these by the descriptions his sister had given him, but
+no description could equal the facts. As she had done, so he experienced
+that thrill of excitement, as he realized the mighty, throbbing life all
+around him, of which the wonderful machinery and the human hands and
+brains which controlled it seemed but parts of one vast whole. His eyes
+kindled, his cheeks flushed, and, as Amy had done, he forgot in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> his
+eagerness over the new scene that others might be observing him and his
+deformity.</p>
+
+<p>At the weavers' looms he was "all eyes and ears," as one remarked.
+Seeing the woollen threads stretched up and down, perfectly colored and
+looking like a greatly elongated pattern, gave him a complete insight of
+the task for which he had been engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I understood it before. I think I could not make a mistake
+now. A mistake would mean disaster wouldn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would," answered the superintendent, delighted to find his new
+helper such a promising aid. "See, here is the pattern. Watch the weaver
+awhile, then come with me to the 'setting room.' There is where Amy will
+be if she keeps on as industriously as she has begun. I tell you brains
+count. You are both gifted with them, and it should make you
+grateful&mdash;helpful, too. I think the least of all a man's possessions
+that he has a right to keep to himself is his brain."</p>
+
+<p>Hallam looked up in surprise. Amy's acquaintance with the superintendent
+had begun most auspiciously, and he had desired to be considered her
+"friend," even as now her brother's. Yet since her coming to work in the
+mill, Mr. Metcalf had not exchanged a dozen sentences with her. She saw
+him daily, almost hourly. He was everywhere present about the great
+buildings. In no department was anybody sure of the time of his
+appearance, yet not one was overlooked. This kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> the operators keyed
+to an expectancy which brought out from them their best, for the
+approbation of this observant 'boss' meant much to each. Yet he rarely
+spoke in a harsh tone to any, nor had any ever heard him utter an oath.
+This, in itself, gave him a distinction from all other mill
+superintendents under which most of these operatives had served, and
+added, it may be, a greater awe to their respect of him.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been color mixer in a carpet mill these forty years, and Metcalf's
+the only 'Supe' I ever knew could run one without swearing," often
+remarked the master of the dyeing room. "He does; and a fellow may count
+himself lucky to work under such a man."</p>
+
+<p>The color mixer, being a most important personage in the institution,
+had influence among his <i>confr&egrave;res</i>, with good reason. His trade was an
+art and a secret. Like all trade secrets it commanded its own price. He
+was said to enjoy a salary "among the thousands," and to have rejected
+even richer offers for the sake of the peaceful discipline at Ardsley.</p>
+
+<p>Then the two visited the "setting room," where the mill girls reached
+the highest promotion possible in their business. The "setting" is the
+arrangement upon frames of the threads of the carpet, perfectly
+adjusted. A girl sits upon each side the frame, which holds from two
+hundred threads to slightly an advance upon that number. It is clean and
+dainty work, and the operator is fortunate who can secure the position.
+It is the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> "thread" which, drawn over wires, in the weaver's hands,
+makes the looplike surface of Brussels carpeting, which was the only
+sort manufactured at Ardsley.</p>
+
+<p>"You find it fascinating, don't you? So did Amy. Well, if you work here,
+in any department, you will have opportunity to study the whole science,
+from beginning to end. But I'm to meet Mr. Wingate in ten minutes in his
+private office. Let us go back."</p>
+
+<p>Amy, away up on the fourth floor where she worked, knew nothing of this
+visit, and was a little dismayed when she received a summons to go down
+"to the 'Supe's' room for her nooning."</p>
+
+<p>She was now alone with Mary at her "jenny," and had already become so
+expert that those who understood such matters prophesied she would soon
+be promoted to the "twisting and doubling." That very morning the "boss"
+of their room had said to her:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We never had a girl come here who got on so fast. It mostly takes
+months to learn a half-machine. After another three she can mind both
+sides. That means about four dollars and a half a week. Well, you've
+been quick and faithful, and nobody could envy your good luck."</p>
+
+<p>As she picked up her lunch basket and descended toward the office, more
+than one called after her a good wish.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you be scared of the 'Supe.' If he scolds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> and you aren't to
+blame, just tell him so, and he'll like you the better."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe he's going to promote you a'ready, though I don't see how he
+could. I won't be jealous if he does, though," cried another; and
+Gwendolyn, the inquisitive, resolved to keep up Amy's spirits by
+accompanying her to the interview.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Gwen, did he send for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; course not. If he did, I shouldn't feel so chipper. There ain't no
+love lost 'twixt the 'Supe' and me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then maybe&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Trash! I'm going. Ain't I the one that fetched you here in the first
+place? Hadn't I ought to stand by you, thick or thin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I suppose so," answered Amy, more frightened by Gwendolyn's
+suggestive manner than by any consciousness of blunders made. Nor did
+she remind her neighbor that for a time, at first, while Amy's
+popularity had not been determined, the other had shrewdly held aloof,
+waiting the turn of the tide. Fortunately, this had been in the "new
+hand's" direction, and since then Gwendolyn's attentions had been almost
+overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>But, indeed, Amy did not even think this. "Simplicity, sincerity,
+sympathy"&mdash;she was faithfully striving to make this the rule of her own
+life, and therefore she could not imagine anything lower in the lives of
+others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> But she still kept her frank tongue, and she gave it rein, as
+the pair hurried officeward.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Gwen, if you only wouldn't chew that gum! It makes you look so
+queer, and spoils all the pretty outline of your cheek. Besides, I'm
+sure Mr. Metcalf doesn't like it. He always frowns when a gum-chewer has
+to speak with him about her work."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw, what a fuss you are! There, then, though that's the first bit
+off a new stick, I've thrown it out the window. <i>Is</i> my cheek pretty?
+How do you manage to see things without looking? I never see you take
+your eyes off your frame, yet not a thing goes on in that room you don't
+seem to hear or know."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I don't know, unless it's because having lived all alone,
+without other girls, I love to hear the voices and see the bright faces.
+Oh, I do love <i>folks</i>! And it seems to me that every single girl in that
+mill is far more interesting than the best story book I ever read."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you don't beat! But, say, Amy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe there's another girl there would tell me I was pretty
+without saying something else would spoil it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed, there must be. If it's the truth, why shouldn't one say it?
+But if it's the truth, again, you have no right to deface the beauty. Do
+give up the gum."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p><p>"Why haven't I a right?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know why. I simply know you haven't, any more than I have to be
+untidy or disagreeable. I never realized until I came to be always among
+so many people how each one could pain or please her neighbor. And it
+seems to me each of us should be the sweetest, the best natured, the
+truest, it is possible. Heigho! I'm turning a preacher, and it's a good
+thing that there's the office, and I must stop. Brace your courage, Amy,
+and knock at the door."</p>
+
+<p>She did so and was promptly admitted; but did not see the
+superintendent, who thus served her, for he purposely stepped behind the
+door, so that her first glance fell upon Hallam seated at the sloping
+table and busily at work. She caught her breath, regained it, and rushed
+forward with a little shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam! Hallam Kaye! You here! you&mdash;working?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'm here. My first day at wage-earning. Didn't provide any lunch.
+Can you spare some for me? Ah, Gwendolyn, good day."</p>
+
+<p>Then another person appeared in the doorway&mdash;one whom nobody present
+cared to see just then, though the superintendent stepped from his
+hiding-place, the mirth dying out of his genial face as he bowed
+respectfully to his superior, Mr. Archibald Wingate, the owner of
+Ardsley Mill and of most of the surrounding property.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p><p>"Good day, Metcalf. Eh? What? Amy? Hallam? You here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, cousin Archibald. We are both here and working for you," answered
+Amy, quietly. Then she surprised even herself by extending her hand in greeting.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>MOTIVES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS.</h3>
+
+<p>For an instant it seemed as if the old man would respond to the
+proffered civility; but his hand dropped again to his side, and Amy had
+the mortification of one who is repulsed. However, she had little time
+for thought. The master of the mill passed onward into his "den" and
+closed its door with a snap. On the ground glass which admitted light
+through the upper half the door, yet effectually screened from
+observation any who were within, was printed in large letters:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Private. No Admittance."</p>
+
+<p>Then the girl turned an inquiring face toward the superintendent, who
+took her hand and shook it warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Amy. You have done well,&mdash;famously,
+even. There's not been a girl in the mill, since I've had charge, who
+has learned so swiftly and thoroughly. What's the secret of it? Can you
+guess?"</p>
+
+<p>She had not been summoned for a reprimand, then. In her relief at this,
+the young operative scarcely heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> the question put to her, and the
+gentleman replied to it himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you. It's your untiring perseverance, your persistent effort
+to do your best, without regard to anything or anybody about you. If all
+our girls would take example by you, promotions would be more frequent."</p>
+
+<p>Gwendolyn resented the glance with which the superintendent now favored
+her, and Amy would have preferred not to be so openly praised. She drew
+a chair to the table where Hallam sat, and hastily spread her luncheon
+upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Gwendolyn, bring yours. While we're eating, Hal shall tell us
+what this all means."</p>
+
+<p>He did so, rapidly, and between mouthfuls, for the half-hour's nooning
+had already been cut short by the unexpected meetings; and when the
+whistle sounded and the girls hurried back to their room, Amy carried a
+very thoughtful face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what a funny girl you are! You look as if you'd been scolded,
+after all, 'stead of praised and promised promotion. What's wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fayette. To think he could run away with Balaam, after all we&mdash;or
+Cleena has done for him. Of course, he's done things for us, too; but I
+thought if we were kind to him, and made him feel that he was dear to
+somebody, he would improve and grow a splendid man."</p>
+
+<p>"'Can't make a purse out of a pig's ear,'" quoted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> Gwendolyn, seriously.
+"But don't you fret. He'll be back again, as humble as a lamb. You
+couldn't dog him away from 'Charity House,' I believe. He's been just
+wild over you all ever since he first saw you and your white burro. Say,
+Amy, I'm going to try and not chew any more. Your brother don't like it,
+does he, either?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; he detests it. He doesn't like anything that is unwomanly or
+coarse."</p>
+
+<p>Then they separated, but in the heart of each was a fresh determination:
+in Gwendolyn's that she would make herself into a "real lady," according
+to the standard of this brother and sister whom she admired, or saw
+admired of others; and in Amy's, to better deserve the encouragement of
+her employers, and to support Hallam to the utmost in his new ambition.</p>
+
+<p>But as she resumed her work she reflected, with much perplexity: "I
+don't understand yet why Mr. Metcalf is so delightful out of mill and so
+different here; nor why cousin Archibald still persists in being
+unfriendly, since he has gotten everything he wants."</p>
+
+<p>But she was still too ignorant of life to know that it is commonly the
+inflicter of an injury who shows ill feeling, and not the recipient of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon passed swiftly, as all her days did now, and at the signal
+for leaving labor, both the girls hurried to don their outer things and
+join Hallam. But Amy had still a word for Mary.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><p>"To-morrow is half-holiday, you know, dear, and I've talked with
+Cleena. She wishes you to come and spend the night at 'Charity House,'
+and we'll fix things about that club all right."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that about a club?" asked another girl, noticing how the
+hunchback's face brightened. "Are you two going to join ours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe; maybe not. Maybe we'll compromise and have but one. Though we
+can do little until after Christmas, it's so near now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't get up another. We have just lovely times in ours. All the
+boys come and&mdash;but I'll not tell. I'll leave you to see. They wanted I
+should ask you, and your brother, too. He's real nice looking, 'Jack
+doffer' says, even if he is lame."</p>
+
+<p>Amy's cheek burned, and her quick temper got her into trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"My brother Hallam is a very, very handsome boy. Even with his lameness
+he's a thousand times better looking than any boy in this mill, and
+what's more, he's a <i>gentleman</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>Then this champion of the aristocracy, which she thought she disdained
+but now discovered she was proud to call her own class, walked off with
+her nose in the air and her dark eyes glittering with an angry light.</p>
+
+<p>"There, now you've done it!" cried Gwendolyn, in amazement. "But ma said
+it wouldn't last. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> says that's the way with all the heroines in her
+novels that lose their money and pretend to be just plain folks
+afterward. They never are. They're always 'ristocratics an' they can't
+help it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, they shouldn't try," remarked this young "heroine," fiercely.
+"I don't care at all what they say about me, but they'd best let my Hal
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Hoity-toity, I don't see as he's any better than anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>Amy stopped short on the path from the mill to the ladder upon the
+bluff. Suddenly she reflected how her mother would have regarded her
+present mood. "He that ruleth his own spirit."</p>
+
+<p>The words seemed whispered in her ear. A moment later she turned and
+spoke again, but her voice was now gentle and appealing.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is better, though I'm not. He is better because he is just what
+he seems. There is no pretence about him. He doesn't think that
+plastering his hair with stuff, and wearing ugly, showy clothes, and a
+hat on the back of his head, or swaggering, or smoking nasty cigarettes,
+or being insolent to women, are marks of a gentleman. He's the real
+thing. That's what Hal is, and that's why I'm so proud of him, so&mdash;so
+touchy about him."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, what does make a gentleman, anyway, if it isn't dressing in style
+and knowing things?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's the simplest thing in the world; it's just being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> kind out of
+one's heart instead of one's head. It's being just as pure-minded and
+honest as one can be, and&mdash;believing that everybody else is as good or a
+little better than one's self. So it seems to me."</p>
+
+<p>"We <i>are</i> different, then. I never should know how to say such things. I
+don't know how to think them. It isn't any use. You are you, and I am
+me, and that ends it."</p>
+
+<p>Amy did not even smile at the crooked grammar. This was the old cry of
+Mary, too, and it hurt her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Gwen, I am so sorry. It <i>is</i> of use. There <i>isn't</i> any difference,
+really. We are both girls who have to earn our living. Our training has
+been different, that is all. I want to know all you know; I want you to
+know all I do. I want to be friends; oh, I want to be friends with every
+girl in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! do you? Well, I don't. I don't want but a few, and I want them
+to be stylish and nice. You'd have a lot of style if you could dress
+different."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Amy. This was like a dash of cold water over her enthusiasm. Just
+when she fancied that Gwendolyn was aspiring to all that was noble and
+uplifting, down she had dropped again into that idea of "style" and
+fashion and good times. But she remembered Mary. In the soul of that
+afflicted little mill girl was, indeed, a true ambition, and she felt
+glad again, from thoughts of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam, how can you climb all the way to 'Charity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> House'? You will
+drop by the way. It's hard, even for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I can do it. I must. There is nothing else to be done."</p>
+
+<p>So they set out together, through the darkness. The days were at the
+shortest, and Christmas would come the following week. Hallam and Amy
+looked forward with dread to the festival, remembering their mother had
+striven, even under disadvantages, to keep the holiday a bright one for
+her children. There had never been either many or costly gifts at
+Fairacres, but there had been something for each and all; and the
+home-made trifles were all the dearer because Salome's gentle fingers
+had fashioned them.</p>
+
+<p>Now Gwendolyn was full of anticipation, and from her talk about it her
+neighbors judged she meant to expend a really large sum of money in
+presents for her friends.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Gwendolyn, how can you buy all these things? You told me you
+earned about five dollars a week, and you've bought so many clothes;
+and&mdash;I guess I'm not good at figures. My poor little two dollars and a
+half, that I get now, wouldn't buy a quarter of all you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's all right. Mis' Hackett, she charges it. I always run an
+account with her."</p>
+
+<p>"You? a girl like you? What is your mother thinking about? I thought to
+buy a wheel that way was queer; but how dare you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I'm working all the time, ain't I? Anybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> that has regular work
+can get anything they want at Mis' Hackett's, or other places, too. Ma
+and pa do the same way."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;that's <i>debt</i>. It must be horrible. It seems like going out of one
+debt into another as fast as you can. Oh, Gwen, don't do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! that isn't anything. Why, look here, that's the very way your
+own folks did. If they hadn't been in debt, they wouldn't have had to
+move from Fairacres, and all that. Would they?"</p>
+
+<p>Both Hallam and Amy were silent. The keen common sense of the mill girl
+had struck home, and again Amy realized that her vocation was not that
+of "preaching." Finally, the cripple spoke:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's like it, yet it isn't. We had something left to pay our debts. It
+wasn't money, but it was money's worth. We paid them. We are left poor
+indeed, but we haven't mortgaged our future. That's all. But we are too
+young to talk so wisely. If your parents approve, they probably know
+best. Hark! there is a wagon coming."</p>
+
+<p>They all paused, and drew aside out of the road to let the vehicle pass.
+It was so dark that they could distinguish nothing clearly, and the
+lantern fastened to the dashboard of the buggy seemed but to throw into
+greater shadow the face of the occupant. To their surprise, the
+traveller drew rein and saluted them:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hello. Just getting home, eh?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><p>All recognized the voice. It belonged to Mr. Wingate.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, just getting home," answered Amy, cheerily.</p>
+
+<p>"Growing pretty dark, isn't it? Hmm, yes. Heard you lost your donkey,
+Hallam."</p>
+
+<p>"For the time, I have, sir," responded the lad, rather stiffly. He hated
+this man "on sight," or out of it, and it was difficult for him to
+conquer his aversion. All the kindness he had felt toward him, on the
+night of Mr. Wingate's first unwelcome visit to Fairacres, had been
+forgotten since; because in his heart he believed that his mother's
+death was due to her removal from her home. Yet he wished to be just,
+and he would try to feel differently by and by. Meanwhile, his unused
+strength was fast waning. He had met with a great disappointment that
+day, for he was going home empty-handed. He had lost his beloved Balaam,
+and he had nothing to show for it. In all his life he had never walked
+so far as from the mill to the Bareacre knoll, and even his crutches
+seemed to wobble and twist with fatigue. Amy had noticed this, and made
+him pause to rest more than once; but the night was cold, and he felt it
+most unwise to risk taking cold by standing in the wind. Poverty was
+teaching Hallam prudence, among many other excellent things.</p>
+
+<p>"None of us can afford to be sick now," he reflected.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. That half-witted fellow ought not to be allowed to go free. He's
+done me a lot of mischief, and I guess he injures everybody who
+befriends him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> The last thing he ought to be trusted with is
+horse-flesh, or mule-flesh either. Well, I'm going your way, and it's a
+tough pull on a pair of crutches. If you'll get in, I'll give you a lift
+as far as the bars."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was astonished, and everybody waited for Hallam's reply in
+some anxiety. Amy knew his mind, and she knew, also, that he was very
+weary. She hoped that he would say:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you; I'll be glad to accept," but his answer was a curt: "Thank
+you; I would rather walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Suit yourself."</p>
+
+<p>The horse was touched sharply, and bounded up the hill road at an
+unusual pace.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Hal, why didn't you ride? You are so tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;because."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better. Old man don't like to have his favors lost," remarked
+Gwendolyn. "I've heard lots say that, even though he hasn't been at
+Ardsley so very long."</p>
+
+<p>Now, in the lad's heart, besides his unwillingness to "accept favors
+from an enemy," there had been another motive. Until that evening he had
+not realized how lonely and dark was the homeward walk for his sister,
+after her long day of toil, and even with the company of Gwendolyn. In
+this his first experience it had come upon him with a shock, that it was
+neither pleasant nor safe for Amy, and he resolved she should never
+again be left without his escort, if he were possibly able to be with
+her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p><p>But he could not, or felt that he could not, tell this to the girls;
+much less to Mr. Wingate, finding it easier to be misjudged than to
+explain. Yet had the mill owner known the fact, it would have gone far
+toward propitiating him, and toward rousing his admiration for his young
+kinsman.</p>
+
+<p>So with the best intentions all around, the breach between Fairacres and
+"Charity House" was duly widened.</p>
+
+<p>The trio of mill workers trudged wearily upward, and the mill master
+hurried recklessly through the gloom toward a home he had coveted, but
+found a lonely, "ghost-haunted" solitude. For though there are no real
+spectres to frighten the eye, there are memories which are sadder to
+face than any "haunt" would be.</p>
+
+<p>"Stir up the fire, man. Don't you know it's a bitter night outside?" he
+cried, as he entered it.</p>
+
+<p>The master's tone boded ill for the servant if obedience were not
+prompt. So though a great blaze roared upon the wide hearth in the old
+room where we first met this gentleman he was not content, nor was the
+good dinner which followed appreciated. Nothing was right that night for
+Archibald Wingate.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing? Yes, one thing gave him great satisfaction, so that, late in
+the evening, sitting before the blaze he had complained of, he rubbed
+his hands with a quiet glee.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, sir, there's a black donkey wandered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> into the place
+to-night. It went straight to the stable and to one of the box stalls on
+the west. It seemed to know the way. The stable boy says it's one of
+them belonged to the&mdash;the folks was here before we came. I thought you'd
+like to know, sir; and, if you please, is it to remain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Marshall, it is to remain."</p>
+
+<p>And again the old gentleman smiled into the dancing flames and rubbed
+his smooth palms.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE OLD HOME.</h3>
+
+<p>After one o'clock on the afternoon before Christmas was a mill holiday;
+and while the great looms were silent, those who usually toiled at them
+took their way into Wallburg city to do their Christmas shopping. Though
+a few, indeed, were able to satisfy their needs at the local stores, and
+among these, for once, was Gwendolyn. She had come up the knoll after
+dinner hour, to invite Amy's presence at the gift buying, and concluded
+her invitation by saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Even if you won't get anything yourself, you might come and look at the
+pretty things. It's surprising how many you find you can pick out in a
+few minutes. They've the loveliest dolls there 't I'm going to get for
+Beatrice and Belinda. Victoria's so big she's outgrown doll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena could hold her tongue no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Toys, is it, alanna! Better be shoes for their feet; an' as for Queen
+Victory an' her dolls, more's the shame to you as sets her the example
+o' growin' up before her time. Vases for the mother, is it? An' she
+after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> patchin' the sheets off her bed. Pardon unasked advice, which
+same is unsavory, belike, an' get the makin' of a new pair. That's
+sense, so it is."</p>
+
+<p>It was sense. As such it commended itself to Gwendolyn, during her walk
+to the village, and bore results for the comfort of her family; for
+though she did run in debt to make her Christmas gifts, at least she now
+altered her usual habit completely, and for each member of the household
+provided some article of use. Even Mrs. Hackett paused in her busy
+attendance upon the crowd of customers to remark:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Gwen, that's a good plan. I guess your folks will be proud
+of what you're giving them this year. Yes, I'm more 'n willing to trust
+you for 'em. A girl that'll spend her money as you are, isn't going to
+cheat me in the long run. Yes, the wagon'll be going out late to-night
+and will fetch 'em all for you. Flannel and sheeting and such are a
+mighty sight heavier to carry than notions. But say, I'll put in a
+little candy for the youngsters, seeing they're disappointed of their
+dolls."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, up at "Charity House," Amy had drawn Cleena into a corner to
+discuss their own plans, and especially to ask concerning a proposed
+trip to the city, by her father, and immediately after the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Goodsoul, that he hasn't been there alone in a long time. Is
+it safe for him to go now? If he should have one of his attacks, what
+would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>happen? Should Hallam go with him? and&mdash;worst of all&mdash;how can we
+spare the money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, Miss Amy, I'd leave the master be. It's the fine sense he's
+gettin' the now. It would hearten the mistress could she see how he does
+be pickin' up. Always that gentle I d' know, as if the sorrow had been a
+broom sweepin' his soul all free of the moilder an' muss was in it long
+by. Only yesternight, whilst I was just washin' off me table afore
+layin' me cloth, into the kitchen he steps an' sits himself down by the
+door, lookin' out toward Fairacres. It was as soft as summer, like it is
+this eve, but faith! a 'green Christmas makes a fat graveyard.'"</p>
+
+<p>The very word made them both silent for a moment, and then Amy
+resumed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Father has packed up a half a dozen or more of his small canvases,
+studies of heads most of them are, I believe, and all are unframed. What
+do you suppose he means to do with them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sell them. What for no?"</p>
+
+<p>"But mother never liked to have him. These are all pictures he did long
+ago."</p>
+
+<p>"The quicker they'll go off the hand then."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you approve?"</p>
+
+<p>"With all me heart."</p>
+
+<p>Amy dropped her face on her palms and considered the matter. Even with
+her habit of dealing with facts rather than fancies, she still found
+life a most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>perplexing and complex affair. The only help she gained
+toward understanding it was that clew taught her by her mother of
+matching the days and the events as one matches a fascinating puzzle.
+Out of this thought she spoke at last, though quite to the bewilderment
+of honest Cleena.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems as if our losing all that belonged to us were making us
+sturdier folks, improving us all. Mother needed no improvement, so she
+hadn't to face the battle long. Well, one thing I know, she would be
+glad for us all, and some way I feel her very near to-day. Only, if I
+could just talk with her and ask her things."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure ye can, me colleen. I mind it's no far to the land where she's
+gone. But about the money. See here; how got I this?"</p>
+
+<p>And Cleena whipped out a handkerchief from her jacket pocket and
+unfolded it with utmost care. In this were a number of silver pieces,
+from half-dollars to dimes, and added together made the "smart decent
+sum" of five dollars and fifteen cents.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cleena! Where? I thought all ours was spent as soon as earned."</p>
+
+<p>"Where? An' I to be mendin' a few clothes for me neighbors. Even that
+man John fetches me a blouse now an' again, to put in a fresh pair o'
+sleeves or set on a button that's missin'. Sure, ye didn't think Cleena
+was one would be leavin' her childer bring in all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> the wage. Only&mdash;" and
+the good creature's fine face clouded dismally.</p>
+
+<p>Amy's arms were around the other's neck, and her soft cheek pressed
+against the shoulder that had borne so many burdens for her and hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Only what, you darling Scrubbub?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only I was mindin' to buy a few trinkets for you an' Master Hal. 'Tis
+Christmas comes but once a year, an' sure me heart should give good
+cheer&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, Cleena! A poet! What next?"</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha, no! Not one o' them sort. But it's in the air, belike.
+Christmastide do set the blood running hitherty-which. So they say in
+old Ireland. It's this way, me darling. Gifts for you an' Hal&mdash;or the
+trip to town for the master. Which, says you? For here's the silver will
+pay either one, an' it's you an' him shall decide."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's decided already. At least, I'm sure Hallam will so agree when
+he comes in. You know he's stopped at Mr. Metcalf's to see some books on
+designing. Hallam thinks that either he might learn to do it or that
+perhaps even father might give some odd moments to it, though I don't
+know as he would hardly dare propose it. The idea was Mr. Metcalf's, and
+he hasn't much 'sentiment' about him. He said that if there was any way
+in which father could make a living, he would be happier if so employed.
+It sounded dreadful to me at first, and then it seemed just sensible."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>"That last it was, and so I b'lieve the master'll say himself. But
+child, child, you do be gettin' too sober notions into your bonny head.
+Oh, for that Balaam the spalpeen stole! But since ye can't ride, why
+then it's aye ye must walk. Either way, get into the open. There's not
+many such a day 'twixt now and Easter. Away with ye! Haven't I me pastry
+to make an' to-morrow Christmas? Go where ye've no thought, an' let the
+spirit carry ye. Then there'll be rest. But be home by nightfall, mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, you dear, the kindest, truest, best woman left in this world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, that's sweet decent speech, me dear; but seein' your 'world's'
+no bigger nor Ardsley township, I 'low I'll not be over set up by that
+same. Run away, child, run away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, you're watching down the road. Why? Why?&mdash;I demand; and you
+talk of pastry, the which hasn't been in 'Charity House' since we came
+to it, save and except that dried apple pie sent in by Mrs. Jones."</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh!" cried Cleena, making a face of contempt. "The match o' that good
+soul's pastry for hardness an' toughness isn't found this side of the
+Red Sea."</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, is that old John coming here to-day? Is it <i>he</i> you are
+watching for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why for no? If a man's more nor his share an' nobody to cook it, why
+shouldn't he be a bringin' it up an' lettin' a body fix it eatable?
+Sure, it's John himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> Ye're too sharp in the wits, an' I don't mind
+tellin' ye; it's all charity, Miss Amy. Him livin' by his lone an'
+gettin' boardin'-house truck. If he says to me, says he, 'Shall I fetch
+the furnishin' o' the best Christmas dinner ever cooked an' you be after
+preparin' it,' says he, 'only givin' me one plateful beside your nice
+kitchen fire,' says he, could I tell the man no, and me a good
+Christian? Ye know better, Miss Amy. Think o' the master, an' Master
+Hal, to-morrow comes. What's the good o' John, then, but to find food
+for me folks? Run along!"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kaye had already gone off for one of his long tramps, over the
+fields and through the woods, to which he was now much given. He had
+taken such, at first, to subdue the restlessness which followed upon his
+wife's death, and as some sort of break in his unutterable loneliness.
+But nature had helped him more than he had dreamed; and to the pure air,
+the physical fatigue, and consequent sound sleep was due much of the
+cure of his mental illness that all who knew him now noticed.</p>
+
+<p>So there was nobody who needed Amy just then, and she set off from
+"Charity House" at a brisk pace, resolved, as Cleena had advised, to
+forget all worry and labor, and "just have one good, jolly time."</p>
+
+<p>She took the road upward toward the woods behind Fairacres, meaning to
+gather a bunch of late ferns for the decoration of the morrow's dinner
+table, since Cleena promised it should be a feast day, after all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>Before she quite realized it even, she had deflected from her course,
+remembering just then a certain glen in the grounds of her old home
+where rare ferns grew to prodigious size, and where no cold of winter
+seemed to harm them. Then once upon the familiar path every step was
+suggestive of some bygone outing, and led her to explore farther and
+still farther.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, the frost-bleached maiden-hair. Nowhere else does it last like
+this. It's almost as white as edelweiss, and far more graceful. I must
+put that in my basket, if nothing else." So she pulled it gently and
+with infinite care, lest she should break the delicate fronds that had
+outlasted their season by so long. Then there were others, dainty green
+and still fragrant, which she gathered eagerly; with here and there a
+bit of crimson-berried vine, or a patch of velvet moss.</p>
+
+<p>Always she kept to the depth of the little ravine, through which ran a
+tiny, babbling brook. This had long ago been named "Merrywater," nor had
+it ever seemed gayer and more winsome than then. It was like reunion
+with some old beloved playmate, and Amy forgot everything but the
+present enjoyment as she stooped and dabbled in the water here and
+there. Sometimes she came to the fantastic little bridges which Hallam
+had used to lie upon the bank and construct out of the roots and pebbles
+she brought him. Where these had fallen into decay she repaired them;
+and at one time was busily endeavoring to force a grapevine into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> place
+when she heard a sound that made her pause in her task and spring to her
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah-umph! A-h-u-m-ph! A-H-U-M-P-H!!!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pepita! No&mdash;Balaam! Balaam, Balaam&mdash;Balaam!"</p>
+
+<p>She was off up the bank in another instant. The sound was from the old
+stable, so dear, so familiar to her. As she ran she caught up here and
+there great tufts of sweet grass, such as had been neglected by the
+mowers, but were dear to donkey appetites.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the precious! The blessed little beast! Won't Hallam be glad! Won't
+this be a Christmas gift indeed, to bring him back his own pet! How glad
+I am I took this way to walk, and how queer it is that he should be back
+in his very own old home. Is it so queer, though? Wouldn't I come, too,
+if I were just a burro and were set free to follow my own will? I can
+hardly wait to reach him."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment she had done so, and had filled the manger with the still
+luscious grass, while climbing upon its front she had thrown her arms
+about the animal's neck and was assuring him, as she might a human
+being, that he had been sadly missed and would be most welcome home.</p>
+
+<p>On his part the burro was fortunately silent, though his great, dark
+eyes looked volumes of affection, and he laid his big ears gently back
+to be out of Amy's way, while she caressed him. She smoothed his
+forelock,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> ran her fingers through his mane, patted his shaggy head, and
+told him that his "big velvet lips were the softest things on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Ahem!"</p>
+
+<p>This remark, if such it could be called, fell upon Amy's ears so
+suddenly that she half tumbled backward from her perch upon the manger,
+and just saved herself by springing lightly down, or she thought it was
+lightly, until she wheeled and faced the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>None other than Archibald Wingate, making a horrible grimace, and
+holding up one of his pudgy feet as if he were in great pain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't know it was your foot, or you were
+you&mdash;I thought it was only the hay on the floor."</p>
+
+<p>"Ugh! Great goodness! Umm. If you ever have the gout, young woman, you
+will understand how it feels to have anybody jump down full force upon
+your toes. Ouch! O dear! O dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Amy had never been accustomed to seeing people make ado over physical
+suffering. She did not understand this man before her, and a thrill of
+distress ran through her own frame, like the touch of an electric
+battery.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am so sorry! I wouldn't have done it for anything if I had known.
+Can't I do something now to help you? Let me rub it or&mdash;or&mdash;lead you.
+You look&mdash;" In spite of her good intentions, the horrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> contortions
+by which Mr. Wingate's countenance expressed his feelings affected her
+sense of the ridiculous, and she smiled. As instantly ashamed of the
+smile, she buried her face in her hands, and waited what would come
+next.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! Yes, you look sorry, of course you do, laughing at an old man
+after you've nearly broken his foot in two. Hmm. You're a sorry lot, the
+whole of you; yes, you are! O-oh!" Yet he, too, and in spite of himself,
+laughed; but it was at his own pitiful joke about his kinsmen being a
+"sorry lot."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, Amy did not understand a jest of this nature, but she was
+swift to see the brightening of his face. She put her hand on his arm,
+and tried to draw his hand within her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it won't be so bad. Lean on me, and I'll help you to a seat or to
+the house. And thank you, thank you so much for putting Balaam in the
+stable, and taking such good care of him. If Hal had known, he wouldn't
+have worried so about the little beast. He's been so tenderly cared for,
+we couldn't bear to think of him as off in the open fields with nobody
+but Fayette."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate said not a word. He simply ceased groaning and grimacing,
+and he slipped his arm through Amy's, while a curious expression settled
+on his face. He did not lean at all heavily upon her, however, and he
+merely glanced toward the burro as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> the pair walked to the stable door.
+Then the animal thought it time to protest. Amy had brought him fresh
+grass, but she had dropped it all outside his manger, where he could not
+reach it. This was aggravation in the extreme. More than that, whenever,
+in the old days, she had been afflicted with one of these outbursts of
+affection, there had generally been a lump of sugar connected with it.
+To lose affection, hay, and sugar, all in one unhappy moment, was too
+much even for donkey patience.</p>
+
+<p>"AH-UMPH! H-umph! A-h-u-m-p-h!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whew! he's split my ears open. Plague take the beast!" cried Mr.
+Wingate, hurrying forward, and now stepping with suspicious freedom from
+lameness.</p>
+
+<p>Amy hurried, too, wondering at his sudden recovery. "Oh, do you dislike
+his talk? I love it. I always laugh when I hear it, it is so absurd, and
+Pepita's was even funnier. She had a feminine note, so to speak, and she
+whined like a spoiled baby."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about spoiled babies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;nothing&mdash;only William Gladstone, he's a trifle self-willed, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"William Gladstone! What do you mean? Who are you talking about? Are you
+all crazy together?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the English statesman, certainly. Just Mrs. Jones's youngest son.
+And I don't think we're crazy."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are, the whole lot. Well, will you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> come into the house
+with me? How did you know the donkey was here? Who told you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He told me," laughed Amy. "Yes, I'll go in if you wish, if I can help
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"How did he tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was gathering these ferns in the glen, and I heard him bray. See,
+aren't they beautiful? They're for the table to-morrow. The prettiest
+ferns in all Fairacres grow along the banks of 'Merrywater.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know. I used to gather them when I was a child. My grandmother
+liked them, though she called them plain 'brakes.' So you're not afraid
+to trespass, then? And you're able to have a dinner-party even so soon
+after&mdash;and with all the pretended devotion. But Cuthbert&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Amy's hand went up to her kinsman's lips. It was a habit of hers,
+sometimes playfully sometimes earnestly used, to ward off anything she
+did not wish another to say to her, and she had done it before she
+thought; but having so done she would not withdraw her silent protest.
+This man should never say, nor would she ever hear, a word against her
+father. Of that she was determined, even though she must be rude to
+prevent.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Archibald Wingate resented the girl's correction. Then, as
+her hand dropped to her side and her gaze to the ground, he spoke:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. I had no business to so speak. I honor you for your
+filial loyalty and&mdash;Come into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> house. I have something I wish to
+discuss with you. So you want to thank me for taking care of Balaam, do
+you? You may feel differently after you have heard what I have to say.
+Oh, you did give me a twinge, I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would it relieve the pain if I bathed the foot for you? Or is there
+anybody else to do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you do that for <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Ring that bell."</p>
+
+<p>Amy obeyed. It was the familiar one which summoned, or had summoned,
+Cleena from her kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>A man answered the call.</p>
+
+<p>"Marshall, have a foot-bath brought in here. This young lady is going to
+dress my foot for me. For once there'll be no blundering heavy-handed
+servant to hurt me."</p>
+
+<p>Over and over and over Amy washed and soothed the red, misshapen foot.
+The repugnance she had felt to touching it had all vanished when she saw
+how acute must have been the old man's suffering and his now evident
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you made a big fuss. Now I don't see how you walk about at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"I walk on my will," answered he, grimly. "You're a good girl; yes, you
+are. You're a real Kaye. Our women were all good nurses and
+tender-handed. It's a pity&mdash;such a pity!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p><p>Amy thought the prodigious sigh that moved his mighty breast was for
+his own distress, and echoed his regret sincerely. "Yes; it is a pity.
+It seems to me it should be cured. I wish it could."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. Say, little woman, suppose you and I try to cure it."</p>
+
+<p>Amy looked up. She had been speaking simply of his disease. She now saw
+that he had not been thinking of that at all. For the moment, while she
+so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound it with the lotions
+Marshall handed her, he had been quite comfortable, and the keen twinkle
+in his eye set her thinking. Was it the family feud he wished might be
+healed? He, who was the very foundation and cause of it?</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i262.jpg" id="i262.jpg"></a><img src="images/i262.jpg" width='436' height='700' alt="SHE SO GENTLY MANIPULATED THE SWOLLEN ANKLE AND BOUND IT WITH THE LOTION" /></div>
+
+<h4>"SHE SO GENTLY MANIPULATED THE SWOLLEN ANKLE AND BOUND IT WITH THE LOTION."</h4>
+
+<p>She caught his hand in both hers, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that we might live at peace; in love, as kinsfolk should?
+Now&mdash;this peace day&mdash;when the Christ child comes? Is it that?"</p>
+
+<p>But Marshall made a little motion which might be warning or contempt.
+The old man's face hardened again.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you asking? Look, you've wet my cuffs! Your hands just out of
+hot water and all liniment!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind your cuffs. <i>Look out for your heart.</i> You're a poor, lonely
+old fellow, and I'm sorry for you."</p>
+
+<p>Before he knew what she was about, Amy had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> thrown her arms about her
+cousin's neck and imprinted a kiss&mdash;somewhere. It didn't much matter
+that it landed squarely on the tip of his pudgy nose. Archibald Wingate
+was so little in the habit of receiving kisses that he might easily have
+imagined this was quite the customary place for their bestowal.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PECULIAR INVITATION.</h3>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to tell which was the most startled. Amy stepped
+back from the unresponsive object of her affectionate impulse and
+blushed furiously. She feared that he would think her bold and silly,
+yet she had only meant to be kind, to comfort him because she pitied
+him. Now, she was painfully conscious that Marshall was standing near,
+coolly observant, with a cynical smile upon his thin lips. It was a
+curious fact, which Amy instantly recognized, that this master of whom
+so many people stood in awe should himself stand in awe of his own
+valet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ahem&mdash;shall I remove the bath, sir? Has the young person finished?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy had not been accustomed to hearing herself spoken of as a "person,"
+and the word angered her. This restored her self-possession. She looked
+up, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how I came to do that, cousin Archibald. I hope you'll
+forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll forgive you. I don't know how you did it, either. Well, man,
+why are you standing there, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>grinning like a Cheshire cat. I tell you
+she has finished. You can take away the things."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; it is time for your nap, sir."</p>
+
+<p>The worm turned. "What if I don't take one to-day? What will happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, sir, except that you will probably be ill. The doctor's
+orders are, when you have an attack&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hang you and the doctor and the attacks, all together! You can leave
+the room, can't you? When I want you, I'll ring."</p>
+
+<p>Because he was too astonished to do otherwise, Marshall obeyed. He was a
+privileged person. His master did not often cross his will. There being
+no other apparent heirs, Marshall had, in his own imagination,
+constituted himself Mr. Wingate's heir. Why not? A lifelong service, an
+untiring devotion to whims of all sorts, a continual attention to the
+"creature comforts" which were so greatly a part of Archibald's
+life&mdash;these merited a rich reward. Marshall intended to receive this
+reward, should he be lucky enough to outlive his employer. He felt that
+he would fill the position of owner of Fairacres with dignity and
+profit. He did not like this new interest Mr. Wingate was taking, by
+fits and starts, in the deposed family who were his relatives
+and&mdash;enemies. In Marshall's opinion the breech between these kinsfolk
+ought not to be healed. Amy's presence in the house was a disastrous
+portent. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> must be gotten out of it as soon as possible, and in such
+a way that she would not care to come again. But how?</p>
+
+<p>The servant revolved this question, as he carried away the bath, and so
+profoundly that he failed to notice where he was going and stepped down
+a forgotten stair so unexpectedly that he fell and drenched himself with
+the water from the tub.</p>
+
+<p>"Plague on her! Now, I'm in for it!" Which meant that before he could
+remove the damage to his attire Amy would probably have gained whatever
+she came to seek. He did not believe that anybody would visit his master
+without having "an axe to grind," for he judged all men by himself.</p>
+
+<p>However, having tasted the sweets of rebellion against this iron rule of
+Marshall, Mr. Wingate determined to enjoy it further.</p>
+
+<p>"He's a meddling old fool. He's a good servant, too. There isn't another
+man in the world would put up with my tempers as he does. Never a word
+in return, and as smooth as silk."</p>
+
+<p>Amy laughed. "He looks to me as if he had had his hair licked by
+kittens. It's so slick and flat. Do you have to mind him always?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mind him? <i>I</i>&mdash;mind my <i>servant</i>, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon. Of course&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate's face was scarlet. The weakness which he had hardly
+acknowledged to himself had been instantly discovered by this
+bright-eyed girl. It wasn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> a pleasant thing to have so observant a
+person about. He had something to say to her, however, and he would do
+it at once and get rid of her. All his newly aroused affection died in
+his resentment against her judgment.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go to the studio. There is something there I don't mean to
+keep, and don't wish to destroy, without consulting some of you."</p>
+
+<p>Amy followed him quietly out of the house toward the building where her
+father had spent so many hours, and which she held in strictest
+veneration. Did it not still enclose the "great picture" which even she
+had never seen, and which had been kept screened from the sight of all?</p>
+
+<p>So she still expected to find the white curtain undisturbed; and as she
+entered the studio, paused&mdash;amazed. The canvas covered the end of the
+apartment; but after one hasty glance Amy shielded her eyes in a
+distress that was almost terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. It <i>is</i> very realistic, isn't it? The thing is horrible. I don't
+wonder that Cuthbert's wits got scattered, working on it. It would drive
+me crazy in a week, and I'm a hard, matter-of-fact man. I kept it,
+because by right I might have kept everything that was here. I supposed
+I was getting something worth while. But this! I don't want it. I
+couldn't sell it. I hate to destroy it. What's to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!"</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. I see it sometimes in the night and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> I can't sleep. I
+mean I imagine I see it, for I never come here after dark. It's a
+wonderful picture, sure enough. A horrible one."</p>
+
+<p>The canvas fascinated Amy. It depicted a great fire. It was ugly in
+extreme. The big, bare building was in flames, everywhere. The windows
+seemed numberless, and at almost every window a face; on these faces all
+the gamut of fright, appeal, and unutterable despair. They were
+human&mdash;<i>living</i>. The girl felt impelled to run and snatch them from
+their doom; also the impulse to hide her eyes, that she might not see.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate had taken a chair before the painting, and was looking at it
+critically.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you that's a marvellous thing, and it's as dreadful as masterly.
+There's only one way I can see by which a man could get any money out of
+it: that's by cutting out the separate faces and selling them singly. A
+body might endure to see one such countenance in his collection, but not
+more; or, it might be destroyed altogether. It explains why Cuthbert
+never recovered from the shock of the accident he was in. He never lost
+sight of it. He must have begun this while it was fresh in his brain,
+and he did his utmost to keep it fresh. Poor Salome, she had a hard
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"She had a happy life. She loved my father. He loved her. Whatever he
+did was right, just right in her eyes. You needn't pity her. But, oh, if
+she were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> only here to consult! Why did you show it to me? Why did I
+have to see it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it couldn't be helped. The thing <i>is</i>; it exists. Now what is
+to be done with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;will ask my father."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that that is wise. It might bring about a return of his
+malady, and I'm told he is improving in all respects."</p>
+
+<p>"I must do it; it is his. There is no other way."</p>
+
+<p>"What if it makes him worse again?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Amy! All her Christmas cheer had died from her heart. She felt that
+it would be almost wicked to remind her father of this, his "life work,"
+of which she had not heard him speak since he left Fairacres. Yet it was
+his. He had given years to its completion, so far as it had neared that
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate regarded her keenly. "Well?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know what to say. Have you nothing to propose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only what I did. To cut it up and sell the faces as so many small
+canvases. That would partially repay me for the things he still owes
+for&mdash;the paints and so on. But I detest the thing so I hate to spread
+the misery of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Repay you? Do you mean that you believe you have a right&mdash;you <i>own</i>
+that picture?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p><p>"Why, it is the labor of&mdash;it means many years out of my poor father's
+life. Can such a thing be 'owned' by anybody except him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course. Hark you. You go home and tell him what I offer. I will
+take the picture off his hands and allow him&mdash;hmm&mdash;maybe two hundred
+dollars; or, he can take it and owe me that much more. In any case I
+want to get rid of it. I won't have it left here much longer. I shall
+have other uses for this room, maybe. Anyway, I mean to get that off the
+place."</p>
+
+<p>Amy moved slowly toward the door. She did not know how to reply, and she
+felt her cousin was a very hard, unjust man. Yet she agreed with him
+that the picture was enough to make a person wish it out of sight, even
+out of existence.</p>
+
+<p>At the doorway he arrested her steps, by laying his hand upon her
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Help me down; I'm afraid of stairs. And there's another thing&mdash;that
+donkey."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I had forgotten Balaam. May I ride him home? Will you have him
+brought around for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What? Not so fast&mdash;not quite so fast! No, I don't mean the stairs.
+I can manage this pace for them. I mean the donkey. It came here of its
+own accord. It gave me an idea. If your brother wants to sell him&mdash;By
+the way, how do you expect to pay the rent?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><p>Amy stopped short, halfway down the stairs, and so suddenly that Mr.
+Wingate remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'd give warning of these spasmodic actions of yours, it would be
+more comfortable for those depending on you. There, please move along."</p>
+
+<p>"The rent? I had not thought. Didn't my mother attend to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the first quarter year, she did. To whom must I look now?"</p>
+
+<p>Unmindful, since this new distressing question had been raised, how much
+she inconvenienced him, Amy sat plump down and leaned her head against
+the hand-rail.</p>
+
+<p>It always appeared to aid her reflective powers if she could rest her
+troubled head against something material.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try to think. I earn two dollars and a half a week."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my foot hurts again. Let's get into a decent room and talk it over
+there. I hate draughty halls and unwarmed rooms. There's a fire in the
+little side parlor off the dining room. That's my own private den. I
+want to get there and lie down. That rabbit pie I had for lunch doesn't
+agree with me, I'm afraid. Do you like rabbit pie?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed; I wouldn't eat one for anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should fancy the pretty creatures looking at me with their soft eyes.
+They're the gentlest animals in the world."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>"The most destructive, you mean."</p>
+
+<p>She did not contest. Besides, she was now in great haste to leave
+Fairacres and regain the shelter of her own home. Strange, she
+reflected, how quickly she had ceased to think of this house, her
+birthplace, as a home; since all that went to make it such had gone
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>"About that rent money. If Hallam is able to keep at work we may
+together earn five dollars a week. That would be twenty dollars a month.
+The rent is ten. We will be able to pay it, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you imagine you will be able to live upon the remainder? Upon two
+and a half dollars a week, four grown persons?"</p>
+
+<p>"If we have no more, we shall have to do so, shan't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me; but what would you eat? I saw no sign of scrimping and
+pinching that day I first came here&mdash;to stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then Cleena was determined you should say no blame of her
+housekeeping. She gave you all in one meal. We've often laughed over it
+since."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! But this two and a half per week, what would it buy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Meal and milk. Sometimes oat meal, sometimes corn. Once and again an
+egg or something for father. Oh, we'd manage."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, hmm; you'd rather live on that than run<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> in debt? You younger
+Kayes, who are all I seem to take account of now&mdash;Salome is gone."</p>
+
+<p>"We will run in no debt we cannot pay, unless we are ill and it is
+impossible to help. Hal and I settled that long ago. So far we have
+managed, and now he is working too, I feel as rich as&mdash;rich."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Amy, if this old house were yours, what would you do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer was prompt and decided.</p>
+
+<p>"Make it into a Home for Mill Girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Whew! What in the world! Fairacres? The proudest old mansion in the
+country, or in this part of it! Are you beside yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should be with delight, if I could make that dream a reality."</p>
+
+<p>"I gave you credit for more sense. But, business&mdash;that donkey. How much
+did Mr. Metcalf intend to pay for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the same as he did for Pepita. Seventy-five dollars&mdash;burro,
+harness, and all."</p>
+
+<p>"At ten dollars a month, that would take you along well into next
+summer. Tell Hallam that I will keep the animal and allow him eight
+months' rent for it. That's giving you a half month, you see. Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'll tell him," answered she, with a catch in her voice. "Only I
+had hoped to take him home with me. It would have made such a delightful
+Christmas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> for us all. You don't know how much we love those pretty
+creatures."</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty! Opinions differ."</p>
+
+<p>"And would it be quite right to make any such arrangements, after having
+asked the superintendent to buy it, and he agreeing? Wouldn't he be the
+one to say something about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, you're incorrigible. You're a radical. A thing is either
+absolutely right or it is absolutely wrong&mdash;according to your standard.
+You'll be in trouble as long as you live, for you'll find nobody else
+with such antiquated notions as yours. There are a great many things
+that are expedient."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate expedient things. I like just the easy, simple 'no' and 'yes'
+that was my darling mother's rule. I'm glad I'm at least a birthright
+Friend."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate was silent. He seemed to drop into a profound reverie, and
+the girl hesitated to disturb him, eager as she now was to be away.
+Finally, as she had made up her mind to speak, he did so himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, do you ever use the plain speech now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes&mdash;between ourselves. For mother's sake we can never let it
+die."</p>
+
+<p>"Will thee use it to me now and then? It was the habit of my boyhood.
+Salome was my oldest friend. We've played together in this very room,
+again and again. She was my good angel. Until&mdash;No matter. You are her
+child. Not like her at all in face or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> manner. She was always gentle,
+and shrank from giving pain. Truthful and puritanical as she was in her
+ideas, she had the tact, the knowledge to say things without hurting
+those whom she corrected. She corrected me often and often, when we were
+young, but she hurt me&mdash;never. Now, you&mdash;heigho!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I hurt&mdash;thee. Of course. I speak first and think afterward. But
+does thee know, cousin Archibald, thee is the very queerest man I ever
+met?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you&mdash;has thee&mdash;known many?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very few. Thee is so good on one side and so&mdash;so&mdash;not nice on the
+other. Like a half-ripened pear. But I am sorry for thee. I wish I could
+do thee good. Do I speak it as thee wishes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes. It is music, even though the words are unflattering
+enough. Well, I'll not keep thee longer. And I don't ask you to call
+attention to this whim of mine by saying 'thee' in public," he remarked,
+himself falling back into the habit of their intercourse.</p>
+
+<p>"No; if I say 'thee,' it is to be always, whenever I remember&mdash;like a
+bond to remind me I must be kind to thee for my mother's sake. If she
+did thee good, I must try to do thee good too."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>Amy reflected. The first, most obvious way, would be by cheering his
+solitude. Yet she hesitated. The thing which had come into her mind
+involved the desires of others also. She had no right, until she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>
+consulted them, to commit herself. Yet she disliked to leave this lonely
+old fellow, without trying to make him glad.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down again in the chair from which she had risen and regarded
+him critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, cousin Archibald, if thee were only a little bit different!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thee, too!" he laughed&mdash;actually laughed; and the action seemed to
+clear his features like a sunburst.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course. Well, it's this way. To-morrow's Christmas, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"So I've heard."</p>
+
+<p>"And somebody&mdash;Teamster John&mdash;has sent Cleena 'the furnishing of a good
+dinner,' she told me. I don't know when we may have another such a meal,
+one that thee would think fit to eat. I'd like to ask thee to come and
+share it with us, instead of staying here alone, all grumpy with the
+gout. But it isn't my dinner, thee sees, and I'm going home to tell my
+people everything. About the picture and the donkey and all. If, after
+that, they agree with me that it would be nice to ask thee to spend the
+holiday with us, I'll bring thee word. If I do, will thee come?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate leaned back in his easy-chair and hugged his gouty foot for
+so long and so silently that Amy grew impatient and rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, I must go home. I've been here ever so much later than I meant
+to stay. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><p>"Wait! How impetuous you&mdash;thee is. Well, I've received a great many
+invitations to dine, from the banquets of bank presidents down to the
+boiled dinners of my own workmen, but I doubt if I ever received one so
+honest and so honestly expressed."</p>
+
+<p>"Will thee come, if thee is asked?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I'll come&mdash;<i>if I'm asked</i>. Don't thee bother to walk all the way
+back again, though. If by nine o'clock to-night I have heard nothing to
+the contrary, I shall understand that I am expected to dine with my
+tenants at 'Spite House.' At what hour, please?"</p>
+
+<p>"On Christmas, dinner is usually at three o'clock. And, if thee pleases,
+it is no longer 'Spite' but 'Charity House.' My mother changed all that.
+Thee must not dishonor her wishes if thee loves her."</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful, an almost beautiful change passed over the old man's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, thee speaks as if she were here still."</p>
+
+<p>"She is to me. She always will be. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She was gone, and the house seemed bigger and emptier after she had left
+it. But Archibald Wingate would not have had anybody know with what
+almost childish anxiety he waited the striking of the clock, as the hour
+of nine drew near. He had been judged a hard and bitter man. He was very
+human, after all. The small brown hand of his young cousin was pointing
+a new, strange way, wherein he might happily walk, and in secret he
+blessed her for it. But he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> a man who liked his own will and to
+follow his own road still; though he might do his utmost to bend that
+road in the direction she had elected. Meanwhile, he would have his
+supper sent in and sitting at ease before his own hearth-blaze review
+many plans.</p>
+
+<p>So he did, and after the supper a comfortable nap, from which he roused
+with a start, fancying the old clock in the hall was striking the hour.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What? Is it nine already? That timepiece must be fast."</p>
+
+<p>"It's only me, sir, Marshall, with a bucket of coals. And, if you
+please, there's a young person outside insists upon seeing you, sir. Am
+I to bid him go away until morning?"</p>
+
+<p>In his disappointment the master's face really paled. Marshall noticed
+it and wondered, but he knew enough, sometimes, to hold his tongue. This
+seemed to him to be one of the times, and he therefore made no comment,
+nor even inquired for the master's health.</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't send anybody away. I fancy that was never the custom at
+Fairacres, on Christmas Eve, be the visitor who he might. We'll not
+disturb the old ways, more than we can help. After all&mdash;Bid the
+messenger come in."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO WANDERERS RETURN.</h3>
+
+<p>The "young person" to whom Marshall referred in such contemptuous terms
+was Lionel Percival Jones. He so announced himself, as he was ushered
+into the presence of the great man.</p>
+
+<p>"I've come to bring a letter from Amy Kaye."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed; would it not sound better if you said 'Miss Kaye,' or 'Miss
+Amy'? She is a kinswoman of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Lionel Percival was astonished. He had prepared himself for this visit
+with the utmost care. He had oiled his curly auburn locks with a scented
+pomatum, and parted them rakishly in the middle. He wore his most
+aggressive necktie and his yellowest shoes, also his Sunday suit of
+clothes. With the exception of the necktie and the pomatum, he would not
+have attracted attention to himself anywhere, and so would have been
+well dressed. With these, he seemed to be all-pervading. He had
+instantly, by means of them, offended Mr. Wingate's taste, and put
+himself at disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I'd just as lief say 'Miss,' but she's a mill girl, same as my own
+sister. I didn't go to mean no harm."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>The mill owner winced. Then inquired:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Is there an answer expected?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Wait here."</p>
+
+<p>The master of Fairacres limped into the adjoining room and turned his
+back toward the door between, hiding his face from the lad's observation
+as he read.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! She left it open, which is correct enough with reliable
+messengers. Probably, though, he had the curiosity to read what she had
+to say,"&mdash;in which he wholly wronged the bearer. But Mr. Wingate had yet
+to learn that even lads who attire themselves atrociously may still be
+true gentlemen at heart, and sin in taste through ignorance only.</p>
+
+<p>This was the note:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Cousin Archibald Wingate</span>: My father and Hallam will be very happy
+to have thee dine with us to-morrow, Christmas Day. Cleena says that
+dinner will be served at three o'clock. If thee knew her as well as I
+do, thee would understand that she means not a minute before nor one
+afterward. If thee pleases, I would rather not have any 'business' talk
+of any sort to-morrow. I would like it to be a day of peace, as my
+mother always kept it for us. Thee may meet some other guests, but we
+will try to make thee happy.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Good night,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Amy</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><p>It was a very cheerful and smiling old gentleman who returned to the
+room where Lionel Percival waited for the reply, a brief but stately
+acceptance of the invitation; for since Amy had set him the example, the
+mill owner considered that she regarded such formality essential.</p>
+
+<p>Then he called in Marshall and bade him see that the messenger had a bit
+of supper before his return walk, which proceeding made the valet stare,
+and the boy feel exceedingly proud. It would be something of which to
+boast among his comrades at the mill.</p>
+
+<p>The morning proved a cloudless one, mild and merciful to such as
+suffered from gout, and Mr. Wingate drove himself to "Charity House" in
+his own little phaeton. He felt this was an occasion when Marshall's too
+solicitous attentions might be in the way. He held a debate with
+himself, before setting off, whether he should or should not add to the
+feast from his own larder, and he decided against so doing by the simple
+test of "put yourself in his place."</p>
+
+<p>But there was plenty and to spare. Teamster John did nothing by halves.
+Those who have least of this world's goods are always the most generous.
+Cleena had prepared each dish with her best skill and waited upon her
+guests with smiling satisfaction. Afterward, in the kitchen, she and
+John discussed the strange reunion of their "betters," and Cleena
+speculated upon it in her own fashion:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p><p>"Sure, there's never fish, flesh, nor fowl could withstand the loving
+ways of me little colleen. And to hear them talkin' together, like lambs
+in the field. Them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I never heerd lambs talkin'," observed John, facetiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's deaf ye've been belike. Oh, me fathers, if here doesn't come
+me own Gineral&mdash;Napoleon&mdash;Bonyparty! Where have ye been avick, avick?"
+she demanded, pushing hastily back from the board and hurrying out of
+doors. "Well, it's proof o' yer sense ye comes back in due time for a
+bit o' the nicest turkey ever was roast. But it's shamefaced ye be,
+small wonder o' that! Howsomever, it's a day o' good will. Come by. Wash
+up, eat yer meat, an' give thanks. To-morrow&mdash;<i>I'll settle old scores</i>.
+Come by."</p>
+
+<p>Yet when Fayette entered the kitchen and learned from John who were the
+guests in the dining room beyond, he scowled and would have gone away
+again. However, he had forgotten Cleena. That good woman, having
+received her prodigal back, did not intend to relinquish him. She saw
+his frown, his hasty movement, and shutting the door put her back
+against it.</p>
+
+<p>"You silly omahaun! If your betters forgives an' eats the bread o'
+peace, what's you to be settin' such a face on the matter? Come by. Be
+at peace. There's the blessed little hunchback eatin' cranberry sauce
+cheek by jowl with her 'boss,' an' can't you remember the Child was born
+for such as you, me poor silly lad? Come by."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><p>Fayette "came by" at last, silently and because he was half famished,
+and could not resist the savory odors of the tempting food Cleena
+offered him. Yet in his heart there was still anger and evil intent; and
+though he was amazed to find Mary Reese a guest at the Kayes' table, as
+well as their "mortal enemy," Mr. Wingate, he made no further comment,
+and as soon as the meal was over retreated without a word to his chamber
+and shut the door.</p>
+
+<p>"It's like he might ha' just stepped out yesternight, he drops into ways
+so quick," said Cleena.</p>
+
+<p>"But he's not the same lad. He'll give somebody trouble before long. You
+do wrong, woman, to harbor him. He's vindictive and dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>The trustful Cleena laughed the teamster to scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, give a dog a bad name an' he'll earn it. Let the lad be. In old
+Ireland we call such the 'touched of God.' We judge not, an' that's the
+size of a man&mdash;how he betreats the helpless ones. Put that in your pipe
+an' smoke it."</p>
+
+<p>Surely, John thought, there was a deal of good sense and heart kindness
+in this stalwart daughter of Erin. He was Yankee himself, to the
+backbone; yet, as he pushed back from the table, satisfied and at ease,
+he pulled from his pocket a small paper parcel. It was his Christmas
+gift for his hostess, and intended to suggest many things. She was
+bright enough to comprehend his meaning, if she chose. Would she? She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+gave no sign, if she did, as she unrolled the package and placed its
+contents&mdash;a small flag of Ireland and its mate, in size, of the United
+States&mdash;behind the kitchen clock, where the blended colors made a bit of
+gayety upon the whitewashed wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Long may they wave!" cried the donor.</p>
+
+<p>"Troth, I'm not seein' no wavin'. They're best as they be, with the
+timepiece betwixt. Each in its place, as the Lord wills, an' mine's
+here. So here I bides till I'm no longer wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a biggish house," quoth the undismayed suitor. "There's room in it
+for me, too, I cal'late."</p>
+
+<p>But if Cleena heard this remark she ignored it, passing swiftly into the
+dining room to remove the dishes of the first course, and substituting
+the luxury of a basket of fruit which she had accumulated somehow, as
+only herself could have explained.</p>
+
+<p>Maybe there is no trivial thing that so greatly helps to bridge over a
+trying situation as good breeding. The breeding which is really good,
+out of the inner life: kindness and the reluctance to inflict pain. It
+was such breeding that enabled the oddly assorted company at that
+Christmas dinner table to pass the hours of their intercourse not only
+in peace, but with absolute enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, when the elders pushed back their chairs, Mr. Kaye proposed
+that Amy should sing some of the old-time ballads familiar to the
+childhood of both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>himself and his kinsman. So Hallam took out his
+mother's guitar and tuned it, and his sister placed herself beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, how well I remember that little instrument," cried Mr. Wingate,
+"and the commotion it caused among the Friends. Music used to be the
+most 'worldly' and undesirable thing, but they are more tolerant now.
+Give us 'Lang Syne,' youngsters. It's the song for the day and&mdash;this
+hour."</p>
+
+<p>It was. They sang it lustily, and Amy was amazed to hear how finely that
+deep voice of their cousin could fill in the pauses of her own treble,
+sweet but not strong. Then there was "Annie Laurie," and "Edinboro'
+Toon," and "Buy my Caller Herrin'," and others; till Cleena drew John to
+the door to listen and applaud, forgetting for once the big pile of
+dishes standing unwashed upon her kitchen table.</p>
+
+<p>"For, aye, it's a time o' peace, thank God. An' her that has gone is
+among us never a doubt I doubt. What's a bit o' idlin' when a sight for
+saints is afore ye? If Fayetty, now&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Fayette was not there. Neither was he in his own room when Cleena
+sought him there. He had left it while she was off guard and had made
+his escape unseen. Forces of good and evil were tormenting him: the
+struggle to do right and please these good friends, and the greater
+yearning to seek the wrong path to revenge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p><p>Yet, after all, what was this poor human waif to these happier folk? So
+he asked himself as he sneaked away in the twilight which hid his
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>Had Amy heard the question, she would have answered it promptly: "Much,
+Fayette. Everybody one knows is something to one's self."</p>
+
+<p>But she did not even hear of his brief visit, for, having discovered his
+fresh defection, Cleena decided to keep the matter to herself.</p>
+
+<p>It was getting quite late when Archibald Wingate drove away from
+"Charity House" toward Fairacres, and as he went he pondered of many
+things. Once or twice he fancied he saw a lurking shadow in the road,
+that was not due to either bush or tree which bordered it. But he
+thought little of the matter, so engrossed was he with the recollections
+of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer, what a pleasant time I had. Yet we are all, practically,
+enemies. Each side feels that the other side has been at fault. Anyway,
+I seem to hear Salome saying: 'Judge not my children by the mistakes of
+their parents.' Nor will I; of that I am resolved. I'll give even that
+top-lofty lad, Hallam, a fair show, by and by. I must test him a little
+longer first, then I'll begin. That is, if he's made of the right stuff.
+As for Amy, she's a witch. She's wheedled the heart right out of me with
+her bright, unflinching, honest eyes. Talked to me about getting up a
+'club' for the mill folks. 'The right sort of club, with books and
+pictures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> and everything helpful.' The saucebox! and she earning the
+mighty wage of two-fifty per week. Well, all in good course. I haven't
+toiled a lifetime to attain my object, then relinquish it without a
+little enjoyment of it; though, after all, possession isn't everything.
+The struggle was about as enjoyable as the result. But I succeeded! I am
+master of Fairacres, of Ardsley Mills, of half all Ardsley township. The
+old family is still on top. But, I'll buy Cuthbert's great picture and
+burn it up&mdash;sometime. Hmm. Wonder where that visionary Frederic Kaye is,
+of whose unpractical schemes I am reaping the benefit. Odd&mdash;buried
+himself in California, so to speak, and the only visible proofs that he
+had ever reached that happy land are a couple of braying burros.&mdash;Hello!
+hello, I say! Who's that? What's up?"</p>
+
+<p>The shadow which had dogged the track of the mill owner's phaeton had
+suddenly become a reality. His horse was seized, forced backward, the
+horsewhip wrenched from its socket, and before he could defend himself
+Mr. Wingate's head and shoulders felt the cuts of the whip, delivered in
+swift and furious intensity.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on! hold&mdash;on! What&mdash;who&mdash;stop, stop, <i>s-t-o-p</i>! You're killing me!
+What's wanted? It's murder&mdash;<i>murder</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>And again after another visitation of stripes, that awful cry of
+"mur-der!"</p>
+
+<p>The word holds its own horror. No one can thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> hear it shouted, in the
+stillness of the night, unmoved. It affected even the ferocious
+assailant of the lonely old man, and arrested his further blows.</p>
+
+<p>"Murder." That meant death, prison, everything that was hateful. Even to
+Fayette's dull brain there penetrated some realization of what his
+present deed implied. For this was he who had waylaid an "enemy" on the
+highroad and beaten him into unconsciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Then he remembered his own wrongs, and his anger flamed afresh.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought you could do all the lickin', did ye? How many times did <i>you</i>
+have <i>me</i> thrashed? What did you care if the man who thrashed me 'bout
+killed me? What was I, only 'Bony,' out o' the poor farm! Ugh, you old
+rascal! Take that, and that, and that. Huckleberries! but it's fun to
+settle such scores."</p>
+
+<p>The old horse which Mr. Wingate drove stood quiet in the road, else the
+matter might have had a different ending; for had she run and dragged
+her now helpless master, he would surely have been killed. As it was,
+she did not move, so there was nothing to deaden the sound of the sharp
+blows Fayette administered; and in the silence of the place and night
+this sound carried far.</p>
+
+<p>It reached the ears of a foot passenger, toiling up the mill road toward
+Fairacres and quickened his pace. So that when the half-wit finally
+paused for breath, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> felt himself caught by his collar and heard a
+stern voice demanding:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What's this? Hold! Stop! This&mdash;<i>here</i>, in <i>Ardsley</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette looked up. The man who had gripped him was much taller than he,
+and seemed in that dim light a giant for strength. The capture brought
+back all those visions of punishment and the prison. In a twinkling the
+agile lad had writhed himself free from his short coat and leaped away
+into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The newcomer heard a sound of retreating footsteps and mocking laughter,
+then turned his attention to the injured man in the phaeton.</p>
+
+<p>"An old fellow, too, he seems. Hello! Are you alive? Hey! Can't you
+speak? That's serious."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger's actions were alert and decided. He gently raised the bent
+figure of the unconscious Mr. Wingate to as comfortable a position as he
+could, stepped into the vehicle, and took up the reins.</p>
+
+<p>"If nothing is changed, the nearest house is old Fairacres. But I didn't
+look for such a home-coming. Get up there, nag!"</p>
+
+<p>Not since the days of her youth had the sorrel mare been forced into
+such a pace as then. The rescuer drove for life and death, and as if all
+turnings of the old road were familiar to him. Nor did he slacken rein
+until he reached the front door of the mansion, and sung out in a voice
+to wake great echoes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p><p>"Hello, there! Come out! A man in distress!"</p>
+
+<p>This hello reached the stable, where Fayette was loosing Balaam, and
+roused that intelligent beast to speak his opinion concerning these
+disturbances of his rest.</p>
+
+<p>Marshall, hurrying to answer the imperative demand at the front door,
+heard the burro's bray of protest, though he paid it small attention
+then, because of the nearer demand. Holding his candle high above his
+head, he slid back the bolts and peered out, but the sight which met his
+gaze set him trembling like an aspen.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;my land! Master, what&mdash;what's happened? Have they murdered you out
+of hand? Ah, but my mind misgave me how 'twould be. To think it&mdash;to
+think it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! Put down the candle. Give a lift; he's powerful heavy. Is this
+your master?"</p>
+
+<p>The servant retreated. This might be the very person who had done the
+mill owner such terrible injury. He would put his own precious anatomy
+out of harm's reach.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you fool! Come back. You're safe. Leave that door open. I'll bring
+him in myself. Make way there&mdash;quick!"</p>
+
+<p>Marshall tried to barricade the entrance to the room beyond the hall by
+means of his own plump body, and was promptly kicked aside, as the
+stranger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> strode past him, bearing the unconscious man upon his
+shoulder, very much as if he had been a bag of meal.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this your master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Y-ye-s. Who&mdash;are you&mdash;ordering&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hot water&mdash;lights&mdash;a doctor&mdash;everything&mdash;<i>at once</i>. I'm Frederic Kaye."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>FREDERIC KAYE'S WELCOME HOME.</h3>
+
+<p>The excitement at Ardsley was intense. Never had its quiet precincts
+been disturbed by a crime so unprovoked and dastardly.</p>
+
+<p>"To strike a man in the dark."</p>
+
+<p>"To waylay an old fellow like that. The man is a coward, whoever he be,
+that did it."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old 'boss.' He wasn't to say over lovable, in ordinary, but I'd
+pity even a scoundrel got treated that way."</p>
+
+<p>"He ought to be punished with his own stripes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll get what he deserves. Never fear. If old man Wingate had been
+poor&mdash;well, you might say. But a rich man has friends."</p>
+
+<p>Such talk all through the mill, on that day after Christmas, interfered
+seriously with the customary labor. But it was small wonder; and though
+he tried to enforce discipline and keep things running smoothly, even
+Mr. Metcalf himself was greatly disturbed and anxious.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the assault upon the mill owner had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> spread rapidly. At
+first the story told by the stranger, who had so suddenly and
+opportunely appeared upon the scene, was given credence. Then, when it
+was remembered that this stranger, now known to be Frederic Kaye, had
+been injured and supplanted by Archibald Wingate, a faint suspicion
+began to rise in men's minds.</p>
+
+<p>Only those who have suffered from it know with what terrible rapidity an
+unjust rumor grows and spreads. Inoculated by this evil germ, even the
+fairest judgment becomes diseased. Those who had best known Frederic
+Kaye, the old people who recalled his frank, impetuous, happy-go-lucky
+boyhood, here in the town where he was born and bred; those who had
+received good from his hand, and nothing but good; even these joined
+with the baser sort in considering the night attack upon the mill owner
+"quite natural. Just what might have been expected."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course no one knows what sort of life Kaye's led out there in
+Californy. The jumping-off place of creation."</p>
+
+<p>So, instead of finding himself among friends, the returned citizen
+discovered that he was among enemies, under the basest of suspicions. He
+had remained all night at Fairacres, with the doctor so hastily summoned
+there. This gentleman was an old acquaintance, and from him Mr.
+Frederic, as he had always been called in distinction from Mr. Kaye, the
+artist and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> brother-in-law, learned the history of the past weeks.
+Yes, even of years.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity, a great pity! When I failed to pay what I owed on the
+property here, and Salome, my sister, saw that I would lose everything
+unless somebody came to my aid, she did so. I hoped, I fully expected,
+to be able to return what she advanced. All the world knows now that I
+was not."</p>
+
+<p>"She was not the first person who has been ruined by injudicious
+indorsement."</p>
+
+<p>The Californian winced. His home-coming was proving a terrible
+disappointment to him, and he little dreamed how much worse than
+disappointment was yet in store.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, bad luck has pursued me. I have lost in every speculation I ever
+undertook. The last I tried was the evaporation of fruits. There's money
+in it, if I had the capital&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you did not know how badly things were going with your sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never dreamed it. You knew her well&mdash;Salome was never a whiner. If
+she had even intimated the straits which she was in, I would have thrown
+up every chance and come back at once, to put my shoulder to the wheel
+in some shape. I wouldn't have permitted it."</p>
+
+<p>"How happen you here just now?"</p>
+
+<p>"My niece, Amy, wrote me of her mother's death. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> was a brief,
+heart-broken little letter. I have it here. It brought me home, but I
+still fancied that home was this house." The gentleman took from his
+pocket a small envelope and read its enclosure aloud. It was, as he had
+stated, extremely short and gave only the facts.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Uncle Frederic</span>: Our mother is dead. She is buried at Quaker
+cemetery. My father and Hallam are well. So is Cleena. I don't know how
+to write to you because you are really a stranger to me. The burros are
+both well. Your loving</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Amy Kaye</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"There, that's all. It was enough to bring me clear across the
+continent, however. My heart aches; I should have come sooner. Oh, for
+one sight of Salome's beautiful face before&mdash;" He dropped his head on
+his hand and a sob shook the strong frame.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor rose and busied himself about his patient. He respected the
+brother's grief, and he liked this man, unthrifty and neglectful as he
+might have been.</p>
+
+<p>Then Marshall made a sign, and the physician left the room so quietly
+that Mr. Kaye did not hear him go. Outside, in the hall, the valet was
+waiting, almost breathless with eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"Will he live?" he questioned in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Time will tell. I hope so," was the unsatisfactory response.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p><p>"Well, if he don't, that's his&mdash;murderer."</p>
+
+<p>The other sprang back as if he had been struck.</p>
+
+<p>"Man, take care what you say! How dare you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't it reasonable? Didn't he say he was the man that owned the mill,
+this house, everything before master did? Who else had a grudge against
+the poor old man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lots of people, I reckon. It won't hurt him to tell the truth. He was
+as testy as a snapping turtle&mdash;you know that. Plenty of folks disliked
+him. Most likely the person who attacked him was a tramp who hoped to
+find money. By the way, did anybody look to see if there had been
+robbery as well as assault?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did. No; there wasn't anything stole, so far as I know. That's what,
+one thing&mdash;why it must have been&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Wise laid his hand on Marshall's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, man, you stop that talk. Not another word of it. How dare
+you, I say how dare you, thrust suspicion upon an innocent man? I'd
+stake my life on the integrity of any Kaye was ever born. Unfortunate
+this returned wanderer may be, but&mdash;If you let me hear one single word
+more of such fol-de-rol, I'll make it hot for you. Understand? Haven't
+we got enough on our hands to keep your master alive? There must be
+quiet here, absolute quiet. It's your business to have it maintained;
+and if you don't, I'll have you punished as accessory to the deed. Hear
+me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p><p>All this had been delivered in the lowest tone possible, yet each
+syllable was as distinctly enunciated as if it had been shouted. The
+doctor knew Marshall. He chose that idle threat of "accessory" as the
+safest means to accomplish his own object.</p>
+
+<p>This was all very well, so far as it went. Unfortunately, the doctor was
+not the only person to whom the valet had already announced his
+suspicion. There were other servants in the kitchen, and they had been
+swiftly poisoned by his opinion. So that when, after a sleepless night
+of watching beside his kinsman's bed, Frederic Kaye set off for "Charity
+House" and his relatives, he was even then a marked man.</p>
+
+<p>Into the sacredness of reunion, when the little family on the knoll were
+discussing all that had befallen them, on either side, and the two men
+were renewing old affections, while Hallam and Amy were forming new ones
+for this new uncle, there came an alarming summons.</p>
+
+<p>A local officer of the law presented himself before the group and on
+behalf of the public safety arrested the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Arrest me? Why, what in the name of justice do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I say. For the attack upon a peaceful citizen, who lies at
+the point of death, brought there by your villainous hand," repeated the
+sheriff, solemnly. He so seldom had opportunity to exercise his office
+that he now embellished it with all the dignity possible.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p><p>"Indeed, take care of your words, friend! It was a case of rescue, not
+attack. You are slightly mixed in your ideas, sir. I found him suffering
+a terrible horsewhipping at the hands of somebody whom I do not know,
+who slipped away from me when I seized him, and disappeared in the
+darkness. I was too anxious over Mr. Wingate to notice, or even care,
+which direction the rascal took. But&mdash;aha, it's too absurd!"</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that whatever you say will be used against you," cautioned the
+officer of the law.</p>
+
+<p>"Let it. I could ask no better treatment."</p>
+
+<p>"You say you grabbed a fellow. What was he like?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was too dark to see distinctly. He appeared rather tall and slim. I
+don't remember that he said a word, but he laughed harshly as he ran.
+Somehow, that laugh gave me the impression that the man was demented.
+But I have nothing else to judge by, and I would not be unjust. The
+thing for which to be thankful is that Dr. Wise hopes my kinsman's
+injuries are not fatal."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. All the same, sir, you will have to go with me."</p>
+
+<p>Frederic Kaye turned toward his friends a countenance which expressed as
+much amusement as annoyance. Cuthbert Kaye had risen, and his face was
+white with indignation. The sight of this, determined his brother-in-law
+to yield quietly to the inevitable. He had heard much during his night
+with Dr. Wise of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> artist's recent condition, and he felt it would be
+criminal to let him become excited now. So he laid his hand
+affectionately upon the trembling shoulder, and remarked, with laughing
+disdain:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, lad, don't think of it. It's a ludicrous mistake, of course, and
+the best, the simplest way to correct it is for me to go with this
+gentleman; and I doubt not I'll be back in time for dinner. Why, Cleena,
+woman, take care! It's delightful to find you so loyal to your 'black
+sheep,' but fisticuffs won't answer, nor even a shillalah."</p>
+
+<p>This was a diversion, and everybody laughed. For Cleena had advanced
+threateningly toward the sheriff, raising her rolling-pin, that she
+happened to have in hand, as if she would bring it down upon his
+offending head. Her hand dropped to her side, but her eyes did not cease
+to hurl contempt upon the officer, as, under cover of the merriment
+resulting, Frederic Kaye himself led the way out of the house toward the
+"bar of justice."</p>
+
+<p>Because Cleena fancied that Amy had taken cold, the girl had remained at
+home that morning, but she now begged to be allowed to return to the
+mill.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go and see Mr. Metcalf. He'll be the very one to help Uncle
+Frederic, if he needs help, and I'd rather tell him the story myself."</p>
+
+<p>"If you go, I will too," said Hallam, quickly. "I'll have no holidays
+you do not share."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><p>"Nonsense! Your work is 'piece work.' If you get behind at one time,
+you can make it up at another. The superintendent told me you could soon
+bring it home to do, if you wished."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shall not wish&mdash;not for the present. Let us both go."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kaye looked up as if he would remonstrate. Then he took up a western
+newspaper that their guest had laid down, and began to read. But his
+children had seen his glance, and interpreted it to themselves by a
+swift exchange of their own. Amy's eyes spoke to her brother's, as
+plainly as words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We mustn't leave him alone to-day," and Hallam's had telegraphed
+back:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No, I see that. One of us must stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, father, Hal is not half so necessary to the success of Ardsley
+Mill as I am. He's going to help you mount those sketches this morning,
+while I hunt up Uncle Frederic, and try to get a 'day off' to visit with
+him. Cleena must dish up the remains of the yesterday dinner for us, and
+we'll keep Christmas over again. Isn't it just lovely, lovely, to have
+one's relatives turn up in this delightful fashion? First, Cousin
+Archibald, behaving just like other folks; and now this romantic arrival
+of the long-lost uncle. Good-by. I'll be back as soon as I can."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kaye and Hallam repaired to the upper floor as Amy went away, but
+Cleena remained standing for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> long time, motionless in the middle of
+the room. Her head was bent, and her gaze fixed, as if she were studying
+some matter deeply. Finally she roused with a mighty sigh and stalked
+out of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, the pother o' life. It's an' up an' down, so fast it makes a body
+dizzy in their wits. That boy, Fayetty, one day as good as a fine fish
+o' Friday; the next&mdash;eatin' me heart out with the worry. Never a doubt I
+doubt 'twas himself belabored the old man on his road home. There's bad
+blood 'twixt 'em. But I'll aye see if he's in his bed the now."</p>
+
+<p>So she ascended to the back chamber that Fayette used. To her knock
+there came, at first, no response; but she kept on with her tapping and
+interspersed this with coaxing tones, and finally a voice answered her.</p>
+
+<p>"What you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yerself, avick."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can't have me."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I no? It's two makes a bargain."</p>
+
+<p>"Clear out."</p>
+
+<p>"After you is manners for me. Come by."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave me alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd take shame to myself. Have ye heard the fine doin's? No?"</p>
+
+<p>"What doings?"</p>
+
+<p>"The lad's back from foreign parts, Miss Amy's uncle. He's the one has
+donkeys in his pocket. Heard ye ever o' him?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p><p>"Where's he at?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, I d' know. Belike he's after takin' a stroll about, meetin' old
+friends. What for no? Come on an' help me get a fine dinner out o'
+scraps."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose he'd give me one?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a doubt I doubt, <i>he'll give ye all ye deserve</i>. Come by. There's
+kindlin' to split an' praties to peel, an'&mdash;Whist! What's that I hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Fayette's curiosity was very strong. It had led him into trouble more
+than once. It now induced him to open the door and peep through.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that, Cleena? Anything happenin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha, but I think yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, if ye're askin', I'm believin' it's Willyum Gladstone happenin'
+down in your minin' hole."</p>
+
+<p>"Huckleberries!"</p>
+
+<p>The door flew open, Fayette rushed by as if he could not move half fast
+enough. It seemed to Cleena he cleared the stairs with two bounds, and
+an instant after she heard him hurrying into the cellar at the same
+headlong pace.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. I thought that'd fetch him," she chuckled. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she had once heard the lad speak of using "giant
+powder," or some such explosive in his work of the underground passage.
+She had strictly forbidden this, and had carefully watched lest any
+suspicious material might be brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> upon the premises. She had even
+persuaded Teamster John to examine the trench and the articles which
+Fayette had placed there. He had found nothing wrong, and the pick and
+the shovel had been so long disused that they had rusted. Of late Cleena
+had let William Gladstone play down there in the soft dirt, while she
+was busy at other things.</p>
+
+<p>"Alanna, the day!"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena followed her leader only a trifle less swiftly, and reached the
+top of the cellar stairs just in time to receive a whirling object plump
+in her arms. The object was the incipient statesman, and in a second
+more the half-wit had also reached the kitchen floor and had shut the
+door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll teach him to interfere with my gold mine!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>FAIRACRES IS CLOSED.</h3>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Metcalf, may I come in?"</p>
+
+<p>The superintendent was alone in his office and admitted Amy at once.
+"Such strange things have happened, I've not come to work to-day, but to
+ask your help. My Uncle Frederic&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, child, you are breathless with haste. You needn't talk. I
+have heard your news. Dr. Wise has sent me a message. I am expecting him
+here immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it dreadful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very," answered the gentleman, and his grave face emphasized his words.
+He knew Archibald Wingate better than anybody else could know him. He
+was the rich man's confidential employee, from whom no weaknesses were
+hid. He believed the mill owner to be vindictive, and he had heard his
+often-expressed contempt for the "whole family of Kaye, so far as its
+men are concerned." Of course, this had been some time ago; before
+Fairacres had become Mr. Wingate's home. Since then his enmity toward
+his relatives had seemed to slumber, it had even altered to a sort of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>friendliness; yet Mr. Metcalf had no faith in the endurance of this
+friendliness should any test be put upon it. The attack of the night
+before had pointed suspicion very strongly toward one of "the Kayes,"
+and should the victim recover, he would, doubtless, prosecute to the
+full extent of the law the person who had assaulted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how he is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of whom do you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Archibald, of course. I am so sorry for him. If I hadn't to
+work, I would go and take care of him, if he'd let me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he would. Besides, you would not be either strong or wise
+enough. He must have trained nursing, the best obtainable. I hear that
+he has recovered consciousness and is resting quietly. What
+complications may arise one cannot foresee. He has been a high liver,
+and he is an old man; but I hope for the best. I hope it not only for
+his sake, but everybody's concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it queer that that man, that officer,&mdash;a sheriff he called
+himself,&mdash;should come after my uncle? It frightened my father, so Hallam
+stayed with him. I'm sorry to be away from my place to-day, but Cleena
+fancies I have taken cold. Then, too, since Uncle Frederic came, of
+course I should devote myself to him. He's just splendid. So big and
+strong and jolly. Even under his sorrow about my mother he is as
+sunshiny as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> possible. He's like a fresh west wind that 'airs' a house
+so wonderfully. I do want you to see him; and I came to ask if you'd
+just go and explain to that sheriff how silly it is to suspect him."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Metcalf regarded Amy for a moment in silence. With all her good
+sense, she was as ignorant as a child of many things in practical life.
+He answered her very gently:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I expect to see him soon, that is my intention. Dr. Wise and I will
+become his 'bail', so that he can soon be set at liberty."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you. What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this: your uncle has been arrested upon suspicion of waylaying and
+assaulting Mr. Wingate. He will be imprisoned unless somebody becomes
+surety for him, that he will appear at court when summoned to stand his
+trial and prove his innocence if he can. It is right you should know
+this, though extremely disagreeable for me to speak of it."</p>
+
+<p>Amy's face paled as he talked. She did not wonder that her father had
+been frightened. The thing was horrible, and the disgrace of it crushed
+her. She bowed her head beneath its weight, and sat silent so long that
+the superintendent was moved to rise and comfort her.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take it so to heart, my child; there is, of course, some great
+mistake. The thing is&mdash;to find out who the real assailant was and bring
+him to justice. This, unfortunately, will be a difficult matter."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p><p>"No; I won't mind it. Why should I? If he had done this wicked thing, I
+should be right to feel shame; but he didn't. Oh! I've just thought of
+something that might help. Uncle Frederic said he caught the man by the
+collar, and the man slipped out of his coat and ran away. Where is the
+coat? Has anybody looked for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Several persons, my own messenger among others. There is no trace of
+any garment anywhere near the highroad. If we could find that, as you
+say, it would simplify matters greatly. Come with me; I heard Nanette
+wishing she could show you her Christmas gifts. To hear her describe
+each, one would imagine she could see them. She is so interested about
+Balaam, too. She wonders where he is, and if he misses Pepita as much as
+she would miss one of her numerous sisters. When Dr. Wise has been here
+and we have concluded our business, I will call for you, probably, with
+your uncle. I have a new horse I'm anxious to try, and things are so
+unsettled here to-day&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Unsettled?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Ardsley doesn't often have such a sensation as its wealthiest
+citizen being horsewhipped. It's difficult to get the hands to work
+regularly. It's just as well you do not try, till it's blown over. You
+would be asked no end of questions, idle as the people who would put
+them."</p>
+
+<p>In his kind heart he wished to save her not only the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> questions, but the
+shadow which might rest upon her because of her misjudged relative. By
+nightfall, or earlier, he was determined to have the Californian set at
+liberty. It was an outrage that one who acted the good Samaritan should
+receive such reward, and he believed that two as influential townsmen as
+Dr. Wise and himself could, by their indorsement of the prisoner, turn
+the tide of public opinion in his favor.</p>
+
+<p>So Amy went again to the Metcalf home and forgot all her cares in the
+midst of its bright young people. The hours went swiftly round, and it
+was not till the gate clicked and a trio of gentlemen came striding up
+the path that she remembered how anxious she had been.</p>
+
+<p>Then she sped out of the house and flung herself into her uncle's arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm so glad they found out their mistake! How ashamed that sheriff
+will be! Please, Mr. Metcalf, may I show him his own little Pepita, that
+was? And thank you for helping him to explain, or for the 'bail,' and
+everything. Thank you, too, Dr. Wise. Do you know how Mr. Wingate is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Improving. He's pretty badly scared and shocked, but I think he will
+come out all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Can he tell who struck him? That would clear everything up all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it would be a simple solution of the matter. I am hoping he will
+be able to tell, after a while; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> for the present my object is to
+prevent, as far as possible, his recalling the incident. He must not be
+excited, else there may be fever. But all in good time, I think. Now Mr.
+Metcalf has invited us to ride behind his new horse. I have an hour of
+leisure, and I propose to show this old Ardsley boy the changes a few
+years have made, even in our quiet town. Did I hear anything about a
+small girl named Amy being one of the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, you did. Oh, what a treat! A real Christmas gift. To ride
+behind a brand new horse, beside a brand new uncle, in a brand new
+carriage, is enough to turn my head; so forgive me if I'm silly&mdash;sillier
+than common. And oh, Mr. Metcalf, can't Nanette go too? She's so little
+she takes up no room worth mentioning, and I love her."</p>
+
+<p>It was a merry party. Amy believed that all the morning's trouble had
+been overcome, and did not realize that being out on bail was in itself
+sort of an imprisonment to a man of honor. Until the real culprit was
+found Frederic Kaye would still be under suspicion; yet he could enjoy
+his parole, and this ride had been purposely planned by his friends as a
+means of influencing that variable public opinion which had first
+promptly misjudged him.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, they drove through the principal streets of the town, past
+all its business places, and lingered by the haunts of the village
+gossips, that Ardsleyites might see and comment.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p><p>"Well, if that don't beat all!" exclaimed Mrs. Hackett to her
+customers. "There's Dr. Wise and the 'Supe' driving Mister Fred all over
+creation. I guess they don't believe anything against him, bad as things
+look. I don't know as 'tis right, either. I guess I'll wait and see
+before I make up my mind."</p>
+
+<p>But having already spread the "news" by means of every villager who had
+visited her place of business that morning, this was rather late in
+season to stem the tide of rumor; though on the principle of "better
+late than never," it may have done some good.</p>
+
+<p>When the ride was over and the Kayes deposited at the door of "Charity
+House," Amy was in the wildest of spirits. It seemed to her as if the
+world were the loveliest, friendliest place, and her gayety infected all
+about her. The gentlemen accompanied Mr. Frederic into the new home and
+spent an hour delightfully with the artist, amid his pictures. Then
+Cleena, aided by Amy, brought in a tray of luncheon, and they stayed to
+share it.</p>
+
+<p>"Blessings on Teamster John's turkey. What a lot of comfort it has given
+lots of folks!" remarked Amy to Cleena, in the kitchen, as she surveyed
+the neatly arranged tray.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, so be. Arrah musha, were the man as sensible as his fowl I'd know.
+But, colleen, keep an eye to that back door. Fayette's behind, in the
+store closet. It's behind he must stay or there's mischief a-brewin'."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p><p>"Indeed, I wonder he isn't putting himself forward, to attract Uncle
+Frederic's notice, as he always does of strangers. Well, poor lad, I
+fancy the introduction can wait. When you've carried in the tray, I'll
+go and serve them."</p>
+
+<p>But after the light meal was over and the guests departed, Hallam became
+absorbed in the new magazines that his uncle produced from his valise;
+while the elder Kayes dropped back into the reminiscences that were so
+interesting to themselves and so dull to Amy. Try as she would, now that
+all was quiet, she could not keep from her mind a picture of Archibald
+Wingate, riding home from a pleasant visit and suffering such mischance.</p>
+
+<p>"My first little dinner-party, too. I must go and see him. I must tell
+him that I am sorry. I must offer to help."</p>
+
+<p>So, after a while, as the afternoon waned, Amy put on her outdoor
+things, and telling only Cleena her errand, set off for Fairacres. She
+was admitted by a strange servant, and was passing straight toward the
+room which her cousin occupied when she was met and prevented by
+Marshall.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, miss, he's allowed to see nobody."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even me? Surely, I will not disturb him. I won't even speak to him,
+if that will hurt him. I just want to satisfy myself how badly he's
+injured, and maybe smile at him. Just that little bit. Oh, Mr. Marshall,
+isn't it so sad! I'm so very, very sorry."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, and well you might be, miss. No, not even to look at him. He's
+not to be worried by nobody."</p>
+
+<p>So Amy went sorrowfully home again, and as she had to resume her labor
+in the mill at such an early hour the following day, she could not
+repeat her visit until another night came round. Frederic Kaye had gone
+to the mansion, however, and had been coldly assured by the officious
+Marshall that "the master was doing well." This bulletin had been issued
+through the upper half of the old-fashioned door, which opened across
+its middle, and to effect an entrance the caller would have had to force
+the bolts of the lower half. The valet regarded the Californian with
+suspicion that, as the latter admitted, was not ill-founded; and he had
+not forgotten the feel of the stranger's boot-toe on the night of the
+accident. So he kept a safe barricade of the premises, and Frederic also
+went away unsatisfied.</p>
+
+<p>For several days these visits were repeated, with similar results; but
+when Sunday came round and she had daylight for her purpose, Amy again
+hurried to Fairacres.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see him this time, if I have to climb over Marshall's objecting
+shoulders," she merrily cried to Cleena, as she departed.</p>
+
+<p>But when she reached the old homestead she found it desolate. The light
+snow which had fallen overnight lay everywhere undisturbed. No paths had
+been cleared nor entrances swept. The windows were closed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> shuttered
+as Amy never had seen them. Even the stables were shut up and deserted;
+and after a half hour of vain efforts to arouse somebody, the
+disappointed girl returned to "Charity House."</p>
+
+<p>"Troth, ye went away like a feather, an' you come home like a log.
+What's happened, me colleen?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone. I can't see him. I can't tell him. Oh, I'm so sorry, so
+sorry!"</p>
+
+<p>To comfort her, Uncle Frederic paid a visit to Dr. Wise, and came back
+with news that was not very satisfactory. Without consulting the
+physician, Mr. Wingate had suddenly decided to go south for the winter.
+Marshall had attended to everything. The horses and cattle had been sent
+from Fairacres to one of the outlying farms belonging to the estate.
+There was no reference to future return, and Mr. Metcalf had been
+instructed to settle all accounts. Beyond this there was no mention of
+anybody, and no address was left except that of the mill owner's city
+bankers, who would forward any necessary papers. Mr. Wingate had gone
+away for absolute rest, and wished not to hear from Ardsley unless under
+extreme necessity.</p>
+
+<p>So Amy's dream of a reunited family, of that peace and happiness which
+should exist between Fairacres and "Charity House," came to an end. But
+other hopes and plans took its place, and she returned to her mill work
+on the Monday, too busy and eager to spend time in useless regret.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>"The best thing about life," observed this wise young person to her
+Uncle Frederic, "is that it has to keep right on. There's so much to do,
+and the days are so short, if a body grieves one moment he's sure to
+laugh the next. And, uncle, I've such a lovely idea about a 'club' for
+the mill folks. To take the place of one that&mdash;doesn't seem to help them
+much. I believe you're the very man to arrange everything, and that you
+were sent home just in time."</p>
+
+<p>"Wh-e-w! A Daniel come to judgment? No, a faithful daughter of a brave,
+unselfish woman. You'll never be Salome, little girl, but maybe you will
+be an improvement even on her. All her good sense with a little
+more&mdash;snap."</p>
+
+<p>"Considerable more snap than wisdom, I fancy," laughed she, and sped
+down the hill to join Gwendolyn for her walk millward.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MYSTERIES AND MASTERIES.</h3>
+
+<p>"Sure, Mister Frederic, I'd be proud to show ye the cellar that's doin'
+below. Would he mind comin' the now?"</p>
+
+<p>"A 'cellar below' is surely in its proper place. I'll be delighted to
+view it, Mistress Goodsoul."</p>
+
+<p>"Alanna, it was ever yourself had a jest an' a twist of a body's words!
+To my notion, it's a tidy job, but I sometimes misgives it's no all
+right for the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it surely should be looked after. Who's doing it for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That silly one I was tellin' you about. He's&mdash;he's&mdash;" The woman glanced
+over her shoulder, as if she feared to be heard. This was a curious
+circumstance in the case of one so frank as she, and her old friend
+commented on it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why so mysterious, Cleena? Secrets afoot? But it's after Christmas, not
+before it."</p>
+
+<p>"Come by."</p>
+
+<p>He followed her gayly down the stairs into the one central cellar, and
+from this slightly farther into another, being opened toward the side.
+She carried a lighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> candle in her hand, and pointed with pride to the
+neatness of the work as far as it had proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody could ha' done it finer, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems all right. The walls will have to be supported, of course,
+though it looks a solid rock. Old Ingraham obeyed the Scripture
+injunction in letter, if not in spirit. What does Cuthbert think of
+this?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same as of most things&mdash;nothin' at all. So long as he's his bit
+pictures an' books to pore over, the very house might tumble about his
+ears an' no heed. There's been no nerve frettin' nor crossness since the
+mistress was called&mdash;not once. He's a saint the now. But it's aye good
+ye're come home, Mister Fred."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's good to hear you say so, old friend. Yet if it suits you just
+as well, I'd prefer to have you say it up in the open. I'm not a lover
+of dark cellars, or of holes that may be cellars some day. Come out of
+it; it gives me the 'creeps.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye believe it's all safe, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Safe enough so far."</p>
+
+<p>"Come by. If you like not this place, you must e'en bide the kitchen a
+bit. I've somewhat to speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>Cleena started back over the way they had come, and Mr. Kaye was
+following her, when he stumbled against something soft, and fell
+headlong in the mud; but he was up again in an instant, no worse for the
+accident save by the soil upon his clothing. He had grasped the thing
+over which he had tripped, and held it up to the candle-light.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p><p>"Hello! Seems to me I've seen this garment, or felt it, before. That
+peculiarity of a cloth coat with a leather collar is noticeable. Whose
+is it, Cleena?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch it," she commanded tersely, and he obeyed her. Once in the better
+lighted kitchen she extinguished the candle, carefully closed all the
+doors, and seated herself near her visitor. She had taken the coat from
+him, and laid it upon her own knees. Her manner was still full of that
+mystery which consorted so oddly with her honest, open face.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so. I thought so, so I did."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely."</p>
+
+<p>"Cease yer haverin', lad. There's matter here."</p>
+
+<p>"Considerable. Upon my clothes, too. The matter seems to be of the same
+sort&mdash;rather brown and sticky, what the farmers call 'loom.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Know you whose coat this be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a know I know," he mimicked, enjoying his bit of nonsense with
+this old friend of his youth.</p>
+
+<p>"It's Fayetty's."</p>
+
+<p>"Your superior cellar digger? Whew!"</p>
+
+<p>He had now become quite as serious as she desired. "Cleena, this is a
+bad business. This coat was on the back of the man who horsewhipped Mr.
+Wingate."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought it; but, mind you, me lad, he's not for punishin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, he certainly <i>is</i>. Don't you know that I&mdash;I, a Kaye, am under
+suspicion of this dastardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> thing? Of course you do. Well, then, I'm
+going to step out from under the suspicion with neatness and despatch.
+How long have you been hiding this, Cleena?"</p>
+
+<p>"The poor chap's been here ever since. Only once a day he slips out, but
+he's back by night. Oh, he's safe enough the now."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad of it. Like to have him handy; and as soon as you've finished what
+you have to say, I'll walk into the village and inform the sheriff, or
+somebody who should know."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do naught like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cleena, woman, have you lost your good sense?"</p>
+
+<p>"Have I saved it, no? Hear me. I know 'twas me poor little Gineral
+Bonyparty 't did the deed. I knew, soon as I heard the tale o' the coat.
+You're no so stupid yerself. You recognized it immediate. It was a part
+o' his uniform he wore a-paradin'. His notion 'twould save the collar
+clean o' the jacket I fixed him. He's never no care in all his hard life
+till he met up with me. The poor little gossoon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Cleena, Cleena, turncoat! Wasn't I once, on a day gone by, another
+'poor little gossoon'? But come, drop nonsense; it's a disgracefully
+serious business for me and for your whole family."</p>
+
+<p>"It's because o' the family I say it. The lad's for no punishin'. Not
+yet. You're big an' strong, an' <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>uncommon light o' heart. It'll do ye no
+harm. The suspicioned you must be till&mdash;Wait lad. You loved the
+mistress, Salome?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cleena, you know it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Love you her childer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dearly; for their sakes I must shake off this obnoxious misjudgment."
+He shrugged his shoulders as if the obloquy were a tangible load that
+could be shifted.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallam, the cripple, that's walked never a step since a diny dony
+thing, an' a bad nurse set him prone on the cold stones o' the nasty
+cellar house where her kind lived. That winter in the town, an' me
+mindin' the mistress with Miss Amy a babe. How could we watch all the
+time? He must have the air, what for no? An' her with a face as smooth
+as bees-wax. Down on the cold, damp stones she'd put him, whiles off
+with her young man she'd be trapesin', an' him made a cripple for life."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Cleena, I remember it all. And how, as Amy tells me, almost a
+fortune has been spent to restore him. But if ever I earn enough to try
+again, I'll never rest till every doctor in the world, who understands
+such things, shall tell me there is no hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Good lad. Aye, aye, <i>good lad</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman looked at her in amazement. This had been the old
+servant's term of commendation when he had refrained from some of his
+youthful and natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> mischievousness. She seemed to mean it just as
+earnestly now. Suddenly she leaned forward and placed her hands upon his
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Say it again, avick. You'd do all in your power for me darlin' Master
+Hallam, what for no?"</p>
+
+<p>"What idleness to ask! I would give anything in this world to see him
+cured."</p>
+
+<p>"The Kayes are aye proud, in troth. Yer honor, lad; <i>even yer honor</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm, well&mdash;yes. Even my honor."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark to me."</p>
+
+<p>For five minutes thereafter Cleena talked, and not once did her listener
+interrupt. Her words were spoken in that sibilant whisper that is louder
+than ordinary speech, and not one of them was lost. When she had
+finished, she rose and demanded, laying her hand upon Mr. Kaye's
+shoulder:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mister Fred, will ye leave me gineral be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Cleena. For the present, till a final test comes, he shall be safe
+from any interference from me. I'll take him under my personal
+protection. I'll make myself his friend. He shall have a fair chance. If
+he fails&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He'll no fail! he'll no fail, laddie! Such as him is the Lord's own.
+Whist, alanna, here he comes."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette approached the entrance, walking stealthily, and casting furtive
+glances toward that part of the building where the guest had hitherto
+remained. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>Apparently satisfied that the coast was clear, he crept to
+the door and tapped it twice.</p>
+
+<p>Cleena nodded her head, and Frederic Kaye opened to admit the boy, who
+would have retreated when he saw the stranger, had not his arm been
+caught and held so firmly he could not writhe himself free.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave me alone. What you doin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you since Christmas night."</p>
+
+<p>"'Twasn't me. I never done it. Leave me be. Huckleberries! I'll smash
+ye!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Fayette, I'm astonished. Be quiet, listen. I know you&mdash;I know all
+about you. You have got to behave. You must stay here and do exactly
+what Cleena and I tell you to do. You'll be treated well. I'll show you
+how you can make a lot of that money you like so much; upon condition,
+though&mdash;upon the one condition that you simply behave correctly. You are
+wise enough to understand me. If you disobey or prove tricky&mdash;well, I
+have but to hand you over to the law and you're settled. Do you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, if I don't mind, they'll jail me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, exactly. You're cleverer than I hoped."</p>
+
+<p>"All right; I'll do it. Say, I believe Balaam's sick."</p>
+
+<p>"Balaam? Have you got him, too? Are you a horse thief as well as
+highwayman? Well, poor fellow, it's lucky your lot is cast in this
+peaceful valley instead of on the frontier. Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p><p>"I rode him to a place I know. There was plenty o' fodder once, but
+it's been took. He hain't had much to eat, an' maybe that's it. I was
+bound old Wingate shouldn't get him."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, young man, call nobody names. That's not allowed. And now
+you travel after Balaam. If he's too sick for you to manage alone, I'll
+go with you; if not, you must do it. How far away is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not more 'n a mile."</p>
+
+<p>"Fetch him. I've something to tell you, for your own benefit. I'll teach
+you how to grow mushrooms, down in that cellar you're digging.
+Well-grown ones will bring you a dollar a pound. I know, I've raised
+them. I'd made a fortune only I love daylight and hate darkness. If you
+can stand the underground part just for fun, you'll make it pay."</p>
+
+<p>"Huckleberries! I'll get him. I'll hurry back."</p>
+
+<p>As if he expected the new enterprise to begin that very night the lad
+started down the hill. Already there was a manlier bearing about his
+ill-shaped body. The necessity for hiding which he had felt had been
+removed, and he was a free lad again.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later Frederic Kaye saw him reappear, riding the apparently
+restored burro, and smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. Well, I'm in for it. I'm to remain under the cloud for an
+indefinite time. If it succeeds&mdash;I'll not regret. If it doesn't, maybe
+the Lord will square it up to my account, against the thoughtless
+neglect I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> showed Salome. Now, I'll go out and interview my old
+acquaintance of the Sierras. I wonder is his voice as mellifluous as
+erstwhile!"</p>
+
+<p>"Br-a-a-ay! Ah-umph! A-h-h-u-m-p-h!!" responded Balaam, from afar.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A PICNIC IN THE GLEN.</h3>
+
+<p>It is amazing how fast time flies when one is busy. At "Charity House"
+all were busy, and to all the winter passed with incredible swiftness.</p>
+
+<p>To Amy each day seemed too short to accomplish half she desired, and
+each one held some new, fascinating interest in that study of life which
+so absorbed her.</p>
+
+<p>"You're the funniest girl, Amy. Even the lengthening of the days,
+getting a little lighter in the mornings, week by week, so we can see
+the sun rise and such things, as we walk to work&mdash;I'd never think of it,
+'cept for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you do think of it, isn't it interesting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I like it. Things seem to mean something, now I know you. Before,
+well&mdash;'pears like I didn't think at all; I just slid along and took no
+notice."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's so wonderful. Everything is wonderful,&mdash;even the way the
+months have gone. Here it is spring, the bloodroot lying in a white
+drift along the brookside, and the yellow lilies opening their funny
+tooth-shaped petals everywhere in the woods. Yet only a minute ago, as
+it seems, the dead leaves were falling, and I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> on my way for the
+first time to work in the mill. I belong there now, a part of it. I have
+almost forgotten how it used to be when I was so idle."</p>
+
+<p>"Seems to me you could never have been idle, Amy. Anyway, you've got on
+splendid. The 'Supe' says he never had a girl go ahead so fast. Isn't it
+grand, though, to be out of the mill this lovely day? Saturday-half
+means ever so much more fun now than it used to do, and doesn't cost
+half so much money. Don't worry you half so much either, as it did to go
+shopping all the time. Say, Amy, I've about got Mis' Hackett paid up."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm delighted; it must be wretched to feel one's self in debt, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"It's mighty nice to feel one's self out of it. I've got you to thank
+for that, too, 'long of lots of other things. Isn't the club doing fine?
+We wouldn't have had that, either, but for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! Indeed, you would. Hallam was as interested as I in the
+subject; and as soon as we told Uncle Fred, he was even more eager than
+we. But it is to father we all owe the most, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I. To dream of a splendid gentleman like him, and such a painter,
+taking so much time and trouble just for a lot of mill folks, I think
+it's grand. I don't understand how he can."</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing that his own two children are 'mill folks,' I can, readily,"
+answered Amy, laughing. "But,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> indeed, I know he would go on with it now
+just as thoroughly, even if we were not in the case at all."</p>
+
+<p>This talk occurred one lovely afternoon when the half-holiday made a
+club picnic a possible and most delightful thing. The two girls,
+Gwendolyn and Amy, were a little earlier than the others, and were on
+their way to the appointed meeting place, "Treasure Island," a small
+piece of wooded ground rising in the middle of the Ardsley's widest
+span. From the island to the banks, on either side, were foot-bridges,
+and in the grove tables and benches had been built by the lads of the
+organization. It was an ideal picnic ground, and these were ideal
+picnickers; for those who toil the hardest on most days of the week
+enter most heartily into the recreations they do secure.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were passing down into the glen where Amy had once lost her
+way and been rescued by Fayette. It seemed so long ago that she could
+hardly realize how few months had really elapsed.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke of the matter to her companion, who seemed to be in a
+reflective mood that afternoon, and who again remarked upon the change
+in the mill boy, also.</p>
+
+<p>"Your uncle and Cleena Keegan have made him different, too. He's as
+proud as Punch of his mushroom raising, isn't he? He owes that to Mister
+Fred; but, odd! he's as scared of Cleena as if she owned him. He didn't
+forgive that thing about Balaam, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> seems to feel he has a right to
+him, same's Mr. Metcalf has."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old Balaam, he's made a lot of trouble, first and last; but I
+guess he's all right now, only Cleena won't let Fayette talk of him. She
+says it's 'punishment,'&mdash;the only sort she can inflict. I don't
+understand why she wants him punished, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe for stealing him that Christmas night out of Mr. Wingate's
+stable."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly; I don't know. She's like a mother puss with her kitten. One
+minute she pets him to foolishness, the next she gives him a mental slap
+that reduces him to the humblest, most timid mood. Well, I'm glad the
+burro business is settled, though it's odd how Fayette covets that
+animal; and the exercise of going up and down to his work, the days he
+has to go, isn't hurting Hallam at all. I never knew him to be so well
+and strong as he seems this spring."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, how was it about Balaam? Ma says she never heard the rights of it
+yet. And say, she likes that book you lent her, about the woman went
+round the world alone, visiting them hospitals, better 'n any novel she
+ever read. She's going to give up the other story papers soon as the
+subscription runs out an' take one o' them library tickets you were
+telling about, or your uncle, where they send the books to you by mail
+and you can have your choose of hundreds. Say, wouldn't it be prime if
+we could get a big library here?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p><p>"Grand! We will, some day, too."</p>
+
+<p>"My! You say such things as if you expected them to be. How, I'd like to
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if in no other way, by just us mill folks banding together and
+making a beginning. Indeed, I think my father would give his own little
+library as a start. There's a fine one at Fairacres, and I'm hoping when
+Cousin Archibald comes back he'll get interested in our work and help
+along."</p>
+
+<p>"Might as well look for miracles."</p>
+
+<p>"I do. I'm always finding them, too. There's one at your very feet.
+Don't tread upon it, please."</p>
+
+<p>Stooping, the girl pulled Gwendolyn's dress away from a tiny green
+speck, growing in dangerous proximity to the wood road.</p>
+
+<p>"What's it?"</p>
+
+<p>"This baby fern."</p>
+
+<p>"All that fuss about a fern!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's life, it's struggle. See, so dainty, so fine, yet so plucky,
+forcing its soft frond up through the earth, among all these bits of
+rocks; never stopping, never fearing, just trusting the Creator and
+doing its duty. It would be a pity to end it so soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Amy, did I ever! Well, there it is again. I shall never be able to
+crush anything like that without remembering what you've said just now.
+I&mdash;I wish you wouldn't. It makes me feel sort of wicked. And that's
+silly, just for a fern."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p><p>"Gwen, anything that makes us more merciful can't be silly. Heigho!
+there are the picnickers all coming along the banks and over the
+bridges. Truly, a goodly company, yet we began with just you and Lionel,
+Mary Reese, Hallam, and me. Now there are a hundred members, old and
+young. There's one of the everyday miracles for you!"</p>
+
+<p>The vigorous young association which went by the name of the "Ardsley
+Club" flourished beyond even Amy's most sanguine expectation. Three
+rooms of "Charity House," the sunny western side of the higher story,
+had been cheerfully offered by Mr. Kaye as a home for the club. These
+rooms he had had fitted up under his own supervision, though the work
+had been done by the members themselves, in hours after mill duties were
+over. The color mixer had supplied the material with which the once ugly
+white walls were tinted; and upon the soft-hued groundwork there had
+been stencilled a delicate conventional design. At one end of the large
+room designated the "reading room" a scroll bore the legend which old
+Adam Burns had given Amy as a "rule of life": "Simplicity, Sincerity,
+Sympathy," and opposite gleamed in golden letters the other maxim: "Love
+Conquers All."</p>
+
+<p>"Love, Simplicity, Sincerity, and Sympathy, which is the synonym of
+Love, and forms with it the golden circle," was adopted as one of the
+by-laws, and it is true that each member endeavored to keep this one
+law<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> inviolably. The result was a spirit of peace and goodwill rarely
+found in a gathering of so many varying natures. It had been Mr. Kaye's
+idea to make the affair one of no expense to the members, outside of his
+own household, but Frederic promptly vetoed that.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, there are none of us rich enough to do such a
+thing. There will be lights, firing, musical instruments, books, current
+literature, games&mdash;any number of things that cost money. Amy's idea is
+fine. A club of the right sort will be a powerful factor for good in
+this community of mill workers, but it must be made self-supporting. If
+you give the use of the rooms and will act as instructor along some
+lines,&mdash;art and literature, which you comprehend better than
+financiering, respected brother,&mdash;you will have done your generous
+share. Amy and Cleena will keep the rooms in order, with occasional aid
+from the girl members&mdash;after we secure them. A small sum, contributed by
+each member, will run the whole concern. People who are as constantly
+employed as these mill operatives have not the leisure nor means to
+acquire a book education, but a more intelligent, wider-awake, more
+receptive class is not to be found. Yet let nobody dare to approach them
+with anything at all in the nature of 'charity' or mental almsgiving.
+Your democrat beats your aristocrat in the matter of pride every time,
+and that is a paradox for you to consider. I relinquish the floor."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p><p>"After having exhausted the subject," laughed Hallam. But the subject
+had not been exhausted. Amy proposed the matter the very next day, at
+"nooning," and secured the members as mentioned by her to Gwendolyn. In
+a week the membership had doubled; and as soon as the affair was really
+comprehended, that it was a mutual benefit organization in the highest
+sense of the word, applications were plentiful.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Frederic had been a literal globe-trotter, and his journeyings on
+foot made him able to discourse in a familiar way of things no
+guide-book ever points out. Nor did Cleena's good cookery come in for
+any poor show among these healthy, happy folk. The club paid for the
+simple refreshments provided at their weekly "socials," and Cleena
+prepared them. Even this day, for their out-of-door reunion, she had
+made all the needful preparations, and had been so busy she had scarcely
+remembered to keep a close watch upon Fayette.</p>
+
+<p>"But troth, it's no more nor right he should take his bit fun with the
+rest," she remarked to herself, as she pulled the last tin of biscuits
+from the chimney oven and spread them with sweet butter and daintily
+sliced tongue. "He's aye restless betimes; and&mdash;but it's comin', it's
+comin', me blessed gossoon!"</p>
+
+<p>But to whom Cleena's exclamation referred it would have been difficult
+to say,&mdash;though possibly to Fayette, as her next words seemed to
+indicate. For the good creature still "conversed with Cleena" in every
+instance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> when she happened to be left alone, it being a necessity of
+her friendly nature that she should talk to somebody.</p>
+
+<p>"Me gineral's never got over the burro business yet, alanna! An' it do
+seem hard how 't one has so little an' t' other so much. That Mr.
+'Super' Metcalf now, as fine a man as treads shoe leather, never a doubt
+I doubt, yet himself judgin' it fair, since the man Wingate wanted the
+beast, the man Wingate should have him. Anyway, there he stands, brayin'
+his head off in the 'Supe's' stable, in trust for the old man'll never
+bestride him. Nobody rides him at all, Miss Amy says; yet here's me
+gineral heart-broke for him; an' the cripple goin' afoot; an' all them
+little Metcalfs envyin' an' covetin'; an' all because a man who's word
+is law said he'd take him for rent an' just kept him, whether or no. But
+a good job it was when Mister Fred come home, with money for rent an' a
+few trifles, but not much besides. Well, where's the need? Eight dollars
+a week is Miss Amy's wage now, God bless her! an' Master Hal's nigh the
+same,&mdash;let alone them bit pictures the master's be's doin' constant.
+Mister Fred's the knack o' sellin' 'em too. Well, if the mistress could
+see&mdash;and hark, me fathers! What's that?"</p>
+
+<p>Down in the fragrant glen and on the little island the hungry
+"Ardsleyites" waited long for the promised supper; and up on Bareacre
+knoll things were happening that would provide another sensation for the
+little town, quiet now since the Christmas horsewhipping episode.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A DOUBLE INHERITANCE IN A SINGLE DAY.</h3>
+
+<p>Almost before she asked it, Cleena answered her own question.</p>
+
+<p>"The powder! the powder! It's Fayetty a-meddlin'! Oh, is he killed, the
+witless gossoon?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned toward the stairway leading into the cellar, and from
+whence she had heard the dull roar, and now imagined she saw smoke as
+she certainly did smell suggestive fumes. She needed not to descend,
+however, for at the stair's head the lad rushed against her, bruising
+her with something hard and heavy that he carried, and thus dispelling
+her first fear of his personal injury.</p>
+
+<p>"Fayetty&mdash;Fayetty! Hold by! What's amiss? What's&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He deposited a box upon the kitchen table, plump in the tray of
+biscuits, and catching Cleena about the waist began to execute a
+grotesque dance with her for helpless partner. After a moment she was
+able to extricate herself from his frantic clutch and to demand
+sternly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ye omahaun, are ye gone daft?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's money, Cleena Keegan! <i>It's money!</i> The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>cellar's full of it!
+Money, money, money! Chests full, cellars full&mdash;oh! oh! oh!"</p>
+
+<p>Then did her eye fall upon the box and the spot where it rested, and
+indignation seized her soul. With one grasp of her strong hands she
+flung it to the floor, where it fell heavily, cracked, and burst
+asunder.</p>
+
+<p>Both were then too astonished to speak. Fayette's wildest dreams had,
+evidently, come true. Cleena could not believe her eyes. Never in all
+her life had she seen so many precious coins. They were dimmed by age
+and moisture, yet, unmistakably, they were of gold, with a few that
+might be silver. All the fairy tales of her beloved Ireland rushed
+through her mind, and she regarded the half-wit with a new veneration.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, you're one o' them elf-men, I believe; that different from
+ordinary you can even make dollars o' doughnuts. Arrah musha, 'twas a
+smart decent day when Miss Amy fetched you home to Fairacres! Sent, was
+ye, to make the old family rich; and the marvel o' cure in your long,
+lean hands. Troth, I'm struck all of a heap."</p>
+
+<p>But Fayette was not. He had never been so active. He began to gather up
+the coins which had been scattered by the breaking of the chest and, for
+want of something better in which to store them, pulled Cleena's apron
+from her waist and piled them in that. She sat on, silently regarding
+him. For a few minutes she honestly believed that he was a genuine
+specimen of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> the "little people" who were said to make green Erin their
+favorite home. But when he began to gabble in a hoarse, excited tone of
+how he had long been expecting this "find"; how he had watched his
+opportunity when all the household should be absent that he might
+disobey and use the explosive that would lessen his labor so greatly,
+she came back to common sense.</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i335.jpg" id="i335.jpg"></a><img src="images/i335.jpg" width='439' height='700' alt="HE BEGAN TO GATHER UP THE COINS" /></div>
+
+<h4>"HE BEGAN TO GATHER UP THE COINS."</h4>
+
+<p>"So you've been lookin' for it, have ye? Well, now you've got it, but ye
+might ha' been killed in the job. What for no? With Mister Fred gone to
+town an' him tellin' ye most explicit ye should no touch nor meddle at
+all. Was aught like this found in either of them mushroom ones?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;don't&mdash;know," answered Fayette, slowly, still stooping and tying his
+bundle. "If there was&mdash;that man's&mdash;got it. It was <i>mine</i>. <i>I</i> begun the
+digging. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"An' he finished, eh? Well, you take up your pack an' put it here in my
+dresser. Then go wash your face. Such a sight! Hold, did ye any more
+harm there below?"</p>
+
+<p>"Harm! harm! to dig such a treasure as this out of my mine? Well, if I
+used only a little bit of powder and got so much, what a lot I might
+have found if I'd used more. I'll bet the whole ground is full."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ye silly! Put that stuff down. It's makin' ye lose what little
+sense you've got. An', me neighbor, look here. See them beautiful
+biscuits all spoiled the day, the day!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p><p>This reminded the lad that he was hungry. He had been hard at work all
+day in the underground passage, the third and last of those he had set
+out to make beneath "Charity House." The first two had been completed,
+the walls shored, the rich beds for mushroom-raising made upon the dark
+damp floors. Already these beds were dotted with the white growths, that
+in a marvellous short time would be full-grown mushrooms and finding a
+place upon many an epicure's table.</p>
+
+<p>That very hour, even, Frederic Kaye was in the city negotiating for
+their regular sale at profitable prices; and wondering not a little, it
+may be, at the strange fact that "Spite House," instead of being the
+barren, unproductive spot at first supposed, would prove instead a
+veritable mine of support to the whole household. Of that other
+"mining," with its anticipated results in gold of which Fayette had
+sometimes babbled, Mr. Kaye took no account. Old Jacob Ingraham who
+built the house had been a hard, close-fisted man, if all accounts were
+true, and not at all likely to deposit his money in the ground, when
+there were investments which would help to increase it. But of old
+Jacob's wife, history said little, and Frederic never thought.</p>
+
+<p>Fayette placed the apron in the cupboard, as he had been bidden, and
+when he would have added the broken box also, Cleena prevented.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ye dirty boy! That&mdash;that mouldy, muddy, nasty thing! No, no! No,
+no!" and she tossed it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> unceremoniously into the box of kindling-wood.
+In the roomy "Dutch" oven in the wall she had baked many of her picnic
+biscuits, and she regarded the ruin Fayette had wrought among her
+sandwiches with an air absurdly sad.</p>
+
+<p>Now he had no scruples against a bit of dirt, and had already crammed
+his mouth full of the broken food, when Cleena looked round and saw him.
+His mouth was distended with laughter as well as bread, and this
+provoked her still further. Sweeping her long arm over the table, she
+brushed all the sandwiches into a big pan that stood conveniently near,
+and remarked grimly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Not another bite o' better food do you get till them's all ate."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. I like 'em. But what's the picnickers goin' to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"The best they can. An' you're to help. Go wash your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"I have."</p>
+
+<p>"Again, once more; then show 'em to me."</p>
+
+<p>The lad laughingly obeyed. Then demanded:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What for?"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena replied by action rather than word. She tied a fresh gingham
+apron about his shoulders and brought the strings around in front so
+that his mud-stained clothing was entirely covered. Then she led him to
+her kneading-table and set a bucket of sifted flour before him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p><p>"Make biscuit."</p>
+
+<p>"How many?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three hundred. Fall to, measure, I'll count."</p>
+
+<p>She did. For two whole hours the pair labored in that kitchen, Fayette
+kneading, cutting out, slipping the pans into the ovens and removing
+them; while Cleena spread and cut tongue after tongue, till even more
+than the original supply had been reproduced. Then she paused and looked
+up.</p>
+
+<p>There stood Teamster John in the doorway, smiling and watching Fayette's
+new occupation with genuine surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Shucks! makin' a cook out of him? Ain't ye rather late with your
+luncheon? I drove up to carry the baskets down to the 'Island.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Humph! Ready they was, fast enough. But&mdash;man, look here," and she
+opened the cupboard door to draw forth the apron of gold.</p>
+
+<p>"No, you shan't! He shan't touch it! It's mine&mdash;it's mine!" cried
+Fayette, and snatched the bundle from her hands. He had not tied it
+securely, and again the long-buried coins rolled into the sunlight and
+spread themselves over the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"To the&mdash;land's&mdash;sake!"</p>
+
+<p>"They're mine&mdash;they're all mine&mdash;every single one. I found 'em. I
+blasted 'em out. Nobody shall touch them&mdash;nobody!"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;blasted them&mdash;out? From the cellar of this house? You&mdash;simpleton!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p><p>"Like to ha' done it yourself, hey?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I'm sorrier than I can tell that ever you were let to fool with
+powder. How'd Mister Frederic allow it?"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena answered promptly, "He didn't. He strict forbid it. Yes, I know,
+I know. It was a chance. If me guardian angel hadn't been nigh, you
+might never ha' seen old Cleena again. Arrah musha, but I'm that shook
+up I'd know! What say? Is it time yet for their supper down yon, or
+what?"</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be a little late, maybe, but never mind. My, my! Chests o' gold!
+Who'd believe it? Like a story book, now, ain't it? And where, in the
+name of common sense, did you get all this flour and meat an' fixings,
+Cleena, woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mister Fred. The last day he went to town. He was to buy enough for one
+picnic, so he brought home enough for two. That's ever his way. He's the
+good provider, is Mister Fred. Bless him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Well, I'll tell you, it <i>is</i> late, so I'll just drive down to
+tell the youngsters they'd better come up here and eat their supper.
+They'll be crazy wild for a sight of that chest and what was in it; and
+if they don't come to-day, they'll be besieging you all day to-morrow.
+When a thing like this happens, it belongs to the town."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't neither; belongs to <i>me</i>. I found it. I'll keep it. I dare ye!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p><p>"All right, lad. Don't worry. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
+I've heard of such things afore now, and never once that they didn't
+bring trouble. All I'm thankful for is you didn't kill anybody nor smash
+up the house with your fool blastin'. You won't get another chance to
+try, if I have to come right here and stay myself;" and he smiled
+sweetly toward Cleena, who ignored the smile, but agreed with the
+suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that's right. That's sense. What for no? Troth, to-morrow's a
+Sunday, an' not to be disturbed o' none such havers. What's a bit of old
+dollars dug out o' the mud? An' Monday's me wash. Faith, it's sense in
+small matters ye're havin', Teamster John. Drive yon an' make haste
+back. I'll spread me a cloth on the grass an' each may eat like a
+heathen, does he like, that same as he was down in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"But they shan't touch it&mdash;they shan't even see it! It's mine. I'll keep
+it, understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Cleena understood not only the words, but the lad with whom she had to
+deal.</p>
+
+<p>"Whist, alanna, would you hide yourself, then? Faith, no; run avick. Put
+on your Sunday suit, brush yer hair, make yerself tidy, then stand up
+like a showman at Donnybrook fair, an' pass the time o' day with who
+comes. What for no? The box an' the gold must be showed. Such a thing
+can't be hid. Well, then, gossoon, just show it yerself."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p><p>So when, not long after, the whole band of merrymakers came trooping
+over the knoll of Bareacre, they found not only their belated supper
+spread for them, but a sight to amuse their curiosity in the buried
+treasure, estimated at various sums by the excited beholders, and with
+an ever increasing value as the story passed from mouth to mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"It will belong to 'Bony,' of course."</p>
+
+<p>"No; to the Kayes. He doesn't own the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor they. If they did, they wouldn't take it from him. They're not that
+sort of folks."</p>
+
+<p>"But they're as poor as anybody now."</p>
+
+<p>"Archibald Wingate owns the property. I should think it belonged to
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"The 'Supe' will probably take it in charge."</p>
+
+<p>So the talk bandied back and forth till poor Fayette's weak brain was in
+a whirl; and amid it all there was one name that fell upon his hearing
+with a sense of pain,&mdash;"Archibald Wingate." The man he hated. Well, of
+one thing he was resolved&mdash;this unearthed treasure might be the mill
+owner's, but if it were, he should never, never touch it.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Fayette! So he still stood and proudly exhibited the wonder, and
+told over and again exactly how he had long suspected its existence, and
+had watched his opportunity, with this result. Since he was happy and
+watchful, Cleena felt he was secure&mdash;for the present. But all the time
+she longed for Mr. Frederic's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> return, or even for that of Mr. Kaye, who
+was abroad upon a sketching ramble. There should be somebody in
+authority present, since Hallam and Amy were both too young, and
+Teamster John&mdash;well, he might "do at a pinch." In any case, he must
+remain on guard till a better man appeared.</p>
+
+<p>This better man did arrive, just as the evening fell, in the person of
+Uncle Fred, riding up the driveway in old Israel Boggs's farm wagon. Amy
+was first to discover their approach and ran gayly to meet them,
+beginning her tale of the afternoon's adventure with her very
+salutation; but long before she reached the side of the wagon she saw
+that something was amiss with her jolly uncle. His face was very grave,
+and even his voice was hushed, so that though his greeting to his niece
+was even kinder than usual, it startled her by its solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Uncle Fred, what is the matter? What has happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you presently. But how come so many here? I thought the
+picnic was at 'Treasure Island.'"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded cheerfully to Israel, whose face was even more sad than
+Frederic Kaye's, and gave a rapid history of events. Strangely enough,
+neither of the two newcomers appeared much interested. It was as if some
+greater matter absorbed them, and their manner subdued Amy to silence;
+while the farmer tied old Fanny, and then followed his friend into the
+front part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> of the house, quite away from the excited groups surrounding
+Fayette and his wonderful exhibit.</p>
+
+<p>Once inside the shelter of the passage, Mr. Frederic laid his hand upon
+Amy's shoulder, and said, very gently:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Prepare for a great sorrow, Amy dear. I have just come from the
+death-bed of our good friend, Adam Burn."</p>
+
+<p>Never till that moment had the girl known how well she loved the saintly
+old man. Rarely meeting, he had still exercised over her young life one
+of its most powerful influences, and an influence all for good.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle Fred, it can't be. It mustn't be. He was so good, so kind,
+so&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Altogether lovely. Yes, dear, all that. Old Israel, here, needs
+comfort. Talk to him a little."</p>
+
+<p>So she led the heart-broken Israel into the farthest room, and sitting
+down beside him persuaded him to speak with her of the one that had
+passed on, and in the act to find relief. Then she slipped away a moment
+and found Hallam, who, when he had heard this later news, quietly
+dismissed the club and brought the happy holiday to a reverent close.</p>
+
+<p>"Land! that makes all such ilk," said Teamster John, pointing to
+Fayette's glittering heap, "to seem of small account. What's a litter of
+gold alongside of such as him?"</p>
+
+<p>And not one among them all who had ever known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> Adam Burn found anything
+now worth discussing save the goodness and simplicity of their dead
+neighbor and friend.</p>
+
+<p>But late that night, after Israel had gone back to the desolate Clove,
+to make such arrangements for the old man's burial as his friends at
+"Charity House" had deemed fitting, Uncle Frederic remarked, casually:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, Amy, Mrs. Burn ('Sarah Jane,' you know) told me a bit of
+news, to the effect that you are the old man's heiress, because of your
+name that was his wife's. She says he gave you a sealed letter before he
+left Ardsley, which letter explained everything,&mdash;where the will was to
+be found, and the few directions necessary for the settlement of the
+estate. Your father and I are trustees, she thinks, until you come of
+age, but you are the heir. Good night."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, uncle, I don't want to be! I want nothing that is gained by his
+death. And&mdash;I lost that letter, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Lost it? That's serious. However, it can doubtless be arranged. Good night."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>ONE WONDERFUL AUTUMN DAY.</h3>
+
+<p>The months flew by. The summer came and went. It was the hour for
+closing on a "Saturday-half," a whole year since Amy Kaye first visited
+the mills of Ardsley, and now she felt as they were a part of her very
+life. Beginning at the bottom she had industriously worked her way
+upward till she had just been promoted to the pleasant and well-paying
+task of "setter," in the big clean room, where the open windows admitted
+the soft air of another Indian summer.</p>
+
+<p>Away, at the extreme end of the long apartment, was a sunshiny office,
+lately constructed for the personal use of Archibald Wingate. This
+office was partitioned from the setting room by a glass sliding door,
+and through this, as Amy now lifted her eyes, she could see the broad
+back of her relative bending above a desk full of correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>At every setting frame there are two operators, for left hand and for
+right; and it was Amy's good fortune to have Mary Reese for her comrade,
+and a more sunshiny pair of workers could be found nowhere.</p>
+
+<p>For Hallam, also, it had been a busy, happy year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> Like Amy, having
+begun with the humblest task and smallest wage, he had now advanced to
+be bookkeeper in one department, while he still retained his work of
+coloring and preparing the patterns for use in the weaving of the famous
+Ardsley carpets. He looked a far stronger, healthier lad than of old,
+and his disposition to think upon the dark side of things had now no
+time to develop, for activity effectually prevents brooding.</p>
+
+<p>Fayette was still a member of the Kaye household, and seemed to belong
+there as much as any of the others. He had been busy, too, all the year
+through, with his mushroom-raising, his gardening, and now that the
+autumn had come round again, with odd jobs at the mill. His deftness
+would always procure him employment of some sort, yet only that morning
+Mr. Metcalf had remarked to Hallam, confidentially:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Queer, but I can never trust 'Bony.' He seems as honest and reliable as
+possible for a time, and then, suddenly, he will do something to
+disappoint me. I don't like his demeanor toward the 'boss.' Ever since
+Mr. Wingate returned, late this summer, and took to coming here every
+day, 'Bony' has come too. Have you noticed?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know he comes. I hadn't connected the two comings, however. I guess
+he's all right. There's a splendid side to that poor lad's nature, if
+you but knew it. Some day, I hope before very long now, he and I are to
+surprise the world."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p><p>"Why, Hal, you're as gay as a blackbird. What's the surprise, eh? Too
+precious to disclose even to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"At present, yes. In a little while, a few days&mdash;Heigho!" and the lad
+looked significantly toward his crutches, leaning against the desk where
+he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>But the superintendent did not observe the glance. His mind was full of
+misgiving. Within a day or two he had had occasion to suspect that the
+half-wit had some uncanny scheme on hand. The lad's dislike of the old
+mill owner appeared to grow with the passage of time. The dull brain
+never forgot an injury, and it always seemed to Fayette that Mr. Wingate
+had wronged him. From the old days of his "bound out" life on the farm,
+when whippings and punishments were of almost daily occurrence, to the
+present, there had been no diminution in the mill boy's resentment. Now
+there was this later injury, or injustice, as he believed, about the
+money found in the cellar of "Charity House."</p>
+
+<p>The facts were these: the glittering coins had, when estimated, been of
+about one thousand dollars' value. To Fayette this seemed an enormous
+sum; to Mr. Wingate, a trifle. In the chest with the treasure had been
+also a time-yellowed letter, or memorandum, signed by the wife of Jacob
+Ingraham, and decreeing that the property thus hidden had been placed by
+her own hands in the wall of the cellar of "Spite House" for the
+"benefit of my nearest of kin."</p>
+
+<p>The document, in itself, was as curious as its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>hiding-place, and proved
+that the ancient dame had been a keen observer of men's failings, if not
+their virtues.</p>
+
+<p>"For I have seen, in this, my lifetime, that gold profits a man nothing.
+It is ever a bone of contention, and he who has it is poorer than he who
+has it not. I hope this chest will do him good who finds it; and if it
+is never found, then the earth will be so much the richer by this small
+portion of the wealth it has lost. In any case, to prevent evil, and, if
+possible, to secure a blessing, I have said one prayer over each coin
+herein disposed, and so, in duty to my conscience, I lock the box and
+throw the key down the old well of this Bareacre knoll."</p>
+
+<p>The letter had further added that nobody, not even Jacob Ingraham, had
+known of this bestowal of the chest, because had anybody, "most of all,
+he," so known, it would have been excavated and its contents scattered.</p>
+
+<p>Now Archibald Wingate was, on his mother's side, the last direct
+descendant of Mrs. Ingraham, and the property was clearly his. To him,
+as soon as he returned from his prolonged stay out of town, the broken
+chest and intact contents had been given by the superintendent, who, Mr.
+Kaye promptly decided, would be the proper guardian of the treasure
+until his employer returned.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a terrible scene with Fayette when Cleena told him this
+decision, and for several days thereafter the lad had not been visible.
+Some thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> he had gone off in one of his wanderings through the woods
+and fields; but the truth was, he had been kept under lock and key by
+the energetic and masterful Cleena Keegan. She had assured that patient
+listener, herself, that:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, it do be right. Will I lose all the good we have gained for the
+sake o' bad temper? The end's in sight,&mdash;the blessed end o' the secrecy,
+an' the weary struggle o' keepin' me gineral's nose to the grindstone,
+and now to leave go? Not while Cleena Keegan draws a free breath, an'
+can handle a silly gossoon, like him yon."</p>
+
+<p>From the first it had been a strange and powerful influence that this
+good woman exercised over the foundling she adopted, and fortunately his
+imprisonment was not so very long, else it would have been impossible to
+conceal it from the rest of the household; not one of whom did, however,
+suspect such a proceeding.</p>
+
+<p>When the object for which she had restrained him of his liberty seemed
+quite gained, Cleena let Fayette go; and, oddly enough, after his
+liberty was granted him, he no longer cared for it. He kept close to
+Bareacres, bare no longer, but teeming with the rich vegetation
+resulting from his own labor, guided by Frederic Kaye's trained
+judgment. The summer had proved a most interesting as well as busy one
+to both these gardeners. The results of their mutual labor were
+harvested and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> stored for the family's winter use, and Fayette had
+returned to the mill. Idleness, or the want of that regular employment
+he had enjoyed, now reawoke the dark thoughts which had disturbed his
+clouded brain during the time of his "retreat" under Cleena's compelling
+will.</p>
+
+<p>This day, when Amy watched her cousin through the glass partition, and
+waited with Mary for Hallam to complete his own task in a room adjoining
+the private office of Mr. Wingate, Fayette was hanging about the mill,
+as if himself waiting for some one.</p>
+
+<p>Amy called to him once, and received a surly answer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go when I get ready. I ain't hurting nobody&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not, who'd suppose so? I'd think you'd like a run in the
+woods after hours. There was a frost a few nights ago. There may be
+hickory nuts to gather."</p>
+
+<p>"Gather 'em, then, if you want 'em. I don't. I've got other fish to fry.
+I'll fry 'em, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're cross, 'Fayetty, me gineral.' I'll not wait much longer,
+even for Hal. You can come home with him, and help him bring the
+patterns he is to show father, please."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you wanted to see Mr. Wingate, too, Amy," observed Mary,
+"about that legacy of yours. You're the queerest girl. Any other would
+be wild to have things fixed, but you don't seem to care a bit."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p><p>"Why should I? We are very comfortable at 'Charity House.' Mrs. Burn,
+dear Adam's daughter-in-law, has gone abroad again. If she had time,
+she'd cheerfully help us&mdash;if she could. We think the letter of
+instruction will sometime be found, and that will make all clear. We
+don't like law, and Adam would have hated it. No; we'll wait for a time
+longer, but I promised father I'd consult Cousin Archibald, and see when
+he would meet either father or Uncle Fred to discuss it.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, old Israel and his wife are doing just the same at Burnside
+as if their master were still there. All I could think of taking the
+property for, it seems to me, would be to give my father such a lovely
+home again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Amy, I must go. I want to finish reading that book Mr. Kaye lent
+me, this afternoon. I'll see you at the club to-night. Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>With a kiss and a hand pressure, which revealed the depth of their
+friendship, Mary departed, and Amy turned to the open window to watch
+the cloud shadows drift over the lovely valley, wherein the Ardsley
+leaped and sparkled. As she gazed, thinking of many things, she became
+conscious, in an idle sort of fashion, that Fayette had passed out of
+doors, and was walking close beneath, or along the building's wall, and
+in a stealthy manner, suspicious in itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Heigho! What now, I wonder. He's up to some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> mischief, I'm afraid. How
+queer he is at times. Why, even when he was told that Mr. Wingate knew
+him for the person who horsewhipped him last Christmas and had refused
+to take any notice of it, except to thank Uncle Fred for his
+rescue&mdash;even then Fayette would not say that he thought my cousin good.
+All he did say was: 'Well, he better not. He knows too much. If he
+locked me up or had me fined, I'd lick him again soon's I got out. He
+ain't no fool. But that don't make me feel any different. He ain't
+jailed me, but he's got my money. <i>Mine</i>; I dug it out the cellar an'
+blasted, to the risk o' my life. He keeps it, when he's got a bank full,
+they say. Kept Balaam, too, or give him to one of them Metcalf
+youngsters. Well, his time'll come. I'm not forgettin', if I do keep my
+mouth shut for a spell.'"</p>
+
+<p>Recalling this speech, Amy tried to put herself in the half-wit's place,
+which effort made her pity him the more, yet watch his present
+man[oe]uvres none the less closely. But presently he disappeared in a
+distant lower doorway, and she forgot him and returned to her happy
+day-dreams.</p>
+
+<p>Fayette had bided his time. On such an afternoon, at such an hour, he
+judged that nobody would be in the mill building save the distant
+watchman and that indefatigable toiler, Archibald Wingate, with whom was
+the half-wit's present business. He had seen the last whisk of Mary's
+blue skirt disappearing above the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>back-stairway, and, knowing that Amy
+and she were waiting for Hallam, concluded that the trio had departed
+together.</p>
+
+<p>So he entered the little basement door gleefully. All seemed propitious,
+yet he meant once more and carefully to examine the preparations he had
+made, to see if there was any flaw anywhere. He was so absorbed, so
+excited, that he scarcely breathed as he crept slowly along the inside
+of the wall, just as a moment before he had passed along its outer
+surface. At one spot he paused and tried a simple-looking tube that had
+been brought from the outside, through a convenient aperture, into the
+inside of the building. The thing looked harmless, yet it ran along the
+groove where the floor and wall joined, clear into that cheery inner
+office, where Archibald Wingate sat that very moment, signing his name
+to one of the most generous letters of his life.</p>
+
+<p>"There," he reflected, as he leaned back in his chair and tossed aside
+his pen; "there, that is foolish enough to satisfy even my impractical
+small kinswoman, bless her! A thousand dollars isn't much, but it's&mdash;a
+thousand dollars; and when I double it by another thousand, which has
+never been buried by any ancient ancestress, it makes a tidy sum for a
+foundling lad. Poor 'Bony,' he hates me like poison. I wonder, when he
+finds out that I've done this for him, when I place it in his hands
+myself, and tell him, furthermore, that I have asked Fred Kaye to send
+west for several more of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> burros he's given us a sample of, and
+that one is for the 'Rep-Dem-Prob' himself&mdash;I wonder, will there rise in
+his stunted heart some perception of what life should mean; of what it
+shall mean, during my last brief hold of it, to me? and all because of a
+girl's bright trustfulness and love."</p>
+
+<p>It was a day for musings. Even Fayette, intent on evil, had his
+own&mdash;like Amy and the lonely old man in the silent office. He wondered,
+pausing for a moment, how "it would feel to be blown up. That day when I
+found the money he's took from me, if I'd had a bigger charge of powder,
+would I ha' knowed what struck me, if it had gone off sudden? Hmm. I
+almost hate to do it. He seems&mdash;he'll never guess, though, and he hadn't
+any right. He's been again' me from the first. I'll do it. He hain't had
+no mercy&mdash;I won't, neither."</p>
+
+<p>So he crept softly back to the low entrance, and stooping, struck a
+match. The match burned well, and in an instant had communicated its own
+flame to the cheap fuse that ran along the wall. In the far-off office,
+concealed beneath the mill owner's desk, there was already waiting a
+powerful explosive, which Fayette had purloined from the store of the
+workmen who were excavating for the new wing of the building. In a
+moment more the fuse would have burned unnoticed to its fatal end, and
+an awful crime, of whose enormity the dull criminal had no real
+comprehension, would have been committed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p><p>But Hallam had caught the prevailing mood. He, like the others left
+lingering about the silent building, had fallen into a reverie which,
+judging by his bright expression, was full of happiness. For many
+months, and for the first time in his life, he had kept a secret from
+his father and Amy. If that can be called a secret which was known also
+to Cleena, to Uncle Frederic, and to Fayette, upon whose aid alone the
+success of this mystery had depended. The lad had been faithful. At most
+times his help had been rendered freely, out of love and sympathy; at
+others there had been compulsion on Cleena's side and from the other one
+of the quartette, who had himself suffered false blame and the disgrace
+of suspicion because of the secret.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, please God, it shall end. I couldn't bear to tell them, who
+love me so, until I was sure, sure. The old surgeon said it might be a
+miracle would be enacted for my benefit. Well, it has, it has! I've
+known it, really, almost from the beginning, though it's been so hard
+and at times so seemingly hopeless. But if I hadn't loved them even more
+than myself, I wouldn't have kept on trying. To-morrow&mdash;the experiment
+in their presence! Will it ever come!"</p>
+
+<p>The lad stood up and arranged the papers in his own desk. Then he heard,
+or fancied that he did, a slight sound in the deserted building. The
+corps of operatives had been well drilled to watch for any sign of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> that
+dreaded element, fire, and he was alert now,&mdash;the more that, following
+this, there was a slight odor, pungent and more alarming than even the
+first sound.</p>
+
+<p>He wheeled about and&mdash;what was that? In the dimness of the angle where
+it lay, away out toward that closed office with its unsuspecting
+occupant, a tiny spark was making its steady, creeping progress. For an
+instant Hallam gazed at it astonished, the next he realized its full
+meaning and horror. Could he reach it? Was there time?</p>
+
+<p>With a shriek of warning he rushed forward,&mdash;stumbling against, leaping
+over obstacles,&mdash;gaining upon that menacing point of fire and fume,
+which now seemed to race him like a living thing.</p>
+
+<p>The miracle was wrought&mdash;two miracles! A few more seconds, and it would
+have been too late; but now the lame walked and, as it were, the dead
+came back to life.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam's shriek, the uproar of overturned obstructions, reverberated
+through the empty building and brought Archibald Wingate, Amy, and poor
+Fayette face to face with the panting, excited rescuer. All comprehended
+at once what had been attempted and how prevented. The mill owner laid
+an iron grip upon the half-wit's shoulder, who made no effort to escape;
+for at last, at last, there had penetrated to his dim intelligence the
+wide, the awful difference between good and evil. When he saw the once
+crippled lad, whom his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> own hands had restored to health, thus fling
+away his life with unstinted hand, that he might save the life of
+another,&mdash;once his enemy also,&mdash;there had roused within the dormant
+brain of the foundling a sudden perception of Hallam's nobility and his
+own baseness. Therefore, stunned by this new knowledge, he stood humble
+and unresisting.</p>
+
+<p>Amy's great heart comprehended just what and how her poor prot&eacute;g&eacute; was
+suffering. With her, to think was to act. She sprang to him and laid her
+small hand on his other shoulder, and the tender sympathy of this touch
+thrilled him more than the hard grasp of his master.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but Hallam&mdash;Hallam&mdash;you <i>walked</i>! <i>walked!</i> you ran! You&mdash;you&mdash;who
+never&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her voice choked, ceased, and she turned from Fayette to fling herself
+headlong into her brother's arms. For the first time in their lives he
+could receive her and support her firmly. Then she stepped back and
+shook him. Gently at first, then violently. His crutches were&mdash;nobody
+cared where, though certainly not at hand; yet he stood fixedly,
+resisting her attacks, and again catching her to him with that
+overflowing joy that only such as he could guess.</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't understand. Tell&mdash;tell; not here, though. Is all safe? No
+danger any more?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Fayette to her demand, "there ain't no danger. Not 'less the
+fuse had burned out to the end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> It's under the desk. He'll find it.
+I&mdash;I&mdash;but it's put out. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't mean it, did you, boy? You could not. You didn't
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't, I didn't," whimpered the stricken fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate relaxed his hold. How could he retain his fury against such
+an enemy? It was too unequal. The lad was dangerous, he must be
+punished, he&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Hallam read these unspoken thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"For my sake, Cousin Archibald, forgive him. It is he who has made me
+able to save you this day, even though it was he who put you in such
+peril. Months ago, Amy read in a paper how a lad was cured whose case
+was just like mine. There was only will power on the cripple's part, and
+the daily, sometimes hourly massage by one of those persons whose
+physical magnetism, or whatever it is, was strong. 'Bony' was such a
+person, and I just such a cripple. We began. For weeks I couldn't move
+my legs without using my hands to help. Then one day I found, just after
+the rubbing was over, that I could push one foot along the floor a tiny
+way. That gave us both courage. He has been untiring. We were soon on
+the road to what I believed, though with lots of set-backs, would be a
+cure. Uncle Fred knew; that's why he wouldn't let Fayette be arrested or
+punished for assaulting you. He took the blame himself, if the boy would
+stick to me. Cleena knew, too&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p><p>"And not us, father nor me!" exclaimed Amy, in a hurt tone.</p>
+
+<p>"No; that was to be my blessed surprise for you two. It was to your own
+suggestion, which I suppose you forgot soon after, with the newspaper
+scrap you brought, that I owe the beginning. It was Cleena kept us at
+it. She wouldn't let us give it up,&mdash;no, not if she had the whole crowd
+under lock and key on a bread and water diet; eh, Fayette?"</p>
+
+<p>The shamefaced fellow looked up, with a slight gleam in his eye, then
+dropped his gaze again.</p>
+
+<p>Hallam went on: "To-morrow, the First Day that mother loved, I was going
+to make an experiment before you all&mdash;my surprise. I have practised in
+private continually, and uncle, as well as Cleena, has urged me to tell
+you before; but I kept it till the anniversary&mdash;you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said Archibald Wingate, with a sudden recollection, "so it is. She
+was my best friend, my best beloved. You are her children. All my hard
+middle life seems to have slipped out of my memory, like a bad dream,
+and I am back in our youth-time again, with Salome and Cuthbert and
+Fred,&mdash;all gay and glad together. I wonder, I wonder what she would bid
+me do to you, poor fellow," he finished, regarding the abject natural
+with a pitying air.</p>
+
+<p>"I know! Forgive him, else thy Salome and my mother were not one."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span></p><p>"Amy, thee is right. Come into the office, all of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it safe?" she asked, hanging back.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll make it safe. 'Bony,' or Fayette, take that stuff you put under
+the desk and step out there to the Ardsley. Behind that rock is a deep
+hole. I used to fish there as a lad. I can see if you obey. Drop that
+death powder into the stream and come back."</p>
+
+<p>Fayette obeyed, and they watched him, shivering. But when the water
+flowed on after an instant, undisturbed and merrily singing its
+deathless song, they breathed deeply and with complete relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Fayette; you think I've been a hard man. So I have&mdash;so I
+have. You've been a bad boy too, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I won't never&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you won't. Look here, I say. What's this&mdash;this heap of stuff
+I took out of the safe? Did you ever see it before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it's the money I blasted out."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if it were yours, would you promise never again to blast anything
+or anybody or anywhere? Your very own to keep forever, if you liked."</p>
+
+<p>"Huckleberries! Do you mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you promise, I mean it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do&mdash;I do. I'll keep my word. I meant to try and I did. But it's
+over. I'm glad; I wasn't happy, never. I promise, whether or no, money
+or not."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p><p>"I believe you'll keep that promise: Hallam and Amy, here, are
+witnesses. Now, listen: I, too, promise. I'll not only give you this old
+hoard, but this besides." He swept into view a pile of golden eagles,
+larger than any there save himself had ever seen, and placed it beside
+that time-worn lot of similar material. In bestowing his gift he had
+provided to have it in such shape as he knew the half-wit would best
+comprehend. "This is for you, also. It is just as much more as you
+found. I give it to you because my little cousin here has taught me it
+is better to give than to receive. You must take both piles, in this new
+hand-bag, and ask Mr. Metcalf to take care of it for you. You trust
+<i>him</i>, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;yes," answered Fayette, in breathless eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the condition: if you ever again, by word or deed, do any sort of
+injury to any human being or to any helpless animal, I will have you
+punished, punished in full for all you have done wrong in the past. Do
+you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," sobbed the grateful and greatly excited youth. Somewhere he had
+heard, maybe from Cleena's lips, something about heaping coals. He felt
+at that moment as if the living coals were lying upon his own poor head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then go; and if it will give you any pleasure to know it, I believe
+that you are now about the richest of the mill operatives living in
+Ardsley village."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span></p><p>Stumbling, through his tears, and truly far more grateful for the
+prevention of his crime than even for his unexpected good fortune and
+full forgiveness, Cleena's Fayetty went.</p>
+
+<p>As his footsteps died away, Amy, who seemed given to outbursts to
+relieve her full heart, threw her arms about the old man's neck and
+kissed him over and over.</p>
+
+<p>"That's better, child, that's better. The first time thee planted it on
+my nose, I seemed to have a dim perception that this was not the
+regulation feature for such gifts, but it answered; though I like them
+better on my cheek, child. Thee's improving. Now let's go home. Yes;
+it's the carryall. There's room for us all. On the way I'll tell thee&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; wait till we get home. Don't let's leave anybody out any more.
+By thy face I can see it's something delightful thee is going to tell.
+Oh, make the old horse travel, travel&mdash;fast, fast!"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+<p>On half-holidays Cleena had always the best dinner of the week. To its
+enjoyment were usually brought the best appetites of the week as well;
+for there was leisure and talk and laughter, and that interchange of
+experiences which kept their family life so united.</p>
+
+<p>Archibald Wingate joined the party at this present half-holiday dinner;
+yet even with such cheerfulness about him could not but shiver now and
+then, as he recalled his narrow escape of the afternoon. To have taken
+his meal alone, on that day, would have been to suffer greatly.</p>
+
+<p>But Amy had brought him in and placed him in the seat of honor, and amid
+the general rejoicing over Hallam's wonderful recovery and surprise,
+they had made him feel that he was a sharer. They had just drawn back
+from the table, and were going into the sitting room, when there came a
+tap at the door that Cleena answered. It was a small tap, very low down
+on the panel, but it was given due importance; for wasn't the visitor
+Master "Willyum Gladstone Jones," and wasn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> Cleena just making fine
+progress in teaching him his "manners"?</p>
+
+<p>So they all paused to wait the child's important entrance, and to smile
+over Goodsoul's greeting:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The top o' the evenin' to you, Mister Jones. An' what may be givin' us
+the pleasure of a visit from your lordship the now? A what? Speak up; a
+box is it? Miss Amy's box. Never a doubt I doubt you've made messes of
+its insides, by the way. No? Then your improvin', to that extent I must
+even be givin' ye a bite o' this fine apple pie. Hmm; exactly. Well,
+give the young lady her bit property, again' I slips on a plate an'
+teaches ye how to eat decent, as ye should."</p>
+
+<p>So the little fellow, who had just been promoted to his first trousers
+and felt as all boys do in such a case, walked proudly across the room
+and offered Amy a japanned casket.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Sir William, how came you by that? I haven't seen it for ever so
+long. I used to keep my few letters in it. I wonder if they're here
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"Ev'y one. My mamma seen 'em all. She said the top one&mdash;I don't know.
+Somefin."</p>
+
+<p>"Arrah musha! but I remember one day, long syne, he was aye botherin'
+an' I set him to orderin' the box neat an' nice. He must ha' took it
+away with him an' me not payin' no attention. Well, a box o' such
+truck's neither here no more there, I forecast."</p>
+
+<p>Amy had stopped to admire the new garment, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>fashioned from an old one of
+Hallam's, and having thus satisfied the little one's innocent pride, now
+opened her recovered keepsake. She lifted the letters idly, dropped
+them, and again catching one that had, indeed, lain upon the top, sprang
+up and waved it overhead.</p>
+
+<p>"The letter! the letter! The lost one of Adam!"</p>
+
+<p>"No; is it really? To come in such a way&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"On such a day&mdash;oh, Hal!"</p>
+
+<p>She caught her brother's hands and wrung them in delight, then ran to
+her father and placed the letter before him.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at it critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that is Adam Burn's handwriting. His own familiar seal. These
+people who have had it in keeping&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I hided it. Zen I dugged it out. Same like Fayetty," explained Sir
+William, between mouthfuls.</p>
+
+<p>"The blessed baby! that explains."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go into the parlor and read it. It is yours, daughter; you must
+yourself break the seal."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll break it fast enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm. Young lady, I thought you were the girl who didn't want to be an
+heiress," commented Uncle Fred, teasingly.</p>
+
+<p>Amy's face sobered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. I didn't so wish then, when the shock and sorrow were
+fresh; but now I do. Just think of all the comfort for all you folks in
+that lovely home."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p><p>"Then I must lose my tenants, eh?" asked Mr. Wingate, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Thee'll lose nothing! Wait. If thee has plans to tell, so have I."</p>
+
+<p>The letter was a simple one, plain, and leaving no room for any sort of
+legal difficulty. Amy could enter upon her heritage that day, if she
+wished. The place where the will was stored was designated, and they
+knew it would there be found. But after the reading a little silence
+fell upon them all.</p>
+
+<p>The old mill owner was the first to break this. He did it almost
+reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"Speaking of wills, and after the events of the day, I've been thinking
+of mine. By the way, Amy, I suppose thee'll cease to work for me now."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why I should, unless my father needs me at home. We will
+see about that afterward. Tell us thy plans, please. I'd like to hear
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"And I'd like to have thee make them for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Make them? I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; in truth and deed. If thee were me and had as much money as I
+have, and were just such a lonely, childless, forlorn old man, what
+would thee do, that would accomplish the most good? according to thy
+judgment, which I have found a fairly sound one."</p>
+
+<p>The elder Kayes listened in astonishment. They had been prepared by
+various matters for a great change in their kinsman, though not for one
+so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>radical. But the father began to perceive how this change had been
+wrought, and his heart gave thanks for the devoted, sunshiny daughter
+who seemed to shed an influence for happiness and goodness on all whom
+she knew. It was due to her, he believed, that this new Archibald had
+replaced the old.</p>
+
+<p>"Does thee mean it, truly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I mean it. Let me hear. If it is possible, I will carry out the
+wishes thee expresses, knowing they will be all for the benefit of
+somebody deserving."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I'd help the unpractical Kaye family to get settled at
+Burnside Farm, on the condition that for my services I was given a big,
+delightful room in the old farmhouse, to live in and with them, forever
+and ever and ever, so long as the dear Lord permitted&mdash;that's if I were
+thee, Cousin Archibald."</p>
+
+<p>"But would that ne'er-do-well Kaye family take in an old curmudgeon,
+does thee think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never. A curmudgeon is a thing they detest. They'd take in a nice, fat,
+old fellow, whose heart was so big it made his body grow to hold it, and
+who meant to do all the good with his money that his money would do, and
+not leave it for anybody to squabble over after he died."</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent, Miss Wisdom; proceed."</p>
+
+<p>"After I'd got a niche at Burnside, I'd take 'Charity House' and remodel
+it into a Modern Industrial School. I'd have 'designing' taught, in
+regular classes, by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> well-known artist, named Cuthbert Kaye. I'd have
+agriculture under the instruction of another expert, Frederic Kaye. I'd
+have a school of scientific cookery&mdash;not by you, my Cleena, but by
+somebody who hates pies and adores oatmeal and <i>et cetera</i>. No, really,
+I do think the mill folks should understand more about foods and their
+uses. They'd save so much money and&mdash;dyspepsia."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up. Where do I come in?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the mercantile college end of the establishment, learned brother.
+There should be a splendid library, a gymnasium, a swimming pool&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A swimming pool on the top of Bareacre knoll!"</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't interrupt, Hal. It's impolite. I'd have it&mdash;somewhere. I'd
+have a paddock full of burros&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"They're already ordered," cried Archibald, forgetting everything in his
+enjoyment of her happy face.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to continue? May I let my fancy riot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; give thyself full freedom for once."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'd take beautiful Fairacres, that has been a happy home for
+generations, and I'd make it a Happy Home, with capital letters. I'd
+call to it all the tired and ailing mill folks in the country. I'd make
+its disused studio and book rooms into a hospital, and where father
+painted his picture of pain, that he destroyed, let all pain be soothed;
+and all the other big chambers into havens of rest for other girls who,
+unlike me, have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> no fathers, nor Uncle Freds, nor Hallams, nor Cousin
+Archibalds, nor anybody. I'd have Mary Reese trained to be its Little
+Mother; and Archibald Wingate should be full manager of all, beloved and
+venerated, reaping the happiness he has himself bestowed; and oh,
+cousin, if it might be true! and if I were not out of breath! There!
+have I 'rioted' enough?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Wingate turned his head sidewise and looked admiringly upon the
+unselfish girl who had planned so much for others, and had not,
+apparently, remembered to plan anything for herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; thee has rioted enough. But, little one, if thee pleases, if my
+other kinsfolk here so please; if the dead past is indeed the dead past,
+and the future may be our happy own, there is no reason under the blue
+heaven why thee has not prophesied aright. What say, my friends? Shall
+Amy's word be that which the Spirit has moved her to say? Shall we make
+it real and tangible, this beautiful, helpful dream of hers? You are all
+interested alike. You are my next of kin. After me you will inherit&mdash;or
+these others whom she has named. Was Amy's word the true Word, Cuthbert?
+The word Salome would have spoken?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was the true Word, Archibald. Let it be as Salome's child has
+spoken," said Cuthbert Kaye, grasping his kinsman's hand.</p>
+
+<p>And all Ardsley now knows that as it was then agreed, so it is, and will remain.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h1>A DAUGHTER<br />OF THE WEST</h1>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN PRINCESS</h3>
+
+<h3><i>By Evelyn Raymond</i></h3>
+
+<h3><i>347 pp. Cloth. $1.50</i></h3>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>California ranch life is the setting of this bright story for young
+people. It will read like a fairy tale to those who know nothing of the
+wideness of life on a great ranch as compared with our overcrowded
+Eastern city existence. The story "moves." Incident follows incident
+with rapidity enough to maintain interest, and the teachings of the book
+tend to a sturdy wholesomeness throughout.&mdash;<i>Epworth Herald.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>It is not often that a woman succeeds in writing an Indian story,
+exciting enough to commend itself to boys, yet with a girl for its
+principal character, and with the noblest of teachings throughout the
+tale; but in "A Daughter of the West" Evelyn Raymond has accomplished
+precisely that feat. The scene is laid among the broad valleys and lofty
+mountains of California, and every chapter is crowded full of
+incident.&mdash;<i>Christian Endeavor World.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>This story of our western plains will appeal to many a youthful reader.
+The heroine, beloved by her people, the community, and even by the
+neighboring Indian tribes, carries the interest of the reader to the
+final page. Her courage in time of personal danger, her sweet
+disposition in her relations with those around her, are well depicted by
+the author. The book is well illustrated and attractively bound, and
+cannot fail to be a success.&mdash;<i>Journal of Education.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h2>A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST</h2>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>This "Daughter of the West" is one of the freshest, breeziest, most
+wholesome stories we have read in a long time. The scene has a
+California ranch for its setting. But the writer tells her story in such
+a natural and charming style, that we relish every word of
+it.&mdash;<i>Christian Observer.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, is a story of California
+ranch life, of which Patience Eliot is the heroine. By severe experience
+she comes to hold herself and all her large belongings of wealth as a
+sacred trust, to be spent in the service of others. The story is one
+which will tend to quicken the nobler aspirations of all young
+women.&mdash;<i>The Advance.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>This story of Evelyn Raymond's is not lacking in exciting incident, at
+least, even though it is not a love tale. Patience Eliot, the heroine, a
+California girl born and bred, as much at home in the saddle as the
+wildest rider of the plains, exhibits her training in season and out,
+and though she startles certain more conventional people with her ways,
+she illustrates well the excellence of the training of Nature's child.
+The atmosphere of the greater part of the story is that of Southern
+California, with its mingled society of Mexicans, Indians and reckless
+frontiersmen, and among them the heroine lives and thrives. It is a
+healthful out-of-door story, wholesomely interesting and
+alive.&mdash;<i>Colorado School Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, the story of an American
+princess, is a narrative of California ranch life. It affords a pleasant
+picture of that sort of life, and portrays effectively a certain type of
+training for the young. It also illustrates the striking changes that
+sometimes occur in personal careers in a country like our own. It is
+full of incident, and will promote patriotism and a high ideal of
+life.&mdash;<i>The Congregationalist.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h1>A GIRL OF '76</h1>
+
+<h3><i>By Amy E. Blanchard</i></h3>
+
+<h3><i>331 pp. Cloth. $1.50</i></h3>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>"A Girl of '76," by Amy E. Blanchard, is one of the best stories of old
+Boston and its vicinity ever written. The value of the book as real
+history, and as an incentive to further historical study can hardly be
+over-estimated.&mdash;<i>The Bookseller.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>This is one of the season's books that deserves a wide reading among the
+girls. The events in which Elizabeth Hall, the heroine, took part
+occurred in those stirring times, beginning with the Boston Tea Party.
+The call to Lexington, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the burning of
+Charlestown follow, and in all these the little maid bears her share of
+the general anxiety and privation with a fortitude which makes wholesome
+reading.&mdash;<i>Watchman.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>The manners and customs of that time are vividly pictured in this
+interesting and well written story, and while we joyfully reach the
+"peace" chapter with which it ends, we are truly sorry to part with this
+charming girl of '76.&mdash;<i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>The tale is told with sentiment and vivacity, giving bright pictures of
+a singing school, a quilting bee, and other old-time entertainments. It
+is just the book for the youngest of the D. A. R. societies, and is
+dedicated to "My Revolutionary Sires."&mdash;<i>Literary World.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>It is a thoroughly well-told tale, and of so genuine a charm as to
+challenge the interest of readers other than the youngsters. Here too,
+the pictures are of actual merit, and demand a share in the well
+deserved praise bestowed upon the book as a whole.&mdash;<i>S. S. Times.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h2>A REVOLUTIONARY MAID.</h2>
+
+<h3>A STORY OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD<br />OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.</h3>
+
+<h3><i>321 pp. Cloth. $1.50.</i></h3>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>It is charmingly written, and the young reader will not only enjoy it as
+a story, but will also get a very clear knowledge of that part of
+history which relates to the war of the Revolution. The little
+"Revolutionary Maid," Kitty DeWitt, is a plucky little Whig, and full of
+courage; her presence of mind, on many occasions, saves her and others
+from the Red coats.&mdash;<i>Christian Observer.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>Amy E. Blanchard's "A Revolutionary Maid" sets a charming heroine in the
+middle period of the Revolutionary War, and keeps her a stanch little
+patriot in spite of her Tory surroundings.&mdash;<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>The plot of the story before us, without being intricate, is ingenious
+and the interest in the characters is fully sustained throughout. The
+trying experiences of Kitty DeWitt were those of a multitude of girls
+and women, and their decision for patriotism was a power in shaping the
+great national events which followed. Such books are educational in
+patriotism. The more American girls are made to feel and know their
+power and influence in national affairs the better.&mdash;<i>The Inter-Ocean.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>Among the large number of Revolutionary Books in the new literature, "A
+Revolutionary Maid" is not merely remarkably entertaining, but also
+unique.&mdash;<i>Boston Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>There could be no better material with which to give an historical
+flavoring to a story than the New Jersey campaign, the battle of
+Germantown, and the winter at Valley Forge. Miss Blanchard has made the
+most of a large opportunity, and produced a happy companion book to her
+"Girl of '76."&mdash;<i>The Christian Endeavor World.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h2><i>AN HISTORICAL NOVEL</i></h2>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<h1>A SON OF THE<br />REVOLUTION</h1>
+
+<h2>IN THE DAYS OF<br />BURR'S CONSPIRACY</h2>
+
+<h3><i>By Elbridge S. Brooks</i></h3>
+
+<h3><i>301 pages. Cloth, $1.50</i></h3>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>Mr. Brooks knows how to catch and hold the attention of boys and girls.
+In this story of Aaron Burr's conspiracy he is very happy, choosing
+scenes and incidents of picturesque American history and weaving them
+into a patriotic and stirringly romantic narrative. The young hero is a
+fine character strongly presented, and from first page to last the
+interest is lively. We heartily recommend the book to our young readers
+as one sure to please and instruct them.&mdash;<i>The Independent.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>Elbridge S. Brooks has written nothing better than "A Son of the
+Revolution." Designed for boys, it is so spirited and interesting,
+dealing as it does with little known episodes in our past history as a
+nation, that it will gain many readers in the ranks of the grown up. It
+is really as the sub-title says, "an historical novel" of the days of
+Aaron Burr, when he was conspiring to create a western empire. A young
+fellow full of enthusiasm and patriotism, named Tom Edwards, comes under
+the fascination of Burr, and works with him for quite a period before
+considering his true aims and real character. When the day of awakening
+comes, the fight with his conscience is thrilling. No better book for
+boys can be mentioned, nor one so rich in lessons of true
+patriotism.&mdash;<i>The Publisher's Weekly.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="block">
+
+<h2>A SON OF THE REVOLUTION</h2>
+
+<hr class="lger" />
+
+<p>Elbridge S. Brooks has told in "A Son of the Revolution" a story which
+will stimulate the patriotism of all young Americans. He relates the
+adventures of an Ohio lad who was a relative of Aaron Burr and had
+implicit faith in that brilliant but unprincipled statesman. The story
+is remarkably well told and it is finely illustrated.&mdash;<i>The San
+Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Brooks in this volume presents to his readers a new field of
+interest and importance. No one incident in the history of our country,
+as a nation, is so full of the picturesque as the wild scheme of treason
+which stirred the soul of Aaron Burr to plot against the country he had
+struggled to establish. Every boy ought to know the history of this arch
+traitor.&mdash;<i>The Awakener.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>In this volume the author touches upon a field of interest but little
+known, and concerning which but slight attention has been given by
+historians and novelists.</p>
+
+<p>Burr's conspiracy, although not now considered as an historical event of
+marked importance, yet, during the period of opening up the middle
+western states was a serious episode in the nation's career. With this
+period and the events connected therewith the author has interested
+himself, and has presented to the reader a novel of intense feeling of
+patriotism and loyalty to the government.</p>
+
+<p>Coming at this time, when national affairs are strongest in the minds of
+the people, we predict for this story a widespread success.&mdash;<i>Journal of
+Education.</i></p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/dec.jpg" width='25' height='20' alt="decoration" /></div>
+
+<p>An historical of Aaron Burr's time, by Elbridge S. Brooks, presenting
+the story of the adventures of the "young son" as faithful facts of
+history, but in an interesting and inspiring way which will hold and
+help the young reader.&mdash;<i>The International Evangel.</i></p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,10806 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+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: Reels and Spindles
+       A Story of Mill Life
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+Illustrator: Frank T. Merrill
+
+Release Date: December 25, 2008 [EBook #27613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REELS AND SPINDLES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES
+
+_A Story of Mill Life_
+
+BY
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST," "A LITTLE LADY OF THE HORSE," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK T. MERRILL
+
+[Illustration: Logo]
+
+BOSTON AND CHICAGO
+W. A. WILDE COMPANY
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1900,
+BY W. A. WILDE COMPANY.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES.
+
+
+[Illustration: "SHE PULLED A BOOK FROM HER POCKET AND BEGAN TO READ."]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It was love for others which made Amy Kaye make use of the first
+opportunity which offered, even though it was an humble one and she was
+handicapped by ignorance. But having once decided what course was right
+for her, she followed it with a singleness of purpose and a thoroughness
+of effort which brought a prompt success. The help she was to others was
+no small part of this success. For in an age of shams and low ideals the
+influence of even one sincere girl is far-reaching; and when to that
+sincerity she adds the sympathy which makes another's interests as vital
+to her as her own, this influence becomes incalculable for good.
+
+It is the author's hope that the story of "Reels and Spindles" may aid
+some young readers to comprehend and make their own this beauty of
+simplicity and this charm of sympathy which are the outcome of
+unselfishness.
+
+E. R.
+
+BALTIMORE, April 3, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER                                           PAGE
+
+      I. A BYWAY OF THE ARDSLEY                     11
+
+     II. THE MILL IN THE GLEN                       23
+
+    III. FAIRACRES                                  33
+
+     IV. HALLAM                                     47
+
+      V. A KINSMAN OF THE HOUSE                     60
+
+     VI. SETTLEMENTS                                70
+
+    VII. THE "SPITE HOUSE" OF BAREACRE              82
+
+   VIII. NEEDS AND HELPERS                          93
+
+     IX. THE WATERLOO OF BONAPARTE LAFAYETTE       105
+
+      X. HOME-MAKING                               117
+
+     XI. THE YOUNG OLD MAN AND OLD YOUNG GIRL      130
+
+    XII. BAD NEWS FROM BURNSIDE                    142
+
+   XIII. AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL                  154
+
+    XIV. PEPITA FINDS A NEW HOME                   167
+
+     XV. FACING HARD FACTS                         181
+
+    XVI. AMY BEGINS TO SPIN                        192
+
+   XVII. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BALAAM               210
+
+  XVIII. THE FASCINATION OF INDUSTRY               224
+
+    XIX. MOTIVES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS             236
+
+     XX. IN THE OLD HOME                           248
+
+    XXI. A PECULIAR INVITATION                     264
+
+   XXII. TWO WANDERERS RETURN                      279
+
+  XXIII. FREDERIC KAYE'S WELCOME HOME              292
+
+   XXIV. FAIRACRES IS CLOSED                       304
+
+    XXV. MYSTERIES AND MASTERIES                   315
+
+   XXVI. A PICNIC IN THE GLEN                      324
+
+  XXVII. A DOUBLE INHERITANCE IN A SINGLE DAY      333
+
+ XXVIII. ONE WONDERFUL AUTUMN DAY                  345
+
+   XXIX. CONCLUSION                                363
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                             PAGE
+"She pulled a book from her pocket and began to
+read"                                           _Frontispiece_ 12
+
+"'Take care! You'll drop sperm on the rug, tipping
+that candlestick so!'"                                         68
+
+"'Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita'"           173
+
+"She so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound
+it with the lotions"                                          262
+
+"He began to gather up the coins"                             334
+
+
+
+
+REELS AND SPINDLES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A BYWAY OF THE ARDSLEY.
+
+
+The white burro had a will of her own. So, distinctly, had her mistress.
+As had often happened, these two wills conflicted.
+
+For the pair had come to a point where three ways met. Pepita wanted to
+ascend the hill, by a path she knew, to stable and supper. Amy wished to
+follow a descending road, which she did not know, into the depths of the
+forest. Neither inclined toward the safe middle course, straight onward
+through the village, now picturesque in the coloring of a late September
+day.
+
+"No, Pepita. You must obey me. If I'm not firm this time, you'll act
+worse the next. To the right, amiable beastie!"
+
+Both firmness and sarcasm were wasted. The burro rigidly planted her
+forefeet in the dust and sorrowfully dropped her head.
+
+Amy tugged at the bridle.
+
+"Pepita! To--the--right! Go on. In your native Californian--_Vamos!_"
+
+The "Californian" budged not, but posed, an image of dejection. The
+happiness of life had departed; the tale of her woe seemed pictured in
+every hair of her thickly coated body; she was a broken-hearted donkey.
+
+Amy Kaye was neither broken-hearted nor broken-spirited, and she was
+wholly comfortable. Her saddle was soft and fitted well. The air was
+delightful. She pulled a book from her pocket and began to read. In five
+minutes she was so absorbed that she had forgotten Pepita's little
+mannerisms.
+
+After a while the "Californian" moved her head just enough to gain a
+corner-wise glimpse of a calm and unresponsive face beneath a scarlet
+Tam; and evidently realizing that she had become a mere support to the
+maid who owned her, uttered her protest.
+
+"Bra-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-umph--umph--mph--ph--h!"
+
+Amy read on.
+
+Pepita changed her tactics. She began to double herself together in a
+fashion disconcerting to most riders; whereupon Amy simply drew her own
+limbs up out of harm's way and waited for the burro's anatomy to settle
+itself in a heap on the ground.
+
+"All right, honey."
+
+Then she resumed her book, and the beast her meditations. Thus they
+remained until the rumble of an approaching wagon caused the now
+submissive animal to rise and move aside out of the road.
+
+Again Amy tested the bridle, and found that she might now ride whither
+she pleased.
+
+"Is it so, beloved? Well, then, that's right; and when you do right
+because I make you, it is one lump of sugar. Open your mouth. Here. But,
+Pepita, when you do right without compulsion, there are always two
+lumps. Into the forest--go!"
+
+Pepita went. Suddenly, swiftly, and so recklessly that Amy nearly slid
+over her head.
+
+"Very well! What suits you suits me. I'm as good a sticker-on as you are
+a shaker-off. Besides, a word in your ear. It would be quite the proper,
+story-book sort of thing for you to try and break my neck, as a
+punishment, since I'm almost running away."
+
+Though she had always lived within a few miles of the spot the girl had
+never before visited it. That she did so now, without knowledge of
+anybody at home, gave her a sense of daring, almost of danger, as new as
+it was fascinating. True, she had not been forbidden, simply because
+nobody had thought of her wandering so far afield; yet the habit of her
+life had been such as to make anything out of the common seem strange,
+even wrong.
+
+"However, since I'm here, I'll see what there is to see and tell them
+all about it afterward--that is, if they will care to hear," she ended
+her remark to the burro with a sigh, and for a bit forgot her
+surroundings. Then she rallied, and with the spirit of an explorer,
+peered curiously into all the delightful nooks and corners which
+presented; not observing that the road grew steadily more steep and
+rough, nor that Pepita's feet slipped and stumbled, warningly, among the
+loose stones, which were so hidden by fallen leaves that Amy could not
+see them. Along the sides, seasoning at convenient intervals, were rows
+of felled timber, gay with a summer's growth of woodbine and clematis,
+now ripened to scarlet and silvery white.
+
+Amy was an artist's daughter. At every turn her trained eye saw
+wonderful "bits" of pictures, and she exclaimed to Pepita:--
+
+"If father were only here! See that great rock with its gray-green
+lichens and its trailing crimson tendrils! Just that on a tiny canvas,
+say six by eight or, even, eight by twelve, how it would brighten
+mother's room!"
+
+The "Californian" kicked the leaves impatiently. She had no eye for
+"bits" of anything less material than sugar, and she had long since
+finished her one lump; she was tired of travelling in the wrong
+direction, with her head much lower than her heels, and she suddenly
+stopped.
+
+It was quite time. Another step forward would have sent them tobogganing
+into a brawling stream. With a shiver of fear Amy realized this.
+
+"O-oh! Oh! You knew best, after all! You wouldn't come till I made you;
+and now--how shall we get out! Hark! What's that?"
+
+The burro had already pricked up her ears. There was a shout from
+somewhere.
+
+Amy managed to slide off and fling herself flat against the slope. When
+she tried to climb back to a less dangerous spot the twigs she clutched
+broke in her hands and the rocks cut her flesh. The adventure which had
+been fascinating was fast becoming frightful.
+
+"Hil-loa! Hil-l-loa!"
+
+Clinging desperately to the undergrowth, she managed to move her head
+and look down. Far below in the ravine somebody was waving a white
+cloth.
+
+"Hilloa, up there!"
+
+She was too terrified to speak; yet, after the salute had reached her
+several times, she dared to loose one hand and wave a returning signal.
+
+"You--just--hold on! I'll come--and get--you!"
+
+As "holding on" was all that either Amy or Pepita could do just then,
+they obeyed, perforce; although, presently, the burro had scrambled to a
+narrow ledge, whence she could see the whole descent and from which, if
+left to herself, she would doubtless have found a way into the valley.
+
+They clung and waited for so long that the girl grew confused; then
+tried to rally her own courage by addressing the "Californian."
+
+"It's so--so absurd--I mean, awful! If that man doesn't come soon, I
+shall surely fall. My fingers ache so, and I'm slipping.
+I--am--slipping! Ah!"
+
+Fortunately, her rescuer was near. He had worked his way upward on all
+fours, his bare feet clinging securely where shoe-soles would have been
+useless. He approached without noise, save of breaking twigs, until he
+was close beside them, when Pepita concluded it was time to bid him
+welcome.
+
+"Br-r-r-ray! A-humph! A-humph--umph--mph--ph--h!"
+
+The climber halted suddenly.
+
+"Sho-o!"
+
+Also startled, Amy lost her hold and shot downward straight into the
+arms of the stranger, who seized her, croaking in her ear:--
+
+"Hilloa! What you up to? Can't you wait a minute?"
+
+Then, with a strong grasp of her clothing, he wriggled himself sidewise
+along the bank to a spot where the rock gave place to earth and shrubs.
+
+"Now catch your breath and let her go!"
+
+The girl might have screamed, but she had no time. Instantly, she was
+again sliding downward, with an ever-increasing momentum, toward
+apparent destruction, yet landing finally upon a safe and mossy place;
+past which, for a brief space, the otherwhere rough stream flowed
+placidly. She caught the hum of happy insects and the moist sweet odor
+of growing ferns, then heard another rush and tumble. But she was as yet
+too dazed to look up or realize fresh peril, before Pepita and the other
+stood beside her.
+
+"Sho! That beats--huckleberries!"
+
+Amy struggled to her feet. She had never heard a voice like that, which
+began a sentence with mighty volume and ended it in a whisper. She
+stared at the owner curiously, and with a fresh fear. "He looks as queer
+as his voice," she thought.
+
+She was right. His physique was as grotesque as his attire; which
+consisted of a white oilskin blouse, gayly bordered with the national
+colors, trousers of the most aggressive blue, and a helmet-shaped hat,
+adorned by a miniature battle-axe, while a tiny broom was strapped upon
+his shoulders.
+
+"Huh! pretty, ain't I? The boys gave 'em to me."
+
+"Did--they?"
+
+"Yes. You needn't be scared. I shan't hurt you. I'm a Rep-Dem-Prob."
+
+"Ah, indeed?"
+
+"Yes. I march with the whole kerboodle. I tell you, it's fun."
+
+It was "Presidential year," and Amy began to understand, not only that
+the lad before her was a "natural," but, presumably, that he had been
+made the victim of village wit. She had heard of the "marching bands,"
+and inferred that the strange dress of her rescuer was made up by
+fragments from rival political uniforms.
+
+"Yes. I'm out every night. Hurrah for Clevey-Harris!"
+
+"You must get very tired."
+
+"No. It's fun. I drag the gun carriage. That's on account o' my
+strength. Look a' there for an arm!" And he thrust out his illy
+proportioned limb with a pitiable pride.
+
+"I see. But now that you've helped me down the bank, will you as kindly
+show me the way home?"
+
+"Never slid that way before, did you? Only thing, though. I'll show you
+all right if you'll let me ride your donkey. Funny, ain't she? Make her
+talk."
+
+"I think she's very pretty; and you may ride her, certainly, if she will
+let you."
+
+A puzzled and angry expression came over the youth's face as he looked
+toward the burro, who had already begun to make hay for herself out of
+the lush grasses bordering the Ardsley.
+
+"Make her talk, I say."
+
+"She'll do that only to please herself. She's rather self-willed, and
+besides--"
+
+"Who do _you_ march with?"
+
+"March? _March!_ I?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why, nobody. Of course not. Why should you think it?"
+
+The lad scrutinized her dress and gazed abstractedly upon the white
+"Californian." Just then, a "parade" was the dominant idea in the poor
+fellow's limited intelligence. Amy's simple white flannel frock, with
+its scarlet sash, and the scarlet cap upon her dark curls, suggested
+only another "uniform." The girls with whose appearance he was familiar
+were not so attired.
+
+Neither did they ride upon white donkeys. Yet a donkey of venerable and
+unhappy appearance did nightly help to swell the ranks of the country's
+patriots, and the beast which he knew enjoyed a sort of honor: it drew
+an illuminated "float" wherein rode a greatly envied fifer.
+
+"What makes you ask that?" again demanded Amy, now laughing; for she had
+just imagined what her mother's face would express, should her daughter
+become a part of a "parade."
+
+"Oh! because."
+
+Pepita now took share in the conversation. "Br-r-rr-a-y! Ah-huh-um-umph!
+Ah-umph--u-m-ph--ah-umph--umph--mph--ph--h-h-h!" she observed.
+
+Never was a remark more felicitous. The lad threw himself down on the
+grass, laughing boisterously. Amy joined, in natural reaction from her
+former fear, and even the "Californian" helped on the fun by observing
+them with an absurdly injured expression.
+
+"She is funny, I admit; though she is as nothing compared to her
+brother Balaam. If you like that kind of music, you should hear their
+duet about breakfast time. Which is the shortest way to some real road?"
+
+"Come on. I'll show you."
+
+"Thank you; and, you are so tall, would you mind getting me that bunch
+of yellow leaves--just there? They are so very, very lovely I'd like to
+take them home to put in father's studio."
+
+"What's that? Where's it at? Who are you, anyhow?"
+
+"Amy Kaye."
+
+"I'm 'Bony,'--Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson. Who's he?"
+
+"My father is Cuthbert Kaye, the artist. Maybe you know him. He is
+always discovering original people."
+
+The speech was out before she realized that it was not especially
+flattering. Her father liked novel models, and she had imagined how her
+new acquaintance would look as a "study." Then she reflected that the
+lad was not as pleasing as he was "original."
+
+"No. I don't know him. He don't live in the village, I 'low?"
+
+"Of course not. We live at Fairacres. It has been our home, our family's
+home, for two hundred years."
+
+"Sho! You don't look it. An' you needn't get mad, if it has. I ain't
+made you mad, have I? I'd like to ride that critter. I'd like to, first
+rate."
+
+Amy flushed, ashamed of her indignation against such an unfortunate
+object, and replied:--
+
+"I'd like to have you 'first rate,' too, if Pepita is willing. You get
+on her back and show me which way to go, and I'll try to make her behave
+well. I have some sugar left. That turning? All right. See, Pepita,
+pretty Pepita! Smell what's in my fingers, amiable. Then follow me, and
+we'll see what--we shall see."
+
+"Bony" was much impressed by Amy's stratagem of walking ahead of the
+burro with the lump of sugar held temptingly just beyond reach. For the
+girl knew that the "Californian" would pursue the enticing titbit to the
+sweetest end.
+
+Yet this end seemed long in coming. For more than a mile their path lay
+close to the water's edge, through bogs and upon rocks, over rough and
+smooth, with the bluff rising steeply on their right and the stream
+preventing their crossing to the farm lands on its left. But at length
+they emerged upon a wider level and a view that was worth walking far to
+see.
+
+Here the lad dismounted. He was so much too large for the beast he
+bestrode that he had been obliged to hold his feet up awkwardly, while
+riding. Besides, deep in his clouded heart there had arisen a desire to
+please this girl who so pleased him.
+
+"Hmm. If you like leaves, there's some that's pretty," he said, pointing
+upward toward a brilliant branch, hanging far out above the stream.
+
+"Yes, those are exquisite, but quite out of reach. We can get on faster
+now; and tell me, please, what are all those buildings yonder? How
+picturesque they look, clustered amid the trees on the river's bank."
+
+Her answer was a rustle overhead. She fancied that a squirrel could not
+have climbed more swiftly; for, glancing up, she discovered the witless
+youth already upon the projecting branch, moving toward its slender
+tips, which swayed beneath his weight, threatening instant breakage.
+Below him roared the rapids, hurrying to dash over the great dam not
+many yards away.
+
+"Oh! how dare you? Come back--at once!"
+
+"Scare you, do I? Sho! This is nothing. You just ought to see what I can
+do. Catch 'em. There you are. That's prettier than any. Hello! Yonder's
+a yellow-robin's nest. Wait. I'll get it for you!"
+
+Amy shut her eyes that she might not see; though she could not but hear
+the snapping of boughs, the yell, and the heavy splash which followed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE MILL IN THE GLEN.
+
+
+"Hi! ducked myself that time, sure!"
+
+Amy ventured to open her eyes. There, dripping and grinning, evidently
+enjoying the fright he had given her, stood her strange new
+acquaintance. His hand still clutched the scarlet branch with its
+swinging nest that he had risked his safety to secure, nor would
+relinquish for so trivial a matter as a fall into the water.
+
+"You--you might have been drowned!"
+
+"But I wasn't."
+
+"I should have felt that it was all my fault!" she exclaimed, now that
+her fear was past, growing angry at his hardihood.
+
+He stared at her in genuine surprise; all the gayety of his expression
+giving place to disappointment.
+
+"Don't you like it? They always build far out."
+
+"Oh, yes. It's beautiful, and I thank you, of course. But I want to get
+home. You must show me the way."
+
+"Make the donkey carry 'em."
+
+"Very well."
+
+So they piled the branches upon the back of the dumbly protesting
+"Californian," Amy retaining the delicate nest and gently shaking the
+water from it.
+
+"She don't like 'em, does she?"
+
+"Not at all. Idle Pepita likes nothing that is labor. But I love her,
+even though she's lazy."
+
+"What'll you take for her?"
+
+"Why--nothing."
+
+"Won't swop?"
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh! dozens of 'whys.' The idea of my selling Pepita! For one thing, she
+was a gift."
+
+"Who from?"
+
+"My uncle Frederic."
+
+"When? Where? What for?"
+
+"Oh! what a question asker. Come, Pepit! Tcht!"
+
+Shaking her body viciously, but unable to rid herself of her brilliant
+burden, the burro started swiftly along the footpath running toward the
+distant buildings, and over the little bridge that crossed just there.
+Both path and bridge were worn smooth by the feet of the operatives from
+the mills, which interested Amy more and more, the nearer she approached
+them. Once or twice, on some rare outing among the hills where her home
+lay, she had caught glimpses of their roofs and chimneys, and she
+remembered to have asked some questions about them; but her father had
+answered her so indifferently, even shortly, that she had learned
+little.
+
+Seen from this point they impressed her by contrast to all she had ever
+known. There was a whirl and stir of life about them that excited and
+thrilled her. Through the almost numberless windows, wide open to the
+air, she could see hundreds of busy people moving to and fro, in a sort
+of a rhythmic measure with the pulsating engines.
+
+As yet she did not know what these engines were. She heard the mighty
+beat and rumble, regular, unchanging, like a gigantic heart of which
+this many-storied structure was the enclosing body; and she slowly
+advanced, fascinated, and quite heedless of some staring eyes which
+regarded her curiously from those wide windows.
+
+A discontented bray and the touch of a hand upon her shoulder suddenly
+recalled her, to observe that she had reached the bottom of a steep
+stairway, and was face to face with another stranger.
+
+"Beg pardon, but can I be of service to you?"
+
+"Oh! sir. Thank you. I--I don't know just where I am."
+
+"In the yard of the Crawford carpet mill."
+
+"Is that the wonderful building yonder?"
+
+"Yes. Have you never seen it before?"
+
+"Not at near hand. I am here by accident. I was lost on the river bank,
+a long distance back, and a strange lad helped me so far. I don't see
+him now, and I'm rather frightened about him, for he fell into the
+water, getting me this nest. He doesn't act just like other people, I
+think."
+
+"No. Poor 'Bony'! He has run up into the street above us, yet even he
+knew better than to have brought you just here," and he glanced
+significantly toward a large sign of "No Admittance."
+
+"Is it wrong? I'm very sorry. I'll go away at once, when I'm shown how."
+
+Gazing about, her perplexity became almost distress; for she found
+herself shut in a little space by buildings of varying heights. Behind
+her lay the difficult route over which she had come, and on the east
+uprose a steep bank or bluff. Against this was placed a nearly
+perpendicular sort of ladder, and this steep stair was the only visible
+outlet from the ravine.
+
+The gentleman smiled at her dismay.
+
+"Oh, that isn't as bad as it looks. I fancy you could easily climb it,
+as do our own mill girls; but this pretty beast of yours, with the
+fanciful burden, how about him?"
+
+"I don't know. She might. She's right nimble-footed--when she chooses to
+be."
+
+"So 'he' is a young lady, too? Well, I have great faith in girls, even
+girl donkeys, as well as in those who own them. There will certainly be
+a way out; if not up the bank, then through the mill. By the by, if
+you've never visited such a place, and have come to it 'by accident,'
+wouldn't you like to go through it now? I'm the superintendent, William
+Metcalf, and am just about to make my rounds, before we shut down for
+the night. I'd be pleased to show you about, though we must first find a
+safe place where we can tie your donkey. She looks very intelligent."
+
+"Oh, indeed, sir, she is! She's the dearest burro. She and her brother
+Balaam were sent to my brother and me from California. Her name is
+Pepita, and I am Amy Kaye. I live at Fairacres."
+
+At this announcement the gentleman looked as if he were about to
+whistle, though courtesy prevented. He bowed gravely:--
+
+"I'm very glad to know you. If you'll excuse me for a moment, I'll find
+something with which to tie the burro."
+
+He soon returned, bringing a leather strap.
+
+"We'll fasten her to the stair, but it will be better to put these
+branches on the ground. Having them on her back frets her."
+
+"Thank you. You're very kind."
+
+Pepita did not endorse this opinion. In the matter of tying she gave
+them all the trouble she could, and allowed them to depart only after a
+most indignant bray. Her racket brought various heads to the windows,
+and the visitors were as much of interest to the artisans as themselves
+were to Amy.
+
+She followed her guide eagerly, too self-unconscious to be abashed by
+any stare; and though he had shown many strangers "over the works," he
+felt that explaining things to this bright-eyed girl would be a
+pleasanter task than ordinary.
+
+"I like to begin all things at the foundation," he remarked, with a
+smile, "so we'll go to the fire-room first."
+
+This was down another short flight of steps, and over a bridge spanning
+the race, which deep, dark watercourse immediately caught Amy's
+attention.
+
+"How smooth and swift it looks; and so black. Isn't that man afraid to
+stand there?" indicating a workman stationed upon the sluice gate,
+engaged in the endless task of raking fallen leaves away from the rack.
+
+"Oh, no! not afraid! The work is monotonous, but it must be done, or
+there'll be the mischief to pay. Now, here are the fires."
+
+A soot-grimed man approached the door of the furnace room, and
+respectfully touched his forehead to his superior, then glanced toward
+Amy.
+
+"I'm afeared the little lady will soil her pretty frock," he remarked,
+with another pull at his forelock.
+
+"Thank you for thinking of it. I'll try to be careful," she answered,
+tiptoeing across the earthen floor, to stoop and peer into the roaring
+furnaces. "I should be afraid it would burn the whole place up. How hot
+it is! Is it all right?"
+
+"Yes; they're doing prime to-day. We takes care of the danger, miss.
+But hot? Well, you should ought to be here about midsummer, say. Ah!
+this isn't bad, is it, boss?"
+
+"Very comfortable. You like your job, eh, Ben?"
+
+"Sure; it's a good one. Steady, an' wages regular. Good day, miss,
+you're welcome, I'm sure," he concluded, as she thanked him again for
+opening the furnace doors and explaining how it was he managed the great
+fires.
+
+"Now, the engine room; to see the object of all that heat," said Mr.
+Metcalf.
+
+"If only Hallam were here!" exclaimed Amy.
+
+"Is he your brother?"
+
+"Yes. Oh! it all seems just like fairyland; even better, for this is
+useful, while fairyland is merely pleasant."
+
+"Then you deem useful things of more account than pleasant ones? Hmm;
+most young ladies who have visited us have seemed afraid rather than
+pleased. The whir of the machinery frightened them."
+
+"It frightens me, too, and yet--I like it. The power of it all awes me."
+
+"Well, your enthusiasm is certainly agreeable."
+
+Nor was he the only one who found it so. Even the usually silent workmen
+in the fireproof storehouse, where the bales of wool were piled to the
+ceiling with little aisles of passage between, were moved to explanation
+by the alert, inquiring glances of this dainty visitor. So she quickly
+learned the difference between Turkish and Scottish fleeces, and
+remarked to her guide on the oddity of the sorted ones, "that look just
+like whole sheepskins, legs and tail and all, with the skins left out."
+In the scouring room she saw the wool washing and passing forward
+through the long tanks of alkaline baths; and in the "willying" house
+her lungs were filled by the dust that the great machines cleaned from
+the freshly dried fleeces. Indeed, she would have lingered long before
+the big chute, through which compressed air forced the cleansed fibres
+to the height of four stories and the apartment where began its real
+manufacture into yarn.
+
+Mr. Metcalf took her next to this top floor; and though the deafening
+noise of the machinery made her own voice sound queerly in her ears, she
+managed to ask so many questions, that before she again reached the
+ground floor and passed outward to the impatient Pepita, she had gained
+a clear general idea how some sorts of carpets are made.
+
+"And now, Miss Amy, that our little tour is over, I'd like to hear what,
+of all you've seen, has most impressed you," said Mr. Metcalf, kindly.
+
+"The girls."
+
+"The--girls? In the spinning room?"
+
+"Everywhere; all of them. They are so clean, so jolly, and--think! They
+are actually earning money."
+
+"Of course; else they wouldn't be here. Does it strike you oddly that a
+girl should earn her own living?"
+
+"I think it's grand."
+
+"Hmm. You caught but a fleeting glimpse of them. There's a deal of
+reality in their lives, poor things."
+
+"Why! Are you sorry for them?"
+
+"No,--and yes. They haven't much leisure, and I dare say that you are an
+object of envy to every mill girl who has seen you to-day."
+
+"Oh! I hope not. I liked them so. It seems so fine to really earn some
+of the money which everybody needs so much, just by standing before one
+of those 'jennies' and doing what little they did. They laughed often,
+as if they were glad. Nobody looked sorrowful, so I don't see why you
+pity them."
+
+"It may be misplaced, for, after all, they _are_ happy in their way. I
+do not think it is always the best way; still--Why, here's 'Bony.' Well,
+young man, what mischief's up now? Do you march again to-night?"
+
+"No. I'm going with her."
+
+"Best wait till you're invited," suggested the superintendent.
+
+The lad said nothing, but kept on tying into a compact bundle all the
+branches heaped upon the ground, and to which he had made a considerable
+addition during Amy's inspection of the mill. He had begged a bit of
+rope from the office in the street above; and when he had secured the
+boughs to his satisfaction, he slung them across his shoulder.
+
+"Come on. I'll pack 'em for you to where you live."
+
+He seemed none the worse for his fall into the water, and Amy laughed;
+not only at the readiness with which he constituted himself her
+assistant, but also at Pepita's frantic efforts to ascend the steep
+stairway.
+
+"Thank you. But if we can get her up there, above, she can carry the
+stuff herself. I can walk, when I am told the road."
+
+"Up she goes she!" shouted the startling Lafayette, and gave the
+unprepared burro a sharp prod with a stick he held.
+
+Astonished, Pepita leaped to escape the attack and landed her forefeet
+upon the fourth stair.
+
+"Hi! There you be! You're a regular Rep-Dem-Prob! Up you go--I tell
+you!"
+
+"Oh! you dreadful boy!" exclaimed Amy, and tried to take the stick from
+the fellow's hand.
+
+"Don't. He isn't hurting her, and she _is_ going up!" laughed the
+superintendent, as the burro made another skyward spring. But his
+merriment suddenly ceased.
+
+The "Californian" could use her nimble feet for more than one purpose.
+She resented the indignity of her present position in the only manner
+possible to her, and when a third prod touched her dainty flesh, she
+flung one heel backward, with an airy readiness that might have been
+funny save for its result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FAIRACRES.
+
+
+"How dreadful! Is he killed?" cried Amy, pale with fear.
+
+For the indignant Pepita had planted her active hoof squarely in the
+mouth of the lad who was tormenting her, and had knocked him backward
+from the stair. During a brief time he lay, dazed by the blow, with a
+trickle of blood rapidly staining his features.
+
+"Wait. Don't get frightened. There may not be much damage done. That boy
+has as many lives as a cat. I'll see to him," returned Mr. Metcalf,
+quietly.
+
+With a strong, kindly touch, the gentleman helped the unfortunate "Bony"
+to his feet; whereupon, the lad flew into a fearful rage and started up
+the ladder, in pursuit of the burro.
+
+His movement roused Amy also to action, and she followed him so swiftly
+that she reached the top, and the broad road there, almost as soon as
+he. Before then, however, he had caught up a barrel stave, which
+happened to be lying in a too convenient spot, and was belaboring Pepita
+with all his might.
+
+The latter, after her ascent of the steps, had remained standing at
+their head, gazing dreamily downward in her own demure manner and
+evidently considering that she had quite properly adjusted matters.
+
+Amy succeeded in reaching them just as the third blow was descending
+upon Pepita's flank and by a deft movement arrested the stroke. The
+stave flew out of the lad's grasp, and his astonishment at her strength
+cooled his anger.
+
+"Don't you strike her again! You shall not. Aren't you ashamed of
+yourself to beat a helpless creature like that? If you are still able to
+act so--so brutally--you can't be much hurt. I was terribly frightened
+and sorry, but now I don't care. She served you just right."
+
+Then the red Tam dropped on the burro's neck and a torrent of
+affectionate words was poured into the creature's indifferent ears.
+
+"Sho! Huckleberries! She's drove my teeth clean down my throat!" slowly
+ejaculated the youth.
+
+This was about half true. One tooth had been broken out by the blow upon
+the lad's jaw and another had been loosened. The copious bleeding of
+these wounds gave him a startling appearance, and when Amy looked up a
+shudder of repellent pity ran through her. Then she seemed to see her
+mother's gentle face and, conquering the aversion she felt, she pulled
+out her handkerchief and began to wipe the discolored, ill-shapen lips
+of the half-wit.
+
+He submitted to the operation in amazed silence. Even Mr. Metcalf had
+nothing to say, though he watched with keen interest the outcome of this
+little transaction.
+
+"There. If I had some water, I could do it nicely. I'm sorry you were
+hurt. But don't you ever strike my Pepita again! Next time she might
+kill you. It was her only way of defending herself, for she hasn't sense
+like you--"
+
+Regarding the imbecile face before her, Amy's sentence ended in
+confusion. Nor did it add to her comfort that the unhappy fellow now
+began to weep in a whimpering sort of way, that might have suited a
+spoiled child of a few years.
+
+"Why, what is it? Do you suffer so terribly! Oh! I am so sorry!"
+
+"There, my dear Miss Amy, let it pass. This is only one of 'Bony's'
+charming habits," said Mr. Metcalf, smiling derisively. "He has rather
+outgrown his age. Haven't you, lad? Well, it's all right. I'm sorry for
+you. You're sorry for yourself; and our young lady here is sorry for us
+both. Come. Brace up. Be a man. What would the 'boys' think of you, in
+this uniform, crying? Eh!"
+
+"Huh--huh--huh--huh-h-h!" responded the natural.
+
+"I'm going home, Bonaparte. Good night. Thank you for the leaves. Mr.
+Metcalf, will you tell me the nearest way, please?"
+
+Amy picked up the fallen bundle of boughs, which the superintendent had
+brought with him from the yard below, and laid them upon Pepita's back.
+
+"These have given us some trouble, but they are still too beautiful to
+lose."
+
+The gentleman directed her, courteously escorted her through the
+gateway, which bore another of those prohibitory "No Admittance" signs,
+and watched her walk briskly away, thinking what a bright feature of the
+landscape she made.
+
+"Not a beautiful girl, by any means, yet one of the most wholesome,
+honest, and engaging ones who ever stepped foot within this old mill.
+Odd, too! A Kaye. I wonder if she will ever come again to what, if all
+had gone as was expected, might easily have been her own great property.
+Well, that was pretty to see: the way in which she wiped the face of
+poor 'Bony.' The lad grows sillier every day, it seems, and the 'boys'
+are making him worse by their nonsense. Where is he now? I'll have a
+talk with him and try to keep him out of the parades. They are not good
+for him," reflected Mr. Metcalf.
+
+But the talk had to be postponed; for there was "Bony" already far along
+the road toward Fairacres, following doggedly in Amy's footsteps, though
+she repeatedly assured him that she could manage quite well without him
+and preferred to be alone.
+
+"No, I'm going," he asserted; and when she could not dissuade him, she
+gave up trying to do so and led him to talk of himself--his most
+interesting subject. So that, by the time they had come to the front of
+the old mansion, she knew his simple history completely, and her pity
+had almost outgrown her aversion.
+
+"See, Cleena! Cleena Keegan! See what I have brought!"
+
+The shout summoned a large woman to the door, who threw up her arms with
+the answering cry:--
+
+"Faith, an' I thought you was lost! Whatever has kept you such gait,
+Miss Amy?"
+
+"Oh! adventures. Truly, Cleena. Real, regular adventures. See my leaves?
+See this lad! He got them for me. He is Bonaparte Jimpson."
+
+"An' a curious spalpeen that same," casting a suspicious glance over the
+youth's strange attire.
+
+"I'm Bonaparte Lafayette Jimpson," he explained gravely and, to Amy's
+surprise, timidly.
+
+"The mischief, you be! An' what's Napoleon Bonyparty's gineral's
+pleasure at Fairacres, the night?"
+
+"Cleena, wait. I'll tell you. Yes, you will have time enough. The train
+isn't due till after six, and they'll be a half-hour longer getting home
+from the station. Sit you down, Goodsoul, just for one little bit of
+minute. The scrubbing must surely be done by now. Isn't it?"
+
+"Humph! The scrubbin's never done in this dirty world. Well, an' what is
+it? Be quick with you!"
+
+Amy coaxed the old servant down upon the doorstep of the freshly
+cleaned kitchen, whither they had now gone, and speedily narrated her
+afternoon's experiences.
+
+"So you see, dear old Scrubbub, that he must have a fine feast of the
+best there is in the house. Besides," and she pulled the other's ear
+down to her lips, "I'd just like to have father see him. He isn't
+pretty, of course, but he's _new_. I wonder, could he pose?"
+
+"Pose, is it?" groaned Cleena, with a comical grimace. "Pose! Sure, it's
+I minds the time when the master caught me diggin' petaties an' kept me
+standin', with me foot on me spade, an' me spade in the ground, an' me
+body this shape," bending forward, "till I got such a crick in me back I
+couldn't walk upright, for better 'n a week. Posin', indeed! Well, he
+might. He looks fit for naught else."
+
+"Pooh, Cleena! you know it's an honor. But, come now, I want to put all
+these leaves up in the dining room. Will you help me?"
+
+"Will I what--such truck! No, me colleen, not a help helps Cleena the
+day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will. I'll bring the step ladder and hand them to you,
+while you put them over the doors and windows. We'll make the place a
+perfect bower of cheerfulness, and if our dears, when they come--Oh,
+Cleena! they may need the cheerfulness very much."
+
+However, it was not Amy's habit to borrow trouble, and she ran lightly
+away, calling to the boy on the porch:--
+
+"I'm going to put Pepita in the stable. If you'd like to see her
+brother, you can come with me."
+
+"Sho! Ain't he black!" exclaimed "Bony," as they led Pepita into the
+great stables and he discovered Balaam.
+
+Amid ample accommodations for a dozen horses, the two burros seemed
+almost lost; but they occupied adjoining box-stalls which, if rather
+time-worn and broken, were still most roomy and comfortable.
+
+"Why, huckleberries! It's bigger 'n the mill sheds. And only them two.
+Will he swop?"
+
+As he asked this question the lad pulled from his pocket a miscellaneous
+collection of objects, and invitingly displayed them upon the palm of
+his long hand.
+
+"No, I think not. I fancy we are not a 'swopping' family. But I must
+choose some name for you besides that dreadful 'Bony.' Bonaparte is too
+long. So is Lafayette. Let me see. Suppose we make it just 'Fayette'?
+That is short and pleasant to speak, and I like my friends to have nice
+names. Would you like it?"
+
+"Bully!"
+
+"Why--why, Fayette! That doesn't sound well."
+
+"Sho! Don't it? One all black an' t'other all white. Hum."
+
+"Br-r-r-ray! Ah-umph--h-umph--umph--mph--ph--h-h-h!" observed Balaam to
+his sister.
+
+Fayette laughed, so noisily and uproariously that the burros brayed
+again; and they kept up this amusing concert until Amy had brought each
+an armful of hay, and had directed her companion where to find a pail
+and water for their drink.
+
+Then they returned to the house and beheld Cleena in the dining room,
+already mounted upon the step-ladder, trying to arrange the branches
+with more regard to the saving of time than to grace. But she made to
+the picture-seeing girl a very attractive "bit."
+
+Indeed, Cleena Keegan was a person of sufficient importance to warrant a
+paragraph quite to herself. She was a woman of middle age, with a wealth
+of curling, iron-gray hair, which she tucked away under a plain white
+cap. Her figure was large and grandly developed. She wore a blue print
+gown, carefully pinned back about her hips, thus disclosing her scarlet
+flannel petticoat; both garments faded by time and frequent washings to
+a most "artistic" hue. Upon her shoulders was folded a kerchief of
+coarse white muslin, spotlessly clean; and as she stood, poised among
+the glowing branches, with the dying sunset light touching her honest
+face to unusual brightness, she was well worth Amy's eager wish:--
+
+"Oh, Cleena! That father were only here to see and paint you just as you
+are this minute!"
+
+"Humph! It's meself's glad he isn't."
+
+"Why! That's not nice of you, Goodsoul. Yet it's a great pity that a
+body who is such a 'study' in herself can't fix those branches a bit
+more gracefully. You're jamming the leaves all into a little mess and
+showing the stems! Oh, Cleena, I wonder if I can't reach them."
+
+"Truth, it's meself's willin' you should try. Belike I'd be handier at
+the pullin' them down nor the puttin' them up."
+
+With head erect she descended from the ladder, and stood, arms akimbo,
+regarding the results of her labor. Even to her it suggested something
+not "artistic," and at Fairacres anything inartistic was duly frowned
+upon.
+
+"Faith, it's not the way the master would do it, I see that, but--"
+
+Before either she could finish her sentence or Amy mount the ladder,
+Fayette had run to its top and stood there rapidly pulling from the wall
+the branches Cleena had arranged. Thrusting all but one between his
+knees, he fastened that over the window-frame so deftly and charmingly
+that Amy clapped her hands in delight.
+
+"Oh, that's lovely! Try another--and another!"
+
+He obeyed. His vacant face flushed with a glow of enthusiasm equalling,
+if not exceeding her own, and even Cleena spent some moments of her
+rarely wasted time in watching him.
+
+Her own face had again become a "study," yet of a sort to provoke a
+smile, as her gaze roved from his handiwork, over the length of his
+ungainly person, to rest upon his bare and not too cleanly feet; then
+travelled slowly upward again, trying to settle once for all his
+rightful position in the social scale. Her thought might have been thus
+expressed:--
+
+"His foot's heathen. His head's the same. His clothes--they're the
+heathenest of all. I'd disdain 'em. But, arrah musha! The hand of him!
+The master himself couldn't better them fixin's."
+
+Then she hastened to her kitchen, and soon the appetizing odor of a
+well-cooked meal was in their nostrils, and the two young decorators
+realized that they were very hungry.
+
+"There, that will do. It is perfect. Thank you ever and ever so much,
+Fayette."
+
+"Shucks!"
+
+"Now I'll light the candles. I always do when the people are coming home
+from town. They go there quite often; at least father does, though
+mother hasn't been before in months. The candles are terrible
+extravagance, Cleena says, but they're so pretty."
+
+Fayette carried away the step-ladder, then returned to watch Amy as she
+set the old-fashioned candelabra upon the already daintily spread table.
+She had bordered the white cloth with some of the most dazzling-hued
+leaves, and when the wax tapers threw their soft radiance over the whole
+charming interior, poor Fayette felt his weak head grow dizzy and
+confused by the beauty of it all.
+
+He dimly realized that he was in a new world, which soothed and
+appealed to his clouded nature as did the birds and the flowers. That
+impulse, which he could neither express nor understand, which sent him
+so constantly into the woods and solitudes, was gratified now. This was
+as delightful as his favorite pastime of lying upon the grass and gazing
+upward into the sunlit sky.
+
+"Sho! It's pretty. I like it. I'm glad I come. I'll stay."
+
+Amy had almost forgotten him.
+
+"Yes, of course you'll stay till after supper. I'll--"
+
+But a shadow fell across the threshold of the still open door, and
+looking up she saw a stranger,--an old man of rather forbidding aspect,
+whose glance passed swiftly from herself to the youth near the big
+fireplace.
+
+There followed an instant of mutual and frowning recognition between
+these two; then Fayette disappeared through an inner doorway, while the
+newcomer remained at the entrance, his hat in his hand, and an assumed
+suavity in his manner.
+
+Yet there was still a note of anger in the tone with which he
+observed:--
+
+"I have called upon business with Cuthbert Kaye. Your father, I presume.
+Is he at home?"
+
+"Not yet. He went to the city, yesterday, with my mother and brother. I
+expect them back on the next train. Will you come in?"
+
+"Yes, thank you. I'll wait."
+
+He accepted the great chair Amy rolled toward him, and let his gaze
+slowly sweep the cheerful apartment. Yet he knew it by heart, already,
+and his face brightened as he saw how little it had been changed since
+these many years. Apparently not one of its quaint and rich old
+furnishings was missing, and the passage of time had but added to the
+remembered charm of the place. Even the chair into which he sank had a
+familiar feel, as if his back had long ago fitted to those simple,
+comfortable lines. The antique candelabra--how often had he watched his
+grandmother's fingers polishing them to brilliancy.
+
+But the girl was new. The only modern thing, save the freshly gathered
+leaves,--which also seemed but a memory of his childhood,--to remind him
+of the present and the errand upon which he had come.
+
+"She's Kaye, though, to the bone. Dark, crisp hair. Those short curls
+are like a boy's. Her eyes are the Kaye eyes; and that toss of her head,
+like her great-grandmother come to life again. All our women had it. Ah,
+well. If things--hmm."
+
+The visitor became absorbed in his thoughts, and his wandering gaze came
+home to rest, seemingly, upon the tips of his own boots, for he did not
+notice when Amy disappeared and Cleena entered.
+
+"Alanna! But this is a smart decent piece of work, now, isn't it?"
+
+At this sudden and derisive remark the gentleman looked up.
+
+"Oh, ho! You, is it?"
+
+"Faith an' it is. An' likin' to know what brings you this gait."
+
+"Keep a civil tongue in your head, woman. I'm not to be put off this
+time by any false stories. Here I am, and here I shall stay until I see
+your master."
+
+Steadily and silently confronting one another for some seconds, they
+measured each other's wills. The unwelcome guest was not sure but that
+the woman would lift him bodily and fling him out of doors. She looked
+ably strong and quite minded so to do; but, after a further reflection,
+she appeared to change her mind as well as her tone.
+
+"Hmm--yes. There's no irreverence meant. Come in by, to the library yon.
+There's pictures to see, an' books a plenty. Leave the master be, like a
+gentleman now, as you was born, till he eats his meal in peace. A body
+can bear trouble better on a full stummick nor an empty. Come by."
+
+To his own amazement, the caller rose and followed her. He told himself
+he was a simpleton to have left the cheery supper room and the certain
+presence of the man he wished to see for an hour of solitary waiting in
+an unknown place.
+
+"Library." There had been none in his grandmother's time. But he knew it
+well--from the outside. A detached, strong little building, of hewn
+stone like the mansion; one of Cuthbert Kaye's many "follies." Planned
+with a studio on the second floor above the spacious book room on the
+first. Well, it made the property so much the more valuable. Yes, after
+all, he would better visit it while the coast was clear.
+
+"Sure, sir, an' it's here the master do be spending all his time. Here
+an' above. You was never in the paintin' study, now was you?" she asked
+suggestively.
+
+"No."
+
+"Alanna! An' you two of the same blood!"
+
+"Hmm--yes, of course I'll go, since I'm here."
+
+So he followed her up the graceful staircase, with its softly covered
+steps, and into a room which rumor said was worth travelling far to see;
+and though thus prepared, its half-revealed beauty astonished him.
+
+"Well, it is a fine apartment. It must have cost a power of money.
+And--it explains many things."
+
+"Money, says you? It did that," echoed Cleena, with a pious sigh.
+
+"Yes, yes. I suppose so. It's rather dark, however, for me to see as I
+would like. Isn't there a lamp here?"
+
+"Lamp, is it? Askin' pardon for forgettin' me manners, but it's never a
+lamp will the master have left in this place. If one comes, indeed, 'tis
+himself brings it. Forby, on occasion like this, I'll fetch it an' take
+all the blame for that same. It's below. I'll step down;" and she
+departed hastily, leaving him alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HALLAM.
+
+
+As the stage from the railway station rolled up to Fairacres, Amy was
+waiting upon the wide porch. She had put on her daintiest frock, white,
+of course, since her father liked her to wear no other sort of dress;
+and she had twisted sprays of scarlet woodbine through her dark hair and
+about her shoulders. Before the vehicle stopped, she called out
+eagerly:--
+
+"Oh! how glad I am you're here! It's been such a long two days! Are you
+all well? Is everything right, mother dearest? Did you have a nice
+time?"
+
+The father reached her first, remarking, with a fond smile:--
+
+"You make a sweet picture, daughter, with that open doorway behind you,
+with the firelight and candlelight, and--Ah! did you speak, Salome?"
+turning toward his wife.
+
+"The man is waiting, Cuthbert. Has thee the money for him?"
+
+Mr. Kaye fumbled in one pocket, tried another, frowned, and appeared
+distressed.
+
+"Never mind, dear. Hallam can attend to it."
+
+But the crippled lad had already swung himself over the steps upon his
+crutches, and the artist remarked, with a fresh annoyance:--
+
+"He must put it in the bill, Salome. Why always bother with such
+trifles? If one could only get away from the thought and sound of money.
+Its sordidness is the torment of one's life."
+
+Mrs. Kaye sighed, as she paid the hackman from her own purse, then
+followed her husband into the house.
+
+His face had already lost all its expression of annoyance, and now
+beamed with satisfaction as he regarded Amy's efforts to celebrate the
+home-coming.
+
+"Good child. Good little girl. Truly, very beautiful. Why, my darling,
+you'll be an artist yourself some day, I believe."
+
+"The saints forbid!" murmured a voice from the further side the room,
+where Cleena had appeared, bearing a tray of dishes.
+
+Nobody heard the ejaculation, however, save Hallam, and he didn't count,
+being of one and the same opinion as the old serving-woman. All the
+lad's ambitions lay toward a ceaseless activity, and the coloring of
+canvases attracted him less than even the meanest kind of manual labor.
+
+Nor did Amy share in her father's hope, though she loved art for his
+sake, and she answered, with conviction:--
+
+"Never such an one as you are, father dear."
+
+But all this while the daughter's eyes had been studying her mother's
+face, with the keen penetration of sympathy, and the whispered advice:--
+
+"Be especially gentle with Hallam to-night, my child," but confirmed the
+answer she had already found in that careworn countenance.
+
+Yet Hallam showed no need of consolation as he sturdily stumped across
+the room and exclaimed, cheerfully enough:--
+
+"Fetch on the provender, Goodsoul. We're all as hungry as bears. What's
+for us?"
+
+"What should be? save the best rasher of bacon ever blessed eyesight,
+with tea-biscuits galore. For second course--My! but that pullet was a
+tender bird, so she was. An' them east-lot petaties would fain melt in
+your mouth, they're so hot-foot to be ate."
+
+"The pullet? Not the little brown one you have cared for yourself,
+Cleena?"
+
+"What for no? Eat your victuals askin' no questions, for that's aye bad
+for the appetite."
+
+Both Amy and Cleena knew, without words, that this last city trip had
+been a failure, like so many that had preceded it. Once more had the too
+sanguine father dragged his crippled son to undergo a fresh examination
+of his well-formed though useless limbs; and once more had an adverse
+verdict been rendered.
+
+This time the authority was of the highest. A European specialist, whose
+name was known and reverenced upon two continents, had come to New York
+and had been consulted. Interested more than common by the boy's fair
+face and the sweet womanliness of the mother, the surgeon had given
+extra attention to Hallam, and his decision had been as reluctantly
+reached as it was final.
+
+"Only a miracle will ever enable him to walk. Yet a miracle may occur,
+for we live in an age of them, and nothing seems impossible to science.
+However, in all mortal probability, he is as one dead below his knees.
+My lad, take your medicine bravely and be a man in spite of it all. Use
+your brain, thanking God for it, and let the rest go."
+
+"That's an easy thing for you to say, but it is I who have to bear it!"
+burst forth the unhappy boy, and was at once ashamed of his rude speech,
+even if it in no wise offended the sympathetic physician.
+
+The return journey had been a sad and silent one, though Hallam had
+roused at its end with the sort of bravado that Amy had seen, and which
+deceived her no more than it did any of the others; but she loyally
+seconded his assumed cheerfulness, and after they had gathered about the
+table, gave them a lively description of her afternoon's outing, ending
+with:--
+
+"For, mother dear, you hadn't said just where I might or might not ride,
+and I'd never seen the carpet mills, though I now hope to go there
+often; and, indeed, I think I would like to work in that busy place,
+among all those bright, active girls."
+
+Then her enthusiasm was promptly dashed by her father's exclamation:--
+
+"Amy! Amy Kaye! Never again say such a thing! Let there be no more of
+that mill talk, not a word."
+
+Mr. Kaye's tone was more stern than his child had ever heard, and as if
+he recognized this he continued, more gently:--
+
+"But I am interested in that silly Bonaparte. I almost wish you had kept
+him till I came."
+
+Amy happened to glance at Cleena, who had warned her not to mention the
+fact of the strange gentleman calling; nor had she known just when
+Fayette went away, though she supposed he had done so after so suddenly
+leaving the dining room.
+
+"Why, Goodsoul, you are as beaming as if you had found a treasure."
+
+"Faith, an' I have. Try a bit of the chicken, mistress, now do;" and she
+waved the dish toward the lady, with a smile that was more than
+cheerful.
+
+"Well, Cleena, it's heartening to see anybody so bright. The work must
+have gone finely to-day, and thee have had plenty of time for scrubbing.
+No, thank thee; nothing more. Not even those delicious baked apples. The
+best apples in the world grow on that old tree by the dairy door, I
+believe," replied the mistress, with another half-suppressed sigh.
+
+As she rose to leave the table, she turned toward her husband:--
+
+"I hope thee'll soon be coming upstairs, Cuthbert."
+
+It was noticeable that Cleena paused, tray in hand, to hear the answer,
+which was out of common, for the old servant rarely presumed upon the
+fact that she was also the confidential friend of her employers.
+
+"Well, after a little, dear; but, first, I must go over to the studio."
+
+"Arrah, musha, but, master! The painting's all right. What for no?
+Indeed, then, it's the mistress herself needs more attention this minute
+nor any picture ever was drawed."
+
+"Why, Cleena!" exclaimed the lady, in surprise. Such an interference had
+never been offered by the devoted creature to the head of the house.
+
+"Asking pardon, I'm sure; though I know I know. I've lighted a fire in
+the sittin' room above, an' it's sure for the comfort of both that yous
+make yourselves easy the night."
+
+"That's true, husband. Do leave the picture till morning. We're all
+tired and needing the rest."
+
+Always easily persuaded where physical comfort was at stake, the artist
+acquiesced, and with his arm about his wife's slender waist he gently
+led her from the room.
+
+Cleena heard him murmuring tender apologies that he had not before
+observed how utterly fatigued she looked; and a whimsical smile broke on
+the Irishwoman's face as she cleared the table and assured the cups and
+saucers, with a vigorous disdain, that:--
+
+"Them two's no more nor a couple of childer still. But, alanna! Never a
+doubt I doubt there'll be trouble with old Cleena when the cat leaps the
+bag. Well, he's in it now, tied fast and tight."
+
+Whereupon, there being nobody to see, the good woman executed a sort of
+jig, and having thus relieved her feelings departed to the kitchen,
+muttering:--
+
+"It wasn't for naught Miss Amy fetched a simpleton home in her pocket.
+Sure, I scared the life clean out of _him_, so I did, an' he'll stay
+where he's settled till he's wanted, so long as I keep fillin' his
+stummick with victuals like these. Will I carry a bit o' the fowl to the
+lib'ry--will I no? Hmm. Will I--nill I?"
+
+Having decided, Cleena passed swiftly from the house into the darkness
+and in the direction of the distant library.
+
+Meanwhile, up in the little chamber which had once been their nursery
+and was still their own sitting room, Amy had drawn a lounge before the
+grate, and, after his accustomed fashion, Hallam lay upon it, while his
+sister curled upon the rug beside him.
+
+But she did not look at him. She rested her chin in her palms and gazed
+at the dancing flames, as she observed:--
+
+"Even a king might envy us this fire of pine cones, mightn't he? Isn't
+it sweet and woodsy? and so bright. I've gathered bushels and bushels of
+them, while you were away, and we can have all the fun we want up here.
+So now--can't you just begin and tell, Hal dear? Part of it I guess, but
+start as you always do: 'I went from here--' and keep right on till you
+get back again to me and--this."
+
+She purposely made her tone light, but she was not surprised when her
+answer was a smothered sob. Indeed, there was such a lump in her own
+throat that she had to swallow twice before she could say:--
+
+"No, darling, you needn't tell one word. I know it all--all--all; and I
+can't bear it. I won't--I will not have it so!"
+
+Then she turned and buried her face in the pillow beside her brother's,
+crying so passionately that he had to become comforter himself; and his
+thin fingers stroked her hair until she grew ashamed of her weakness and
+looked up again, trying to smile.
+
+"Forgive me, brotherkin. I'm such a baby, and I meant to be so brave! If
+I could only take your lameness on myself, and give you my own strong,
+active legs!"
+
+"Don't, Amy! Besides, how often have you said that very same thing? Yet
+it isn't any use. Nothing is of any use. Life isn't, I fancy."
+
+Even the vehement Amy was shocked by this, and her tears stopped,
+instantly.
+
+"Why, Hal!"
+
+"Sounds wicked, doesn't it? Well, I feel wicked. I feel like, was it Job
+or one of his friends? that it would be good to 'curse God and die.'
+Dying would be so much easier than living."
+
+The girl sprang up, clinching her brown hands, and staring at her
+brother defiantly.
+
+"Hallam Kaye, don't you talk like that! Don't you dare! Suppose God
+heard you? Suppose He took you at your word and made you die just now,
+this instant? What then?"
+
+Hallam smiled, wanly, "I won't scare you by saying what then, girlie. If
+He did, I suppose it would all be right. Everything is right--to the
+folks who don't have to suffer the thing. Even the doctor--and I liked
+him as much as I envied him--even he preached to me and bade me not to
+mind, to 'forget.' Hmm, I wish _he_ could feel, just for one little
+minute, the helplessness that I must feel always, eternally."
+
+Hallam was dearer to his sister than any other human being, and the
+despair in her idol's tone promptly banished her anger against his
+irreverence. She went down on her knees and caught away the arm with
+which he had hidden his face, kissing him again and again.
+
+"Oh! there will be some way out of this misery, laddie. There must be.
+It wouldn't be right, that anybody as clever and splendid as you should
+be left a cripple for life. I won't believe it. I won't!"
+
+"How like father you are!"
+
+Amy's head tossed slightly, and a faint protest came into her eyes, but
+was banished as soon because of its disloyalty.
+
+"Am I? In what way? and why shouldn't I be?"
+
+"You never know when you're down nor why you shouldn't have all that you
+want."
+
+"Isn't it a good thing? Would it help to go moping and unbelieving?"
+
+"I suppose not. Anyway, it makes things easier for you and him, and so,
+maybe, for the rest of us."
+
+The sister dropped back into her favorite attitude upon the rug and
+regarded her brother curiously.
+
+"Hal, you're as queer as can be, to-night. Seems as if there was
+something the matter with you, beyond what that know-nothing doctor
+said. Isn't there?"
+
+"Don't call the poor man hard names, girlie. He was fine, and I was
+impertinent enough for the whole family. Only, I reckon he was too high
+up to feel anything we could say. But there _is_ something. Something I
+must tell you, and I don't know how to begin. Promise that you won't get
+into a tantrum, or run and disturb the little mother about it."
+
+"Hallam Kaye! Do I ever?"
+
+"Hmm! Sometimes. Don't you? Never mind. Sit closer, dear, and let me get
+hold of your hand. Then you'll understand why I am so bitter; why this
+disappointment about my lameness is so much worse than any that has gone
+before. And I've been disappointed often enough, conscience knows."
+
+Amy crept up and snuggled her dark head against Hallam's fair one,
+remarking, with emphasis:--
+
+"Now I'm all ready. I'll be as still as a mouse, and not interrupt you
+once. What other dreadful trouble has come? Is it a grocery bill, or
+Clafflin's for artists' stuff?"
+
+"Something far worse than that."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Did you ever think we might have--might have--oh, Amy! I can't tell you
+'gently,' as mother bade--all it is--well, we've got to go away from
+Fairacres. _Its not ours any longer._"
+
+"Wh-a-at?" cried the girl, springing up, or striving to do so, though
+Hallam's hold upon her fingers drew her down again.
+
+"I don't wonder you're amazed. I was, too, at first. Now I simply wonder
+how we have kept the place so long."
+
+"Why isn't it ours? Whose is it?"
+
+"It belongs to a cousin of mother's, Archibald Wingate. Did you ever
+hear of him?"
+
+"Never. How can it?"
+
+"I hardly understand myself, though mother's lawyer tried to explain.
+It's something about indorsing notes and mortgages and things. Big boy
+as I am, I know no more about business than--you do."
+
+"Thanks, truly. But I do know. I attended to the marketing yesterday
+when the wagon came. Cleena said that I did very well."
+
+"Glad of it. You'll have a chance to exercise your talents in that
+line."
+
+"But, Hal, mother will never let anybody take away our home. How could
+she? What would father do without his studio that he had built expressly
+after his own plan? or we without all this?" sweeping her arm about to
+indicate the cosiness of their own room.
+
+"Mother can't help herself, dear. She was rich once, but she's
+desperately poor now."
+
+"I knew there was trouble about money, of course. There never seems to
+be quite enough, but that's been so since I can remember. Why shouldn't
+we go on just as we have? What does this cousin of our mother's want of
+the place, anyway?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't know him. I hate him unseen."
+
+"So do I. Still, if he's a cousin, he should be fond of mother, and not
+bother."
+
+"Amy, we're all a set of simpletons, I guess, as a family, and in
+relation to practical matters."
+
+"'Speak for yourself, John.'"
+
+"That isn't all. There's something--something wrong with father."
+
+"Hallam Kaye! Now I do believe you're out of your head. I was afraid you
+were, you've talked and acted so queerly. I'm going for Cleena. Is your
+face hot? Do you ache more than usual?"
+
+"Don't be silly. I'm as right as I ever shall be. Listen. I found it
+all out in the city. Father had gone to some exhibition, and mother and
+I were waiting for the time to go to the doctor. A gentleman called, and
+I never saw anybody look so frightened and ill as mother did when she
+received him, though I knew it wasn't about me. She hadn't hoped for
+anything better in that line. She called the man 'Friend Howard Corson,'
+and he was very courteous to her; but all of a sudden she cried out:--
+
+"'Don't tell me that the end has come! I can't bear both sorrows in one
+day!' And then she looked across at me. I smiled as bravely as I could,
+and, Amy, I believe our mother is the very most beautiful woman in this
+world."
+
+"Why, of course; and father's the handsomest man."
+
+"Certainly," agreed the lad, with rather more haste than conviction.
+
+"Well, what next?"
+
+Before the answer could be given, there burst upon their ears an
+uproarious clamor of angry voices, such as neither had ever heard at
+Fairacres; and Amy sprang up in wild alarm, while Hallam groped blindly
+for the crutches he had tossed aside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A KINSMAN OF THE HOUSE.
+
+
+"It's from the library!" reported Amy, who had first reached and opened
+the window. "I can't make out anything except--yes, it is! That's
+Fayette's voice. Hear that croak?"
+
+"The foolish boy? Here yet?"
+
+"So it seems. I'll go and find out."
+
+"Wait. That's Cleena talking now, and another voice, a man's. What can
+it all mean?"
+
+Amy ran down the stairs and out of the house so swiftly that she did not
+observe her father following with almost equal haste. Behind him sped
+Mrs. Kaye, far more anxious concerning her husband than the noise
+outside.
+
+"Slowly, Cuthbert. Please do take care. Thee must not hurry so, and I
+hear Cleena. She'll look out for everything. For my sake, don't run."
+
+Hallam upon his crutches came last of all, and for a moment the entire
+family stood in silent wonder at the scene before them.
+
+Two men were wrestling like angry schoolboys; and the light from a
+lantern in Cleena's hand fell over them and showed the distorted face
+of "Bony" in one of his wildest rages. His contestant was gray haired
+and stout, and was evidently getting the worst of the struggle. The
+library door was open, and it seemed as if the half-wit were trying to
+force the other backward into the building.
+
+One glance revealed something of the situation to Mrs. Kaye, and, as the
+wrestlers paused for breath, she moved forward and laid her hand upon
+the old man's arm.
+
+"Archibald, what does this mean?"
+
+The low voice acted like magic. Fayette slunk away, ashamed, and the
+other paused to recover himself. But his anger soon returned and was now
+directed against the astonished woman herself.
+
+"Mean! mean? That's for you to say. Since when has a Kaye stooped to the
+pettiness of locking up an unwelcome visitor like a rat in a trap? A
+pretty greeting and meeting, Cuthbert, after all these years!" he cried,
+turning next toward the artist, with indignant contempt.
+
+But the object of his wrath scarcely heard what he said. His own eyes
+were fixed upon the ruined panel of his beautiful library door, and he
+caught up the lantern and peered anxiously to learn the extent of the
+disaster.
+
+The wife again answered, as if speaking for both:--
+
+"Archibald, no. Whatever indignity thee has suffered, none of thy kin
+know anything about it or could be parties to it. Thy own heart must
+tell thee that; and now explain what it all means."
+
+At the old familiar speech, the man's expression altered, and when he
+replied it was in a far gentler tone.
+
+"I came to see Cuthbert; for the thousandth time, isn't it? Failing him
+again, though I didn't mean to fail, I had to talk with--thee," his
+voice tripping slightly over the pronoun, "and that virago brought me
+here to wait. Then she locked me up and set this idiot to watch. There
+are no windows to get out of from above, nothing but that skylight, so I
+finally forced the door at the foot of the stairs, and then again this.
+Here was that ruffian, armed with a cudgel, and--the rest thee knows."
+
+"I am very sorry, cousin. I can but apologize for what I would never
+have permitted had I known," and the mistress's gaze rested upon Cleena
+most reproachfully.
+
+Yet that bold-spirited creature was in no wise disturbed, and replied,
+with great enjoyment:--
+
+"Sure, mistress, I did but do what I'd do again, come same chance. What
+for no? If it wasn't for him, yon, there'd be peace an' plenty at
+Fairacres the now. Faith, I harmed him none."
+
+"Cleena!"
+
+"Askin' pardon if I overstepped me aut'ority, mistress. Come, Gineral
+Bonyparty, I'm surmisin' you an' me better be fixin' things up whiles
+the family goes home to their beds."
+
+Just then Mr. Kaye's silent examination of the injury done his beloved
+studio came to an end. He set down the lighted lantern with the ultra
+caution of one who dreads fire above all accidents, and turned toward
+his wife. However, he took but few steps forward before he paused,
+staggered, and would have fallen had not the ill-treated visitor sprung
+to his aid,--to be himself pushed aside, while Cleena caught up her
+master and strode off toward the house, as if she were but carrying an
+overgrown child in her strong arms. Indeed, the artist's weight was
+painfully light, nor was this the first time that Cleena's strength had
+thus served his need; though this fact not even Hallam nor Amy knew.
+
+The wife hurried after her fainting husband, and Amy started also; then
+reflected that it was she who had brought Fayette to the house, and was,
+in a measure, responsible for what had since happened there.
+
+But the lad gave her time for neither reproof nor question, as he
+eagerly exclaimed:--
+
+"'Twa'n't none o' my doin's. She made me. She told me to set here an'
+keep Mr. Wingate in, an' if he broke out I wasn't to let him. I don't
+know what for. I didn't ask questions. 'Twa'n't none o' my business,
+anyway. So I was just trying to jab him back. She fed me first rate.
+Say, is that your brother?"
+
+"Yes. Oh, Hal! what shall we do?"
+
+"You run to the house and see if mother wants anybody to go for the
+doctor, while I try to help this boy stop up the doorway. It's going to
+rain, and it would break father's heart if anything here were harmed."
+
+A curious smile crossed the stranger's face, but he advanced to lend his
+aid to the lad, Fayette, and succeeded in getting the parts of the door
+so far into place that they would prevent any damage by rain, except in
+case of severe storm. The broken lock was, of course, useless, and as
+the mill lad saw the cripple fingering it, he remarked:--
+
+"You needn't be scared. I'll stay an' watch. I won't march to-night. Oh,
+I can do it all right. I often stay with the watchmen round the mill,
+an' I've got a good muscle, if anybody wants to tackle it," with which
+he glared invitingly toward the late prisoner.
+
+A protesting groan was the only reply; and the lad received this with a
+snort of disdain.
+
+"Druther let old scores rest, had ye? All right. Suits me well enough
+now, but I ain't forgot the lickin's you've given me, an' I ain't goin'
+to forget, neither."
+
+Fayette's look was again so vindictive that Hallam interposed, fearing
+another battle between these uninvited guests.
+
+"Well, I wish you _would_ watch here for a while. As soon as Cleena can
+be spared, she shall bring you a blanket. And anyway, if you'll keep
+everything safe, I'll try to find something to pay you for your
+trouble."
+
+"Hmm, I'd take your donkey an' give back considerable to boot."
+
+"My donkey? Balaam? Well, I guess not."
+
+"I could do it. I could, first rate. I've got money. It's in the savings
+bank. 'Supe' put it in for me."
+
+"I couldn't think of it, not for a second. Mr. Wingate--is it?"
+
+"Archibald Wingate, and your kinsman, young sir."
+
+"So I heard my mother say. She would wish you to come to the house with
+me, and we'll try to make you comfortable. I must go--I am wild to know
+what is wrong with my father."
+
+"We will, at once," answered the other, coldly. "Your father was always
+weak--was never very rugged, and he hasn't lived in a way to make
+himself more robust. A man's place is in the open; not penned like a
+woman behind closed doors and windows."
+
+"Beg pardon, but you are speaking of my father."
+
+"Exactly, and of my cousin. Oh, I've known him since we sat together
+under our grandmother's table, munching gingerbread cakes. Ah, she was a
+famous cook, else the flavor of a bit of dough wouldn't last that long."
+
+"I've heard of my great-grandmother's talent for cookery. Father and
+mother often speak of it, and some of her old recipes are in use in our
+kitchen to-day."
+
+Mr. Wingate had kept an even pace with Hallam's eager swings upon his
+crutches, and they were speedily at the old house door, with a kindly
+feeling toward one another springing into life within the heart of each;
+though but a little while before Hallam had exclaimed to Amy, in all
+sincerity, "I hate him unseen."
+
+With the ready trustfulness of youth, Hallam began to think his mother's
+and the lawyer's words had not meant literally what they expressed.
+
+On Mr. Wingate's side, the sight of Hallam's physical infirmity had
+roused regret at the action he must take. Up till this meeting he had
+lived with but one object in view--the possession of Fairacres; nor did
+he now waver in his determination. There had simply entered into the
+matter a sentiment of compassion which was a surprise to himself, and
+which he banished as completely as he could.
+
+Amy met them at the door with the gratifying report:--
+
+"Father is about all right again. It was a sudden faint. Cleena says
+that he has had them before, but that mother had not wished us told.
+There is no need of a doctor, and Cleena is to get the west chamber
+ready for Mr. Wingate to sleep in. I'm to freshen the fire and--here is
+mother herself."
+
+The house mistress came toward them, vial and glass in hand, on her way
+back to the sick-room. The hall was dimly lighted, and as she turned at
+the stair's foot and passed upward, with that soft gliding motion
+peculiar to herself, she seemed to the entering guest like a sad-faced
+ghost of a girl he had known. Halfway up she paused upon the landing and
+smiled down upon them; and the serenity of that smile made the hard
+facts of the case--illness, poverty, and home-breaking--seem even more
+unreal than anything else could have done.
+
+Amy looked into Mr. Wingate's eyes, which were fixed upon their mother.
+"Isn't she like the Madonna? Father has so often painted her as such."
+
+"Yes--hmm. He ought to. A Madonna of Way and Means. Say, little girl,
+you are bright enough, but you act a good deal younger than your years.
+How happens it you've never learned to look after your father yourself,
+and so spare your mother? Can you do anything useful?"
+
+"That depends. I can arrange father's palette, and crack his eggs just
+right, and buy things--when there's money," she finished naively.
+
+"It all seems 'father.' What about your mother? What can you do, or have
+you done, to help _her_, eh?"
+
+Amy flushed. She thought this sort of cross-questioning very rude and
+uncalled for. As soon as she had heard this man's name she had realized
+that it must be he of whom Hallam had spoken, and whom she, also, had
+decided she "hated unseen." But, in truth, hatred was a feeling of which
+the carefully sheltered girl knew absolutely nothing, though it came
+very near entering her heart at that instant when the shrewd,
+penetrating gaze of her kinsman forced her to answer his question.
+
+"Why--nothing, I'm afraid. Only to love her."
+
+"Hmm. Well, you'll have to add a bit of practical aid to the loving, I
+guess, if you want to keep her with you. She looks as if the wind might
+blow her away if she got caught out in it. Now, good night. You and your
+brother can go. I'll sit here till that saucy Irishwoman gets my room
+ready. Take care! If you don't mind where you're going, you'll drop
+sperm on the rug, tipping that candlestick so!"
+
+[Illustration: "TAKE CARE! YOU'LL DROP SPERM ON THE RUG, TIPPING THAT
+CANDLESTICK SO!"]
+
+Hallam had been standing, leaning against the newel post, with his own
+too ready temper flaming within him. But there was one tenet in the Kaye
+household which had been held to rigidly by all its members: the guest
+within the house was sacred from any discourteous word or deed. Else the
+boy felt he should have given his new-found relative what Cleena called
+"a good pie-shaped piece of his mind."
+
+He had to wait a moment before he could say "good night" in a decent
+tone of voice, then swung up the staircase in the direction of his
+mother's room.
+
+Amy was too much astonished to say even thus much. She righted the
+candlestick, amazed at the interest in rugs which Mr. Wingate displayed,
+and followed her brother very slowly, like one entering a dark passage
+wherein she might go astray.
+
+She stopped where Hallam had, before their mother's door, which was so
+rarely closed against them. Even now, as she heard her children
+whispering behind the panel, Mrs. Kaye came out and gave them each their
+accustomed caress; then bade them get straight to bed, for she would be
+having a long talk with them in the morning, and she wanted them to be
+"as bright as daisies," to understand it.
+
+"Mother, that man! He--he's so dreadful! He scolded me about the
+candlestick, and--and you--and he made me feel like a great baby."
+
+"I wish he might have waited; but, no matter. Good night."
+
+It was a very confused and troubled Amy who crept into bed a little
+while afterward, and she meant to lie awake and think everything out
+straight, but she was too sound and healthy to give up slumber for any
+such purpose, and in a few minutes she was asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SETTLEMENTS.
+
+
+On the following morning the guest was the first person astir at
+Fairacres, not even excepting Cleena, who rose with the birds; and when
+she opened her kitchen door, the sight of him pacing the grass-grown
+driveway did not tend to put her in good humor.
+
+But there was little danger of her breaking bounds again, in the matter
+of behavior. A short talk had passed between her mistress and herself,
+before they bade each other good night, that had not left the too
+devoted servant very proud of her overzeal; and she now turned to her
+stove to rattle off her indignation among its lids and grates. But she
+kept "speakin' with herself," after her odd fashion, and her tone was
+neither humble nor flattering.
+
+"Arrah musha! The impidence of him! Hasn't he decency to wait till all's
+over 'fore he struts about that gait? But, faith, an' I'll show him one
+thing: that's as good a breakfast as ever he got in the old lady's time,
+as one hears so much tell of."
+
+Whereupon, with this praiseworthy ambition, a calm fell upon poor
+Cleena's troubled spirit, and when, a couple of hours later, the family
+assembled in the dining room, everybody was astonished at the feast
+prepared; while all but the stranger knew that a week's rations had been
+mortgaged to furnish that one meal. However, nobody made any comment,
+though Mr. Wingate found in this show of luxury another explanation of
+the Kayes' financial straits.
+
+"Cuthbert will not be down this morning, Archibald. I hope thee rested
+well. Hallam, will thee take thy father's place?"
+
+Mrs. Kaye's manner, as she greeted her kinsman, betrayed little of what
+must have been her real feeling toward him, nor had her children ever
+seen her more composed and gentle, though Hallam noticed that she was
+paler than ever, and that her eyes were dull, as if she had not slept.
+
+"It's going to be a miserable day outside," remarked the guest, a little
+stiffly.
+
+"Inside, too, I fancy," answered Amy. "I hate undecided things. I like
+either a cheerful downpour or else sunshine. I think wobbly weather is
+as bad as wobbly folks--trying to a body's temper."
+
+Mr. Wingate laughed, though rather harshly. Amy was already his favorite
+in that household, and he reflected that under different circumstances
+than those which brought him to Fairacres, he would have found her very
+interesting.
+
+"The weather should not be allowed to affect one's spirits," said Mrs.
+Kaye.
+
+"No, mother; I suppose not. Yet, it was so pretty here, last night; and
+now the leaves over the windows are all shrivelled up, while this border
+on the tablecloth is as crooked as can be. It all has such an afterward
+sort of look. Ah, it _is_ raining, good and fast."
+
+Mrs. Kaye excused herself and went to look out toward the library. The
+wind was howling in that direction, and she exclaimed, anxiously:--
+
+"Cleena, go at once and see if it is doing any harm out there! That
+broken door and window--put something against them, if it is."
+
+"I don't think there's any danger of harm. I've sent for a carpenter
+more than an hour ago," observed Mr. Wingate.
+
+"Thee?"
+
+For a moment there was a flash in the matron's eyes, but she did not
+remark further, though Hallam took up her cause with the words:--
+
+"I suppose you meant it for kindness, but my father does not allow any
+one to interfere with that place. Even if it rained in, I think he would
+rather give his own orders."
+
+"Probably," answered the guest, dryly, while Cleena deposited a dish of
+steaming waffles upon the table with such vigor as to set them all
+bouncing.
+
+"Sure, mistress, you'll be takin' a few of these, why not. I never
+turned me finer, an' that honey's the last of the lot, three times
+strained, too, an' you please."
+
+"Waffles, Cleena? Did thee take some up to the master? I am sure he
+would enjoy them."
+
+"Indeed, I did that. Would I forget? So eat, to please Cleena, and to be
+strong for what comes."
+
+Even Mrs. Kaye's indifference was not proof against the tempting
+delicacy, and doubtless the food did give her strength the better to go
+through a trying interview. For immediately breakfast was over, she
+rose, and, inviting the visitor into the old parlor, bade her children
+join them.
+
+"What our cousin Archibald has to say concerns us all. I leave it to him
+to tell the whole story," and she sat down with Amy snuggled beside her,
+while Hallam stood upon his crutches at her back.
+
+Somehow, Mr. Wingate found it a little difficult to begin, and after
+several attempts he put the plain question abruptly:--
+
+"When can you leave, Salome?"
+
+She caught her breath, and Amy felt the arm about her waist grow rigid,
+but she answered by another question:--
+
+"Must thee really turn us out, Archibald?"
+
+The plain, affectionate "thee" touched him, yet for that reason he
+settled himself all the more firmly in his decision.
+
+"What has to be done would better be done at once. It is a long time,
+Salome, since I have had any recompense for the use of this--my
+property--"
+
+"Your property?" cried Hallam.
+
+"Yes, mine. Mine it should have been by lawful inheritance, save for a
+rank injustice and favoritism. Mine it is now, by right of actual
+purchase, the purchase of my own! Your mother seems to desire that you
+should at last learn the whole truth, and I assure you that I have
+advanced more than twice the money required to buy this place, even at
+an inflated market value. So, lad, don't get angry or indignant. I make
+no statements that I cannot prove, nor can your parents deny that I
+notified them to vacate these premises more than two years ago."
+
+"Mother, is that so?"
+
+"Yes, Hallam."
+
+"Why didn't we go, then?"
+
+"Our cousin had a heart and did not force us."
+
+"Why do you now, sir?"
+
+"Because I'm tired of waiting. The case grows worse each day. I'm sick
+of throwing good money after bad, while, all the time, such folly as is
+yonder goes on," pointing toward the distant studio. "One man is as good
+to labor as another. Cuthbert Kaye has had money all his life; _my_
+money, of which I was defrauded--"
+
+"Archibald! Beg pardon, but that is not so."
+
+"But it is so, Salome. If you have been hoodwinked and believed false
+tales, it is time these youngsters learned the facts. They are Kayes,
+like you and me. It is honest blood, mostly, that runs in all our veins.
+Well then, the life they are living is not an honest life. No man has a
+right to more than he can pay for. Can Cuthbert--"
+
+"Archibald, thee shall leave him out of the question!" cried the wife,
+roused from her firm self-control. There was something so appealing in
+her tone that her children watched her in alarm.
+
+"Very well. So be it. Since he is not man enough to stand by you in the
+trouble he has brought upon you--"
+
+"If thee continues, we will leave the room."
+
+"Why haven't I been able ever to meet him then? Why has he always thrust
+you between himself and me? If he thought because you were a woman I
+would forever put off the day of judgment, he has for once reckoned
+without his host. I tell you the end has come."
+
+Mrs. Kaye sank back in her chair, trembling; but still her lips were
+closed until the angry guest had finished his speech and had walked off
+some of his excitement in a hasty pacing of the long room. At length he
+paused before her and said, more quietly:--
+
+"There is no need of our having recourse to legal force. You should
+leave without being put out. That is why I came, to arrange it all to
+your satisfaction. You are a good woman, Salome, as good as any of your
+race before you, and just as big a simpleton when your affections are
+touched. A little more firmness on your part, a little less devotee sort
+of worship of a--"
+
+"Archibald, remember thee is speaking of what does not concern thee.
+There is no need for rudeness, nor, indeed, 'legal' violence. Had I
+understood, two years ago, that thee needed--needed--this old home for
+thyself, I would have left it then. It has, of course, been to our
+advantage to occupy it, but it has also been to thine. An empty house
+goes swift to ruin. Everything here has been well cared for, as things
+held in trust should be. We will leave here as soon as I can find a
+house somewhere to shelter us."
+
+Mrs. Kaye rose, as if to terminate the interview; but Mr. Wingate
+cleared his throat and lifted his hand as if he had something further to
+say.
+
+"I suppose you have thought about this many times, Salome. What are your
+plans?"
+
+"They are not definite. House-hunting is the first, I suppose, since we
+cannot do without a roof to cover us."
+
+"How--I can't forget that we are kinsfolk, Salome--how do you propose to
+live? I am a plain business man, as practical as--I mean, use common
+sense. There are few houses to rent in this out-of-the-way town, where
+everybody, except the mill folks, owns his own home,--and even some of
+them do. I've come into possession of a house which might suit
+you--'Hardscrabble.' I'll let you have it cheap."
+
+"'Hardscrabble'! The 'Spite House'?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, Archibald!"
+
+"Exactly. I knew how it would strike you. We both know the story of the
+place, but our grandfather's enemy took good care to make his tenement
+comfortable inside, even if it was ugly as sin outside."
+
+For a while Mrs. Kaye remained silent, debating with herself. Very soon
+she was able to look up and smile gratefully.
+
+"Thee knows as well as I what a stab thee has given my pride, Archibald;
+but there is that saving 'common sense' in the offer, and love is
+stronger than pride. Tell me what rent thee will ask, and I will take
+the place if I can."
+
+"Ten dollars a month."
+
+The prompt, strictly business-like answer fairly startled its hearer.
+Then she smiled again.
+
+"I have never lived anywhere save at Fairacres, thee knows. I must trust
+thee in the matter. I have no definite ideas about the values of houses,
+but I think I can pay that. I must. There is nowhere else to go. Yes, I
+will take it."
+
+"It's dirt cheap, Salome. You will never think kindly of me, of course,
+but I'm dealing squarely, even generously by you. If 'thee'd,'" for the
+second time he dropped into the speech of his childhood, which his
+cousin Salome had always retained, and she was quick to observe this,
+"if thee had trusted me years ago, things might have gone better with us
+both. When will thee move?"
+
+"To-day."
+
+"To-day? There's no need for quite such haste."
+
+"Thee said 'the sooner the better,' and I agree. Get the lease ready as
+soon as possible, and I will sign it. I've only one thing to ask about
+that: please don't have the name put as either 'Hardscrabble' or 'Spite
+House.' I'd like it called 'Charity House.'"
+
+"Upon my word, Salome, you're the queerest mixture of business and
+sentiment that I ever met. You're as fanciful as a girl, still. But the
+name doesn't matter. Call the place 'Faith' and 'Hope' as well as
+'Charity,' if you wish, after you get there; but I won't alter the lease
+which I brought along with me last night."
+
+"Brought already, Archibald? Thee expected me to go to that place,
+then?"
+
+"Under the circumstances, Salome, and, as you've just admitted, I didn't
+see what else you could do. I've sent 'Bony' into the village for my
+lawyer, because I want you should have things all straight. He'll
+witness our signatures to the lease, and if you'll pick out such
+furniture as you most especially care to have, I'll try to spare it,
+though the mortgage covers all."
+
+But the speaker's glance moved so reluctantly and covetously over the
+antique plenishing that Mrs. Kaye promptly relieved his anxiety.
+
+"It would be a pity to disturb these old, beloved things in their
+appropriate places--"
+
+"You're right," interrupted the gentleman. "I've a better notion than
+that. I'll leave whatever is in 'Spite House' for your use, and not
+break up Fairacres at all."
+
+"Is it still furnished, then?"
+
+"Yes, according to old Ingraham's ideas--for hard use and no nonsense.
+He had a big family and nothing much but his temper to keep it on.
+However, if there's anything actually needed, I suppose I could advance
+a trifle more. It would be for your sake, only, Salome."
+
+"Thank thee, but I hope not to run further into thy debt, Archibald,
+save in case of direst need. And do not think but that I fully
+understand and appreciate all the kindness which has permitted us to
+stay at Fairacres so long. In some things, as thee will one day
+discover, thee has mistaken and misjudged us; but in one thing I have
+understood and sympathized with thee, always, and with all my heart: the
+passionate love which a Kaye must feel for his home and all this."
+
+There was pathos and dignity in the quiet gesture which Salome Kaye
+swept over the apartment that had been her own for all her life; but
+there was also courage and determination in her bearing as she walked
+out of it, leaning lightly upon Amy's shoulder, and with Hallam limping
+beside her. Somehow, too, Archibald Wingate did not feel quite as
+jubilant and successful as he had anticipated, and he welcomed, as an
+agreeable diversion, the approach of a buggy, conveying his friend,
+Lawyer Smith, to witness the lease and to give any needful advice in the
+matter.
+
+"Hello, Smith. Quite a rainy day, isn't it? I've been studying that row
+of old pines and spruces. How do you think the avenue'd look if I was to
+have 'em trimmed up, say about as high as your head, from the ground?
+Give a better view of the old Ardsley Valley, wouldn't it?"
+
+The lawyer stepped down from his vehicle, backward and cautiously, then
+turned, screwed up his eyes, and replied deliberately:--
+
+"Well, it might; and then again it mightn't. It's taken a good many
+years for those branches to grow, and once they're off they can't be put
+back again. If I was in your place, I'd rather let things slide easy for
+a spell; then--go as you please. Have you come to a settlement? Will
+they quit without lawing?"
+
+"Yes, they'll quit at once. Say, woman! You, Cleena, bring me a hatchet,
+will you? I'll just lop off a little limb on one side, and see the
+effect. Hurry up!"
+
+"Faith, I'll fetch it!" responded Cleena, loudly. But when she did so,
+she advanced with such a menacing gesture upon the new proprietor of her
+old home that he shrank back, doubtful of her intent. "Ain't it enough
+to break hearts, without breakin' the helpless trees your own forebears
+planted long by?--Aha, my fine gineral, so you're bad penny back again?
+Well, then, you're the handle o' time. By the way you tacked up them
+boughs, you'll be clever at packin'. Come by. I'll give ye a job."
+
+Thus, partly to Lawyer Smith's caution and partly to Cleena's
+indignation, the fine evergreens of Fairacres owed the fact that they,
+for the time being, escaped mutilation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "SPITE HOUSE" OF BAREACRE.
+
+
+By nightfall it was all over; and Cleena, Hallam, and Amy, with their
+self-constituted bodyguard, Fayette, were gathered about a big table in
+the kitchen of the "Spite House," to eat a supper of bread and milk, and
+to discuss the events of that memorable day. Strangely enough, as Amy
+thought, none of them realized anything clearly except the facts of
+fatigue and hunger.
+
+"Arrah musha! but the face of that lawyer body, when I tells him I was
+takin' the loan of his bit buggy wagon for the master an' mistress to
+ride to Burnside the morn, an' how as old Adam would sure send it back
+by a farm-hand, which he did that same. An' them two goin' off so quiet,
+even smilin', as if--But there, there! Have some more milk, Master Hal.
+It's like cream itself, so 'tis; an' that neighbor woman in the cottage
+yon is that friendly she'd be givin' me three pints to the quart if I'd
+leave her be."
+
+"Well, dear old Adam will be glad to see them on any terms, he is so
+fond of father and mother. But knowing they're in such trouble, he'll
+have the best of everything for them to-night."
+
+"Yes, Adam Burns is as likely as any man creature can be, which I've
+never been bothered with meself, me guardian angel be praised."
+
+"Well, Cleena, I've seen you work hard before, but you did as much as
+ten Cleenas in one to-day."
+
+The good woman sighed, then laughed outright. "It's been a hard row for
+that wicked body to hoe."
+
+"Who, Cleena?"
+
+"That sweet, decent kinsman o' your own. Was many an odd bit o' stuff
+went into the van 't he never meant should go there. The face of him
+when I went trampin' up the libr'y stairs, an' caught him watchin'
+Master Hallam packing the paint trash that he'd allowed the master might
+have. 'Take anything you want here, my boy,' says he. So, seein' Master
+Hal was working dainty an' slow, I just sweeps me arm over the whole
+business; an' I'm thinkin' there'll be 'tubes' a plenty for all the
+pictures master'll ever paint. In a fine heap, though, an' that must be
+your job, Master Hal, come to-morrow, to put them all tidy, as 'tis
+himself likes."
+
+"I'll be glad to do it, Cleena; but in which of these old rooms am I to
+sleep?"
+
+Cleena had taken a rapid survey of the dusty, musty bedchambers, and her
+cleanly soul revolted against her "childer" using any of them in their
+present condition. So for Amy she had put Mrs. Kaye's own mattress on
+the floor of what might be a parlor, and spread it with clean sheets;
+for Hallam there was in another place his father's easy lounge; and for
+herself and Fayette, who insisted upon staying for the night, there were
+"shakedowns" of old, warm "comforts."
+
+"And it's time we were all off to Noddle's Island. It's up in the
+mornin' early we must be. So scatter yourselves, all of ye, an' to sleep
+right away. Not forgettin' your prayers, as good Christians shouldn't."
+
+"Of course not," answered Amy, drowsily; but Fayette looked as if he did
+not understand.
+
+"Sure, _you'll_ have to be taught then, my fine sir, an' I'll tackle
+that job with the rest of to-morrow's."
+
+But when daylight broke and roused the active Cleena to begin her
+formidable task of scrubbing away the accumulated dirt of years there
+was no Fayette to be found. Dreamily, she recalled the sound of musical
+instruments, the shouts of voices, and the squealing of the rats that
+had hitherto been the tenants of "Spite House"; but which of these, if
+any, was answerable for the lad's absence, she could not guess.
+
+"Well, I was mindin' to keep him busy, had he stayed; but since he's
+gone, there's one mouth less to feed."
+
+It did not take the observant woman long to discover that the outlook
+for the comfort of "her folks" was even less by daylight than it had
+seemed the night before. Her heart sank, though she lost no time in
+useless regrets, and she did most cordially thank that "guardian angel"
+to whom she so constantly referred for having prevented her spending the
+last twenty-five dollars she possessed. This would long ago have wasted
+away had it not been placed in the care of that true friend of the
+family, Adam Burns, with whom her master and mistress had now taken
+refuge.
+
+"Alanna, that's luck! I was for usin' it long syne, but the old man
+wouldn't leave me do it. 'No, Cleena, thee's not so young as thee was,
+an' thee might be wantin' it for doctor's stuff,' says he. Twenty-five
+dollars! That'd pay the rent an' buy flour an' tea, an' what not;" and
+with cheerful visions of the unlimited power of her small capital, the
+old servant stooped to fill her apron with the stray chips and branches
+the bare place afforded.
+
+At that moment there fell upon her ears the familiar sound of Pepita and
+Balaam braying in concert for their breakfast.
+
+"Now what's to feed _them_ is more nor I know; yet never a doubt I doubt
+it would clean break the colleen's heart must she part with her neat
+little beast."
+
+The braying roused Hallam and Amy, also, from a night of dreamless
+sleep; and as they passed out from the musty house into the crisp air of
+a frosty morning, they felt more cheerful than they considered was quite
+the proper thing, under the circumstances. Then Amy looked at her
+brother and laughed.
+
+"Isn't it splendid after the rain? and isn't it funny to be here?
+Yesterday it seemed as if the world had come to an end, and now it seems
+as if it had just been made new."
+
+"'Every morn is a fresh beginning,'" quoted Hallam, who loved books
+better than his sister did.
+
+"Let's go down to the gate, or place where a gate should be, and take a
+good look at our--home."
+
+"All right. Though we've seen it at a distance, I suppose it will appear
+differently to us at near hand."
+
+"And uglier. Oh, but it's horrid! _horrid!_" and with a sudden revulsion
+of feeling Amy buried her face in her hands and began to cry. "I hate
+it. I won't stay here. I will not. I'd rather go home and live in the
+old stable than here."
+
+"That wouldn't have been a bad idea, only we shouldn't have been
+allowed."
+
+"Who could have hindered that? Who'd want an empty stable?"
+
+"Our cousin Archibald!" answered Hallam, with scornful emphasis. "I
+believe he feels as if he had a mortgage on our very souls. Indeed, he
+said I might sometime be able to earn enough to buy the place back, as
+well as pay all other debts. He said he couldn't live forever, and it
+was but fair he should have a few years' possession of 'his own.'
+He--Well, there's no use talking. I wish--I wish I were--"
+
+"No, no! you don't! No, you don't either, Hallam Kaye! I know what you
+began to say, and you shall not finish. You shall not die. You shall get
+well and strong and do all those things he said. I'm ashamed of myself
+that I cried. I felt last night as if my old life were all a beautiful
+dream, and that I had just waked up into a real world where I had to do
+things for myself and for others; not have others do for me any longer."
+
+"That was about the state of the case, I fancy."
+
+"Well, that isn't so bad. It shouldn't be, that is; for I have such
+health and strength and everything. Nothing matters so much as long as
+we are all together."
+
+"Nobody knows how long we shall be. I don't like these 'attacks' of
+father's, Amy. I'm afraid of them. It will kill him to live here."
+
+It needed but the possibility of giving comfort to somebody to arouse
+all Amy's natural hopefulness, and she commanded with a shake of her
+forefinger:--
+
+"Hallam Kaye, you stop it! I won't have it! If you keep it up, I shall
+have to--to cuff you."
+
+"Try it!" cried the brother, already laughing at her fierce show of
+spirit; yet to tempt her audacity he thrust his fingers through her
+short curls and wagged her head playfully.
+
+She did not resent it; she could resent nothing Hallam ever did save
+that morbid talk of his. She had been fighting with this spirit ever
+since she could remember, and their brief "tussle" over, she crept
+closer to him along the old stone wall and begged:--
+
+"Cleena has tied the burros out to graze in the weeds, and that will be
+their breakfast, and while we're waiting for ours, I wish you'd tell me
+all you know about 'Spite House.' I've heard it, of course, but it's all
+mixed up in my mind, and I don't see just where that cousin Archibald
+comes in."
+
+"Oh, he comes in easily enough. He's a descendant of old Jacob Ingraham
+as well as of the house of Kaye. I believe it was in this way: our
+great-grandfather Thomas Kaye and Jacob were brothers-in-law, and there
+was some trouble about money matters."
+
+"Seems to me all the mean, hateful troubles _are_ about money. I don't
+see why it was ever made."
+
+"Well, they had such trouble anyway. Great-grandfather had just built
+Fairacres, and had spent a great deal to beautify the grounds. He was a
+pretty rich man, I fancy, and loved to live in a great whirl of society
+and entertain lots of people and all that. He was especially fond of the
+view from the front of the house and had cut away some of the trees for
+'vistas' and 'outlooks' and 'views.' There were no mills on the Ardsley
+then. They came in our own grandfather's time. It was just a beautiful,
+shimmering river--"
+
+"Hal, you're a poet!"
+
+"Never," said the boy, with a blush.
+
+"But you are. You tell things so I can just see them. I can see that
+shimmering river this instant, in my mind, with my eyes shut. I can see
+boats full of people sailing on it, and hear music and laughter and
+everything lovely."
+
+"Who's the poet now?"
+
+"I'm not. But go on."
+
+"It seems that old Mr. Ingraham thought he had been cheated by
+great-grandfather--"
+
+"Likely enough he had. Else I don't see where he got all that money to
+do things."
+
+"But, missy, he was _our_ relative. He was a _Kaye_."
+
+"There might be good Kayes and bad Kayes, mightn't there?"
+
+"Amy, you're too honest for comfort. You may think a spade's a spade,
+but you needn't always mention it."
+
+"Go on with the story. In a few minutes Cleena will call us to our
+'frugal repast,' like the poor children in stories, and I want to hear
+all about this 'ruined castle' I've come to live in, I mean 'dwell,' for
+story-book girls--'maidens'--never do anything so commonplace as just
+'live.' Hally, boy, there's a lot of humbug in this world."
+
+"How did you find that out, Miss Experience?"
+
+"I didn't trouble to find it, I just read it. I thought it sounded sort
+of nice and old, so I said it."
+
+"Humph! Well, do you want to hear, or will you keep interrupting?"
+
+"I do want to hear, and I probably shall interrupt. I am not blind to
+my own besetting sins."
+
+"Listen. Just as great-grandfather had everything fixed to his taste and
+was enjoying life to the utmost, old Jacob came here to this knoll that
+faces Fairacres--Oh, you needn't turn around to see. The trees have
+grown again, and the view is hidden. On this knoll, if there was
+anything tall, it would spoil the Fairacres' view. So Jacob built this
+'Spite House.' He made it as ugly as he could, and he did everything
+outrageous to make great-grandfather disgusted. He named this rocky
+barren 'Bareacre,' and that little gully yonder he called 'Glenpolly,'
+because his enemy had named the beautiful ravine we know as 'Glenellen.'
+Polly and Ellen were the wives' names, and I've heard they grieved
+greatly over the quarrel. Mr. Ingraham painted huge signs with the names
+on them, and hung up scarecrows on poles, because he wouldn't let a tree
+grow here, even if it could. There are a few now, though. Look like old
+plum trees. My, what a home for our mother!"
+
+Amy's face sobered again, as she regarded the ugly stone structure which
+still looked strong enough to defy all time, but which no lapse of years
+had done much to beautify. Nothing had ever thrived at Bareacre, which
+was, in fact, a hill of apparently solid stone, sparsely covered by the
+poorest of soil. The house was big, for the Ingraham family had been
+numerous, but it was as square and austere as the builders could make
+it. The roof ended exactly at the walls, which made it look, as Amy
+said, "like a girl with her eyelashes cut off." There were no blinds or
+shutters of any sort, and nothing to break the bleak winds which swept
+down between the hills of Ardsley, and which nipped the life of any
+brave green thing that tried to make a hold there. A few mullein stalks
+were all that flourished, and the stunted fruit trees which Hallam had
+noticed seemed but a pitiful parody upon the rich verdure of the
+elsewhere favored region.
+
+"Has nobody ever lived here since that wicked old man?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I think so. But nobody for long, nor could anybody make it a
+home."
+
+"It looks as if it had been blue, up there by the roof."
+
+"I believe it was. I've heard that every color possible was used in
+painting it, so as to make it the more annoying to a person of good
+taste, such as great-grandfather was."
+
+"Heigho! Well, _we've_ got to live here."
+
+"Or die. It's hopeless. I can't see a ray of light in the whole
+situation."
+
+"You dear old bat, you should wear specs. I can see several rays. I'll
+count them off. Ray one: the ugly all-sorts-of-paint has been washed
+away by the weather. Ray two: the air up here is as pure as it's sharp,
+and there's nothing to obstruct or keep it from blowing your 'hypo'
+away. Ray three: there are our own darling burros already helping to
+'settle' by mowing the weeds with their mouths. What a blessing is
+hunger, rightly utilized! And, finally, there's that
+worth-her-weight-in-gold Goodsoul waving her pudding-stick, which in
+this new, unique life of ours must mean 'breakfast.' Come along. Heigho!
+Who's that? Our esteemed political friend, 'Rep-Dem-Prob.' I'd forgotten
+him. Now, by the lofty bearing with which he ascends to our castle of
+discontent, I believe he's been out 'marching.'"
+
+It was, indeed, Fayette whom they saw climbing over the rocks. He wore
+his oilcloth blouse and his gay helmet, and soon they could hear his
+rude voice singing and see the waving of his broom.
+
+"He? Coming back again? Why, we can't keep him. We can't even 'keep'
+ourselves."
+
+"Yet never a doubt I doubt he means to tarry," quoted Amy, laughing at
+her brother's rueful countenance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+NEEDS AND HELPERS.
+
+
+"Sure, I thought ye had lost yourself or been ate by the rats!" cried
+Cleena, as Fayette rather timidly peered in at the open kitchen door.
+"But all rogues is fond o' good atin', so I suppose you've come for your
+breakfast, eh?"
+
+"No. I've et."
+
+"Must ha' been up with the lark then. No, hold on. Don't go in there.
+They're master Hallam an' Miss Amy still, an' always will be. They eats
+by themselves, as the gentry should. If there's ought left when they're
+done, time enough for you an' me."
+
+"I've had my breakfast, I told you."
+
+"Didn't seem to set well on your stummick either, by the way your temper
+troubles ye. Are ye as ready to work as ye was yesterday?"
+
+"Yes. What I come back for."
+
+Cleena paused and studied the ill-shaped, vacant, though not vicious,
+face of the unfortunate waif. Something drew her sympathy toward him,
+and she pitied him for the mother whom he had never known. In the
+adjoining room she could hear the voices of her own "childer," with
+their cultured inflection and language, which was theirs by inheritance
+and as unconsciously as were "Bony's" harsh tones and rude speech his
+own.
+
+"Arrah musha! but it's a queer world, I d'know. There's them an' there's
+him, an' the Lord made 'em both. Hear me, me gineral. Take a hold o'
+that broom o' yours, an' show me what it's made for. If you're as clean
+as you're homebly, I might stand your good friend. What for no?"
+
+Fayette had returned Cleena's cool stare with another as steady. He
+liked her far better and more promptly than she liked him, yet in that
+moment of scrutiny each had measured the other and formed a tacit
+partnership. "For the family," was Cleena's watchword, and it had
+already become the half-wit's.
+
+Cleena went to the well, tied her clothesline to the leaky old bucket
+and lowered it. On the night before she had obtained a pail of spring
+water from the cottage at the foot of the knoll, from the same friendly
+neighbor who had sold her the milk. But their own well must be fixed. To
+her dismay she found that it was very deep, and that the bit of water
+which remained in the bucket when it was drawn up was quite unfit even
+for cleaning purposes.
+
+This worried her. A scarcity of water was one of the few trials which
+she had been spared, and she could hardly have met a heavier. As she
+turned toward the house she saw that Fayette had carefully set out of
+doors the old chairs and the other movable furniture which the kitchen
+had contained, and that, before sweeping, he was using his broom to
+brush the cobwebs from the ceiling. The sight filled her with joy and
+amazement.
+
+"Saints bless us! That's the first man body I ever met that had sense
+like that!" and she lifted up her voice in a glad summons:--
+
+"You, Napoleon Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"
+
+"Before I finish here?"
+
+"Before the wag o' dog's tail. Hurry up!"
+
+"The wind'll blow it all over again."
+
+"Leave it blow. Come by. Here's more trouble even nor cobwebs, avick!
+First need is first served."
+
+This summoned Hallam and Amy out to see what was going on, and after
+learning the difficulty and peering into the depths of the old pit they
+offered their suggestions. Said Amy:--
+
+"We might draw it up, bucket by bucket, and throw it away. Then I
+suppose it would fill with clean water, wouldn't it?"
+
+"If we did, 'twould break all our backs an' there's more to do than
+empty old wells. Master Hal, what's _your_ say?"
+
+"Hmm, we might rig up some sort of machinery and stir it all up, and
+with chemicals we could clear it and--"
+
+"Troth we could, if we'd a month o' Sundays to do it in an' slathers o'
+time an' money spoilin' to be spent."
+
+Hallam was disgusted. Already he had blamed himself for his haughty
+refusal of Mr. Wingate's offer, on the previous day, to send a practical
+man to look over the premises and "set them going," as any landlord
+would.
+
+But the lad had replied, as one in authority to decide for his absent
+parents: "We won't trouble you, sir. What happens to us, after we leave
+Fairacres, is our own affair. If you get your rent, that should be
+sufficient for you."
+
+After that the offer was not renewed; for Mr. Wingate was not the man to
+waste either money or service, and the lad's tone angered him.
+
+Regrets were now, as always, useless, and Cleena's open disdain of
+Hallam's suggestion sent him limping angrily away; though Amy laughed
+over her own "valuable contribution to the solution of the dilemma," and
+by her intentional use of the longest words at hand caused Fayette to
+regard her with a wonderment that was ludicrous in itself.
+
+"Well, Goodsoul, we've helped a lot. Ask our 'Rep-Dem-Prob' what his
+'boys' would do."
+
+"What for no? Sure, he's more sense nor the whole of us. Say, me
+gineral, what's the way out?"
+
+Fayette colored with pride. He had an inordinate vanity, and, like most
+of his sort, he possessed an almost startling keenness of intelligence
+in some respects, as contrasted with his foolishness in others.
+Moreover, he had been disciplined by poverty, and had always lived among
+working people and, for a long time, about the carpet mills.
+
+"Well, the 'Supe's' force-pump."
+
+"Hmm, I know, I know. But what's the 'Supe' an' his pump? Is he fish,
+flesh, or fowl, eh?"
+
+"He's the 'Supe' to the mill. Ain't ye any sense?"
+
+"No. None left after botherin' with you. What's it, Miss Amy?"
+
+"I know. You mean Mr. Metcalf, don't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What would he do? How could he help us?"
+
+"Lend me the donkey. I'll ride and tell him. All them houses--see them
+mill cottages, down yonder?"
+
+"Certainly. They look very pretty from here, with all the trees about
+them."
+
+"They've got wells. Once in six months the wells has to be cleared out.
+That's orders. Me an' another fellow goes down 'em, after the pump's
+drawed out all it can. We bail 'em out. I clean cisterns, too. Ain't
+another fellow in the village as good at a cistern as me. See, I'm slim.
+I can get down a man-hole 't nobody else can. Shall I go?"
+
+"I'll ask Hallam."
+
+Who, upon consultation, replied:--
+
+"I suppose it's the only thing we can do, but it does go against my
+inclination to ask favors of anybody."
+
+"Hal, that's silly. We must send Fayette to Mr. Metcalf, and will you
+write the note, or shall I?"
+
+"You, since you've seen him, personally."
+
+"Which is the only way I could see him," laughed the girl, and ran into
+the house to find a sheet of paper. Then the mill boy was given his
+choice of the burros, to ride as messenger; and having selected Balaam,
+departed down the slope in high glee. When he reached the mill, and Mr.
+Metcalf was at liberty to see him, he began a voluble description of all
+that had occurred since his chance meeting with Amy in the wood; but the
+superintendent cut the story short.
+
+"Now, see here, 'Bony.' This is the chance of your life. Understand?
+They are, I should think, the very nicest folks you ever saw. Well,
+treat them square. None of your monkey shines nor nonsense. Do
+everything you can to help them. Of course you can have the pump, though
+you can't carry it up to 'Hardscrabble' donkey-back. That fellow is as
+black as his brother, or sister, is white. They're the prettiest donkeys
+I ever saw. How my youngsters would like such. Well, go round to John.
+There's no teaming to be done this morning, and he shall take the pump
+there in the wagon. He'll help you too, no doubt, for a small payment."
+
+"Say, 'Supe.'"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I don't believe they've got any money. Don't look so they had a cent.
+Ain't it queer? With all them purty things an' the way they act an'
+talk. Ain't like nobody I ever saw before. Ain't never saw anybody liked
+each other so much. I'm goin' to stay."
+
+"Have they asked you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, run along and get hold of John before he goes home for a nap, as
+he might, with nothing needed here."
+
+Then, when Fayette had left him, Mr. Metcalf took up Amy's note and
+reread it.
+
+The second perusal pleased the gentleman even more than the first. He
+thought that the little letter was very characteristic of the girl he
+had met, and he specially liked her statement that his former kindness
+presupposed a later one. So he stopped John, the teamster, as he was
+driving out of the mill yard, with the request:--
+
+"You stay up there all day, if you can be of any use. Got your dinner
+with you? and the horses'? Good enough. I've heard about that family
+being turned out from their old home, and whether it was justly done or
+not doesn't alter the fact of its hardness. Lend them a hand, as if it
+were for me, John, and I'll make it all right with you."
+
+"It's all right already, sir. I saw that girl, when she was down here
+that day; saw her take her fine little handkerchief out of her pocket
+and wipe that idiot's, or next door to idiot, wipe his lips as nice as
+if he was her own brother. Ain't one of the mill girls'd do _that_.
+They'd be too dainty. She wasn't, because she was quality. It always
+tells. Pity though that such folks have so little common sense. Now--"
+
+But Mr. Metcalf warded off any further talk of the good John, who had
+lived at Ardsley all his life and knew the history of the Kaye household
+almost better than they knew it themselves.
+
+"I'll ask you to tell me about them another time. Just now I guess you'd
+better hurry to get them a decent drink of water. Hold on, 'Bony.' Ride
+over to the office door. I'll send a note back to Miss Kaye, and want
+you to carry her a little basket."
+
+So this was the note which answered Amy's, and that proved its writer to
+be a gentleman, even though he had begun life a humble ash-boy in just
+such a mill as he now managed so ably:--
+
+
+"MY DEAR MISS AMY: The kindness is wholly on your side in allowing me to
+serve you, and I hope you will command me in any further matter wherein
+I can be of use.
+
+"I am sending the pump by John Young, our teamster, with instructions to
+remain under your orders for the rest of the day. You will find that
+'Bony' thoroughly understands the business of well-cleaning, but you
+will have to restrain him from venturing into any great hazard, because,
+poor lad, he has not the caution to balance his daring.
+
+"I am offering, also, a little basket of fruit which came my way this
+morning, and which looks, I fancy, as if it wanted to be eaten by just
+such a girl as you.
+
+"FAITHFULLY YOURS,
+"WILLIAM METCALF."
+
+
+When Amy read this note aloud to Hallam and Cleena, she did so in a
+proud and happy voice.
+
+"Well, I've written letters for mother, and father, too, sometimes, but
+I've not had many of my own. This is. I'm going to keep it always. The
+very first one that has come here. Isn't he just the dearest man? Oh! I
+am so happy I must just sing. It's such a beautiful world, after all,
+and maybe we've had all our old things taken away just to teach us that
+_folks_ are better than _things_. I feel as if I'd come out of a musty
+room into the open air."
+
+"Amy Kaye! You should be ashamed of yourself. Have you no heart at all?
+As for musty rooms, if you can find any to beat these at 'Spite House,'
+you'll do well."
+
+"I know. I'm 'bad,' of course, but come on. I'll fetch you all father's
+tubes and brushes that are in such a muddle, and you can sort them right
+near the well, and watch John fix it, and take care of Fayette; I'm
+going in and help Cleena, in any way I can."
+
+Amy's cheerfulness was certainly infectious. It was also helpful to
+Hallam's gloomy mood that just then there should be the well and cistern
+cleaning, Mr. Young having discovered a cistern beneath a pile of
+decayed boards, at a little distance from the house. But the water in
+both being unfit for use, Amy bravely picked up a couple of pails and
+started down hill to their new neighbor's cottage.
+
+"Wait, Amy, I'll rig up something," called the cripple; and by the aid
+of a rope, a barrel stave, and some wire he managed to hang the pails on
+either side Pepita's saddle. "So all you'll have to do will be walk up
+and down and make her behave," referring to Pepita's uncertain temper.
+
+"If I had a barrel I'd better that job," said John the teamster. "I'd
+drive down once and get all you needed for the day."
+
+"But there isn't any barrel that will hold water," answered the girl.
+"So I'll play 'Jack and Jill' with Pepita, as long as Cleena wishes.
+Besides, the cottage children think she's beautiful, and they are so
+kind they help me fill the pails each trip, as well as give us the water
+in them."
+
+John wiped his brow and looked admiringly upon her. "Keep that spirit,
+lass, and it'll make small difference to you whether your purse is empty
+or full. But 'give' you the water? I should say yes. The Lord gave it to
+them in the first place, free as the air of heaven. Well, there'll be
+water to spare up here, too, soon, for we've got the pump about ready
+for work."
+
+It was a long time, though, before any impression was made upon the
+accumulation of water in the deep well. After a while, however, less
+came with each draft, and it was thicker and fouler. Finally, the pump
+ceased to be of any use, and was drawn up and laid beside the broken
+curb. Then came the interesting part of the task, as well as the
+perilous.
+
+Keeping an eye upon all of Fayette's movements, John had allowed him "to
+boss the job," partly because the lad did fully understand his business,
+and partly to give him pleasure. But now was need for utmost caution.
+
+"Will you fetch me a candle?" the teamster asked Cleena; and when she
+had done so he fastened it to the end of the clothesline and slowly
+lowered it into the shaft. The flame was instantly extinguished.
+
+"Hmm, have to wait a spell, I reckon. Might as well tackle the cistern."
+
+"What made the candle go out? Was there a wind?" asked Amy.
+
+"Carbonic acid gas," answered her brother.
+
+"Huh," said Fayette, contemptuously, "'twa'n't neither. Just choke damp
+an' fixed air. Soon's the candle'll stay lighted, I'll go down.
+Cistern's the same, only wider. Got a powder here'll fix it, if it don't
+clear soon."
+
+After the cistern was cleaned, and this was a much easier task than the
+well, Fayette returned to the curb, again lighted the candle, and
+lowered it. The foul and poisonous gases had mostly passed away, and the
+flame continued to burn as far down as the clothesline would reach.
+
+"That's all right; I'll tackle it now."
+
+"No, you'll not. None o' your foolhardiness here."
+
+"Who made you boss o' me, John Young?"
+
+"I did. I'll prevent you, if I have to hold on to you. Best leave it
+open till to-morrow, or longer even," said John. "I'm going to eat my
+dinner now. Come and have some."
+
+"Bime-by. I'm goin' to take off my shoes. Work best when I'm barefoot."
+
+The answer gave John no concern, for he knew this peculiarity of
+Fayette's; so he walked quietly away toward the old shed where he had
+tied his horses, to give them their food and secure his own. Before he
+reached them, however, he heard a loud shout, and, turning, saw the
+foolish boy capering about on the beam which had been laid across the
+top of the well, and from which the rope and bucket were still
+suspended.
+
+"'Bony,' you fool, get off that! A misstep and you're gone!"
+
+"All right, I'll get off!"
+
+There was a wild waving of arms, a burst of derisive laughter, and
+"Bony" had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE WATERLOO OF BONAPARTE LAFAYETTE.
+
+
+The teamster's cry of horror brought everybody to the scene. Cleena was
+the first to reach it and to find John standing by the mouth of the
+well, whitefaced and trembling.
+
+"What's it? What's down there? What mean ye yellin' that gait? Speak,
+man, if ye can."
+
+He could only point downward, while he strained his ears to catch any
+sound that might come from below.
+
+Then Cleena shook him fiercely. "Speak, I tell ye! Where's the boy?"
+
+The other still pointed down into the shaft, but he made out to say:--
+
+"I heard him laugh, then shout, and he must have gone stark crazy."
+
+"He down there? That poor, senseless gossoon? Where was you that you'd
+leave him do it?"
+
+"I was walking--wait! I hear something."
+
+Four white, terror-stricken faces now bent above the old well, while
+Cleena's arms clasped her "childer" tightly, fearing they, too, might be
+snatched away from her.
+
+"Saints save us, it's bewitched! Oh, the day, the day!"
+
+"Shut up, woman! Keep still. I hear something."
+
+Again they stooped and listened, and Amy's keen ears reported,
+joyfully:--
+
+"It's Fayette! It is, it is! It sounds as if he were speaking from the
+far end of a long, long tube. But he's alive, he's alive!"
+
+"He might as well be dead. His bones must be broken, and he can't live
+long in such an air as that," said Hallam.
+
+"I don't know. That he's alive at all proves that the air isn't as bad
+as I thought. Besides, he may not have broken any bones. He's had
+fearful falls, before this, and he always came out about sound. But the
+rope doesn't reach much more than two-thirds down. I've heard they dug
+this well a hundred and fifty feet deep. They had to, to reach water
+from top this rock."
+
+"A hundred and fifty feet! How can we possibly reach him?"
+
+"Not by standin' talkin'. Whisk to the cottage, Amy, an' beg the length
+of all the rope they have. To save a lad's life--be nimble!"
+
+The girl was away long before Cleena finished speaking, while the latter
+herself darted into the house, caught off the sheets and blankets from
+the beds, and tore them into strips. Never wasting one motion of her
+strong hands, and praying ceaselessly, she tied each fresh length and
+tested it with all her force.
+
+Meanwhile Amy almost flew over the space between "Spite House" and the
+cottage, arriving there nigh breathless; but gasping out her errand, she
+rushed straight to the line in the drying yard and began to tear it from
+its fastenings on the poles.
+
+"You're wanting my rope, miss? Somebody in the well? Heaven help him!
+But wait! If it's _cleaning_ the well he is, why of course he'd be down
+there. Who is it?"
+
+"Fayette. Maybe you know him as 'Bony.'"
+
+"The half-wit? Pshaw, Miss. Don't look that frightened. He's all safe,
+never fear. Nothing hurts him. The Lord looks after him. I'm afraid this
+rope won't hold, it's so old. Wait, I'll go, too. Never mind the
+children, they'll have to take care of themselves."
+
+All the while she was talking the kindly woman had been rolling the
+line, retying it where their haste broke its worn strands, and following
+Amy up over the slope. Now she paused for one second to remonstrate:--
+
+"You, Victoria, go back! There's William Gladstone trying to creep after
+us. Beatrice, Belinda, go home. You mustn't follow mother every time she
+turns her back! Go home, I tell you. Go--right--straight--back--home.
+My! but this _is_ steep!"
+
+A shriek, shrill and piercing as only infant lungs could utter, made
+even Amy stop, eager though she was to reach the well where poor "Bony"
+might already have breathed his last. The one backward glance she cast
+showed the numerous children of the house of Jones toiling industriously
+skyward, in their mother's footsteps. Victoria, who was "eight and
+should have known better," had left William Gladstone to take care of
+himself, with the result that, being less than two years old and rather
+unsteady on his legs, he had toddled up to the biggest stone in the
+path, tried to step over it, lost his balance, and fallen. The hill was
+so steep that once the fat little fellow began to roll downwards he
+could not stop, and the terrified outcry first showed the mother his
+danger.
+
+"He'll bump his head against a rock and--"
+
+Mrs. Jones did not finish her sentence, but faced about and ran
+frantically down the slope, catching up her baby and smothering it with
+kisses, although she had assured the little fellow, at least a dozen
+times that day, that "he was the very plague of her life." She had
+dropped the rope, and Amy caught it, then turned and ran as fast upward
+as her neighbor was going in the other direction. Behind Amy still
+followed Victoria, Beatrice, and Belinda.
+
+"You should go back. Your little brother's hurt," shouted she.
+
+"Yes'm. He is often," coolly replied Victoria, who could have the minor
+excitement of examining the baby's bruises any day, but who did not
+intend to lose the greater one of "a man down the well" for any
+commonplace home matter.
+
+Just before she came to the crest of the knoll Amy hesitated, and stood
+still. It seemed to her she could not go on and face the possible, even
+probable, tragedy at the top, and into the midst of her awestruck
+waiting there was hurled this startling question:--
+
+"Say, miss, where do you s'pose you'll have the funeral? May I come?"
+
+"Ugh! Oh, you horrid little thing!"
+
+Victoria appeared so amazed at the effect of her inquiry that she stared
+back into Amy's face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
+
+"Wh-h--why!"
+
+"I shouldn't have said that. But you go right straight back home. Your
+mother wants you. I don't. Oh, dear! How could you say it?"
+
+"Why, 'cause I like to go to funerals. I go to every one Ma does. She's
+got a real nice 'funeral dress,' an' so have I."
+
+Amy fled. She had never seen anything like little Victoria, and she was
+so indignant that she almost forgot her dread of what might lie before
+her. She reached the group about the well, who were now utterly silent,
+and seemed to be watching with more astonishment than terror something
+happening within it.
+
+Amy, also, stretched her neck to see, though she shut her eyes, and
+this naturally prevented; nor did she open them till she felt Cleena
+clutch the skirt of her frock and heard her exclaim:--
+
+"Faith, but he's the biggest monkey out o' the Zoo! Arrah musha! I'll
+teach him scaring folks out o' their wits, an' wastin' good bedclothes
+on such havers! Huh!"
+
+For this was the marvel that now presented. Poor, silly Fayette, looking
+more foolish and grotesque than ever, climbing upwards into the
+daylight, blinking and sputtering, his back against the stones of one
+side the shaft, his feet against the other, his hands clutching,
+pulling; both feet and hands almost prehensile, like the creature's to
+which Cleena had likened him, yet safe, unbruised, and only mud-splashed
+and laughing.
+
+With a final, agile movement he reached the top, threw his arms about
+the beam, and leaped to the ground beside them. Then he laughed again,
+hilariously, uproariously, and not for long.
+
+In Cleena Keegan's indignant soul a plan had been rapidly forming.
+
+"So you'd be givin' us all the terrors, would ye, avick? Sure, a taste
+o' the same medicine's good for the doctor as his patient. I'll just
+give ye a try of it, an' see what ye say. Hmm, them sheets might ha'
+lasted for years, so they might; an' them blankets, my heart!"
+
+Before anybody, least of all the astonished "Bony," could comprehend
+what she would be about, Cleena had tripped and thrown the lad to the
+ground. She was more powerful than even his boasted muscle, and he quite
+unprepared for what she meant to do. The life-line made from her
+cherished bedclothing was twisted about his wet shoulders like a flash.
+Yet there seemed nothing violent nor vindictive as she rolled him over
+and over, wisely winding and binding first his hands and feet. After
+that the punishment she administered was but a question of endurance on
+her part, and the length of the line.
+
+"There, you blatherskite! What's your guardian angel thinkin' of ye the
+now, you poor, ignorant, heathen gossoon? Well for ye that old Cleena
+has met up with ye to beat some bits o' sense into your idle pate.
+Tight, is it? Well, not so tight as the bands o' me heart when I looked
+to see ye brought up to me dead. 'Twon't hurt. Lie there an' rest."
+
+Cleena finished her harangue and her task together. After that she stood
+up straight and strong, and regarded the teamster with a questioning
+eye.
+
+"Is it true, what he says, that he's nor kith nor kin, hereabouts?"
+
+"I guess it's true," answered John, laughing at the ludicrous appearance
+of Fayette upon the ground. "He was born in the poorhouse, an' I've
+heard his mother died. His father had before then, I know. I used--"
+
+Cleena was in no mood for long stories, and she foresaw that one was
+imminent. She interrupted without ceremony--
+
+"So, if I take him in hand to train him a bit, what for no? There'll be
+no one botherin' an' interferin', is it?"
+
+"I guess there won't anybody worry about 'Bony.' He's right handy around
+the mill, an' he does odd jobs for a many people; but if you want him, I
+'low you can have him 'for a song.'"
+
+"I'll have no song singin', not I, nor from him. But if I don't make a
+smart, decent lad where there lies a fool, my name isn't Cleena Keegan,
+the day. Now what's about the well?"
+
+"That's what I want to know, Cleena," cried Amy. "How did he, could he,
+fall into it and climb out of it alive?"
+
+"Easier than you think, miss. He slid down the rope as far as it went, I
+suppose, then caught his feet in the stones of the sides, then his
+hands, and went down just as he came up. He didn't go into the water in
+the bottom, of course; but he's proved that the well is safe enough, and
+to-morrow morning he ought to be made to go down, properly fixed, with a
+rope around his waist and the tackle for bailing it out. It'll be a job,
+then, even after to-day's beginning. But I'll tell the boss about it,
+and I don't doubt he'll send the other man that helps 'Bony' in the mill
+village, and get things right this time. What say, boy? Think you'll
+take matters a little soberer to-morrow, if I come back to help?"
+
+Fayette lay with closed eyes and made no answer, but Cleena spoke for
+him, and as one in authority:--
+
+"Faith an' he will. An' I'm thankin' ye, sir, for all ye've done the
+day. Sure, by this hour to-morrow, we should begin to see daylight
+'twixt the dirt."
+
+"I 'low you will. You're a master scrubber, and no mistake. Well,
+good-by. Anything I can do for you village way?"
+
+"I'm beholden to you, sir, an' so are my folks, but there's not. I'm for
+sending the childer down on their donkeys to see how fares the mistress
+an' master; an' they'll fetch back what's lackin' o' food an' so on,
+when they come. It's hungerin' sore will the sweet lady be for a sight
+of her own."
+
+"Oh, Cleena, is that so? May we go? But--that will leave you quite
+alone," said Amy.
+
+Hallam smiled. "She'll not be so very much alone, after all, dear," and
+he nodded significantly toward the still apparently sleeping Fayette.
+
+Then they went away to saddle the burros, and after having received a
+mysterious message which they were to deliver to Adam Burn, to the
+effect that "he'll know what to send o' them things in his box."
+
+"And it's as clear as the sunshine just what you are asking, dear old
+Goodsoul. That Friend Adam shall give us your dollars out of his box.
+You transparent old pretender! Well, never mind, Scrubbub. Some day our
+ships will come home, and then--you shall live in lavender," said Amy,
+hugging the faithful woman, and smiling, though tears of gratitude were
+in her dark eyes.
+
+Which eyes, happening to look downward, saw Fayette's own half open, and
+watching this little affectionate by-play with deep interest. No sooner,
+however, did he perceive that Amy had discovered this fact than his lids
+went down with a snap.
+
+"Ah, ha, Fayette! I saw you. I'm sorry for you, but just you tell
+Goodsoul, here, that you'll remember not to shame your 'guardian angel'
+any more, and she'll let you up. I know her. Her heart's made of honey
+and sugar, and everything soft and sticky. I believe she's caught you in
+it, now, bad as you are, and if she has, you'll never get quite clear of
+her love and too demonstrative kindness."
+
+Then she cried to Hallam, who was limping toward the tethered burros:
+"Now for a race. These dear little beasties would trot a good pace if
+they realized they were on the road to mother and father and Friend Adam
+Burn's big oat-bin!"
+
+As they passed through the gateless entrance to "Bareacre," Hallam
+turned, and with something of Amy's cheerfulness waved his hand to
+Cleena.
+
+"We'll be back before dark, Goodsoul. Don't keep that lad tied any
+longer. Don't."
+
+"Arrah musha! Can't I do what I will with me own? There's somewhat to
+pass 'twixt him an' me afore he gets free o' them bonds."
+
+Evidently, there was; nor was she sorry to see all go and leave her
+alone with Fayette. Of what occurred during their brief absence at the
+Clove, nobody ever heard; but when the brother and sister rode up the
+slope, just as the evening fell, Fayette appeared to meet them and take
+their burros for them. His manner was subdued and gentle, and on his
+homely face was a look of exceeding peace.
+
+Amy nudged Hallam mischievously. "Another lull before another storm,
+isn't it?"
+
+Hallam regarded the half-wit critically. "No. But I think he's 'met his
+Waterloo.'"
+
+"Oh, is that what we are to call her in future? She's already as many
+names as a Spanish princess." Then she lifted her voice to summon
+Cleena.
+
+"Heigho, 'Waterloo'! Father and mother are doing finely, and send love,
+and dear old Adam sent something much more substantial, but not what you
+asked for. Just plain beefsteak and potatoes, and a jolly chicken pie
+that's in a basket on Hallam's crutch. Those crutches are the handiest
+things!"
+
+"Faith, so they be. An' there's a fire out of some wood the cottage
+woman sent, an' the steak'll broil while the taties roast, like the
+whisk of a squirrel in the tree."
+
+So "Waterloo" became another of good Cleena's "love names." For it's
+ever the tone and not the words that makes a sweet sound in one's ears,
+and the woman's heart thrilled, and her weary shoulders lifted because
+of the love which sang through Amy's innocent jest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HOME-MAKING.
+
+
+For one whole week the artist and his wife remained at the Clove. During
+that time "Spite House" had undergone the most thorough cleaning and
+overhauling of its existence. The walls had been scraped of the ancient
+and discolored whitewash that covered them, and a fresh coat of
+sweet-smelling lime applied.
+
+"It's like a new-mown field, I think," said Amy, on the day that this
+whitewashing had taken place, to Fayette who was artisan in
+chief--always under Cleena's orders.
+
+"An' I must be the daisy that grows in it," he returned, catching a
+glimpse of his lime-splashed face in the tiny pocket mirror he always
+carried.
+
+"A whole bunch of daisies, indeed. But isn't it jolly? I never did so
+much hard work in my life; my hands are all blistered and sore, my feet
+ache--whew! And I never, never was so happy."
+
+Fayette paused midway to the shed, which he had repaired with bits of
+boards, begged or offered in various sources. The whitewash brush over
+his shoulder dripped a milky fluid upon his bared head, and
+occasionally a drop trickled as far as the corner of his capacious
+mouth.
+
+But he minded nothing so trivial as this, and he stared at Amy in the
+same wonderment with which he had regarded her from the beginning of
+their acquaintance. She also paused and returned his gaze with an amused
+scrutiny.
+
+"Fayette, that stare of yours is getting chronic. I wish you'd give it
+up. Everything I do or say seems to astonish you. What's the matter with
+me? Am I not like other girls? You must know many down at the mill."
+
+"No, you ain't."
+
+"How different? I'd really like to know."
+
+"Ain't seen you cry once,--or not more 'n once," he corrected
+truthfully. "An' you left all them things up there, an' the trees, an'
+the posies, an' everything like that way."
+
+For one moment Amy's breast heaved and her voice choked. Then she jerked
+her head in a fashion she had when she wished to throw aside unpleasant
+things and replied:--
+
+"What would be the use of crying? If it would bring them all back, I'd
+cry a bath-tub full. But it won't. Thinking about it only makes it
+worse. _It had to be_, and in some ways I'm thankful it did. It was all
+unreal and dreamlike up there. I knew nothing about the sorrows and
+hardships in the real world. But how I am talking! I wonder, do you
+understand at all what I have said?"
+
+"I couldn't help cryin' when the bluebird's nest fell an' smashed all
+the eggs," remarked Fayette, whimpering at the recollection. His words
+were "like a bit of blue sky, showing through a cloud," as the girl
+often expressed it, when the untaught lad revealed something of his
+intense love of nature, so strongly in contrast to his otherwise limited
+intelligence.
+
+"Well, we must forget what's past and go to work. I'll tether the burros
+out of the roadside while you clean up their shed; and when they come
+back to find it all sweet and white, like Pepita herself, they'll be as
+pleased as Punch. Wonder we never thought of having the old stable at
+Fairacres whitewashed."
+
+"Didn't have me, then," answered the lad.
+
+"Fayette, you're as vain as a peacock. You always say 'ME' as if it were
+spelled with the biggest kind of capital letters."
+
+"Do I? Hmm," responded Fayette, with a vacant smile.
+
+Then Amy went into the house where Hallam and Cleena were arguing about
+what rooms should be arranged for the personal use of master and
+mistress, because Hallam thought his father's likes and habits should
+take precedence of all others.
+
+During this time of separation from him, the son had grown to think of
+his parent as a whimsical invalid, only. Oddly enough, with his own
+physical infirmity, he had come to look upon any bodily weakness of
+other lads or men as something almost degrading. He had always felt
+himself disgraced by his own lameness. It was this which had given him
+so bitter and distorted an outlook upon life, and involuntarily there
+had crept into his love for his father a feeling of contempt as well.
+
+Something of this showed in his talk with his sister, over this
+selection of rooms, and shocked her. Then, with loyal indignation she
+proceeded to enlighten him as to her own view of the subject.
+
+"Now, see here, Hallam Kaye. I don't believe, I can't believe, and I
+never will believe that from being a brilliant scholar and a wonderfully
+talented artist my darling father has suddenly become a--a--the sickly,
+selfish man you seem to imagine."
+
+"Amy! I never said that. I never thought it. I only remember that he has
+always had the best of everything, and I supposed he always should."
+
+The tears of excited protest rushed into her eyes, but she dashed them
+away. "Queer, I never cry, hardly ever, unless I'm mad. I am mad at you,
+Hal Kaye, right straight clear through. You wait and see how father is,
+after this trouble. All his life he has been petted by mother, who
+adores him; and that not too agreeable cousin Archibald said the truth
+about his having had so easy a path all his life. I tell you it isn't
+for his children to sit here in judgment upon him, nor criticise
+anything he does; but one thing I believe, he's had a good hard waking
+up. He hasn't realized the truth. How should he? Mother has always
+smiled and smiled and seen to everything. He was a genius. He was never
+to be disturbed. He never has been. Not till now. Now he has been
+tumbled off his cushions whack! and presently he'll get up--all right."
+
+"Whe-e-ew! You don't mince matters in speaking of your relatives, do
+you, sweet sister?"
+
+"Not a bit. Just you wait. All the histories we've ever read, all the
+tales we've ever heard, of gentlemen and gentlewomen, 'aristocrats,' who
+have had to suffer anything dreadful, show that they have borne the
+troubles as no meaner person could. The good there is in being of
+'family,' it seems to me, is the self-respect that holds us upright, no
+matter what blows are dealt."
+
+Again Hallam blew a long note. But he looked at his excited little
+sister with a new admiration.
+
+"Upon my word, Amy, my dear, you are positively eloquent. Who knows but
+you may one day take to the 'stump,' become a public orator, and
+lecture, to fill the coffers of that 'family' of which you are so
+proud."
+
+"No, thank you. I don't need to go abroad to lecture. I find enough
+subjects right in my own household. Between you and 'Bony' and Miss
+Scrubbub my life's a burden to me. Now hear me, both of you; for in the
+language of 'Bonaparty Gineral Lafayette,' 'there ain't none o' ye got
+no sense 'cept me,' and 'me' says: Fix up the north chamber for a
+studio. Put all father's things in there. Fix the middle room, which
+faces east and the sunrise, for a bedroom; and this warm southwestern
+one for a private sitting room, for mother darling, where she can
+retreat to think upon her husband's greatness and her children's folly;
+and where the sweet blessed thing will never be alone one single minute,
+unless every other member of the family is sound asleep. So that's for
+the 'retreating' of Friend Salome Kaye. Oh, that she were here this
+minute! that I could hug the heart right out of her! Fly around, Amy,
+'an' set the house to one side,' _a la_ Friend Adam's old housekeeper."
+
+It was wonderful what four pairs of arms could accomplish when love
+actuated them. "Spite House" had seemed hopelessly bare and dirty when
+the little household first entered it, but it was far from that by the
+end of a week's stay. Bare and bleak and unadorned it was still, and the
+surroundings seemed to forbid that it would ever be any better. But
+there was not an inch of its surface, outside or in, that had not been
+cleaned and polished, by scrubbing or whitewash brush. Even the
+moss-grown roof had been swept by Fayette, standing barefooted and
+unsupported on the sloping shingles, while he vigorously attacked them.
+To Hallam this seemed a desecration. The moss had been the one redeeming
+feature of the roof's ugliness.
+
+"Saints save us! If we leave go that muck up yon, it'll be like me
+dressin' for mass an' no rackin' down me hair, so it would. No, Master
+Hal, if riches we can't have, cleanness we can. An' that's aye more
+pleasin' to God."
+
+The plain, strong furniture which had been in the house had been placed
+to best advantage; and in the parents' rooms above, as well as the one
+family living room below, were gathered all that had been brought from
+dear Fairacres.
+
+A load of wood and another of coal, which Cleena supposed had been sent
+by Friend Adam and paid for with her money, gave a comfortable look to
+the woodshed, and in the storeroom was a bag of flour, a side of bacon,
+a fair supply of vegetables, and a barrel of apples. These the village
+grocer's lad had brought in his delivery wagon, and it was useless to
+ask him by whose order. Since they were needed, however, it was well to
+take them in and to consider them as belonging with the wood and coal.
+
+Finally, the Saturday afternoon arrived on which Hallam and Amy were to
+go to the Clove, to pass First Day with Adam Burn and their parents,
+returning before nightfall with the latter, to begin their reunited
+family life.
+
+Dressed in their freshest clothes, upon Balaam and Pepita, groomed by
+the willing hands of Fayette, they journeyed gayly down the slope over
+the familiar road, eager for their visit and the warm welcome awaiting
+them.
+
+"Do you know, Amy, it's queer that we've never been about alone much,
+even on these country roads, till now? Losing our home seems to have
+broken down ever so many restrictions."
+
+"Well, don't you like it? Doesn't it make you feel freer and healthier?"
+
+"Maybe. I'm not enthusiastic over our poverty. I'd be glad enough to go
+back to Fairacres."
+
+"So would I, if we could live there honestly. I wouldn't go, not for one
+day, if I could help it, to live in debt as we did."
+
+"Aren't we living in debt just the same now, and much more
+uncomfortably?"
+
+"I suppose so; though it's different. This time it isn't going to last,
+and we haven't shut our eyes to it."
+
+"Why isn't it going to last? How can we stop it? I see nothing ahead
+except starvation."
+
+"Hallam Kaye, the very first thing you ought to learn is to be cheerful.
+You don't want to be a dead weight on anybody, do you? Well, you will be
+if you can't look ahead at all to anything bright. You and I are going
+to work and mend the family fortunes. Then we're going back to Fairacres
+and do all the good we can with the money we've earned."
+
+"If I were sound--"
+
+"And sensible, you'd race me again to the gate of the Clove."
+
+Burnside-in-the-Clove was a bonny place. The "burn," from which the farm
+took its name almost as much as from the family which had dwelt there
+for generations, ran through the velvet lawn and was spanned by a rustic
+bridge where the well kept driveway curved toward the roomy house.
+
+"Oh! it's so lovely here. The many, many windows, each more cheery and
+inviting than its neighbor; the old-fashioned door, opened almost all
+the time; the hammocks, the benches, the flowers, the cool, sweet
+dairy--this is a _home_. I guess I'll make ours here instead of at
+Fairacres, after all," laughed Amy, as they paced sedately over the
+gravel, the better to enjoy the scene, and now that they had arrived, in
+no such haste for the meeting with their people.
+
+"I like to go slowly now, don't you, Hal? Because that makes the
+pleasure 'long-drawn out' and all the sweeter. In a minute mother's face
+will be in the doorway, with father looking over her shoulder. Friend
+Adam, blessed man, will hobble after, if he is not too lame; and then we
+shall jump off and the 'man' will take the burros, and we will go in and
+hug everybody all round, and eat the biggest kind of a supper--living on
+dry bread and milk two meals a day can give an appetite! And then one of
+dear old Adam's 'Spirit' talks; and bed and sleep, and breakfast and
+meeting, and--"
+
+"'Spite House'!"
+
+"No, Hallam, truly not. Our mother couldn't live in such a place.
+To-morrow a new life will begin on the barren knoll. 'Charity House' she
+will have it, and wherever our mother goes, softness and kindness and
+loveliness are sure to follow."
+
+"Yes, that is so," answered the cripple, thoughtfully. "Well, hear me,
+Amy. I guess I have been about as much of a wet blanket as I could be,
+but I'm going to try my very hardest to make things easy for father and
+mother. Just now, as we rode down the valley into all this peace and
+quiet, I seemed to see myself exactly as I am. Heigho! but look how
+green the grass is still, late in the year as it is, and how beautiful
+the vines on the stone walls. The maples are like a golden glory. My
+father must have been wonderfully soothed by so much loveliness about
+him, though he's going to feel it all the--"
+
+"Take care, Sir Optimist, that is to be. You're taking the wrong turn,
+comrade. Come away from the down to 'has been,' and climb to 'will be,'
+short metre."
+
+It was all as they said. The mother's gentle face in the doorway,
+looking rested and less faded for the week passed in the society of a
+simple, noble man; the father's gay and debonair, as Amy remembered
+it--how long ago, was it? And last of all Friend Adam, in gray attire,
+his broadbrim crowning his snowy hair, his expression one of childlike
+happiness and freedom from care.
+
+He welcomed them both with all heartiness, but Amy was dearest. She had
+always been, perhaps because she bore the name of his long dead wife,
+and had always seemed to stand as a child to his childless life.
+
+So after the fine supper was over, while before a blazing fire in
+another room Mr. and Mrs. Kaye discussed with Hallam all the events of
+the past week, Amy and the old man who had lived for more than eighty
+years a blameless, helpful life sat by a window in another place and
+looked out into the moonlight saying little, but enjoying all.
+
+"Dear father Adam, shall I tell thee"--for with him she always drifted
+into the sweet speech which was hers by birthright and his for all his
+life--"shall I tell thee how it seems to me, as if thee had learned
+every single lesson life and God has had to teach. Thee has had poverty
+and sorrow, and endured the wrong that others have done thee. Thee has
+seen thy kindred go away and leave thee alone. It is just like a good
+soldier who has been in a thick fight and a sailor who has swam in deep
+waters, but has come out safe on the other side. Thee is so calm and
+happy, like Mrs. Jones's little Belinda, who sits in the sun and sings
+and croons to herself, with never a plaything or anything good about her
+except her own serene happiness. Isn't it?"
+
+"Maybe, child. It may be. It should be, certainly. There should be no
+care in either extreme of life. _Both ends are so close to the Father's
+house._
+
+"Thee is right though, about the middle of life, little Amy. It is a
+time of struggle and rebuff."
+
+"But to-night it seems as if it could never have been so with thee. Tell
+me, father Adam, how thee has kept thyself so simple and good."
+
+"Nay, little one, not that. Simple, indeed, but not good. There is none
+good but One. Yet there are certain things that help. I'll tell thee
+what has helped me most, that is, in my daily life in the world, from
+which we can never escape while the heart beats."
+
+The dear old man rose, limped toward an ancient secretary, and took from
+it a small book. Just an ordinary account book, ruled for the keeping of
+small affairs, but arranged with every page inscribed by the trembling
+fingers of this all-thoughtful friend.
+
+"I have been thinking what a muddle it would be to thee, Amy, and I
+fixed this for thee. On one side is the debt and the other side the
+credit. Thee will have to keep the reckonings for thy family, I foresee;
+for thee is practical. Look. Is the light sufficient?"
+
+Amy held the little volume so that the rays of the harvest moon fell
+clearly over them, and the old, quaint script was as legible as
+copperplate. She questioned, and he explained just how the book should
+be kept, and she found his "system" exceeding plain and direct, as was
+everything about him. But there were two legends inscribed upon the
+covers which had little in common with the figuring to be done between
+them,--or so Amy thought; and when she asked him what they meant, he
+quietly explained:--
+
+"They have been my rules of life, Amy, and I think it would be well for
+thee if thee also adopted them. They are short and easy to remember, but
+they cover all. 'Simplicity, Sincerity, Sympathy,' on the front page;
+and on the last, when the first rule seems sometimes to fail and the
+heart needs cheer, there is this other: 'Love is all powerful.'"
+
+"Thank thee, dear Adam, so much. Not only for the book and the help it
+will be, but for the 'Rules' and--for thyself. I will make them mine,
+and thee shall tell me if I am succeeding. Now, I know thee is sitting
+up beyond thy time. I'll help thee to the living room and then to thy
+own."
+
+Nor was Amy ever to forget that peaceful hour with this ripe old
+Christian; and she never again sat in the rays of the harvest moon
+without recalling the lessons she learned that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE YOUNG OLD MAN AND THE OLD YOUNG GIRL.
+
+
+It seemed to Amy that she had never remembered so lovely a First Day as
+that one at Burnside Farm. Things happened just as she had foretold.
+Mrs. Kaye and Adam went to meeting in the little phaeton into which it
+was so easy for him to climb, and Hallam and she rode beside it; for
+"Old Shingleside," as the meeting-house was called, was at some distance
+from the Clove. It crowned a wooded hill-top, and behind it lay the
+peaceful burying-ground, with its rows of modest tombstones and wider
+rows of grass-covered, unmarked mounds.
+
+The windows of the meeting-house were all open, and the mild air came in
+and warmed them; for as yet the plain box stoves held no blazing logs
+within, and the rows of old-time foot-stoves reposed securely upon their
+tops. Later, when the weather turned, these little wood-rimmed,
+perforated tin boxes would be filled with coals from the fire and placed
+beneath the feet of the elderly folk who came to worship.
+
+The girl looked into her mother's face and found it beaming with the
+still delight of one whose heart was deeply moved. She had always been
+a member of this simple congregation, but of late years Salome Kaye had
+been obliged to forego the pleasure of gathering with it. The distance
+from Fairacres was too great for her to walk, and it was long since the
+horses and carriages that had once filled Fairacres stables had
+disappeared.
+
+Hallam, also, from his place on the men's side, saw the joy in the face
+he loved, and thought:--
+
+"I wish mother would consent to ride one of the burros to meeting, then
+she could come as often as she wished. But she doesn't think it
+decorous. Well, I'm glad she's having the comfort to-day; but what is
+Friend Adam saying? It sounds like a farewell."
+
+He shot a startled glance across to Amy, among the women, and she
+responded. Then both regarded Adam anxiously. He stood in the speaker's
+place, where he was always found in meeting time. His body swayed gently
+back and forth, though his hands rested upon his cane as if he needed
+its support. His voice fell into the rhythmic measure to which they were
+accustomed whenever he became the mouthpiece of the Spirit, but his
+words were as of one who departs for a distant country and wishes many
+things to be remembered.
+
+His message was brief, yet delivered with all the fire and eloquence of
+youth; but when he had finished and cast his eyes about him, something
+like a sob burst from his withered lips:--
+
+"It's so queer. He looks so happy and yet so sad. Well, he's giving the
+hand of greeting to his neighbor, and so meeting's over."
+
+There was no trace of sadness now. In the friendly hand-shaking that
+became general was, as Amy had seen, the signal for the closing of the
+meeting, whereupon old neighbors and friends fell promptly to giving and
+receiving news of mutual welfare or trouble, as the case might be; and
+after a while there was a driving away of vehicles, the nods and signals
+of gray bonnets and broad brims, until the while party from the Clove
+were the very last left lingering on the grass before the steps.
+
+"Well, it's been a good day, Salome. And now the Word comes: 'For here
+we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.'"
+
+The old man's eyes fixed themselves earnestly upon the weather-beaten
+structure; then with a bright smile he turned away and climbed into the
+phaeton which Amy had brought.
+
+Old Fanny mare trotted homeward at an almost giddy pace, and the burros
+did their utmost to keep up with her, though their chronic laziness
+overcame them at times, and they fell behind. After which Hallam and Amy
+would prod their indolent beasts till they had "made a spurt and caught
+up."
+
+"No use, children," laughed Adam Burn. "Fanny is a well-trained
+'Quaker.' She knows meeting days as well as I do, and she never fails
+to go there as slowly as she returns swiftly. She thinks, if horses
+think, and I think they think--doesn't thee think so, Amy? She thinks
+she has done her duty, and her conscience is as clear as her stomach is
+empty. On meeting days she has always an extra feed. That's why she
+spins along like this."
+
+He was very jolly, and as full of fun as Amy herself. They found Mr.
+Kaye pacing the driveway, waiting for them, and as eager for his dinner
+as Fanny for hers.
+
+They were soon gathered about the table, and again old Adam's jest was
+the readiest, his cheerfulness the most contagious, and his suggestions
+the most practical.
+
+"I advise thee, Cuthbert, to have a lot of good soil drawn up and spread
+over the top of Bareacre knoll. Thee can have the use of the team here
+till--for some time. There is plenty of muck in the hollow, and I'd be
+glad to have it cleared out. Then thee must sow grass, or grain and
+grass mixed, and Salome can have as many roots and cuttings of the green
+things here as she wishes. Get them all in this autumn. By another
+spring they will begin to grow, and a little greenery will transform the
+place."
+
+Mrs. Kaye thanked him, but Amy looked up from her dish of rice pudding
+and smiled.
+
+"Thee isn't helping us to keep the rule of 'don't run in debt' that thee
+told me was so good."
+
+"Cuthbert and I will settle that. Eat thy pudding, child." But he shook
+his head at her so merrily she did not mind the rebuff.
+
+After dinner came the big carryall, with its back part loaded so that
+the springs touched, and with the "man" upon the front seat, ready to
+drive the Kayes to their new home.
+
+"Why, Adam, dear old friend, this is too much; it really is. I cannot
+let thee do it," protested Mrs. Kaye, astonished at the sight. For there
+were vegetables of every sort that grew at Burnside, with hams and
+bacon, some very lively chickens, and baskets heaped with the grapes and
+pears for which the Clove was famous.
+
+"Too much, Salome? I think not. Not judging by the samples of appetites
+I've seen this noon. Say nothing. Thee knows how gladly I give it, and
+would give much more. Here, Amy, is a little letter for thee. I wish
+thee to keep it without reading until--" he hesitated, looked at her
+gravely, and finished his sentence--"until thy own heart tells thee that
+the right time is come. For Hallam, too, there is a bit of writing, and
+that he may read at any time he chooses."
+
+"That's right now, then," laughed the lad, and eagerly tore the sealed
+envelope.
+
+Adam Burn winced a little at the ragged edge this made on the paper, for
+he was a careful person and hated slovenliness. But he could not refrain
+a smile as he saw the expression of disappointment growing upon
+Hallam's face, where he sat upon black Balaam, his crutches crossed
+before him, looking down at the open sheet he had found. The envelope
+dropped to the ground, and Amy picked it up; but her brother did not
+show her the message he had received, and she was puzzled to hear their
+old friend say:--
+
+"The truth which I have written there is better for thee than a fortune,
+Hallam."
+
+"It may be, but, under the circumstances, I'd rather have the fortune."
+
+"Thee'll find it, lad, never fear. Thee'll find it."
+
+Amy thrust the envelope into her pocket, along with the letter Adam had
+given her, and a moment later they all passed out of the yard, and
+turned toward the knoll of Bareacre. The last glimpse they had of their
+friend showed him standing in the sunshine, leaning upon his cane, and
+gazing after them as they vanished from his sight.
+
+"There is something different about that blessed old man to-day," said
+Amy to Hallam, riding with him beside the carryall.
+
+"Well, I suppose it makes him feel badly to know we are not going back
+to Fairacres. He always does feel other people's troubles more than his
+own."
+
+"What was in your letter, Hal?"
+
+"Humph! It couldn't be called a letter. From anybody else I would have
+thought it insulting."
+
+"Not from him, dear. He couldn't insult anybody. He'd not have the
+heart to do it. Do you mind telling?"
+
+"Not a bit. I dare say you could take example by it too. For it was a
+sort of sermon in few words,--'The perfection of a man is the stature of
+his soul.' That's all."
+
+"I don't see yet just what it means, but I think it is that you
+shouldn't mind being lame. That you should let your soul grow so big you
+would forget your poor legs, and other folks would forget them too."
+
+Nothing more was said, and even Amy felt that they had had enough of
+"sermons" for one day, and it was a relief to the thoughtfulness upon
+them all to reach Bareacre, and to see Cleena, with Fayette beside her,
+waiting to welcome them.
+
+"Hal, isn't it odd? The poorer we are the more folks we have. Fayette
+means to live there with us, and so, it seems, do all the little
+Joneses. My! Who is that?"
+
+"A scarecrow, I should think. Nobody I ever saw before."
+
+Seated upon a rocking-chair which she had herself brought out from the
+house was a young girl of about Amy's age, though from her dress and
+manner she might have been at least several years older. Amy caught a
+vision of something very gay and brilliant, rivalling the forests upon
+the hillsides in variety of tint, but never in their harmony.
+
+"Whew! Whoever she is she makes my eyes ache; and what a picture for
+father to see, the first at his new threshold!"
+
+Yet apparently without noticing anything unpleasing, Mr. Kaye assisted
+his wife from the carryall and walked with her to where the stranger
+still sat and rocked. She did not rise at their approach, and returned
+the courteous greeting of the master and mistress of the house with the
+barest of nods.
+
+"How do? I come to pay a call."
+
+But not upon them. For the first time in their lives the artist and his
+lovely wife were relegated by this self-possessed young person to the
+land of "old folks," in whom she felt no interest.
+
+With a twinkle in his eye that met an answering one in hers, the
+gentleman handed Mrs. Kaye on toward the eager Cleena, and turned to his
+children:--
+
+"My dears, a visitor for you, I think."
+
+So Amy and Hallam rode up and dismounted, while the former went forward
+slowly, smiling a welcome, yet feeling oddly disconcerted before this
+unknown girl.
+
+"I'm Gwendolyn Jones. Ma said it wasn't no more 'n friendly to come an'
+call. I don't have no time 'cept Sunday an' Saturday-half. Then I
+generally go to Wallburg to do my shopping. It's such a trouble,
+shopping is, ain't it?"
+
+"I don't know. I never did any," answered Amy, simply. She was amused
+by Gwendolyn, but regretful that the visit had been timed just then. She
+had counted upon showing the interior of the new home to her parents,
+with all the best features accented, and now she must leave them to see
+things for themselves. Besides, she was conscious that she had herself
+been noticed only in the slightest degree by this maiden whose big brown
+eyes were fixed upon Hallam with a steady gaze that annoyed him
+exceedingly. He was always more conscious of his lameness in the
+presence of a stranger, and the people he had met, heretofore, had been
+so well bred that beyond the first involuntary surprise at his condition
+they had ignored it entirely.
+
+To his amazement Gwendolyn exclaimed:--
+
+"So you're the lame fellow, are you? Well now, you don't look it, not
+above your waist. You look real likely in your face, and your shoulders
+is broader than Lionel Percival's. He's considered well growed, too."
+
+"Is he?" asked poor Hallam, understanding that some sort of reply was
+expected.
+
+"Yes; 'Bony' feels real sot up, don't he, taking care of them donkeys?
+Oh, I tell you, 'Bony' is a case."
+
+"Is he?" again feebly ejaculated Hallam. He looked helplessly toward
+Amy, but she was disappearing indoors, too eager to be with her parents
+to loiter with this unprepossessing guest.
+
+"Yes, he's telling all over the mill, and village too, how that he
+belongs to your folks now. He's going to live here, ain't he?"
+
+"He may be. It will be just as Cleena wishes, I fancy. She is the one
+who has taken him in charge."
+
+"That's the work girl, ain't it?"
+
+To the young Kayes and their parents their faithful servant had never
+been anything save just "Cleena." Her position in their family was as
+assured as their own, and that she might be thought a "work girl" by
+others, was a novel idea to the lad. It gave him something natural to
+think about; and he stood leaning on his crutches, with a smile upon his
+face, looking down upon the girl in the rocking-chair, chewing gum and
+swaying so composedly.
+
+"Why, yes; I suppose she is. She certainly works, and all the time. But
+I should hardly call her a 'girl.'"
+
+"Say, you must be tired, standing so long. Take this chair. I'll step in
+and get another."
+
+Again Hallam smiled. The girl, in her ignorant kindness of heart, had
+broken a minor law of that courtesy in which he had been educated. She
+had offered him the chair in which she had herself been sitting, instead
+of the fresh one she meant to get. But he declined both, saying:--
+
+"Please don't trouble. I can easily bring one for myself."
+
+Because she was curious to see how he would do this, she watched him and
+sat still. Now he was quite able to wait upon himself in most ways, and
+handled his crutches so deftly that they often seemed to Amy, as to him,
+"but an extra pair" of feet or hands, as the case might be.
+
+So he swung himself into the house and out again, once more looking for
+his sister, and hearing her voice above stairs explaining, exhibiting,
+and regretting:--
+
+"Isn't it too bad, mother, that this young lady should have come just
+now? Hal has worked so hard and done so much. Anyway, father, you must
+not, indeed you must not, go into your studio till he can take you
+there. It would be such a disappointment, for he's arranged and
+rearranged till I'm sure even your fine taste will be pleased."
+
+He lingered a moment to catch the answer, and it filled his foreboding
+soul with great content.
+
+"It is all very excellent thus far, dear, and we'll surely leave the
+studio for him to show. I had no idea you could so transform this barn
+of a place. From the outside it was ugliness itself, but you have all
+done wonders. We shall be very happy here."
+
+"Can that really be father speaking? and we feared he would be utterly
+crushed. Amy was right. Blood tells. And there's something better even
+than blood to help him now. That's love. Dear old Adam was right, too:
+so long as we have each other we can be happy."
+
+Then he caught up a light chair under his arm and swung himself back to
+play knight-errant to this unknown damsel.
+
+She found him very agreeable, for he was a gentleman and could not fail
+in courtesy toward any woman, old or young. So agreeable, indeed, that
+she remained rocking, chewing, and talking, till the shadows of the
+autumn evening crept round them, and Cleena, watchful for her "child,"
+and indignant at the intrusion of this stranger, appeared.
+
+"Arrah musha, Master Hallam, will you be sittin' here catchin' your
+death? Come in by, immediate. The supper is on, an' the master waitin'.
+Sure, that's bad luck, for the first meal we're all together in the new
+home. Come by."
+
+Hallam rose. It was impossible for him to avoid asking Gwendolyn to
+remain, and she, utterly ignoring the sniffs and scowls of Cleena,
+promptly accepted.
+
+Of that meal it is not worth while to write. The girl did have the grace
+to keep reasonably quiet, though occasionally she would feel that this
+silence was not doing herself justice, and would break into the cheerful
+conversation of the others with a boldness and self-assertion that made
+Amy stare.
+
+Finally she departed, and Mr. Kaye sighed his relief.
+
+"Well, Friend Adam is the youngest old person, and Gwendolyn Jones is
+the oldest young person I ever saw," remarked Hallam, as he lighted his
+mother's bedroom candle and bade her good night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BAD NEWS FROM BURNSIDE.
+
+
+"Yes, it is to be 'Charity House' now," said Salome Kaye, with that
+quiet decision of hers which, as Amy described it, "Never makes any
+fuss, and never wobbles."
+
+"That's the best and the worst about mother. She never says 'yes' when
+she means 'no,' and she never says either till it's all settled. I
+remember how, when I was little, I used to ask, 'Is it decided?' and
+when she answered, 'Yes, it's decided,' I gave up teasing. Mountains
+might crush, but never move her."
+
+"So it's 'Charity House' forever and a day. The trouble with you,
+mother, is that all you say--or the little you say--always means
+something. 'Charity House' is, I suppose, just as full of meaning as
+everything else. Isn't it? Let me guess. It's 'Charity' because cousin
+Archibald lets us live here for what he calls a 'starvation rent.'
+That's the meanest kind of 'Charity,' and it's a lie, too."
+
+"Hallam!"
+
+"But, mother, it is. I've heard these people talk, and they all say that
+the old curmudgeon--"
+
+"Hallam, thee is proving that a 'Charity House' is the very sort of
+home thee needed."
+
+"Well, motherkin, it's true. He is curmudgeon-y. He's tried for years to
+get a tenant for this property, and not even the mill folks would touch
+it. He took advantage of us and made us think we were getting a great
+deal for nothing."
+
+"Are we not? Look about thee."
+
+"Of course, it's big enough."
+
+"What a curious place it is," said Amy; "like a box that eggs come in.
+See, this is it," and she rapidly sketched upon a paper the diagram.
+"Two partitions run this way, north and south, and two run at right
+angles. That's three rooms deep on each floor, look at it from any point
+of view. Each room is as like its neighbor as its twin. Hmm, I didn't
+realize it, but there are eighteen rooms if we count the halls and the
+'black hole.'"
+
+"Almost as large as 'Fairacres,' thee sees."
+
+"It's not so bad, if it weren't so fearfully bare," remarked Hallam,
+examining Amy's sketch. "But it's queer."
+
+The entrance hall was the middle front room of the old building. From
+this a flight of stairs ran up and ended in "the middle room" above,
+with a narrow flight behind into the attic. The upper middle room was
+therefore an open space, from the sides of which a narrow gallery had
+been reserved to surround the well-like opening of the stairway. Next
+the stairs the gallery was furnished with a strong plain railing, to
+prevent the accident of falling into the "well," and all the bedrooms
+had doors opening upon it.
+
+This upper space was dark, save when the bedroom doors were open and
+gave it light. So, also, was the room below; and beneath this, still,
+was the "black hole," the extension of a cellar under the kitchen.
+
+Whatever the original purpose of this "hole," which received no light
+nor ventilation except through the kitchen cellar, it was now the terror
+and despair of Cleena's cleanly soul. She had wasted many good candles
+in trying, by their light, to sweeten and make wholesome this damp,
+miserable place. But despite all it remained almost as she found it.
+
+"The pit of original sin," Hallam named it, advising her to give over
+the task of purification. "You've sprinkled pounds of chloride, splashed
+whitewash galore, swept and scrubbed and worn yourself out, and it's
+hopeless. Well, I never heard that any of the Ingrahams died of
+pestilence bred down there, so I fancy it won't hurt us."
+
+"Faith, it shan't that. I'll keep the front cellar door open into it
+incessant, an' I'll--"
+
+"Waste your substance in lime. Don't, Goodsoul. But it's on my mind as
+it is on yours. If I were as strong as I wish, I'd turn rabbit and
+burrow galleries out from the middle vault under the middle rooms each
+side of the house. That would give light and air and keep everything
+dry."
+
+Neither Cleena nor Hallam noticed that Fayette had been a close listener
+to this conversation, nor heard the muttered exclamation:--
+
+"I'll do it! Huckleberries! I'll s'prise 'em!"
+
+This had been some days before Amy drew the diagram of the house, which
+she now tossed into the waste-basket. From that it was rescued by the
+half-wit and treasured carefully; for to the purpose formed in his mind
+it would prove a great help.
+
+"But go on, mother dear. What's the other sort of charity you mean?"
+
+"That by all the advantages which we have had over these new neighbors
+we should be helpful to them. We possess nothing of our own, absolutely,
+not even our better training and--"
+
+"Arrah musha! Sure the pullet was bad enough, but this baby'll be me
+death! An' me steppin' me great foot--There, there, darlin'. Cry no
+more, cry no more!"
+
+The interruption was Cleena, and the cause "Sir" William Gladstone.
+
+"Again, Goodsoul," jeered Amy.
+
+"Again is it? An' me goin' down that hill betimes this mornin' to remind
+me neighbor as how it wasn't necessary to send all the childer up here
+to wonst. Not _all_!"
+
+One of the first things which Cleena had made Fayette do was cut and
+smooth a path from the door of "Charity House" to that of the cottage
+below. She foresaw that there would be frequent errands to and fro, and
+the loose stones, with the tangle of running blackberry vines, were
+dangerous to life and limb. Then, because Hallam's lameness was also in
+her mind, she had persuaded the mill boy to add a row of driven stakes
+with rope strung along their tops.
+
+"But never at all has Master Hal, for whom it was made, gone down or up
+by that same. Me fathers, what's a body to do!"
+
+"We're living in 'Charity,' Goodsoul. And I've observed that, look out
+of window when I will, there's always a yellow headed Jones-let
+ascending to us by the easy road you've fixed. Belinda, the small, is
+apt to lead the way. She likes it up here. She likes it very much."
+
+"Hmm, that's what the mother be's sayin'. But is that any reason at all,
+avick, why they should be let?"
+
+"Mrs. Jones thinks it is. She feels that we are flattered by the
+preference her offspring show for our society; but between ourselves,
+Cleena, I think it's more raisin-bread than affection. You made a dire
+mistake in beginning to feed them."
+
+"An' isn't it I that knows it? Now, this baby--"
+
+"Yes, that baby. What's happened to him? He's spotted white and black,
+like a coach-dog. What's he licking from his fingers?"
+
+"It's spoilin' the bakin' o' bread is he the day. Takin' the coals from
+the bucket, each by each, an' pressin' them deep in that beautiful
+dough. Will I wash his face, eh? Never a wash I wash, but home to his
+mother he goes the same as he is. If the sight does not shame her, I'd
+know."
+
+"I'll take him, Cleena, and I'll bring back the milk for the day."
+
+So with her pail in one hand and the other guiding the still uncertain
+steps of William Gladstone, Amy started.
+
+"It's a pity, Sir William, it really is a pity that you ever learned how
+to climb. You've progressed so alarmingly. First time you tried it you
+could only stumble and fall backward. Now--you hitch along famously.
+Heigho! here's Victoria. All the high personages of Merrie England are
+honoring us 'the day.' Well, Victoria Regina, what's the errand now?"
+
+"Nothing, only thought I'd tell you about that old Quaker man you like."
+
+"Everybody likes. What about him?"
+
+"He's gone away. Ma says he won't never live to come back again."
+
+"Victoria--Jones, what are you saying?"
+
+"That Mr. Quaker Burn, up Clove way, had been took to Ne' York."
+
+"I guess you're mistaken. We would have heard about it if it were so.
+Now, if you please, though, I should like Master Gladstone to be 'took'
+home. If you'll hold his other hand we'll get him there the quicker."
+
+"I guess I'll go up and set a spell; you take him," remarked Victoria,
+and turned to ascend the slope.
+
+Amy sighed: "Something must be done to stop this!" Then she lifted her
+eyes and scanned the white dusty road which circled Bareacre knoll, and
+across which lay the Jones's cottage. A wagon was driving leisurely
+along this highway, and it had a most familiar appearance. A moment's
+watching showed it to belong to the Clove Farm, and it was Adam Burn's
+"hired man" who was driving in it. Her heart sank. What if Victoria had
+spoken the truth?
+
+So she hurried her young charge to his home, and waiting only to have
+her pail filled with the milk, ran back to intercept the approaching
+vehicle.
+
+"Good morning, Israel. How's dear old Adam?"
+
+"Only the Lord knows. Sarah Jane's got him."
+
+"She hasn't! Don't tell me!"
+
+"But she has, though."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"York."
+
+"When?"
+
+"Yesterday."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Same old story. If she hadn't gone to Europe, she'd had him last year.
+I knew how 'twould be when she come home this summer an' begun to send
+him the letters. She's the powerfulest hand to do her duty that ever
+was. Everything else has to give way."
+
+Amy's hand trembled so that her milk began to trickle over the sides of
+her pail.
+
+"That's what it meant, then, that dear, precious old fellow. He knew he
+was going to leave us, that First Day we spent at the farm. That was why
+his words in the meeting-house were so like a farewell. It is too bad!
+It must have broken his heart."
+
+"No, it didn't. He didn't want to go, not a mite; but there wasn't no
+heart-break, _not in sight_. If there was, he kept it hid. But he went
+all round the place, into every shed and building, pointing out things
+that should be done, and being most particular about the flowers and
+garden. He told me to take care of everything just as if he was coming
+back to-morrow. But he'll never. He'll never."
+
+"Israel, you shall not say that! He must come back!"
+
+"Oh, he'll come, of course, one way: that's feet foremost. He's a sight
+feebler 'n he ever let on, an' this riotous livin' at York, what with
+balls and parties and wine suppers, he won't last long. They'll kill him
+out of hand amongst 'em."
+
+"Oh, Israel, the idea of Adam Burn at 'balls and parties and wine
+suppers,' when he's so simple and sweet and abstemious. I don't believe
+he ever tasted wine during all his pure, beautiful life. I'm not
+worrying about that. It's the leaving the things he loved will hurt him
+so. Why couldn't Sarah Jane have left him in peace? O dear! O dear! This
+will be a fresh sorrow for mother."
+
+"So I suppose. For all of us, too. It's going to be lonesome for me, I
+reckon. Though Mis' Boggs won't have so much to do. She wants to give up
+the job, an' go live with our son, Jim. But Sarah Jane told us to stay,
+an' so we'll have to."
+
+"Is this dreadful woman who's spirited Adam away any kin to _you_?"
+
+"Course not. But you needn't laugh. You don't know that lady. She's
+masterful, and she's rich--'rich as Croesus,'--and don't know what to
+do with her money. When the old man was lookin' around an' chargin' me
+'bout things, she broke in with: 'Oh, don't worry, father-in-law. The
+trumpery stuff isn't worth so much thought. I'm not a relic hunter, and
+let it go,' says she. Then he reminds her that he wanted it kept right
+for--Whew! I near let the secret out, didn't I? He told me he wrote you
+a letter. He gave it to you, didn't he? Well, if you'll carry the
+message for me, I won't climb 'Spite' hill this morning. There's a few
+things to fetch up in the open wagon, and I'll see your folks about
+hauling that muck. Good-by. The spirit's taken clean out of me.
+Twenty-five years me and him has lived together, and to part sudden like
+this. Twenty-five years by the clock, and a better man than him never
+trod the footstool."
+
+With that Israel brought the mare around, and giving a mournful nod of
+his head drove dejectedly away.
+
+Amy flew up the hill. She paid little heed now to the spilling of the
+milk, for she began to realize in all its force the calamity which had
+befallen them; and she burst into her mother's sitting room flushed and
+indignant, demanding:--
+
+"What right had Sarah Jane to take him away?"
+
+Mrs. Kaye's heart sank. She understood what this hysterical question
+implied. It had been a contingency long foreboded by her, though against
+its justice she could find nothing to say.
+
+"Every right, dear. She is his son's widow. She is acting, no doubt, as
+she thinks her husband would wish."
+
+"But he didn't want to go."
+
+"She probably felt he was too old to live alone, without relatives.
+Indeed, I know that she would have taken him long ago, if she had been
+living in this country herself. As soon as she came home she has
+attended to her--her duty, as she sees it. As I suppose, anybody would
+see it, who was indifferent whether he went or stayed. I hope, though,
+that she'll bring him back to Burnside in the spring."
+
+"Do you know her, mother?"
+
+"Not well. When we were both younger I used to see her sometimes. She
+was never very fond of Burnside, however. It was too quiet for her. She
+is a wealthy woman, who likes to do a great deal of good. She is at the
+head of many charitable associations, and she has always had wonderful
+executive ability."
+
+"Does that mean being what Israel called 'masterful'?"
+
+"About the same thing."
+
+"Will she be good to our dear Adam?"
+
+"Certainly. She will see that he has every comfort possible. He will,
+doubtless, have a servant especially appointed to wait upon and care for
+him, and he will be made to share in all the enjoyments of the house.
+She believes that it is the duty of all to live actively in the world
+and do good aggressively, so to speak. But Adam is so old and feeble, he
+has passed his days in such simplicity, I can feel what a change for him
+it will be. Still, if he were to fall seriously ill, he would be better
+off at his daughter-in-law's than here. Ah, yes. I suppose it is for the
+best--for him. For us--well, it will be hard to think of Burnside
+without his gracious presence. He was my parents' oldest, closest
+friend, as he has been mine."
+
+Mrs. Kaye rose, folded up her mending, and left the room. "I must tell
+Cuthbert," she remarked, as if to herself, and her face was very sad.
+
+When Amy found her brother and told him the news his comment was:--
+
+"That's a bad business for us, girlie."
+
+"Of course. Don't you suppose I feel it?"
+
+"As long as Adam Burn was near, mother would never have been allowed to
+really suffer for anything. I mean that he would have managed to keep an
+eye upon her and have helped us out, till we could help ourselves. Do
+you know where that letter is he gave you? Have you read it? I should
+think this might be that 'right time' of which he spoke."
+
+"The letter? In my other dress pocket. I'll get it."
+
+But when she had searched not only in her pockets but in every other
+possible place, the letter could not be found; and though Mrs. Kaye
+assured them that there was probably very little of importance in it,
+her children could not help imagining something quite to the contrary;
+and to learn the unread message became the great desire of their hearts.
+
+"Well, in any case, we have what he said to you, Hal, about soul growth
+and that."
+
+"Humph! Such talk is all well enough, but how is it going to help when
+we reach our last dollar? Did you ever think, Amy, seriously think how
+we are going to live? Just where our actual bread and butter is to come
+from?"
+
+"No. Why, no, not really."
+
+"Then it's high time you did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AMY PAYS A BUSINESS CALL.
+
+
+At about the same moment, on a "Saturday-half" in November, Amy Kaye and
+Gwendolyn Jones left each her own home to visit that of the other. They
+met on the slope of "Bareacre" and paused for mutual greetings.
+
+"How do? I was just going up to your house," said Gwendolyn, turning her
+back to the wind that just then blew strongly.
+
+"Good afternoon. Were you? And I was going to yours."
+
+"My! How cold it is. Winter'll be here before we know it. Makes a body
+think about her clothes. That's why I was coming. I thought, maybe,
+you'd like to go shopping with me."
+
+"You're forgetting, I fancy, that I told you I never did that. I
+shouldn't know how to shop, nor scarcely what it means," laughed Amy.
+
+"That's what me and ma was saying. You seem such a little girl, yet
+'Bony' says you're 'most as old as I am."
+
+"But I don't feel old, do you? I wish I might never grow a day older,
+except that if I do I may be more useful to my people."
+
+"Won't you go, then?"
+
+"Maybe, if you will do something for me, too. I'm not on the road to buy
+anything, but to sell. I thought that you might know of somebody who
+would like a burro. Do you?"
+
+"I'd like one myself, first-rate, only I'm saving for a wheel. I'm
+buying it on the instalment plan. I pay a dollar a week, and after I get
+my winter things I'll pay more. Do you ride?"
+
+"Nothing so fine as a bicycle; just either Pepita or Balaam."
+
+"It's awful hard to have to walk everywhere, and the good thing about a
+wheel is that it don't have to eat."
+
+"And the bad thing about a burro is that it does."
+
+"Are you in earnest? Do you want to sell it?"
+
+"No; I don't _want_ to at all, but I'm going to if I can. Do you know
+anybody who really might buy Pepit?"
+
+"Guess I do. Guess the 'Supe' would."
+
+"The 'Supe'--Mr. Metcalf?"
+
+"Yes; I heard him say he'd like to get such a pair of mules or donkeys,
+or whatever they are, for his children. He's got a slew of them, and he
+gets 'em every conceivable thing. I wouldn't wonder if he did, if you
+was to ask him."
+
+"Will he be at the mill to-day?"
+
+"No; he's at his house, I guess. The mill's shut up, only the watchman
+there. The 'Supe' don't hang around there himself so much since the new
+'boss' came."
+
+"Maybe his house would be out of your way. If you'll tell me how to find
+it, I can go by myself. I wouldn't like to give you trouble."
+
+"Oh, 'twouldn't be a mite. I'd like it. There'd be time enough afterward
+for Mis' Hackett's. She keeps open till near midnight, Saturdays. She
+gets lots of the mill trade, and she'd like to have it all. But
+Wallburg's far nicer. Don't you love Wallburg?"
+
+"I was never there except once, when father had a guest from town. Then
+mother sent for a carriage, and they took their friend to see the city.
+Hallam and I rode our burros, but we were very tired when it was over.
+Even then we passed through the residence streets only."
+
+"Pshaw! It's where the stores are that I like. I always wish I was made
+of money when I'm in a store. They do have such lovely things."
+
+"Doesn't your mother buy your clothes?"
+
+"My mother? _My mother?_ Well, I guess not. The idea! If a girl earns
+her own money and pays for all she has, I guess she's a right to pick
+'em out. Don't you?"
+
+"Why--yes. I suppose she has a right, if her mother allows. But I should
+think it would be very trying to select one's own things. I should be
+so afraid I wouldn't choose correctly, and not please her taste."
+
+"My land! What if you didn't? It's you that has to wear them, isn't it?
+Have a piece of this gum. It's a new sort. Mis' Hackett keeps it and
+charges two cents a stick. Other kinds are only one cent, but this is
+prime."
+
+Gwendolyn was kind-hearted. She was also very vain. She felt that it was
+a fine thing to be acquainted with "aristocratics" like the Kayes; yet
+in her heart she was rather ashamed of Amy's plain attire, the
+simplicity of which seemed to Gwendolyn a proof of Mrs. Kaye's
+incapacity to "shop"; and its being white--though of soft warm wool--of
+her want of taste. She supposed, also, that any girl who could, would
+buy gum, and decided that her new acquaintance must be very poor indeed.
+
+"Take it. I can get plenty more. I earn real good wages now."
+
+"Do you?" asked Amy, so wistfully that the other was confirmed in her
+opinion of the poverty.
+
+"I should think you would like to work in the mill, wouldn't you? If
+your folks have lost their money, it would seem real handy to have a
+little coming in."
+
+"Yes, it would, indeed. But I couldn't do it."
+
+"Why not? You're strong enough, I guess, if you aren't so big."
+
+"Yes, I'm strong and well. But father has forbidden me to think of it."
+
+"Pshaw! He'd come round. If you want to do it, I _would_; and once you
+were settled he wouldn't care, or he couldn't help himself, anyway. He's
+kind of queer, isn't he? I've heard that."
+
+"Queer? Yes; just as queer as a splendid gentleman like him must always
+seem to common people," flashed the daughter, all the more disturbed
+because she realized that there had been once, if not now, just a little
+truth in the suggestion.
+
+"Pshaw! I didn't mean to make you mad. O' course, I hadn't ought to have
+spoke so about your own father. I s'pose I'd be mad, too, if anybody
+said things about pa. They do, sometimes, or about ma, their naming us
+children by fancy names, as they did. You see, they're English, pa and
+ma are, and so they named us after English aristocratics. Ma's a master
+hand for reading novels, too, and she gets notions out of them. We take
+the _Four Hundred Story Paper_, and the _Happy Evening Gazette_. Do you
+take them?"
+
+"No; I never heard of them."
+
+"My land! you didn't? Ain't that queer? Why, they're splendid. They have
+five serial stories running all the time. As fast as one is finished
+another is commenced. Umm, they're awful exciting. You can't hardly wait
+from week to week to get the new instalments. Trouble is, ma says, we'd
+ought to each of us have a copy, we're so crazy to get hold of it when
+it comes. Some of the girls take fashion papers, and we lend them
+'round. Some lend, I mean. Some are stingy, and won't. They have
+patterns in them. You can get some of the patterns free, and some cost
+ten or fifteen cents. Say, how do you like my dress?"
+
+Amy looked critically at her companion's attire. She admired it far less
+than Gwendolyn had her own simple frock, and she found the question
+difficult to answer without giving offence. She compromised by saying:--
+
+"Your mother must be very industrious to have made it, with all the
+housework and the children."
+
+"If you ain't the greenest girl I know! My mother couldn't make a dress
+like this to save her life."
+
+"O--oh!" stammered Amy.
+
+"Indeed, she couldn't. This was made by a dressmaker. The best one in
+Ardsley, too. She charged me five dollars, and ma said it was too much.
+I think it was, myself, but what can you do? You must look right, you
+know; if you don't the girls will make fun of you, and the boys won't
+take you any place. Is there any boy you like, much?"
+
+"Why, of course; though I know only three. Is this the way, around the
+corner?"
+
+"Three? Who're they?"
+
+"Hallam, and Fayette, and William Gladstone. Doesn't the mill village
+look cosy? The cunning little houses with their porches and gardens and
+neat palings. Such a lot of folks living together should have good
+times, I think."
+
+"Oh, they do; prime. That's the 'Supe's' house, that big one, upon that
+little hill. That whole row belongs to the different 'bosses,'--of the
+setting room, the weavers, and the rest. The 'Supe' is real nice, I
+think, though some say he's stuck up. He was a poor boy, once,--as poor
+as a church mouse. Say, don't you feel sort of afraid to call on him,
+after all?"
+
+"Why? No, indeed. Afraid? Why should I?"
+
+"Oh, because."
+
+Amy laughed and hastened forward. Nothing more was said until they
+reached the door, shadowed by vines from which not even yet all the
+leaves had fallen. The whole place had a sheltered, homelike appearance,
+which spoke well for the taste and kindliness of its owners.
+
+"Yes; Mr. Metcalf is in. Would you like to see him? Ah, Gwendolyn, is it
+you? Walk in." Yet even Amy noticed that the maid's manner in welcoming
+her companion was less cordial than in welcoming herself. She concluded
+that there might be some truth in the assertion of this family
+considering themselves rather better than their neighbors.
+
+They were ushered into a cheery sitting room, which seemed also a sort
+of library, for there were bookcases around the walls, and a table was
+spread with the current literature of the day. The room was small by
+comparison with those to which Amy had been accustomed, but what it
+lacked in size it made up for in comfort. A coal fire glowed on the
+hearth, a bird sang in its cage before the window, and about the floor
+were scattered the playthings that told that it was the resort of
+children.
+
+The girls were not kept waiting. Mr. Metcalf entered almost at once,
+nodded kindly to Gwendolyn, and cordially extended his hand to Amy.
+
+"I am very pleased to see you, Miss Amy. Sit nearer the fire, for it's
+right cold to-day."
+
+"Thank you, but I'm not cold, and I don't wish to detain you. Gwendolyn
+tells me that it is your holiday, too, and that you go to Wallburg."
+
+Mr. Metcalf glanced across at the other girl, who bridled and simpered
+as she adjusted her hat and settled her skirts.
+
+"She goes there herself, I fear, rather too much. Eh, Gwendolyn?"
+
+"I go when I please," answered the mill girl, pertly. She resented
+something in the tone of her superintendent, feeling that out of work
+hours he had no authority over her.
+
+"Oh, of course. By the way, there's the stage just ready for the other
+end of the village. Do you see it, Miss Amy? The shop mistress, Mrs.
+Hackett, sends one over every Saturday afternoon to carry our folks
+free to her place of business. She's an enterprising person, but,
+unfortunately, as soon as she had adopted this plan, two other merchants
+of the town set up rival stages also. It's very funny, sometimes, to see
+the respective drivers' efforts to secure passengers, and therefore
+custom."
+
+At the mention of stages, Gwendolyn rose and looked through the window.
+Then she turned toward Amy like a person in great haste.
+
+"Tell the 'Supe' what you came for, Amy, so we can get a ride
+over,--that is, if you want to go shopping with me after all."
+
+But poor Amy could not reply just then. It had come over her with a rush
+what her errand really meant to her, and she was wholly indifferent to
+the charms of a stage or even "shopping."
+
+"Don't wait for me, please,--that is, of course, I will keep my word,
+but--"
+
+"All right, then, some other day. I'll be up to see how you made out,
+and if Mr. Metcalf don't want it maybe I'll hear of somebody else who
+does. By, by. Good day, sir," and off she tore, banging the door and
+shouting loudly to the driver of Mrs. Hackett's stage.
+
+Mr. Metcalf watched her in silence till she had climbed the steps at the
+rear of the omnibus, and then he remarked:--
+
+"That girl has so much sense that she ought to have more."
+
+"That's a doubtful compliment, isn't it?" asked Amy, smiling.
+
+"I suppose so, though it's quite true. She is warmhearted, generous to a
+fault, and as silly as they make them. However, she has given me the
+pleasure of seeing you to-day, and I hope that you will tell me how I
+can be of use to you. From Gwendolyn's words I judge that you came upon
+some special errand."
+
+"Yes; I came to ask if you would like to buy my white burro."
+
+"Ah, you are tired of her? I mean you wish to sell her? Has she been
+misbehaving or interfering with 'Bony' again?"
+
+"No, she has been very, very good, and I don't at all wish to part with
+her; but I want some money very badly, and that is the only thing--the
+only way I could get it."
+
+"I am very glad you came to me. Ever since I made Miss Pepita's
+acquaintance, that day at the mill, I've wished I could find another
+like her for my little Nanette. How much do you ask for the burro?"
+
+"I don't ask anything. That is, I don't know how much she is worth."
+
+"I think you told me that she was a gift to you?"
+
+"Yes, from my uncle in California."
+
+"Hmm, I've heard of him," commented the gentleman, briefly. "Now, I am
+almost as much in the dark in regard to the value of such animals as
+you are, but, at a rough estimate, I will offer you fifty dollars. Then
+I will make inquiries, and if I find I have named too small a price, I
+will add the balance. Is that satisfactory?"
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed. Thank you. I--I shall be glad to have Pepita in such a
+nice place."
+
+At home Amy had spoken to none save Cleena about this intention of hers,
+and that good creature had sighed and wiped her eyes, but had not
+uttered one word of protest. The girl sighed, too, now, and the
+superintendent felt it would be kind to cut the matter short.
+
+"When can I send for her?"
+
+"Oh, at--at any time, I suppose. Or, if you don't mind, I'd like to ride
+her here myself. Just once more."
+
+Mr. Metcalf looked at his watch.
+
+"In a few moments John will be passing by Bareacre on his way to the
+other village. You might drive up with him and ride her down here
+afterward. There will be ample time before dark, and you must tell your
+people not to be anxious, should there be any delay."
+
+"Very well; and maybe Hallam, my brother, will come, also. Though he
+hasn't been told yet, and might not--"
+
+"Very well. Excuse me for a moment. I will speak to John."
+
+He did not add, nor Amy reflect, that it was a very long and roundabout
+way to reach "the other village," by passing over rough and steep
+Bareacre hill; but John was willing enough to take it, when he was told
+who was to be his companion on the route. He had liked Amy from the
+first, and had grown to know her fairly well during his time of helping
+the Kaye household to settle.
+
+"All right, boss. Sorry the little thing is to give up her donkey. She
+set a powerful store by it, I 'low. Well, all ready? How do, Miss Amy?
+So me an' you're going to take a trip together, eh? Then I can find out
+for myself how the well is doing. Don't see much of 'Bony' since your
+folks took him in hand. Giddap, there, Jinny! Here we go!"
+
+To pass the time agreeably John talked of everything which he imagined
+might be of interest to the silent girl beside him, but he elicited few
+replies, and had the stream of his words flow, for once, without
+interruption. Yet it seemed a very, very slow ride to Amy, and when it
+came to an end, she scarcely waited to thank John for his "lift" before
+she sped to the shed where Pepita was tied, and shutting the door behind
+her, threw her arms around the neck of the gentle beast, to cry as
+freely as she pleased.
+
+"Bray! Br-a-ay! Ah-umph! Ah-u-umph!" inquired the burro, turning her
+head around as far as she could by reason of Amy's embrace.
+
+"Oh, you darling, you dear old darling. Don't talk to me. Don't look at
+me as if you thought I had no heart. Do you think I don't love you,
+that I will sell you, Pepit'? But--it must be. It must be. Better you
+than Balaam, and even he--"
+
+"Ah-umph! A-ah-umph! Br-r-r-ay! Bray-bray-bray! B-r-a-y-a-u-m-p-h!!"
+protested Balaam, with great haste and emphasis; and this sound was an
+added pang in the heart of the unhappy Amy, who felt that she was not
+only breaking her own heart by this separation, but the hearts of this
+four-footed pair as well.
+
+Then she heard a sound along the frozen ground, and instantly she lifted
+her head, pulled her Tam over her eyes to hide the traces of tears, and
+called out, gayly:--
+
+"Is that you, Hal dear? What do you think? You and I are to ride down to
+Mr. Metcalf's, right away now. Is Fayette in the house? I want him to
+help me groom Pepita to 'the Queen's taste,' as he says. Halloo to him,
+for me, please."
+
+But instead of that the brother hobbled into the shed and asked:--
+
+"Why should we go there? I don't want to. I've no fondness for paying
+visits."
+
+"But you must go this time, Hal. You really, really must. I'll tell you
+why, by and by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PEPITA FINDS A NEW HOME.
+
+
+When the cripple firmly declined the visit, Cleena found some errand for
+Fayette to do at the "general store" in the mill village. Hallam thought
+it a little queer that he was not greatly urged in the matter, and that
+Cleena should ask him to let Fayette ride Balaam.
+
+"For you know, Goodsoul, how I hate to have anybody ride him, except
+myself. Not even Amy is really welcome, though she does sometimes. I
+don't see why she goes, anyway. What have we to do with any of these
+people? When mother is ill, too. If I were a daughter, I'd stay at
+home."
+
+Cleena wheeled about from scrubbing the kitchen table and retorted,
+impatiently:--
+
+"Don't you go throwing blame on Miss Amy, lad. Arrah musha! but she's
+the more sense of the lot of us, so she has, bless her bonny heart. An'
+that sunbright an' cheerful, no matter--"
+
+"She's not very cheerful this afternoon, Cleena. I believe she'd been
+crying, just now, when I found her in the shed. I fancy she'll find a
+ride anything but funny, on such a day as this. I like the warm fire
+better than the road in such weather."
+
+"Get back to it then, child. There's your book yon, on the settle. Wait.
+Carry in a bowl of porridge to the mistress, an you can? Heigh! Move
+them crutches easy now, an' not spill the stuff all over me nice floor."
+
+In her heart Cleena was very proud of her deft-handed "child," who could
+do so many helpful things, even though a cripple, and she watched him
+cross the wide room, swinging easily along on his "other feet," yet
+holding the bowl of steaming liquid upright and safely. Then she sighed,
+and going to the door called:--
+
+"Me Gineral Bonaparty, come by!"
+
+Fayette was digging, even though the ground was frozen, and it would be
+months before anything could grow again. But the simple fellow was a
+"natural farmer," and it was his intention to "let her lie fallow this
+winter. Next summer I'll show you a garden'll make your eyes bung out.
+I'm the best gard'ner anywhere's round, I am."
+
+He now replied:--
+
+"What fer? I want to get this side gone over, this afternoon. Then come
+Monday I'm goin' to get some trees down brook way, an' get John to haul
+'em up an' set 'em out, an' get Miss Amy--"
+
+"Faith, what else'll you 'get' with your 'get' an' 'get,' I'd know. Come
+by, I tell ye, to wonst."
+
+When Cleena spoke in that tone, it was noticeable that Fayette always
+obeyed. He now threw down his spade, though reluctantly, and sauntered
+to the kitchen door.
+
+"A woman hain't got no sense nohow, stopping a man from his work."
+
+"An' all the sense a man body has, me fathers, is to keep a woman
+standin' in her doorway. I'm wantin' ye to go to the store down below.
+Master Hallam's for lettin' ye ride Balaam. Off with ye, now, an' clean
+the beast's coat, sayin' nothin' of Miss Amy's own little white. Will
+she ride with ye? What for no? Proud you be, says I, to be escortin' of
+the like o' her."
+
+Fayette's eyes shone. The desire of his heart was to possess Balaam for
+himself; failing this, to have the privilege of using the pretty
+creature occasionally.
+
+"How happened it? How does she want to go there in such a wind? Blows
+the hair right off your head, I 'low. I'd ruther go alone, I would."
+
+"'Ruthers' is all froze up. Haste along with ye now, an' be off. Mind ye
+talk pretty to my colleen, 'cause--No matter."
+
+Fayette made swift work of the grooming, and only a few moments later
+Amy and he rode out of the enclosure. As she descended the slope, the
+girl turned and waved her hand cheerfully to Cleena, then set her face
+toward the valley and relapsed into silence.
+
+Fayette endured this as long as he could, for though he rarely needed
+anybody else to speak, this afternoon he was annoyed by his companion's
+preoccupation.
+
+"What's the matter, Amy? You ain't said a word since we started."
+
+"Haven't I? and we're almost there, already. Well, I was thinking.
+That's all. I'll try to do better on the way home."
+
+"Feelin' bad about your ma? Land, she'll get well. All she wants is a
+bit o' boneset tea, or sage an' sassafras. I'll go yarb hunting
+to-morrow, if I get my garden ploughed. Cleena'll stew it. Say, have you
+heard my new one? Hark to this."
+
+He pulled from his pocket a small jewsharp and began to "play" upon it
+in the most nerve-rasping manner.
+
+"Oh, Fayette, another? Why, you must have a half-dozen already. I come
+upon them everywhere about the house, in the rooms where you are."
+
+"Ain't got none now but this. I bought it to Mis' Hackett's. Cleena's
+took my others. Got 'em all in her kitchen draw'. 'Low she'll get this
+if you tell on me."
+
+"I'll not need. You'll have it out to show her how talented you are, and
+then--away goes your pride, your jewsharp, and all."
+
+"Hmm, she better try. I'll teach her a lesson some day she ain't goin'
+to ferget. That woman bosses me too much. I ain't a-goin' to stand it.
+You'll see. I'll clear out an' leave the whole kerboodle first you know.
+Sho! Here we be."
+
+"Indeed. Well, I'm sorry to have reached the place so soon, though it is
+pretty cold."
+
+"You go in and see the 'Supe's' folks. I'll ride along an' do my
+arrants. Cleena'd ruther trust me than you, wouldn't she? I'm a master
+hand for a trade, an' she knows it. Say, I do wish he'd sell me Balaam."
+
+"You must drop that subject, really, Fayette. Even if Hallam were to
+part with his burro, it would not be to you."
+
+The simple lad's fierce temper rose in full force at Amy's blunt words.
+
+"Like to know why not? Ain't my money as good as anybody's? Ain't I
+'stuck up' enough to suit? He never rode in a parade, he didn't. Told me
+so himself."
+
+"Nor do I think he ever will, and, of course, one person's money is as
+good as another's, excepting that we could never trust how long you
+would be kind to dear old Balaam. Hal would take much less to have the
+creature well treated than--I mean--Oh, don't get so angry; it's not
+worth while."
+
+The more she tried to smooth matters over, the more indignant the other
+became. His harp was still between such discolored teeth as Pepita's
+former assault had left him, and added to the grotesqueness of his
+appearance as he glared upon Amy. To finish what she had begun, she
+remarked:--
+
+"Just tie him there, at that second post, please, and you'd best put his
+blanket on him."
+
+"Tie him? I'm goin' to ride him to the village to let the boys see him
+an' try him. I promised I would. Tie him! I shan't neither!"
+
+"You certainly will not ride him to wherever those dreadful boys are.
+Nobody shall touch him, except you or me, and you ought not."
+
+Fayette gave her one more angry glance, leaped from his saddle with a
+jerk, and bestowed upon the unoffending burro a vicious kick. Then he
+disappeared down the street, and Amy tied Pepita in haste, that she
+might look after the other animal also.
+
+Just then she heard a step upon the path behind her, and the
+superintendent's pleasant voice, saying:--
+
+"Well, young lady, you are certainly prompt, and promptness is a
+cardinal virtue--from a business man's point of view. See, here is the
+little girl for whom you are giving up your pet."
+
+"Ah, indeed."
+
+Amy smiled upon the child, who might have been ten years of age, and the
+fragile little creature appeared to smile in return. Then it came over
+the visitor that there was something out of common in that uplifted,
+happy face, and that the smile was not in response to her own greeting.
+The wide blue eyes looked upward, truly, but with the blank stare of
+one who sees nothing.
+
+"Ah, is it so?" cried Amy, a second time, watching with what hesitation
+the little girl moved along the path, and how persistently she clung to
+her father's hand.
+
+"Yes, blind; quite blind--from her birth," said Mr. Metcalf, sadly.
+
+Amy was on her knees in a moment, clasping the child's slight body in
+her arms and saying:--
+
+"Then I'm glad, glad that you are to have Pepita. She is the dearest,
+nicest burro--except when she's bad--and will carry you wherever you
+want to go,--that is, if she is willing. You dear little girl, she shall
+be yours, without that money either. I never knew about you before, or
+you should have had her before, too."
+
+[Illustration: "'THEN I'M GLAD, GLAD THAT YOU ARE TO HAVE PEPITA.'"]
+
+Mr. Metcalf smiled, well pleased. His blind daughter was the idol of his
+flock, and anybody who was attracted by her became interesting to him.
+Amy had been so, even before this incident, but he liked her heartily
+now.
+
+"So, Miss Amy, though you hated to part with your burro for money, you
+would do so willingly for love and sympathy?"
+
+"Why, of course. If I'd only known--"
+
+"You will not make a good business woman, at this rate. But this wind is
+sharp. I mustn't keep Nanette out here long, else her mother will worry,
+and that wouldn't do. Suppose, since you know more about donkeys than I
+do, that you give my girl her first riding lesson. Reach Miss Amy your
+hand, dear heart."
+
+Amy caught the little white-mittened fingers in her own and kissed them
+impulsively. Then she rose and placed the child on Pepita's saddle.
+
+"Take hold of the bridle, so, in both hands, now, till you learn how.
+I'll keep my arm about you. No, dear, you cannot fall. I wouldn't let
+you, even if Pepita would, and she's in a gentle mood to-day. Aren't
+you, Pepit'?"
+
+"Br-a-ay! Ah-ump!" responded the burro. She did not always have her
+replies so ready, and, for an instant, it seemed as if she would
+frighten her new mistress. But there was always something absurdly
+amusing in Pepita's tones, and after the first shock of hearing them had
+passed, Nanette burst into a merry laugh that made the others laugh too.
+
+"Oh, doesn't she talk nicely! Does she always answer so quick?"
+
+"No, indeed. Sometimes the naughty little beast will not say a single
+bray. She has many moods, has Pepit'. You'll find them all out, though,
+after a while. Now, how do you like it? Isn't the motion soft and
+gentle?"
+
+"Oh, if mamma could see!" cried the happy little girl, turning her sunny
+face toward Amy. Then she suddenly pulled off her mittens and drew her
+new friend's head down so that she could feel the unfamiliar features.
+Swiftly, lightly, the tiny finger-tips passed over every one, then
+travelled upward and lost themselves in the close rings of hair under
+the scarlet Tarn. "Now, I'll know you forever. What color is your hair?
+What is your hood, or bonnet?"
+
+"My hair is very dark brown, or almost black, I think. My Tarn is red.
+But do you know colors?"
+
+"I know what they are like to me. Papa says that maybe that is not the
+same as they are in the truly world, but I don't care. They are pretty
+and suit me, my blind colors do. I like you. I like you very much. I
+think you are lovely, lovely to give me your don-key--"
+
+"But I didn't. That is, I will, since I know about you; but I asked your
+father to buy her first. I wouldn't--"
+
+"Oh, never mind. It's all the same, isn't it? It would be in my blind
+world. She was yours and now she is mine, and you're lovely. Oh, I wish
+mamma could see!"
+
+"Why, can't she, dear? Is she--"
+
+"No," interrupted the superintendent, smiling. "No, she isn't blind. The
+only body in our household who is able to see beautiful things with her
+eyes shut is Nanette, here; and the only trouble with the mother is that
+there is a new baby in her room just now, so she hasn't time or strength
+to get up and look out of window at new burros. She thinks the new
+babies are the nicer of the two sorts. Eh, Nan, child?"
+
+"I suppose she does, but I don't. Pooh! there have been three new baby
+sisters that I can remember, and once I was a new baby sister myself, to
+my brothers. They're so common, you know; but I don't think of any girl
+anywhere, except you, and now me, that has had a new snow-white donkey.
+Do you?"
+
+"No, I do not," laughed Amy.
+
+Mr. Metcalf invited Amy into the house, while he led the burro around to
+the little stable in the rear, which was to be Pepita's new home. Amy
+would have liked to throw her arms about the hairy white neck, but pride
+forbade, and so the parting was made without any sign of distress on
+either side. Pepita was eager for shelter, and her late mistress to hear
+what the blind child was saying.
+
+"It's right this way into the sitting room. I love the sitting room
+best. That's where papa has his books and papers, and it smells like
+him. He smokes, you know, but only in this room or out of doors. Oh, do
+help me think! Mamma, dear heart, says I am to name this last little new
+baby. Just fancy it! I, myself! And it bothers me terrifically. I would
+want a nice long name, the longest that's in the books; but papa says
+that there are so many little folks who like us and come to live with
+us, that we mustn't spend time on long names. Oh, I've just thought!
+I'll name her 'Amy.' That's short, isn't it? Could a body nickname it?
+We don't like nicknames here. I'm the only one. I'm sometimes 'Nan' to
+papa. When the baby last before this one came, mamma named her Abby
+after Grandmother Abigail. Then she thought we couldn't ever stop to say
+Ab-i-ga-il, so she shortened it to Abby. Next thing, listen. Abby was
+crying one day and Rex heard her, and grandmother asked, 'What's that?'
+'cause she's deaf and doesn't hear straight, and Rex said, 'Oh, that's
+nothing but little Ab!' She was just three days old then, and mamma
+thought if her name got cut in two so quick as that, she wouldn't have
+any at all in a week or two longer. So she's just Ruth now; and when the
+boys say 'Ruth-y,' papa makes them put a nickel in the box. Do you have
+a nickel box on your bookcase?"
+
+"No, indeed. Tell me about it. I've never heard of such a thing."
+
+"Why, it's this way. Feel me your hand. I'll show you." And as if she
+could see perfectly, Nanette guided Amy to the further side of the room,
+where stood a pretty, polished box upon the bookshelf. The box had a
+slit in its cover, and it jingled merrily in the blind child's hand.
+
+"Hear! We must have been pretty bad this month. But that makes it all
+the better for the little 'fresh airers,' doesn't it? Sometimes, when I
+think about them, I just want to do things--_not nice things_--all the
+time, so as to make more money for them. But of course it wouldn't be
+honorable, and I wouldn't do it."
+
+"Do you put the nickels in when you are 'naughty'?"
+
+"Yes, for crossness and unpolite words and messing at table and--lots of
+things. Once--" Nanette paused and turned her eyes toward Amy for a long
+time. Then she again passed those delicate finger-tips over the other's
+face, and decided:--
+
+"Yes, I can trust you. Once one of us, I couldn't tell you which one,
+but one of us told a wrong story, a falsehood, an untruth. One of the
+dreadful things that made our dear Lord kill Ananias and Sapphira dead.
+Wasn't that awful? Mamma and papa didn't know what to do. A nickel
+didn't seem much pay for a lie, did it? So they made it a dollar. Yes,
+ma'am, one whole dollar. That's twenty nickels. Oh, it was so unhappy
+those days! I was gladder than ever that I was blind. I think I should
+have died to see the bad face of the one that did it while it was bad.
+But mamma says such a lesson is never, never forgotten. You see, we
+haven't any right to be bad, have we?"
+
+"I suppose not, dear. What a wise little thinker you are!"
+
+"Papa says I think too much. That's why, one why, he was so glad to get
+me the burro. He hopes it will stop me some. But in a home a body must
+remember it isn't his home nor her home, but the home of everybody that
+belongs. If I should be naughty, it would throw things all out of--of
+smoothness, don't you know. I can't be naughty all by myself. If I
+could--no, I wouldn't like it either. When I'm selfish or bad, I always
+feel as if I had on a dirty apron, and I do just hate dirty clothes!"
+
+"And you do just love to talk, little one," cried the superintendent,
+coming in and catching up his daughter in his strong arms. "We tell her,
+Miss Amy, that she makes up for what she doesn't see by what she does
+say. Eh, midget?"
+
+Nanette cuddled her fair head against her father's beard, and turned her
+eyes toward Amy. It seemed impossible to believe that those beautiful
+eyes could not really behold whereon they rested, and the tears of
+sympathy rose to Amy's own as she tried to comprehend this.
+
+"Isn't he a dear, funny papa? But you just wait until you see my mother.
+She's the nicest thing in this whole world. Oh, papa, shall I call the
+baby 'Amy'?"
+
+"If you like, darling. It's a pleasant, old-fashioned name."
+
+"I'll tell you a better one, though it's longer. That is 'Salome.'"
+
+"Who's she?" asked Nanette.
+
+"My mother. As you feel about yours, I think she is the sweetest thing
+in this whole world."
+
+"Sa-lo-me, Sa-lo-me," repeated the child, slowly. "That is pretty. What
+do you say about that, papa?"
+
+"As you and mother please, darling. It is a good name. But now, dear,
+run away. I have to talk business with this new friend of yours, and
+where you are--eh?"
+
+"Yes, I do talk, don't I? I love to talk. Good-by, Amy. Please come
+again to see me, and every time you must ride on Peppy--what is her
+name?"
+
+"Pe-pi-ta. It is Spanish and very pretty, I think."
+
+"Pay-pee-tah," repeated Nanette, imitating the sound and ignorant of the
+spelling.
+
+"Now, Miss Amy, I've had your saddle put upon your brother's burro. You
+can ride him home, and I will have 'Bony' carry the other saddle.
+To-morrow he shall bring the girl's saddle back to Nanette, and I echo
+her invitation that you should come often to visit us and ride upon your
+own, old favorite. Here is the envelope with the money, and since you
+must go at all, I'll urge you to go at once. There is another squall
+coming, and it will darken early."
+
+As she rode homeward a doctor's phaeton passed her. It was being driven
+rapidly, and a face peered out at her from beneath the hood. Then it
+stopped and waited for her to approach.
+
+"Do you belong at the 'Spite House'?"
+
+"Yes; why?"
+
+"Make haste. Drive on."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+FACING HARD FACTS.
+
+
+"Make haste. Drive on."
+
+The words sang themselves into Amy's brain as she urged Balaam up the
+slope, and for days thereafter they returned to her, the last vivid
+memory of that happy time before bereavement came.
+
+Then followed a season of confusion and distress; and now that a
+fortnight was over she sat beside a freshly made mound in Quaker
+burying-ground, trying to collect her thoughts and to form a definite
+plan for her future.
+
+The end of a gentle, beneficent life had come with merciful suddenness,
+and the face of Salome Kaye was now hidden beneath this mound where her
+child sat, struggling with her grief, and bravely endeavoring to find
+the right way out of many difficulties. Finally, she seemed to have done
+so, for she rose with an air of grave decision and kneeling for one
+moment in that quiet spot, rose again, and passed swiftly from the
+place.
+
+Hallam was at the cemetery gate, resting sadly against the
+lichen-covered stone post, and waiting for her return. Indian summer
+had come, a last taste of warmth and brightness before the winter
+closed, and despite their sorrow nature soothed them with her
+loveliness. In any case, whether from that cause or from her own will,
+the girl found it easier than she had expected to speak with her brother
+upon their material affairs.
+
+"Shall we stop here a little while, Hal dear, to talk, or will we go on
+slowly toward home? I've been thinking, up--up there beside mother, and
+I've found a way, I hope."
+
+"I don't care where, though I'd rather not talk. What good does it do? I
+hate it. I hate home. I hate this place worse--Oh, it's wicked! It's
+cruel! Why did she ever have to leave Fairacres! She might be--"
+
+Amy's hand went up to Hallam's lips. "Hush! Do you suppose God blunders?
+I don't. If He had meant her to stay with us, He would have found a way
+to cure her. To think otherwise is torture. No. No, no, indeed no!
+Father is left and so are we. We have got to live and take care of him
+and of ourselves."
+
+"I should like to know how. I--a miserable good-for-naught, and you--a
+girl."
+
+"Exactly, thank you, just a girl. But a girl who loves her brother and
+her father all the more because--_she_ loved them too. A girl who has
+made up her mind to do the first thing and everything that offers,
+which will help to make them comfortable; who is going to put her family
+pride in her pocket and go to work. There, it's out!"
+
+"Go--out--to--work, Amy--Kaye!"
+
+"Yes, indeed. Don't take it so hard, dear."
+
+In spite of himself he smiled. Then he remembered. "I don't see how you
+can laugh or jest--so soon. As if--but you _must_ care."
+
+"Just because I do care, so very, very much. Oh, Hal, don't dream I'm
+not missing her every hour of the day. I fancy I hear her saying now,
+this moment, as she used to say when I'd been naughty and was penitent:
+'If thee loves me so much, dear, thee will try to do the things I like.'
+The one thing she liked, she _lived_, was a brave helpfulness toward
+everybody she knew. She didn't wait for great things, she did little
+things. Now, the first little things that are facing us are: the earning
+of our rent and of our food."
+
+Hallam said nothing. He knocked a stone aside with the end of his
+crutch, and groaned.
+
+"I'm going to work in the mill," she continued.
+
+"Amy! Father expressly forbade that, or even any mention of it. You, a
+Kaye!"
+
+"He has given me permission, even though I am a Kaye." She tried to
+smile still, but found it hard in the face of his want of sympathy, even
+indignation.
+
+"Do you think he knew what he was saying when he did it?"
+
+"Yes, Hallam, I do. It seems to me that father is more like other folks
+since this trouble came than he was before. I was worried and asked the
+doctor, for I remembered mother always used to spare him everything
+painful or difficult that she could. The doctor said:--
+
+"'It may be that this blow will do more to restore him than all her
+tender care could do.'
+
+"And then I asked him something else. It was--what was the matter with
+him--if it was all his heart. He said, 'No, indeed. It's his head.' He
+was in a great fire, at a hotel where he was staying, a long time ago.
+He was nearly killed, and many other people were killed. For a while he
+thought that mother had been burned, they had gotten separated some way,
+and it made him--insane, I suppose. But when she was found, in a
+hospital where he was taken, he got better. He isn't at all insane now,
+the doctor says, but is only a little confused. Mother never had us told
+about it, because she wanted we should think our father just perfect,
+and for that reason she drew him into this quiet life that we always
+have lived. If he wanted to spend money foolishly, she never objected.
+She hoped that by not opposing any wish he would get wholly well. Part
+of this Cleena has told me, for she thought we ought to know, now, and
+part the doctor said. Oh, Hal, I think it will be grand, grand, to take
+care of him as nearly like she did as we can. Don't you?"
+
+Hallam's eyes sparkled. "Amy, I always said she was the most beautiful
+woman in the world, in character as well as person."
+
+"To us, she certainly was. My plan is this: I will go to Mr. Metcalf and
+ask him to give me a place in the mill. If those other girls can work,
+so can I."
+
+"Do you know who owns the mills now?"
+
+"Yes; our cousin Archibald Wingate."
+
+"And you would work for him? You would demean yourself to that? Yet you
+know how, when he offered us money last week, or to do other things for
+us, both father and I indignantly declined."
+
+"Yes, I know. I, too, was glad we didn't have to take it, though I do
+not believe he is as bad as we think. We look at him from _this_ side;
+but if we could from the _other_, he might not seem so hard-hearted. He
+said he was sorry. He seemed to feel very badly."
+
+"Yes, and when he came and asked Cleena to let him see--her, just once
+more, she gave him a reproof that must have struck home. She told him he
+was practically the cause of mother's death,--his driving her from
+Fairacres,--and I shall always feel so, too."
+
+"I hope not, dear."
+
+"Well, I hate him. I hope I can sometime make him suffer all he has made
+us."
+
+"But, Hal, that is vindictive. To be vindictive is not half as noble as
+to be just. Mother was just. While it grieved her to leave her home, she
+fully appreciated how much he must long for it. It was their
+grandmother's, you know, and he felt he had a right there. I do not
+blame him half as much as I pity him. He's such a lonely old fellow, it
+seems to me."
+
+"Humph! I wouldn't work for him and take his money. I should feel as if
+it were tainted."
+
+For a moment Amy was staggered by this view of her brother's. Then it
+dropped into its proper place in the argument, and she went on:--
+
+"It would be pleasanter to work for somebody else. But there _is_ nobody
+else. I think Mr. Wingate has very little to do with the employees of
+the mill. It's Mr. Metcalf who pays them, and he's a dear, good friend
+already. I'm going to see him this afternoon. I asked Gwendolyn to tell
+him I was coming, but I suppose he thinks it is about selling Balaam.
+He's ready to take him off your hands if you want to part with him. That
+seventy-five dollars he paid for Pepita and the saddle and harness was
+such a blessing. It carried us through; we couldn't have done without
+it, unless we'd let Mr. Wingate help."
+
+"Never! Well, I suppose he'll have to take him. If I can't work, I can
+give up, as well as you."
+
+"No, Hal, I don't want to sell him yet. Wait till the last thing and we
+can't help it. Do try to think kindly of what I'm doing, dear. Down in
+my heart I'm pretty proud, too. But you start home. I'll take a bit of
+lunch and then start out to seek my fortune. Wish me luck, laddie; or,
+rather, bid me God-speed."
+
+She lifted her face for his kiss, and he gave it heartily. It was to the
+sensitive, proud, undisciplined boy the very hardest moment of his life,
+save and apart from his bereavement.
+
+"To think, Amy, little sister, that I, who should be your protector and
+supporter, am just--this!"
+
+"Hush! you shall not point so contemptuously to those poor legs. I think
+they are very good legs, indeed. There's nothing the matter with them
+except that they won't move. They've been indulged so long--"
+
+"Amy, I don't understand you. First you seem so cheerful; then you make
+light of my lameness. Are you forgetful, or what?"
+
+"Not forgetful, nor hard-hearted. Just 'what,' which means that I
+believe you could learn to walk if you would."
+
+"Amy! _Amy!!_"
+
+"Hallam!"
+
+"Do you suppose I wouldn't if I could?"
+
+"Hal, do you ever try?"
+
+He looked at her indignantly; then he reflected that, in fact, he never
+did try. But to convince her he made an effort that instant. Tossing his
+crutches to the ground, he tried to force his limbs forward over the
+ground. They utterly failed to respond to his will, and he would have
+fallen had not Amy's arms caught and supported him.
+
+"There, you see!"
+
+"For the first attempt it was fine. Bravo! _Encore!_"
+
+Yet she picked up his "other legs" and gave him, then led Balaam away
+from the late thistle blooms he was browsing. Hallam mounted, crossed
+his crutches before him, and lifted his cap. Amy tossed him a kiss and
+turned millward, while he ascended the hill road. But no sooner was she
+out of sight than her assumed cheerfulness gave way, and for a time it
+was a sad-faced girl who trudged diligently onward toward duty and a
+life of toil.
+
+Gwendolyn had delivered her message, and the superintendent welcomed Amy
+to his office at the mill with a friendly nod and smile; but, at that
+moment, he was deep in business with a strange gentleman, negotiating
+for a large sale of carpets, and after his brief greeting he apparently
+forgot the girl. She remained standing for some moments, then Mr.
+Metcalf beckoned an attendant to give her a chair and the day's
+newspaper.
+
+Her heart sank even lower than before. The superintendent appeared a
+different person from the friend she had met in his own home. Her throat
+choked. She felt that she should cry, if she did not make some desperate
+effort to the contrary; so she began to read the paper diligently,
+though her mind scarcely followed the words she saw, and would deflect
+to those she heard, which were very earnest, indeed, though all about a
+matter no greater than one-eighth cent per yard.
+
+"How queer! Two great grown men to stand there and argue about such a
+trifle. Why, there isn't any such coin, and what does it mean? Well, I'm
+eavesdropping, and that's wrong. Now I will read. I will not listen."
+
+Running in this wise, her thoughts at last fixed themselves upon a
+paragraph which she had perused several times without comprehending. Now
+it began to have a meaning for her, and one so intense that she half
+rose to beg the loan of the newspaper that she might show it to Hallam.
+
+"The very thing. The very thing I heard those doctors talking about in
+mother's room. I'll ask for it, or copy it, if I can, and show my boy.
+Who knows what it might do?"
+
+There was a little movement in the office. The gentleman in the big
+top-coat, with his eyeglasses, his gold-handled umbrella, and his
+consequential air, was leaving. He was bowing in a patronizing sort of
+way, and Mr. Metcalf was bowing also, smiling almost obsequious. He was
+rubbing his hair upward from his forehead, in a way Amy had already
+observed to be habitual when he was pleased. Evidently he was pleased
+now, and greatly so, for even after the stranger had passed out and
+entered the cab in waiting, the superintendent remained before the glass
+door, still smiling with profound satisfaction.
+
+Then, as if he had suddenly remembered her, he turned toward Amy.
+
+"Well, miss, what can I do for you to-day? I saw you were interested in
+our argument over the fraction of a cent, and I'm glad to tell you I
+won. Yes, I carried my point."
+
+The girl was disgusted. Though she liked to know her friends from every
+side of their characters, she was not pleased by this glimpse of Mr.
+Metcalf's.
+
+He saw her feeling in her face and took it merrily, dropping at last
+into the manner which she knew and liked best.
+
+"A small business, you're thinking, eh? Well, Miss Amy, let me tell you
+that on this one deal, this one sale, my gaining that fraction of a cent
+means the gaining to my employer of several thousand dollars. And that
+is worth contesting, don't you think?"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible. Just that tiny eighth! Why, how many, many
+yards you must sell!"
+
+"Indeed, yes. The mills are constantly turning out great quantities and,
+fortunately, the market is free. We dispose of them as fast as we can
+finish. We could sell more if we could manufacture more. But this is not
+what has brought you here, I fancy. Tell me your errand, please. I have
+much to get through with before closing."
+
+The return to his business manner again chilled Amy's enthusiasm, but
+she thought of her father and what she hoped to do for him, and needed
+no other aid to her courage.
+
+"I've come to ask a place in the mill. I want to work and get paid."
+
+"Certainly. If you work, you will be paid. What makes you want to do it?
+Does your father know?"
+
+"He has consented. I think he understands, though he didn't seem to care
+greatly, either way. I must do it, sir, or something. It was the only
+thing I knew about."
+
+"You know nothing about that, really. The girls here are from an
+altogether different class than that to which you belong. You would not
+find it pleasant."
+
+"That wouldn't matter. And aren't we all Americans? Equal?"
+
+"Theoretically. How much do you suppose you could earn?"
+
+"I don't know. Whatever my work was worth."
+
+"That, at the beginning, would be not more than two dollars a week, and
+probably less. It would be fatiguing, constant standing in attending to
+your 'jenny.' I really think that you would better abandon the idea at
+once. Try to think of something nearer what you have known."
+
+Yet he saw the deepening distress in her face and it grieved him. He was
+bound, in all honesty to her, to set the dark side of things before her,
+and he waited for her decision with some curiosity.
+
+"If you'll let me try, I would like to do so."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AMY BEGINS TO SPIN.
+
+
+"Well, deary, it's time. Oh, me fathers, to think it! Wake up, Amy, me
+colleen, me own precious lamb."
+
+Six o'clock of a gray November morning is not an inspiriting hour to
+begin any undertaking. Amy turned in her comfortable bed, rubbed her
+eyes, saw Cleena standing near with a lighted candle in her hand, and
+inquired, drowsily:--
+
+"Why--what's happened? Why will you get up in the middle of the night?
+Don't bother me--yet."
+
+"Faith, an' I won't. Upon honor it's wrong, it's all wrong. What'll your
+guardian angel think of old Cleena to be leavin' you do it! Body an'
+bones, I'll do naught to further the business--not I!"
+
+The woman's voice was tremulous with indignation or grief, and all at
+once Amy remembered. Then she sprang from her cosy nest, wide-awake and
+full of courage.
+
+"Hush, dear old Goodsoul, I forgot. I forgot, entirely. I was dreaming
+of Fairacres. It was a beautiful dream. The old house was full of little
+children and young girls. They were singing and laughing and moving
+about everywhere. I can hardly believe it wasn't real; but, I'm all
+right now. I'll be down stairs in a few minutes. Don't wake anybody
+else, for there's no need. Is it six o'clock already? It might be
+midnight or--any time. Why, what's this?"
+
+"A frock I've made for you, child."
+
+"_You_ made a frock for me? Why, Cleena!"
+
+"Sure, it's not so handy with the needle as the broom me fingers is. But
+what for no? Them pretty white ones will never do for the nasty old
+mill. This didn't need so much. The body'll about fit, thinks I, if I
+sew it fast in the front an' split it behind. The skirt's not so very
+long. She was a mite of a woman, God rest her. Well, I'll go an' see the
+milk doesn't boil over, an' be back in a jiffy to fasten it for you. Ah,
+me lamb! Troth, a spirit's brave like your own will be prospered, I
+know."
+
+Then Cleena went hurriedly out of the room. The frock which she had
+prepared for Amy's use in the mill was remodelled from an old one of her
+mistress's. As has been said, Amy had never worn any sort of dress
+except white. The fabric was changed to suit the season, but the color
+was not. Even her warm winter cloak was of heavy white wool, faced here
+and there with scarlet, to match the simple scarlet headgear that suited
+her dark face so well. Quite against the habits of her own upbringing,
+Mrs. Kaye had clothed her daughter to please the taste of her artist
+husband, and therefore it had not greatly mattered that this taste
+dictated a style more fanciful than useful.
+
+Now everything was altered, and Cleena had consulted Mrs. Jones with the
+result just given. But from a true delicacy, the faithful old servant
+did not stay to watch the girl as she adopted the new garb which
+belonged to the new fortunes, though she need not have been afraid.
+
+For a moment Amy held the gray dress in her hand, feeling it almost a
+sacrilege to put it on. She remembered it as the morning gown of her
+mother, plain to the extreme, yet graceful and precious in her sight
+because of the dear wearer. Then she lifted the garment to her lips, and
+touched it lightly.
+
+"Mother, darling, it is a good beginning. It seems to me it is like a
+sister of mercy putting on her habit for the first time. It is a
+protection and a benediction. If I can only put on my mother's beautiful
+character with her clothing, I shall do well, indeed." Then she examined
+the alterations which Cleena had been instructed by the cottager to
+make, and was able to smile at them.
+
+"The new sewing and the old do not match very well, but it will answer,
+and it does fit me much better than I would have thought. My! but I must
+already be as large, or nearly so, as she was. Well, no time for
+thinking back now. It's all looking forward, and must be, if I am to
+keep my courage."
+
+Then she knelt beside her bed, prayed simply and in full faith for
+success in her efforts to provide for her beloved ones, and went below,
+smiling and gay.
+
+"Think of it, Cleena Keegan. This is Monday morning. On seventh day I
+expect to bring back two splendid dollars and put into your hands. I,
+just I, your own little Amy. Think of the oatmeal it will buy."
+
+It was not in Cleena's heart to dampen this ardor by remarking how small
+a sum two dollars really was, considered in the light of a family
+support; and, after all, oatmeal was cheap. Fortunately, it also formed
+the principal diet of this plainly nurtured household, and even that
+very breakfast to which the young breadwinner now sat down.
+
+But the meal was exquisitely cooked, and the hot milk was rich and
+sweet. Also, there lay, neatly wrapped in a spotless napkin, the mid-day
+luncheon, which Cleena had been told to prepare, and which Mrs. Jones
+suggested should be of something "hearty and strong" for "working in the
+mill beats all for appetite."
+
+Then Amy took the big gingham pinafore, that Cleena had also prepared,
+and with her little parcels under her arm, skipped away down the slope
+to the Joneses' cottage, where Gwendolyn was to meet and escort her to
+her first day's work.
+
+"Pshaw! I thought you wasn't coming. We'll be late if we don't hurry.
+Hmm. Wore your white cloak, didn't you? Well, I guess the girls won't
+laugh at you much. A dark one would have been better."
+
+"But I have no dark one, so it was this or nothing. How fast you walk,
+almost as if you were running!"
+
+"We'll be late, I tell you. I don't want to get docked, if _you_ do."
+
+"What is 'docked'?"
+
+"Why, having something taken from your wages."
+
+"Would that be done for just so short a time?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. The time-keeper watches out and nobody has a chance to get
+off. To be late five minutes means losing a quarter day's wages. They
+count off a quarter, a half, three-quarters, or a whole, according to
+time."
+
+"Then Gwendolyn, let's run. I wouldn't make you lose for anything."
+
+"All right."
+
+When they arrived at the mill, Gwendolyn said:--
+
+"You come this way with me. Hang your cap and coat right here, next to
+mine. Never mind if the girls do stare, you'll get used to that. I felt
+as if I should sink the first day I came, though that was ages ago.
+Hello, Maud, where was you last night?"
+
+Amy did not feel in the least like "sinking." She had overcome her
+drowsiness, and the light was already growing much stronger. She looked
+around upon these strangers who were to be her comrades at toil, with a
+friendly interest and curiosity. Some of her new mates regarded her with
+equal curiosity, though few with so kindly an interest as her own. The
+unconscious ease of Amy's bearing they esteemed "boldness," or even
+"cheek," and her air of superior breeding was distasteful to them.
+
+"My, ain't she a brazen thing! Looks around on the whole crowd as if she
+thought she could put on all the airs she pleased, even in the mill.
+Well, 'ristocrat or no 'ristocrat, she'll have to come down here. We're
+just as good as she is and--"
+
+"A little better, too, you mean," commented a lad, just passing.
+
+The girl who scorned "'ristocrats" paused in fastening her denim apron
+and looked after the youth, who was, evidently, a personage of
+importance in the eyes of herself and mates. They watched his jaunty
+movements with undisguised admiration, and his passing left behind him a
+wake of smiles and giggles which to Amy seemed out of proportion to the
+wit of his remark.
+
+However, there was little loitering, and the long procession of girls,
+with its sprinkling of men and boys, swiftly ascended the narrow open
+staircase to the upper floors. This staircase was built along the side
+wall of the great structure, flight above flight, an iron frame with
+steps of board. The only protection from falling upon the floor below,
+should one grow dizzy-headed, was a gas-pipe hand-rail; and even this
+might not have been provided had not the law compelled.
+
+As she fell into line behind Gwendolyn and began the upward climb, Amy
+grasped this slender support firmly; but everything about her seemed
+very unlike her memory of her first visit here. Then the sun was
+shining, she was under the guidance of the genial superintendent, and
+the scene was novel--like a picture exhibited for her personal
+entertainment. Now the novelty was past, the scene had become dingy, and
+herself a part of it.
+
+All around her were voices talking in a sort of mill _patois_ concerning
+matters which she did not understand. But nobody, not even Gwendolyn,
+spoke to her, and a sudden, overpowering dismay seized her stout heart
+and made her head reel. Then she made a misstep and her foot slipped
+through the space between two stairs. This brought the hurrying
+procession to a standstill, and recalled attention to the "new hand."
+
+"My sake! Somebody's fell. Who? Is she hurt? Oh, that donkey girl. Well,
+she ain't so used to these horrid stairs as we be."
+
+"Hold back! She's sort of giddy-headed, I guess."
+
+Amy felt an arm thrown round her waist, a rather ungentle pull was given
+her dangling foot, and she was set right to proceed. But for an instant
+she could not go on, and she again felt the arm supporting and forcing
+her against the bare brick wall, so that those below might not be longer
+hindered.
+
+Then she half gasped:--
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean--"
+
+"Of course you didn't. Never mind. You ain't the first girl has had her
+foot through these steps, and you won't be the last. After somebody has
+broke a leg or two, then they'll put backboards to 'em. Not before. Is
+your head swimming yet?"
+
+"It feels queerly. It jars so."
+
+"That's the machinery and the noise. The whole building just shakes and
+buzzes when we get fairly started. Don't be scared. You're all safe.
+Lots of girls feel just that way when they first come. Lots of 'em faint
+away. Some can't stand it at all. But you'll get used, don't fear. I was
+one of the fainters, and I kept it up quite a spell. The 'boss' of the
+room got so mad he told me if I didn't quit fainting I'd have to quit
+spinning. So I made a bold face and haven't fainted since. You see, I
+couldn't afford to. I had to do this or starve."
+
+By this time Amy's fright was past, and she was regarding her comforter
+with that friendly gratitude which won her the instant liking of the
+other, who resumed:--
+
+"Pshaw! The girls didn't know what they were saying. You don't look a
+mite stuck up. You aren't, are you?"
+
+"Indeed, no. Why should I be? But I do thank you so much for your
+kindness just now, and I'm sorry if my blundering has made you late.
+Will you be 'docked'?"
+
+"Oh, no. We've time enough. Gwen is always in a desperate hurry. She
+likes a chance to talk before she begins work. She's a nice girl, but
+she isn't very deep. Say, have you seen her new winter hat?"
+
+"No; has she another than that she wore this morning?"
+
+"My! yes."
+
+The "old hand" and the "new" were now quietly climbing to the top floor
+where their tasks were to be side by side, and Amy had time to examine
+her companion's face. It was plain and freckled, boasting none of that
+"prettiness" of which Gwendolyn was so openly proud, but it was gentle
+and intelligent, and had a look of delicacy which suggested chronic
+suffering, patiently borne. Amy had not far to seek the cause of this
+pathetic expression, for Mary Reese was a hunchback. In her attire there
+was as much simplicity as in Amy's own, but without grace or harmony of
+coloring.
+
+"You're looking at my clothes, aren't you? Well, they're the great
+trouble of my life. After I pay my board and washing, I don't have more
+than fifty cents left. I do the best I can, but I'm no hand with a
+needle, and Saturday-halves are short. I thought you were the loveliest
+thing I ever saw, that day you went round the mill with the 'Supe.'"
+
+"Oh, did you see me then? Did I see you? What is your name? Ah, are we
+up there already?"
+
+"You can ask questions, can't you? Yes, I saw you. My name is Mary
+Reese. If you saw me, you certainly didn't notice me, and I'm always
+mighty glad when folks don't turn for a second stare at my poor
+shoulders."
+
+"Mary, nobody would, surely," cried Amy, and flung her arm protectingly
+across the deformity of her new friend.
+
+"You dear, to think you'd do that when you know me so little. Well,
+there's many a body touches my hump 'for luck,' but I can't remember
+when anybody did for--love. I'm not going to forget it, either. Even a
+homely little hunchback has her own power among these people. There,
+we're here. This is our 'jenny.' I'm so glad we are to work on the same
+machine. There'll be another girl on your side till you learn; then
+she'll be taken off and we'll be alone. I'll like that. Shall you?"
+
+"I--think--so," responded Amy, absently, her attention now engrossed by
+the excitement about her. Girls were hurrying to take their places
+before the long frames filled with reels, on which fine woollen threads
+were being wound by the revolutions of the machinery overhead. These
+reels whirled round so rapidly that Amy could not follow their motion,
+and the buzz-buzz, as of a thousand bees humming, filled her ears and
+confused the instructions of the girl who was to give her her first
+lesson in winding and "tending."
+
+Across the great frame Mary nodded encouragingly, but it is safe to say
+that Amy had never felt so incompetent and foolish as she did while she
+was striving to understand what was expected of her.
+
+"No, no, no; you must be quicker. See, this spool is full. This is how.
+'Doffer,' here!"
+
+The lad who had created the ripple of admiration on his passage to this
+room, now approached. His motions were exact and incredibly swift. It
+was his duty to remove full spools and replace them by empty ones, and
+he did this duty for sixteen spinning frames. Seeing the "new hand's"
+astonishment at his deftness he became reckless and, intending an
+unusually dexterous movement, miscalculated his reach, and the result
+was a momentary tangle among the whirling spindles.
+
+"Stupid, see what you're at!" cried Amy's instructor, as by a swift
+movement of her foot she brought the rapidly circling frame to a
+standstill. "Now, you've done it!"
+
+"And I'll undo it," he returned, casting a side glance at the stranger.
+
+"If those who've worked here so long make mistakes, I'll not give up,"
+she thought; and Mary came round from behind the frame in time to read
+this thought.
+
+"Don't you mind. You see, we have to be on guard all the time. If we're
+not, something happens like this. Wait. While they're fixing those
+spools, you watch me tie these threads. That's what you have to do. To
+keep everything straight and fasten on the new ends as the old ones run
+out."
+
+"But I don't see you 'tie' it. There is no knot."
+
+"Of course not. We couldn't have rough things in the thread that is
+going to make a carpet. We just twist it--so. Do you see? It can't pull
+apart, and it makes no roughness. Try; keep on trying; and after you
+have practised awhile, you'll be as swift as swift."
+
+"I feel as slow as slow."
+
+The "new hand" smiled into the eager face of her willing helper, and the
+poor hunchback's heart glowed. That so bright a creature should ever
+come to be a worker in that busy mill, side by side with her own self,
+was stranger than the strangest of the cheap novels she read so
+constantly.
+
+"It beats all, don't it?" demanded Mary, clasping Amy's little brown
+hand.
+
+"What, dear? What beats what? Have I done that one better? Do you think
+I'll ever, ever be able to keep up my side of the 'frame' after this
+other one leaves me?"
+
+Mary's laugh was good to hear. Mr. Metcalf, entering the room, heard it
+and smiled. Yet his smile was fleeting, and his only comment a reprimand
+to "Jack doffer" for his carelessness.
+
+"It must not happen again. Understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the youth, humbly.
+
+Of Amy herself the superintendent took no notice whatever beyond a curt
+nod. She did not understand this, and a pain shot through her sensitive
+heart. Then she reflected that he might not have seen her.
+
+"Do you suppose he did, or that he knew me? You see, I've always worn
+white before, and maybe he did not recognize me."
+
+"Oh, he saw you all right. He wouldn't more 'n nod to his own wife, if
+he's on his rounds, and full of business. I've heard that he was very
+pleasant outside the mill and among his folks, but I never saw him any
+different from just now. Seems to me he looks on us like he does the
+spools on the spinners. I always feel as if I were part of the
+machine--the poorest part--and I guess you will, too. There, it's fixed
+and starting up. Hurry to your place and don't get scared. Sallie's
+cross, but she can't help it. She used to be one of the 'fainters.' Yes;
+that's right. Now all there is, is to keep at it till twelve o'clock
+whistle."
+
+That meant nearly five hours of the steadiest and most difficult labor
+which Amy had ever undertaken. Yet these others near her, and the crowds
+of spinners all through the great apartment, appeared to take this labor
+very easily, and were even able to carry on a conversation amid the
+deafening noise.
+
+Amy watched so intently, and tried so faithfully to do just what and all
+that was expected of her that she did, indeed, make a rapid progress
+for one beginning; and when the welcome whistle sounded, she was
+surprised to see how instantly every frame was stopped, and to hear Mary
+saying:--
+
+"If you don't want to go with anybody else, I'd admire to have you eat
+your lunch with me."
+
+"I'd like to, certainly, but I don't believe I can eat. My head is
+whirling, whirling, just like those dreadful spools. Isn't it terrible?"
+
+"No, I don't think so. I don't notice them now, except to make them say
+things. But come along, we have a half-hour nooning. We might have a
+whole hour, but most of the hands like to give up part of their
+dinner-time every day and then take the afternoon off on Saturday. The
+'Supe' doesn't care, so that's the way we get our 'Saturday-half.' I
+sometimes wish we worked the other way, but of course we couldn't. If
+part stops, the other part has to, 'cause every room depends on some
+other room to keep it going."
+
+"Why, I think that's beautiful, don't you? Like a big whole, and all of
+us the needed parts."
+
+"No, I don't. I don't see one single beautiful thing about this hateful
+old mill. At least, I didn't before this morning, when you came."
+
+Amy looked into Mary's face a moment. Then she stooped and kissed it
+gently. Small though Amy herself was, for her age, she was still taller
+than her new friend, and felt herself far stronger.
+
+Away in another place Gwendolyn and her mates observed this little
+by-play, and one girl remarked:--
+
+"Hmm. That settles _her_ hash. If she's going to take up with that
+horrid Mary Reese, there won't anybody go with her. Not a single girl,
+and as for the fellows--my!"
+
+To this flirtatious young person to be ignored by "the fellows" meant
+the depth of misfortune. Happily, however, Amy had never hear the word
+"fellow," as at present applied, and to do anything for the sake of
+attracting attention to herself she would have considered the extreme of
+vulgarity.
+
+Mary guided her to a quiet corner behind some bales, and filling a tin
+cup with water from a faucet, proceeded to open her own luncheon. Then
+she watched Amy, who, almost too weary to eat, loitered over the untying
+of the dainty parcel Cleena had made up. When she at last did so, and
+quietly sorted the contents of the neat box, she was surprised by Mary's
+astonished stare.
+
+"What is it, dear? Aren't you hungry?"
+
+"Hungry? I'm starved. But--see the difference. It goes even into our
+victuals. Oh dear, there isn't any use!" and, with a bitter sob, the
+mill girl tossed aside her own rude parcel of food and dropped her face
+in her hands.
+
+Girlhood is swiftly intuitive. The boarding-house lunch which the
+hunchback had brought was quite sufficient in quantity, but it was
+coarse in extreme, and meats had been wrapped in one bit of newspaper
+along with the sweets, so that the flavor of each article spoiled the
+flavor of all. Yet it was the first time that Mary had rebelled against
+such an arrangement.
+
+Now it was different. Amy's speech, Amy's manner and belongings, opened
+before the slumbering ambition of the mill girl a picture of better
+things, which she recognized as unattainable for herself.
+
+Then she felt again the clasp of firm, young arms about her own neck,
+and a face that was both smiling and tearful pressed close to her own.
+
+"You dear little girl. I see, I understand. But you've never had a
+chance to try how I've lived and I've never tried how you do. Let's
+change. Yes; I insist, for this once. You eat my lunch, and I'll eat
+yours. It will do Goodsoul's great heart no end of good when I tell her
+about it, and it will make me comprehend just how life looks from your
+side. Remember, we're both poor girls together now, and I--insist."
+
+Amy had a will, as has been remarked. So, in a few seconds, the two
+lunches were exchanged, and for almost the first time in her life Mary
+Reese knew what it was to feed daintily and correctly.
+
+"It makes me feel as if I was straighter, somehow. And you're a dear,
+dear girl."
+
+"Thank you, of course it does. I wouldn't like to do anything that hurt
+my own self-respect, even in such a little thing as eating. But, you
+see, I had my darling mother. Now I've had to let her go; yet if you'll
+let me, I'll be so glad to teach you all she taught me. It will be
+keeping her memory green in just the very way she'd like."
+
+"Teaching isn't all. The difference is _born_ in us."
+
+"Nonsense. Think of Mr. Metcalf. They say he was a foundling baby, and
+yet he's a gentleman."
+
+"Even if he doesn't speak to you in work hours?" asked Mary, with a
+mischievous glance that would have surprised her mill mates had they
+seen it. Already the leaven of kindness was working in her neglected
+life, and for the moment she forgot to be upon the defensive against the
+indifference of others.
+
+"Even anything. But, hear me, Mary Reese. Here am I, as poor as poor can
+be, but determined to succeed in doing something grand. Guess what?"
+
+"I couldn't tell. The whistle will blow again in a minute."
+
+"I'm going to build a Home for Mill Girls, where they shall have all
+things that any gentlewoman should have. I haven't the least idea how
+nor when nor where. But I'm going to do it. You'll see. And you shall
+help. Maybe that's just why God let me come here and be a mill girl
+myself."
+
+After a pause the other spoke. "It seems queer to hear you say such
+things. Yet you're not what I call 'pious,' I--guess."
+
+"Don't be afraid. I'm not goody-goody, at all. But it's the most
+interesting thing mother taught me: the watching how everything
+'happens' in life, like a wonderful picture or even a curious, beautiful
+puzzle. Each part, each thing, fits so perfectly into its place, and
+it's such fun to watch and see them fit. Yes, I believe that's the key
+to my coming."
+
+For a moment these girlish dreamers clasped hands and saw visions. The
+next, a whistle sounded and, still hand in hand, they returned to their
+frame and to this toil which was part of a far-reaching "plan." On the
+way they passed "Jack doffer," wearing his most fetching smile, and a
+new necktie, recklessly disported during work hours for the sole purpose
+of dazzling the bright eyes of the pretty "new hand."
+
+Unfortunately for his vanity, the "new hand" never saw him, because of
+those still lingering visions of a Home with a capital H; and oddly
+enough, the youth respected her the more since she did not. Later on
+things would be altered; but neither of them knew that then.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BALAAM.
+
+
+"Me Gineral Bonyparty, come by!"
+
+The lad in the depths of the cellar vouchsafed no reply. He heard
+distinctly, and Cleena knew that he did. This did not allay her rising
+wrath.
+
+"The spalpeen! That's what comes o' takin' in folks to do for. Ah,
+Fayetty," she called wheedlingly.
+
+Good Cleena had almost as many titles for her "adopted son" as her
+"childer" had for her. Each one suggested to the simple fellow some
+particular mood of the speaker. "Gineral" meant mild sarcasm, and when
+"Bonyparty" was added, there was indicated a need for prompt and
+unquestioning obedience. "Fayetty" was the forerunner of something
+agreeable, to which might or might not be appended something equally
+disagreeable.
+
+Said Hallam, once: "Freely translated, 'Fayetty' stands for ginger
+cookies, and sometimes the cookies must be earned."
+
+The call came the third time:--
+
+"Napoleon Bonyparty Lafayette Jimpson, come out o' that! Two twists of
+a lamb's tail an' I'll fasten ye down!"
+
+The reconstruction of Fayette gave Cleena plenty of employment, and in
+one thing he disappointed her, sorely and continually: he utterly and
+defiantly refused to work in the mill or elsewhere that would bring in
+wages. Since Amy had become a daily toiler, this attitude on his part
+angered the poor woman beyond endurance.
+
+Yet there was not any laziness about Fayette. Nobody could have been
+more industrious, or more illy have directed his industry. As long as it
+was possible to work in the ground he had labored upon the barren soil
+of Bareacre, and those who understood such matters assured the Kayes
+that they would really have a fine garden spot, when another spring came
+round.
+
+"Surely, he that makes the wilderness to blossom is well engaged,
+Cleena," Mr. Kaye had remonstrated once, in his quiet way.
+
+"Faith, yes, master, but till them roses bloom there might be better
+doin'," she had returned. In her heart she respected Mr. Kaye's judgment
+less even than the mill boy's, though she veiled this contempt by an
+outward deference.
+
+To-day was a crisis. For good or ill, Cleena had determined to have the
+question of wage-earning settled. Either the lad must go to work and
+bring in something to pay for his keep, or he must "clear himself out."
+
+"D'ye mean it?"
+
+"Yes, avick, I means it! Up with ye, or stay below--for as long as I
+please."
+
+Fayette threw down his pick and crawled forward through the trench he
+was digging. The idle suggestion of Hallam had taken firm hold of the
+natural's mind, and with a dogged persistence, that he showed also in
+other matters, he had now been daily laboring upon the cross-shaped
+excavation which was to ventilate the cellars of "Charity House." He had
+made a fine beginning, and so explained to Cleena, as his mud-stained
+face appeared above the cellar stairs.
+
+"A beginnin' o' nonsense. When all's done, what use? Sit down an' taste
+the last o' the cakes me neighbor sent up. Here, you William, keep out
+o' that! It's for Miss Amy, dear heart. Four weeks an' longer she's been
+up before light, trudgin' away as gay as a mavis, with never a word that
+she's bothered. Alanna, Mister Gladstone, what's now?"
+
+A surplus of small Joneses had swarmed over the lower floor of the house
+on the hill, and their presence was now accepted by Cleena with little
+opposition, because of the generosity of their parents.
+
+"True for ye, the babies be forever under me foot, but one never comes
+atop the rise but there's doubled in his little fist the stuff to make
+him welcome. It may be a cake, or a biscuit, or a bowl o' milk even.
+It's something for some one."
+
+"The 'some one' is generally the bearer of the loaf, or cake, eh,
+Cleena?" asked Hallam, who was lingering in the kitchen, gathering what
+warmth he could from the stove there. The coals provided in the autumn
+were long ago consumed, and out of the scanty supply she had been able
+to procure since then, Cleena wasted little below stairs. In the
+master's studio above a fire was always burning, and if, as he sometimes
+did, he asked whence the supply, the faithful servant put his inquiry
+aside with some evasive remark.
+
+He had now work at hand which engrossed him entirely, and to which heat
+and physical comfort were a necessity. He was painting a life-sized
+portrait of his wife, and not one of the household could do aught but
+wish him God-speed on so precious a labor.
+
+Meanwhile, Hallam lay so silent upon the settle beside the stove that
+neither of them, Cleena nor Fayette, noticed him.
+
+"Here you, William, Beatrice, Belinda, come by! Set yourselves down in
+the corner, yon. Here's a fine bag o' scraps for you two little maids.
+Pick 'em over that neat your mother'll be proud; and, William, take out
+these things from Miss Amy's box till you puts them back as straight as
+straight. Sure, it's long since herself's had the time, an' he's a smart
+little gossoon, so he is."
+
+The little girls emptied the bag of pieces on the floor, and sorting
+them into piles began to roll them into tidy bundles. Along with
+improving Fayette, Cleena had early set out upon the same lines with the
+small Joneses. Even William Gladstone, the mite, was already learning to
+distinguish between soiled hands and clean, and to enjoy the latter.
+
+So now, while she talked, Cleena set the child to take out and replace
+with exactness the few treasured letters and cards, or papers, which
+were Amy's own, and kept in her big japanned box.
+
+Once, idly, Cleena observed the child lingering over a square packet,
+like an old-time letter, sealed with red wax. It was this bit of color
+which the little one fancied, and she smiled to see his delight in it.
+
+"The blessed baby! Sure, he's the makings of a fine man in him, so he
+has. Take a look, Fayetty, if yerself would copy yon."
+
+"You'll let that youngster play with your things once too often. He's a
+_hider_, Lionel Percival says so."
+
+"Humph! An' what that silly heeram-skeeram says means naught. Now, hear
+me, me gineral. This ends it. You goes to work, or you goes to play.
+Which is it?"
+
+"I--I won't."
+
+"Which is it?" repeated Cleena, sternly.
+
+The natural fidgeted. In his heart he was afraid of his self-constituted
+"mother." He had no wish to return to the drudgery of the mill. He was
+wholly interested in his cellar-digging. He had heard tales of mining,
+and in some way he had obtained a miner's lantern. This he fastened to
+his "parade hat," and wore to lighten his underground labors.
+
+Vague visions of untold wealth floated in his dull brain. Somewhere in
+the world he knew that other men were digging in other trenches for
+gold. He had heard the "boys" say so often, and some of them had even
+gone to do likewise. He had seen gold sometimes in Mr. Metcalf's office
+safe. Not much of it, indeed, but enough to fire his fancy. All the time
+he toiled he was looking for something round and glistening, like the
+coins he had seen. He was not in the least discouraged because he had
+found none. There was time enough, for he had not much more than begun
+what he hoped to complete. Yet, as Cleena knew, he had made a
+considerable opening under the west room and had carried out many
+barrowfuls of earth. This he had utilized upon his garden, which was
+almost as interesting to him as his mining.
+
+"Which is it, avick?"
+
+"Must I?"
+
+"Troth, must ye? Indeed, look here." Leaning over the table she spread
+before her charge's eyes a dilapidated pocket-book. It had been the
+receptacle for the family funds, but it was now quite empty. Fayette
+stared hard. Then he whistled.
+
+"You don't say so! All gone? Every cent?"
+
+Cleena nodded. Her face was very grave. It frightened the lad. He
+glanced toward Hallam, apparently asleep on the settle, and whispered:--
+
+"Where's hers? What she earns?"
+
+"Humph! That little! Well, it's gone. The last week's wage to buy her
+shoes. Faith, the poor little feet! Steppin' along to her duty with
+never a turn aside, an' the holes clean through the soles. Oh, me
+fathers, that ever I should see the day!"
+
+Overcome by her memories of far different circumstances, Cleena bowed
+her gray head upon her arms above the empty purse and shook in
+suppressed grief. So faithful was she that she would not have counted
+even her life of value if by sacrificing it she could have restored unto
+her "folks" the departed joy and comfort of their house.
+
+Fayette reached over and lifted the purse. He was not satisfied until he
+had examined it for himself. Then he rose and took the lantern from his
+hat.
+
+"I'll fetch some," he said briefly, and turned toward the door.
+
+But Hallam had not been so fast asleep as he seemed, and he demanded
+whither Fayette was bound.
+
+"It's nothin' to worry about, Master Hal. Just a little matter o'
+business 'twixt me gineral here an' meself. Can't a body wear out her
+shoes without so much ado?" she asked, thrusting into view her great
+foot with its still unbroken, stout, calfskin brogan upon it.
+
+Hallam smiled. "You can't deceive me, dear old Scrubbub. It's not you
+that's wanting new shoes, and if Fayette is going millward, I am going
+too."
+
+"Master Hal, what for now? An' what'll the master be sayin' if he's
+wantin' you betimes? Isn't it bad enough to keep him content without
+Amy, let alone yerself? No, no; go up by. It's warmer in the paintin'
+room, an' sure a body's still as you can't bother nobody, even a
+artist."
+
+But the cripple limped across the room and took from a recess his cap
+and the short top-coat he wore when he rode Balaam. It was as warm as it
+was clumsy, and gave his slender figure a width that was quite becoming.
+Like Amy's, his headgear was always a Scotch Tam, and when it crowned
+his fair face Cleena thought him exceeding good to look upon.
+
+"Arrah musha, but you're the lad for me! An' after all, no matter if the
+winds be cold, a ride'll do ye fine, an' make the oatmeal taste sweet in
+your mouth."
+
+"It's time something did. Oatmeal three times a day is a trifle
+monotonous. Heigho! for one of your chicken pies, Goodsoul."
+
+He was sorry as soon as he said that. Not to be able to give her
+"childer" what they desired was always real distress to Cleena. So he
+laughed her regret away, with the question:--
+
+"If I bring home a pair of fowls, will you cook them?"
+
+"Will I no? Fetch me the birds, an' I'll show you. Go on, Fayetty, an'
+saddle the beast."
+
+But Fayette was not, at that moment, inclined to do this office for the
+other lad. He had resolved upon a kindly deed, one which involved
+self-sacrifice on his part, and like many other wiser people he was
+inclined to let the one generous act cover several meaner ones.
+
+It was his heart's desire to own Balaam. If he took some of the money
+which the superintendent was keeping for him and gave it to Cleena for
+the housekeeping, he lessened his chance of obtaining his object by just
+that much. If he gave Cleena the money, he wanted everybody to
+understand that he fully realized, himself, how magnanimous he was.
+
+However, in many respects Hallam was his hero, and between the two there
+had been, of late, a little secret which Fayette was proud to share.
+Each day he would ask, with extreme caution:--
+
+"You hain't told nobody yet, have ye?"
+
+Commonly the cripple would answer: "No; nor shall I. There's no use."
+
+"Sho! Yes, there is. Read it an' see. If it's in the paper, it's so.
+Huckleberries! You ain't no more pluck than a skeeter."
+
+Then Hallam would reread the scrap of newspaper he carried in his
+pocket; and each time, after such a reading, a brighter light shone in
+the eyes of both boys, and the foundling would observe:--
+
+"It's worth tryin'. I say, it's worth tryin'. _I_ ain't tired yet. Keep
+her up."
+
+Hallam knew the half-column of print by heart. It had been brought him
+by Amy, on the day she went to Mr. Metcalf's office. She had asked the
+loan of the newspaper, and had received it as a gift. She had hurried
+home, full of enthusiasm, and showed it to Hallam. He had not been
+enthusiastic, and had apparently tossed the article aside as worthless
+to him. Amy was too busy to give the matter further thought, and did not
+know that after she had left the room her brother had read the paragraph
+a second time, and had then carefully preserved it.
+
+Even now, as they started for the mill, Fayette requested to "hear it
+again," but Hallam declined.
+
+"It's too cold. And if I don't hurry and do what I set out to, I'm
+afraid I'll back out."
+
+"Is it somethin' ye hate to do?"
+
+"Yes; it--Don't let's talk about it."
+
+"Just the way I feel. I'd ruther live on one meal a day 'n do it. Once I
+give it to her, I shan't never see no more of it. Oh, I know _her_!
+She's a regular boss, she is."
+
+"Cleena? But she's a dear old creature, even so."
+
+"Oh, I like her. I like her first rate. She's a good cook an' middlin'
+good-lookin'. I hain't got nothin' again her. They say, to the village,
+how 't John Young talks o' sparkin' her."
+
+"What? Teamster John? Our Cleena? Well, he'd better not!"
+
+In his indignation Hallam nearly slipped from his saddle. He did let one
+of his crutches fall, and Fayette picked up that, took the other, and
+cheerfully "packed" them to the end of their journey.
+
+"Why not? His wife's dead."
+
+"Yes. But--our Cleena! Cleena Keegan! Well, there's no danger of her
+encouraging him. Between her own 'folks,' yourself, and the Joneses, I
+think she has all she can attend to without taking in a man to worry
+with."
+
+The subject was idlest village gossip, but it served to divert Hallam's
+thoughts from his impending errand, and he arrived at the office of the
+mill in good spirits. Then he remembered a saying he had heard in the
+community:--
+
+"All roads lead to the mill," and quoted it for Fayette's benefit.
+
+"That's so. But, say, I hate that old Wingate that's got it now. He
+licked me when I worked for him. Licked me more 'n once, just because I
+fooled a little with his horses. I was bound out to him from the
+poor-farm, an' I run away. He treated me bad. I'm goin' to get even with
+him some day. You watch an' see."
+
+"Well, here we are. Is this the office? Will you go in with me and help
+me find the superintendent? I've never been here, you know."
+
+"Huckleberries! Ain't that queer? And Amy comes every day."
+
+Fayette meant no reproach. His thoughts were never profound, but Hallam
+flushed and felt ashamed.
+
+"That's true. The more disgrace to me. Well, cripple or not, that's the
+last time anybody shall ever say, truthfully, that my little sister has
+set me an example of courage and effort. Hurry up. Open the door."
+
+A moment later both lads stood within the little room wherein so many
+big money transactions took place; and it is doubtful if any speculator
+coming there had felt greater anxiety over the outcome of his visit than
+these two whose "operations" were to be of such a modest limit.
+
+"Boss, I've come after my money. I want the whole lot."
+
+"Good day, 'Bony'; good day, Hallam Kaye, I believe."
+
+Hallam bowed, and before his courage could wane, replied:--
+
+"Yes; I'm sorry to interrupt you in business hours, but--will you buy
+Balaam, Pepita's brother?"
+
+Before the gentleman could answer, Fayette had clutched Hallam's
+shoulder.
+
+"What's that? Did you come here to sell that donkey?"
+
+"I came to try to sell it, certainly."
+
+"Then I'm sorry I ever touched to help you. I want him myself. I come
+to get my money a purpose. My money is as good as his. He shan't have
+it. I'll have it myself."
+
+Mr. Metcalf interrupted:--
+
+"But, 'Bony,' you can't afford to keep such an animal. It would take all
+your capital to pay for him. Wait. Sometime, if you're industrious,
+you'll be rich enough to have a horse and carriage. Indeed, I mean it;
+and, yes, Hallam, I will very gladly buy your burro. I've wanted him
+ever since Amy let us have Pepita. I--"
+
+"You shan't have him, then. You never shall. I want him, an' I'll keep
+him. You see!"
+
+The door opened and shut with a bang. Whether purposely or not, it was
+impossible to say, but in his outward rush the half-wit brushed so
+rudely past Hallam that he knocked his crutch from his grasp, so that he
+would have fallen, had not the superintendent caught and steadied the
+lad to a seat.
+
+"That's 'Bony' all over. As irresponsible as a child and ungovernable in
+his rage. Yet, never fear; he'll be back again, sometime."
+
+"But--he has taken Balaam. What can I do now?"
+
+Mr. Metcalf walked to the window and looked out. There was a dash of
+something black disappearing at the turn of the road.
+
+"Humph! That's bad. He's taken the road to the mountains. When his
+'wood fit' comes over him, summer or winter, he vanishes. Sometimes he
+is gone for months."
+
+"And he's taken Balaam with him," repeated the other.
+
+"Yes; he certainly has;" but when the superintendent looked toward
+Hallam he was startled by the hopeless expression of the lad's fine
+face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE FASCINATION OF INDUSTRY.
+
+
+"Sit down, lad, and rest. It will not be long before noon, and then I
+will send for your sister to come here."
+
+"Thank you. Do you think he will stay long, this time?"
+
+"'Bony'? It's just as the fit takes him. There's no accounting for his
+whims, poor unbalanced fellow. In some respects he is clever and
+remarkably clean-handed. In fixing parts of the machinery, I would
+rather have his help than that of most professionals, he is so careful
+about the minutest details. Yet, of course, it would be out of the
+question to rely upon him. There's another thing. He's a most excellent
+nurse. For days at a time, when there's been sickness in the mill
+village, he has devoted himself faithfully to whoever seemed to take his
+fancy. His big, ungainly hand has a truly wonderful power of soothing.
+When I had rheumatic fever, he was the only person I could endure to
+have in the room with me. His step was lighter even than that of my
+wife, and I really believe I should have died but for his care."
+
+The superintendent was talking, simply to entertain and divert his
+visitor from the lad's own present annoyance, but he little knew how
+full of import his casual remarks were to his hearer.
+
+"Do you mean that he is magnetic? that there is something in the claim
+he makes of being a 'healer'?"
+
+"Quite as much as in the claim of any such person. There are, of course,
+some human beings so constituted that they can influence for good the
+physical conditions of other people. I am very sorry that his present
+whim has seized him. I would like the burro, and you would like the
+price of him. Well, all in good time. Meanwhile, if I can help you,
+please tell me."
+
+"There was only one way in which you could, so far as I know. That was
+by buying my pet. I--I don't suppose," Hallam continued, with hesitancy,
+"that there is anything such a--a useless fellow as I could do to earn
+money here?"
+
+"I am not so sure about that. What sort of work would you like?"
+
+"Any sort."
+
+Mr. Metcalf went into another room and presently returned with some
+oblong pieces of cardboard. These had a checked surface, and upon these
+checks were painted or stained partial patterns, designs for the carpets
+woven in the mills.
+
+"Your father is an artist. Have you learned anything about his work, or
+of coloring?"
+
+"Something, of course, though very little. I would not be an artist."
+
+"Indeed? But there are artisans whose work is simple, mechanical, and
+reasonably lucrative. Our designers, for instance, make an excellent
+living. Do you see these numbers at the sides of the patterns?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"They are for the guidance of the weavers. The threads of the carpets
+are numbered, and these numbers correspond. Therefore, the weaver can
+make his carpet from his pattern with mathematical exactness. We require
+many such copies of the original design. If you would like to try this
+sort of work, I will give you a temporary job. The boy who usually does
+it is ailing, and I have allowed him a vacation. The wages are small, no
+more than Amy earns, but the work isn't difficult, and is the only thing
+I have now, suitable for you."
+
+Incidentally the gentleman's eyes turned toward Hallam's crutches
+leaning against the arm of the chair where he sat; but instead of
+feeling humiliated by the glance, as the sensitive cripple often did,
+this casual one fired his heart with a new ambition. He recalled the
+words of the surgeon, and was no longer angry with them.
+
+"I will be a man in spite of it all," flashed through his brain. Aloud
+he said:--
+
+"I will be very glad to try the work."
+
+"Very well. When can you begin?"
+
+"Now."
+
+Mr. Metcalf smiled.
+
+"All right. A lad so prompt is the lad for me. But I had imagined
+another sort of fellow,--not so energetic, indeed."
+
+"I've not been worth much. I've been lazy and selfish; but I mean to
+turn over a new leaf. I'll try to be useful, and if I fail--I fail."
+
+"But you'll not fail. God never sent anybody into this world for whom He
+did not provide a place, a duty. You will succeed. You may even get to
+'the top,' that roomy plane where there are so few competitors. I want
+you to count me your friend. I, too, am a self-made man. There are few
+obstacles one cannot conquer, given good health and determination."
+
+Then once more the employer's gaze rested upon the crutches, and his
+heart misgave him that he had roused ambitions which could not be
+realized. The poor cripple was handicapped from the start by his
+infirmity.
+
+Hallam again saw the expression of the other's face, and again it nerved
+him to a firmer will.
+
+"Even that shall not hinder, sir; and now if you will explain to me the
+work, I'll make a try at it right away."
+
+Mr. Metcalf placed the designs upon a sloping table, at one side the
+office, and Hallam took the chair before it, as requested. Then the
+superintendent went over the system of numbering the designs, and
+illustrated briefly.
+
+"Now you try. I'll watch. Go on as if I were not here. If I do not
+speak, consider that you are working correctly."
+
+Hallam's intelligence was of a fine order, and he had always been a keen
+observer. Before Mr. Metcalf had finished his explanations the lad had
+grasped the whole idea of the work, and he took up the pen the gentleman
+laid down with the confidence of one who understood exactly what he had
+to do.
+
+"'Knowledge is power,' there is no truer saying," remarked the teacher,
+watching the tyro's eager efforts. "It's as easy as A B C to you,
+apparently."
+
+"It seems very simple. I think I would enjoy it better, though, if I
+could see the application."
+
+"How the patterns are used?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Come this way."
+
+Which was not by the shorter one of the stairway on the cliff, up which
+Fayette had once forced the reluctant Pepita, but around by the sloping
+wagon track and into the lower rooms of the great building. Already the
+lad knew most of these by the descriptions his sister had given him, but
+no description could equal the facts. As she had done, so he experienced
+that thrill of excitement, as he realized the mighty, throbbing life all
+around him, of which the wonderful machinery and the human hands and
+brains which controlled it seemed but parts of one vast whole. His eyes
+kindled, his cheeks flushed, and, as Amy had done, he forgot in his
+eagerness over the new scene that others might be observing him and his
+deformity.
+
+At the weavers' looms he was "all eyes and ears," as one remarked.
+Seeing the woollen threads stretched up and down, perfectly colored and
+looking like a greatly elongated pattern, gave him a complete insight of
+the task for which he had been engaged.
+
+"I thought I understood it before. I think I could not make a mistake
+now. A mistake would mean disaster wouldn't it?"
+
+"It would," answered the superintendent, delighted to find his new
+helper such a promising aid. "See, here is the pattern. Watch the weaver
+awhile, then come with me to the 'setting room.' There is where Amy will
+be if she keeps on as industriously as she has begun. I tell you brains
+count. You are both gifted with them, and it should make you
+grateful--helpful, too. I think the least of all a man's possessions
+that he has a right to keep to himself is his brain."
+
+Hallam looked up in surprise. Amy's acquaintance with the superintendent
+had begun most auspiciously, and he had desired to be considered her
+"friend," even as now her brother's. Yet since her coming to work in the
+mill, Mr. Metcalf had not exchanged a dozen sentences with her. She saw
+him daily, almost hourly. He was everywhere present about the great
+buildings. In no department was anybody sure of the time of his
+appearance, yet not one was overlooked. This kept the operators keyed
+to an expectancy which brought out from them their best, for the
+approbation of this observant 'boss' meant much to each. Yet he rarely
+spoke in a harsh tone to any, nor had any ever heard him utter an oath.
+This, in itself, gave him a distinction from all other mill
+superintendents under which most of these operatives had served, and
+added, it may be, a greater awe to their respect of him.
+
+"I've been color mixer in a carpet mill these forty years, and Metcalf's
+the only 'Supe' I ever knew could run one without swearing," often
+remarked the master of the dyeing room. "He does; and a fellow may count
+himself lucky to work under such a man."
+
+The color mixer, being a most important personage in the institution,
+had influence among his _confreres_, with good reason. His trade was an
+art and a secret. Like all trade secrets it commanded its own price. He
+was said to enjoy a salary "among the thousands," and to have rejected
+even richer offers for the sake of the peaceful discipline at Ardsley.
+
+Then the two visited the "setting room," where the mill girls reached
+the highest promotion possible in their business. The "setting" is the
+arrangement upon frames of the threads of the carpet, perfectly
+adjusted. A girl sits upon each side the frame, which holds from two
+hundred threads to slightly an advance upon that number. It is clean and
+dainty work, and the operator is fortunate who can secure the position.
+It is the same "thread" which, drawn over wires, in the weaver's hands,
+makes the looplike surface of Brussels carpeting, which was the only
+sort manufactured at Ardsley.
+
+"You find it fascinating, don't you? So did Amy. Well, if you work here,
+in any department, you will have opportunity to study the whole science,
+from beginning to end. But I'm to meet Mr. Wingate in ten minutes in his
+private office. Let us go back."
+
+Amy, away up on the fourth floor where she worked, knew nothing of this
+visit, and was a little dismayed when she received a summons to go down
+"to the 'Supe's' room for her nooning."
+
+She was now alone with Mary at her "jenny," and had already become so
+expert that those who understood such matters prophesied she would soon
+be promoted to the "twisting and doubling." That very morning the "boss"
+of their room had said to her:--
+
+"We never had a girl come here who got on so fast. It mostly takes
+months to learn a half-machine. After another three she can mind both
+sides. That means about four dollars and a half a week. Well, you've
+been quick and faithful, and nobody could envy your good luck."
+
+As she picked up her lunch basket and descended toward the office, more
+than one called after her a good wish.
+
+"Don't you be scared of the 'Supe.' If he scolds and you aren't to
+blame, just tell him so, and he'll like you the better."
+
+"Maybe he's going to promote you a'ready, though I don't see how he
+could. I won't be jealous if he does, though," cried another; and
+Gwendolyn, the inquisitive, resolved to keep up Amy's spirits by
+accompanying her to the interview.
+
+"But, Gwen, did he send for you?"
+
+"No; course not. If he did, I shouldn't feel so chipper. There ain't no
+love lost 'twixt the 'Supe' and me."
+
+"Then maybe--"
+
+"Trash! I'm going. Ain't I the one that fetched you here in the first
+place? Hadn't I ought to stand by you, thick or thin?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," answered Amy, more frightened by Gwendolyn's
+suggestive manner than by any consciousness of blunders made. Nor did
+she remind her neighbor that for a time, at first, while Amy's
+popularity had not been determined, the other had shrewdly held aloof,
+waiting the turn of the tide. Fortunately, this had been in the "new
+hand's" direction, and since then Gwendolyn's attentions had been almost
+overpowering.
+
+But, indeed, Amy did not even think this. "Simplicity, sincerity,
+sympathy"--she was faithfully striving to make this the rule of her own
+life, and therefore she could not imagine anything lower in the lives of
+others. But she still kept her frank tongue, and she gave it rein, as
+the pair hurried officeward.
+
+"Dear Gwen, if you only wouldn't chew that gum! It makes you look so
+queer, and spoils all the pretty outline of your cheek. Besides, I'm
+sure Mr. Metcalf doesn't like it. He always frowns when a gum-chewer has
+to speak with him about her work."
+
+"Pshaw, what a fuss you are! There, then, though that's the first bit
+off a new stick, I've thrown it out the window. _Is_ my cheek pretty?
+How do you manage to see things without looking? I never see you take
+your eyes off your frame, yet not a thing goes on in that room you don't
+seem to hear or know."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know, unless it's because having lived all alone,
+without other girls, I love to hear the voices and see the bright faces.
+Oh, I do love _folks_! And it seems to me that every single girl in that
+mill is far more interesting than the best story book I ever read."
+
+"Well, if you don't beat! But, say, Amy!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I don't believe there's another girl there would tell me I was pretty
+without saying something else would spoil it."
+
+"Oh, indeed, there must be. If it's the truth, why shouldn't one say it?
+But if it's the truth, again, you have no right to deface the beauty. Do
+give up the gum."
+
+"Why haven't I a right?"
+
+"I don't know why. I simply know you haven't, any more than I have to be
+untidy or disagreeable. I never realized until I came to be always among
+so many people how each one could pain or please her neighbor. And it
+seems to me each of us should be the sweetest, the best natured, the
+truest, it is possible. Heigho! I'm turning a preacher, and it's a good
+thing that there's the office, and I must stop. Brace your courage, Amy,
+and knock at the door."
+
+She did so and was promptly admitted; but did not see the
+superintendent, who thus served her, for he purposely stepped behind the
+door, so that her first glance fell upon Hallam seated at the sloping
+table and busily at work. She caught her breath, regained it, and rushed
+forward with a little shriek.
+
+"Hallam! Hallam Kaye! You here! you--working?"
+
+"Yes; I'm here. My first day at wage-earning. Didn't provide any lunch.
+Can you spare some for me? Ah, Gwendolyn, good day."
+
+Then another person appeared in the doorway--one whom nobody present
+cared to see just then, though the superintendent stepped from his
+hiding-place, the mirth dying out of his genial face as he bowed
+respectfully to his superior, Mr. Archibald Wingate, the owner of
+Ardsley Mill and of most of the surrounding property.
+
+"Good day, Metcalf. Eh? What? Amy? Hallam? You here?"
+
+"Yes, cousin Archibald. We are both here and working for you," answered
+Amy, quietly. Then she surprised even herself by extending her hand in
+greeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+MOTIVES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS.
+
+
+For an instant it seemed as if the old man would respond to the
+proffered civility; but his hand dropped again to his side, and Amy had
+the mortification of one who is repulsed. However, she had little time
+for thought. The master of the mill passed onward into his "den" and
+closed its door with a snap. On the ground glass which admitted light
+through the upper half the door, yet effectually screened from
+observation any who were within, was printed in large letters:--
+
+"Private. No Admittance."
+
+Then the girl turned an inquiring face toward the superintendent, who
+took her hand and shook it warmly.
+
+"Allow me to congratulate you, Miss Amy. You have done well,--famously,
+even. There's not been a girl in the mill, since I've had charge, who
+has learned so swiftly and thoroughly. What's the secret of it? Can you
+guess?"
+
+She had not been summoned for a reprimand, then. In her relief at this,
+the young operative scarcely heard the question put to her, and the
+gentleman replied to it himself.
+
+"I can tell you. It's your untiring perseverance, your persistent effort
+to do your best, without regard to anything or anybody about you. If all
+our girls would take example by you, promotions would be more frequent."
+
+Gwendolyn resented the glance with which the superintendent now favored
+her, and Amy would have preferred not to be so openly praised. She drew
+a chair to the table where Hallam sat, and hastily spread her luncheon
+upon it.
+
+"Come, Gwendolyn, bring yours. While we're eating, Hal shall tell us
+what this all means."
+
+He did so, rapidly, and between mouthfuls, for the half-hour's nooning
+had already been cut short by the unexpected meetings; and when the
+whistle sounded and the girls hurried back to their room, Amy carried a
+very thoughtful face.
+
+"Why, what a funny girl you are! You look as if you'd been scolded,
+after all, 'stead of praised and promised promotion. What's wrong?"
+
+"Fayette. To think he could run away with Balaam, after all we--or
+Cleena has done for him. Of course, he's done things for us, too; but I
+thought if we were kind to him, and made him feel that he was dear to
+somebody, he would improve and grow a splendid man."
+
+"'Can't make a purse out of a pig's ear,'" quoted Gwendolyn, seriously.
+"But don't you fret. He'll be back again, as humble as a lamb. You
+couldn't dog him away from 'Charity House,' I believe. He's been just
+wild over you all ever since he first saw you and your white burro. Say,
+Amy, I'm going to try and not chew any more. Your brother don't like it,
+does he, either?"
+
+"No; he detests it. He doesn't like anything that is unwomanly or
+coarse."
+
+Then they separated, but in the heart of each was a fresh determination:
+in Gwendolyn's that she would make herself into a "real lady," according
+to the standard of this brother and sister whom she admired, or saw
+admired of others; and in Amy's, to better deserve the encouragement of
+her employers, and to support Hallam to the utmost in his new ambition.
+
+But as she resumed her work she reflected, with much perplexity: "I
+don't understand yet why Mr. Metcalf is so delightful out of mill and so
+different here; nor why cousin Archibald still persists in being
+unfriendly, since he has gotten everything he wants."
+
+But she was still too ignorant of life to know that it is commonly the
+inflicter of an injury who shows ill feeling, and not the recipient of
+it.
+
+The afternoon passed swiftly, as all her days did now, and at the signal
+for leaving labor, both the girls hurried to don their outer things and
+join Hallam. But Amy had still a word for Mary.
+
+"To-morrow is half-holiday, you know, dear, and I've talked with
+Cleena. She wishes you to come and spend the night at 'Charity House,'
+and we'll fix things about that club all right."
+
+"What's that about a club?" asked another girl, noticing how the
+hunchback's face brightened. "Are you two going to join ours?"
+
+"Maybe; maybe not. Maybe we'll compromise and have but one. Though we
+can do little until after Christmas, it's so near now."
+
+"Oh, don't get up another. We have just lovely times in ours. All the
+boys come and--but I'll not tell. I'll leave you to see. They wanted I
+should ask you, and your brother, too. He's real nice looking, 'Jack
+doffer' says, even if he is lame."
+
+Amy's cheek burned, and her quick temper got her into trouble.
+
+"My brother Hallam is a very, very handsome boy. Even with his lameness
+he's a thousand times better looking than any boy in this mill, and
+what's more, he's a _gentleman_!"
+
+Then this champion of the aristocracy, which she thought she disdained
+but now discovered she was proud to call her own class, walked off with
+her nose in the air and her dark eyes glittering with an angry light.
+
+"There, now you've done it!" cried Gwendolyn, in amazement. "But ma said
+it wouldn't last. She says that's the way with all the heroines in her
+novels that lose their money and pretend to be just plain folks
+afterward. They never are. They're always 'ristocratics an' they can't
+help it."
+
+"Oh, well, they shouldn't try," remarked this young "heroine," fiercely.
+"I don't care at all what they say about me, but they'd best let my Hal
+alone."
+
+"Hoity-toity, I don't see as he's any better than anybody else."
+
+Amy stopped short on the path from the mill to the ladder upon the
+bluff. Suddenly she reflected how her mother would have regarded her
+present mood. "He that ruleth his own spirit."
+
+The words seemed whispered in her ear. A moment later she turned and
+spoke again, but her voice was now gentle and appealing.
+
+"Yes, he is better, though I'm not. He is better because he is just what
+he seems. There is no pretence about him. He doesn't think that
+plastering his hair with stuff, and wearing ugly, showy clothes, and a
+hat on the back of his head, or swaggering, or smoking nasty cigarettes,
+or being insolent to women, are marks of a gentleman. He's the real
+thing. That's what Hal is, and that's why I'm so proud of him, so--so
+touchy about him."
+
+"Amy, what does make a gentleman, anyway, if it isn't dressing in style
+and knowing things?"
+
+"It's the simplest thing in the world; it's just being kind out of
+one's heart instead of one's head. It's being just as pure-minded and
+honest as one can be, and--believing that everybody else is as good or a
+little better than one's self. So it seems to me."
+
+"We _are_ different, then. I never should know how to say such things. I
+don't know how to think them. It isn't any use. You are you, and I am
+me, and that ends it."
+
+Amy did not even smile at the crooked grammar. This was the old cry of
+Mary, too, and it hurt her.
+
+"Oh, Gwen, I am so sorry. It _is_ of use. There _isn't_ any difference,
+really. We are both girls who have to earn our living. Our training has
+been different, that is all. I want to know all you know; I want you to
+know all I do. I want to be friends; oh, I want to be friends with every
+girl in the world!"
+
+"Pshaw! do you? Well, I don't. I don't want but a few, and I want them
+to be stylish and nice. You'd have a lot of style if you could dress
+different."
+
+Poor Amy. This was like a dash of cold water over her enthusiasm. Just
+when she fancied that Gwendolyn was aspiring to all that was noble and
+uplifting, down she had dropped again into that idea of "style" and
+fashion and good times. But she remembered Mary. In the soul of that
+afflicted little mill girl was, indeed, a true ambition, and she felt
+glad again, from thoughts of her.
+
+"Hallam, how can you climb all the way to 'Charity House'? You will
+drop by the way. It's hard, even for me."
+
+"I can do it. I must. There is nothing else to be done."
+
+So they set out together, through the darkness. The days were at the
+shortest, and Christmas would come the following week. Hallam and Amy
+looked forward with dread to the festival, remembering their mother had
+striven, even under disadvantages, to keep the holiday a bright one for
+her children. There had never been either many or costly gifts at
+Fairacres, but there had been something for each and all; and the
+home-made trifles were all the dearer because Salome's gentle fingers
+had fashioned them.
+
+Now Gwendolyn was full of anticipation, and from her talk about it her
+neighbors judged she meant to expend a really large sum of money in
+presents for her friends.
+
+"But, Gwendolyn, how can you buy all these things? You told me you
+earned about five dollars a week, and you've bought so many clothes;
+and--I guess I'm not good at figures. My poor little two dollars and a
+half, that I get now, wouldn't buy a quarter of all you say."
+
+"Oh, that's all right. Mis' Hackett, she charges it. I always run an
+account with her."
+
+"You? a girl like you? What is your mother thinking about? I thought to
+buy a wheel that way was queer; but how dare you?"
+
+"Why, I'm working all the time, ain't I? Anybody that has regular work
+can get anything they want at Mis' Hackett's, or other places, too. Ma
+and pa do the same way."
+
+"But--that's _debt_. It must be horrible. It seems like going out of one
+debt into another as fast as you can. Oh, Gwen, don't do it."
+
+"Pshaw! that isn't anything. Why, look here, that's the very way your
+own folks did. If they hadn't been in debt, they wouldn't have had to
+move from Fairacres, and all that. Would they?"
+
+Both Hallam and Amy were silent. The keen common sense of the mill girl
+had struck home, and again Amy realized that her vocation was not that
+of "preaching." Finally, the cripple spoke:--
+
+"It's like it, yet it isn't. We had something left to pay our debts. It
+wasn't money, but it was money's worth. We paid them. We are left poor
+indeed, but we haven't mortgaged our future. That's all. But we are too
+young to talk so wisely. If your parents approve, they probably know
+best. Hark! there is a wagon coming."
+
+They all paused, and drew aside out of the road to let the vehicle pass.
+It was so dark that they could distinguish nothing clearly, and the
+lantern fastened to the dashboard of the buggy seemed but to throw into
+greater shadow the face of the occupant. To their surprise, the
+traveller drew rein and saluted them:--
+
+"Hello. Just getting home, eh?"
+
+All recognized the voice. It belonged to Mr. Wingate.
+
+"Yes, just getting home," answered Amy, cheerily.
+
+"Growing pretty dark, isn't it? Hmm, yes. Heard you lost your donkey,
+Hallam."
+
+"For the time, I have, sir," responded the lad, rather stiffly. He hated
+this man "on sight," or out of it, and it was difficult for him to
+conquer his aversion. All the kindness he had felt toward him, on the
+night of Mr. Wingate's first unwelcome visit to Fairacres, had been
+forgotten since; because in his heart he believed that his mother's
+death was due to her removal from her home. Yet he wished to be just,
+and he would try to feel differently by and by. Meanwhile, his unused
+strength was fast waning. He had met with a great disappointment that
+day, for he was going home empty-handed. He had lost his beloved Balaam,
+and he had nothing to show for it. In all his life he had never walked
+so far as from the mill to the Bareacre knoll, and even his crutches
+seemed to wobble and twist with fatigue. Amy had noticed this, and made
+him pause to rest more than once; but the night was cold, and he felt it
+most unwise to risk taking cold by standing in the wind. Poverty was
+teaching Hallam prudence, among many other excellent things.
+
+"None of us can afford to be sick now," he reflected.
+
+"Hmm. That half-witted fellow ought not to be allowed to go free. He's
+done me a lot of mischief, and I guess he injures everybody who
+befriends him. The last thing he ought to be trusted with is
+horse-flesh, or mule-flesh either. Well, I'm going your way, and it's a
+tough pull on a pair of crutches. If you'll get in, I'll give you a lift
+as far as the bars."
+
+Everybody was astonished, and everybody waited for Hallam's reply in
+some anxiety. Amy knew his mind, and she knew, also, that he was very
+weary. She hoped that he would say:--
+
+"Thank you; I'll be glad to accept," but his answer was a curt: "Thank
+you; I would rather walk."
+
+"Very well. Suit yourself."
+
+The horse was touched sharply, and bounded up the hill road at an
+unusual pace.
+
+"Oh, Hal, why didn't you ride? You are so tired."
+
+"Well--because."
+
+"You'd better. Old man don't like to have his favors lost," remarked
+Gwendolyn. "I've heard lots say that, even though he hasn't been at
+Ardsley so very long."
+
+Now, in the lad's heart, besides his unwillingness to "accept favors
+from an enemy," there had been another motive. Until that evening he had
+not realized how lonely and dark was the homeward walk for his sister,
+after her long day of toil, and even with the company of Gwendolyn. In
+this his first experience it had come upon him with a shock, that it was
+neither pleasant nor safe for Amy, and he resolved she should never
+again be left without his escort, if he were possibly able to be with
+her.
+
+But he could not, or felt that he could not, tell this to the girls;
+much less to Mr. Wingate, finding it easier to be misjudged than to
+explain. Yet had the mill owner known the fact, it would have gone far
+toward propitiating him, and toward rousing his admiration for his young
+kinsman.
+
+So with the best intentions all around, the breach between Fairacres and
+"Charity House" was duly widened.
+
+The trio of mill workers trudged wearily upward, and the mill master
+hurried recklessly through the gloom toward a home he had coveted, but
+found a lonely, "ghost-haunted" solitude. For though there are no real
+spectres to frighten the eye, there are memories which are sadder to
+face than any "haunt" would be.
+
+"Stir up the fire, man. Don't you know it's a bitter night outside?" he
+cried, as he entered it.
+
+The master's tone boded ill for the servant if obedience were not
+prompt. So though a great blaze roared upon the wide hearth in the old
+room where we first met this gentleman he was not content, nor was the
+good dinner which followed appreciated. Nothing was right that night for
+Archibald Wingate.
+
+Nothing? Yes, one thing gave him great satisfaction, so that, late in
+the evening, sitting before the blaze he had complained of, he rubbed
+his hands with a quiet glee.
+
+"If you please, sir, there's a black donkey wandered into the place
+to-night. It went straight to the stable and to one of the box stalls on
+the west. It seemed to know the way. The stable boy says it's one of
+them belonged to the--the folks was here before we came. I thought you'd
+like to know, sir; and, if you please, is it to remain?"
+
+"Yes, Marshall, it is to remain."
+
+And again the old gentleman smiled into the dancing flames and rubbed
+his smooth palms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+IN THE OLD HOME.
+
+
+After one o'clock on the afternoon before Christmas was a mill holiday;
+and while the great looms were silent, those who usually toiled at them
+took their way into Wallburg city to do their Christmas shopping. Though
+a few, indeed, were able to satisfy their needs at the local stores, and
+among these, for once, was Gwendolyn. She had come up the knoll after
+dinner hour, to invite Amy's presence at the gift buying, and concluded
+her invitation by saying:--
+
+"Even if you won't get anything yourself, you might come and look at the
+pretty things. It's surprising how many you find you can pick out in a
+few minutes. They've the loveliest dolls there 't I'm going to get for
+Beatrice and Belinda. Victoria's so big she's outgrown doll--"
+
+Cleena could hold her tongue no longer.
+
+"Toys, is it, alanna! Better be shoes for their feet; an' as for Queen
+Victory an' her dolls, more's the shame to you as sets her the example
+o' growin' up before her time. Vases for the mother, is it? An' she
+after patchin' the sheets off her bed. Pardon unasked advice, which
+same is unsavory, belike, an' get the makin' of a new pair. That's
+sense, so it is."
+
+It was sense. As such it commended itself to Gwendolyn, during her walk
+to the village, and bore results for the comfort of her family; for
+though she did run in debt to make her Christmas gifts, at least she now
+altered her usual habit completely, and for each member of the household
+provided some article of use. Even Mrs. Hackett paused in her busy
+attendance upon the crowd of customers to remark:--
+
+"Well, now, Gwen, that's a good plan. I guess your folks will be proud
+of what you're giving them this year. Yes, I'm more 'n willing to trust
+you for 'em. A girl that'll spend her money as you are, isn't going to
+cheat me in the long run. Yes, the wagon'll be going out late to-night
+and will fetch 'em all for you. Flannel and sheeting and such are a
+mighty sight heavier to carry than notions. But say, I'll put in a
+little candy for the youngsters, seeing they're disappointed of their
+dolls."
+
+Meanwhile, up at "Charity House," Amy had drawn Cleena into a corner to
+discuss their own plans, and especially to ask concerning a proposed
+trip to the city, by her father, and immediately after the holidays.
+
+"You know, Goodsoul, that he hasn't been there alone in a long time. Is
+it safe for him to go now? If he should have one of his attacks, what
+would happen? Should Hallam go with him? and--worst of all--how can we
+spare the money?"
+
+"Faith, Miss Amy, I'd leave the master be. It's the fine sense he's
+gettin' the now. It would hearten the mistress could she see how he does
+be pickin' up. Always that gentle I d' know, as if the sorrow had been a
+broom sweepin' his soul all free of the moilder an' muss was in it long
+by. Only yesternight, whilst I was just washin' off me table afore
+layin' me cloth, into the kitchen he steps an' sits himself down by the
+door, lookin' out toward Fairacres. It was as soft as summer, like it is
+this eve, but faith! a 'green Christmas makes a fat graveyard.'"
+
+The very word made them both silent for a moment, and then Amy
+resumed:--
+
+"Father has packed up a half a dozen or more of his small canvases,
+studies of heads most of them are, I believe, and all are unframed. What
+do you suppose he means to do with them?"
+
+"Sell them. What for no?"
+
+"But mother never liked to have him. These are all pictures he did long
+ago."
+
+"The quicker they'll go off the hand then."
+
+"Do you approve?"
+
+"With all me heart."
+
+Amy dropped her face on her palms and considered the matter. Even with
+her habit of dealing with facts rather than fancies, she still found
+life a most perplexing and complex affair. The only help she gained
+toward understanding it was that clew taught her by her mother of
+matching the days and the events as one matches a fascinating puzzle.
+Out of this thought she spoke at last, though quite to the bewilderment
+of honest Cleena.
+
+"It seems as if our losing all that belonged to us were making us
+sturdier folks, improving us all. Mother needed no improvement, so she
+hadn't to face the battle long. Well, one thing I know, she would be
+glad for us all, and some way I feel her very near to-day. Only, if I
+could just talk with her and ask her things."
+
+"Sure ye can, me colleen. I mind it's no far to the land where she's
+gone. But about the money. See here; how got I this?"
+
+And Cleena whipped out a handkerchief from her jacket pocket and
+unfolded it with utmost care. In this were a number of silver pieces,
+from half-dollars to dimes, and added together made the "smart decent
+sum" of five dollars and fifteen cents.
+
+"Why, Cleena! Where? I thought all ours was spent as soon as earned."
+
+"Where? An' I to be mendin' a few clothes for me neighbors. Even that
+man John fetches me a blouse now an' again, to put in a fresh pair o'
+sleeves or set on a button that's missin'. Sure, ye didn't think Cleena
+was one would be leavin' her childer bring in all the wage. Only--" and
+the good creature's fine face clouded dismally.
+
+Amy's arms were around the other's neck, and her soft cheek pressed
+against the shoulder that had borne so many burdens for her and hers.
+
+"Only what, you darling Scrubbub?"
+
+"Only I was mindin' to buy a few trinkets for you an' Master Hal. 'Tis
+Christmas comes but once a year, an' sure me heart should give good
+cheer--"
+
+"Cleena, Cleena! A poet! What next?"
+
+"Arrah musha, no! Not one o' them sort. But it's in the air, belike.
+Christmastide do set the blood running hitherty-which. So they say in
+old Ireland. It's this way, me darling. Gifts for you an' Hal--or the
+trip to town for the master. Which, says you? For here's the silver will
+pay either one, an' it's you an' him shall decide."
+
+"Then it's decided already. At least, I'm sure Hallam will so agree when
+he comes in. You know he's stopped at Mr. Metcalf's to see some books on
+designing. Hallam thinks that either he might learn to do it or that
+perhaps even father might give some odd moments to it, though I don't
+know as he would hardly dare propose it. The idea was Mr. Metcalf's, and
+he hasn't much 'sentiment' about him. He said that if there was any way
+in which father could make a living, he would be happier if so employed.
+It sounded dreadful to me at first, and then it seemed just sensible."
+
+"That last it was, and so I b'lieve the master'll say himself. But
+child, child, you do be gettin' too sober notions into your bonny head.
+Oh, for that Balaam the spalpeen stole! But since ye can't ride, why
+then it's aye ye must walk. Either way, get into the open. There's not
+many such a day 'twixt now and Easter. Away with ye! Haven't I me pastry
+to make an' to-morrow Christmas? Go where ye've no thought, an' let the
+spirit carry ye. Then there'll be rest. But be home by nightfall, mind."
+
+"Cleena, you dear, the kindest, truest, best woman left in this world!"
+
+"Indeed, that's sweet decent speech, me dear; but seein' your 'world's'
+no bigger nor Ardsley township, I 'low I'll not be over set up by that
+same. Run away, child, run away!"
+
+"Cleena, you're watching down the road. Why? Why?--I demand; and you
+talk of pastry, the which hasn't been in 'Charity House' since we came
+to it, save and except that dried apple pie sent in by Mrs. Jones."
+
+"Ugh!" cried Cleena, making a face of contempt. "The match o' that good
+soul's pastry for hardness an' toughness isn't found this side of the
+Red Sea."
+
+"Cleena, is that old John coming here to-day? Is it _he_ you are
+watching for?"
+
+"Why for no? If a man's more nor his share an' nobody to cook it, why
+shouldn't he be a bringin' it up an' lettin' a body fix it eatable?
+Sure, it's John himself. Ye're too sharp in the wits, an' I don't mind
+tellin' ye; it's all charity, Miss Amy. Him livin' by his lone an'
+gettin' boardin'-house truck. If he says to me, says he, 'Shall I fetch
+the furnishin' o' the best Christmas dinner ever cooked an' you be after
+preparin' it,' says he, 'only givin' me one plateful beside your nice
+kitchen fire,' says he, could I tell the man no, and me a good
+Christian? Ye know better, Miss Amy. Think o' the master, an' Master
+Hal, to-morrow comes. What's the good o' John, then, but to find food
+for me folks? Run along!"
+
+Mr. Kaye had already gone off for one of his long tramps, over the
+fields and through the woods, to which he was now much given. He had
+taken such, at first, to subdue the restlessness which followed upon his
+wife's death, and as some sort of break in his unutterable loneliness.
+But nature had helped him more than he had dreamed; and to the pure air,
+the physical fatigue, and consequent sound sleep was due much of the
+cure of his mental illness that all who knew him now noticed.
+
+So there was nobody who needed Amy just then, and she set off from
+"Charity House" at a brisk pace, resolved, as Cleena had advised, to
+forget all worry and labor, and "just have one good, jolly time."
+
+She took the road upward toward the woods behind Fairacres, meaning to
+gather a bunch of late ferns for the decoration of the morrow's dinner
+table, since Cleena promised it should be a feast day, after all.
+
+Before she quite realized it even, she had deflected from her course,
+remembering just then a certain glen in the grounds of her old home
+where rare ferns grew to prodigious size, and where no cold of winter
+seemed to harm them. Then once upon the familiar path every step was
+suggestive of some bygone outing, and led her to explore farther and
+still farther.
+
+"Ah, the frost-bleached maiden-hair. Nowhere else does it last like
+this. It's almost as white as edelweiss, and far more graceful. I must
+put that in my basket, if nothing else." So she pulled it gently and
+with infinite care, lest she should break the delicate fronds that had
+outlasted their season by so long. Then there were others, dainty green
+and still fragrant, which she gathered eagerly; with here and there a
+bit of crimson-berried vine, or a patch of velvet moss.
+
+Always she kept to the depth of the little ravine, through which ran a
+tiny, babbling brook. This had long ago been named "Merrywater," nor had
+it ever seemed gayer and more winsome than then. It was like reunion
+with some old beloved playmate, and Amy forgot everything but the
+present enjoyment as she stooped and dabbled in the water here and
+there. Sometimes she came to the fantastic little bridges which Hallam
+had used to lie upon the bank and construct out of the roots and pebbles
+she brought him. Where these had fallen into decay she repaired them;
+and at one time was busily endeavoring to force a grapevine into place
+when she heard a sound that made her pause in her task and spring to her
+feet.
+
+"Ah-umph! A-h-u-m-ph! A-H-U-M-P-H!!!"
+
+"Pepita! No--Balaam! Balaam, Balaam--Balaam!"
+
+She was off up the bank in another instant. The sound was from the old
+stable, so dear, so familiar to her. As she ran she caught up here and
+there great tufts of sweet grass, such as had been neglected by the
+mowers, but were dear to donkey appetites.
+
+"Oh, the precious! The blessed little beast! Won't Hallam be glad! Won't
+this be a Christmas gift indeed, to bring him back his own pet! How glad
+I am I took this way to walk, and how queer it is that he should be back
+in his very own old home. Is it so queer, though? Wouldn't I come, too,
+if I were just a burro and were set free to follow my own will? I can
+hardly wait to reach him."
+
+In a moment she had done so, and had filled the manger with the still
+luscious grass, while climbing upon its front she had thrown her arms
+about the animal's neck and was assuring him, as she might a human
+being, that he had been sadly missed and would be most welcome home.
+
+On his part the burro was fortunately silent, though his great, dark
+eyes looked volumes of affection, and he laid his big ears gently back
+to be out of Amy's way, while she caressed him. She smoothed his
+forelock, ran her fingers through his mane, patted his shaggy head, and
+told him that his "big velvet lips were the softest things on earth."
+
+"Ahem!"
+
+This remark, if such it could be called, fell upon Amy's ears so
+suddenly that she half tumbled backward from her perch upon the manger,
+and just saved herself by springing lightly down, or she thought it was
+lightly, until she wheeled and faced the intruder.
+
+None other than Archibald Wingate, making a horrible grimace, and
+holding up one of his pudgy feet as if he were in great pain.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't know it was your foot, or you were
+you--I thought it was only the hay on the floor."
+
+"Ugh! Great goodness! Umm. If you ever have the gout, young woman, you
+will understand how it feels to have anybody jump down full force upon
+your toes. Ouch! O dear! O dear!"
+
+Amy had never been accustomed to seeing people make ado over physical
+suffering. She did not understand this man before her, and a thrill of
+distress ran through her own frame, like the touch of an electric
+battery.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry! I wouldn't have done it for anything if I had known.
+Can't I do something now to help you? Let me rub it or--or--lead you.
+You look--" In spite of her good intentions, the horrible contortions
+by which Mr. Wingate's countenance expressed his feelings affected her
+sense of the ridiculous, and she smiled. As instantly ashamed of the
+smile, she buried her face in her hands, and waited what would come
+next.
+
+"Huh! Yes, you look sorry, of course you do, laughing at an old man
+after you've nearly broken his foot in two. Hmm. You're a sorry lot, the
+whole of you; yes, you are! O-oh!" Yet he, too, and in spite of himself,
+laughed; but it was at his own pitiful joke about his kinsmen being a
+"sorry lot."
+
+Fortunately, Amy did not understand a jest of this nature, but she was
+swift to see the brightening of his face. She put her hand on his arm,
+and tried to draw his hand within her own.
+
+"Maybe it won't be so bad. Lean on me, and I'll help you to a seat or to
+the house. And thank you, thank you so much for putting Balaam in the
+stable, and taking such good care of him. If Hal had known, he wouldn't
+have worried so about the little beast. He's been so tenderly cared for,
+we couldn't bear to think of him as off in the open fields with nobody
+but Fayette."
+
+Mr. Wingate said not a word. He simply ceased groaning and grimacing,
+and he slipped his arm through Amy's, while a curious expression settled
+on his face. He did not lean at all heavily upon her, however, and he
+merely glanced toward the burro as the pair walked to the stable door.
+Then the animal thought it time to protest. Amy had brought him fresh
+grass, but she had dropped it all outside his manger, where he could not
+reach it. This was aggravation in the extreme. More than that, whenever,
+in the old days, she had been afflicted with one of these outbursts of
+affection, there had generally been a lump of sugar connected with it.
+To lose affection, hay, and sugar, all in one unhappy moment, was too
+much even for donkey patience.
+
+"AH-UMPH! H-umph! A-h-u-m-p-h!"
+
+"Whew! he's split my ears open. Plague take the beast!" cried Mr.
+Wingate, hurrying forward, and now stepping with suspicious freedom from
+lameness.
+
+Amy hurried, too, wondering at his sudden recovery. "Oh, do you dislike
+his talk? I love it. I always laugh when I hear it, it is so absurd, and
+Pepita's was even funnier. She had a feminine note, so to speak, and she
+whined like a spoiled baby."
+
+"What do you know about spoiled babies?"
+
+"Why--nothing--only William Gladstone, he's a trifle self-willed, I
+think."
+
+"William Gladstone! What do you mean? Who are you talking about? Are you
+all crazy together?"
+
+"Not the English statesman, certainly. Just Mrs. Jones's youngest son.
+And I don't think we're crazy."
+
+"I think you are, the whole lot. Well, will you come into the house
+with me? How did you know the donkey was here? Who told you?"
+
+"He told me," laughed Amy. "Yes, I'll go in if you wish, if I can help
+you."
+
+"How did he tell you?"
+
+"I was gathering these ferns in the glen, and I heard him bray. See,
+aren't they beautiful? They're for the table to-morrow. The prettiest
+ferns in all Fairacres grow along the banks of 'Merrywater.'"
+
+"Yes, I know. I used to gather them when I was a child. My grandmother
+liked them, though she called them plain 'brakes.' So you're not afraid
+to trespass, then? And you're able to have a dinner-party even so soon
+after--and with all the pretended devotion. But Cuthbert--"
+
+Amy's hand went up to her kinsman's lips. It was a habit of hers,
+sometimes playfully sometimes earnestly used, to ward off anything she
+did not wish another to say to her, and she had done it before she
+thought; but having so done she would not withdraw her silent protest.
+This man should never say, nor would she ever hear, a word against her
+father. Of that she was determined, even though she must be rude to
+prevent.
+
+For a moment Archibald Wingate resented the girl's correction. Then, as
+her hand dropped to her side and her gaze to the ground, he spoke:--
+
+"You are right. I had no business to so speak. I honor you for your
+filial loyalty and--Come into the house. I have something I wish to
+discuss with you. So you want to thank me for taking care of Balaam, do
+you? You may feel differently after you have heard what I have to say.
+Oh, you did give me a twinge, I tell you!"
+
+"Would it relieve the pain if I bathed the foot for you? Or is there
+anybody else to do it?"
+
+"Would you do that for _me_?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Ring that bell."
+
+Amy obeyed. It was the familiar one which summoned, or had summoned,
+Cleena from her kitchen.
+
+A man answered the call.
+
+"Marshall, have a foot-bath brought in here. This young lady is going to
+dress my foot for me. For once there'll be no blundering heavy-handed
+servant to hurt me."
+
+Over and over and over Amy washed and soothed the red, misshapen foot.
+The repugnance she had felt to touching it had all vanished when she saw
+how acute must have been the old man's suffering and his now evident
+relief.
+
+"I thought you made a big fuss. Now I don't see how you walk about at
+all."
+
+"I walk on my will," answered he, grimly. "You're a good girl; yes, you
+are. You're a real Kaye. Our women were all good nurses and
+tender-handed. It's a pity--such a pity!"
+
+Amy thought the prodigious sigh that moved his mighty breast was for
+his own distress, and echoed his regret sincerely. "Yes; it is a pity.
+It seems to me it should be cured. I wish it could."
+
+"So do I. Say, little woman, suppose you and I try to cure it."
+
+Amy looked up. She had been speaking simply of his disease. She now saw
+that he had not been thinking of that at all. For the moment, while she
+so gently manipulated the swollen ankle and bound it with the lotions
+Marshall handed her, he had been quite comfortable, and the keen twinkle
+in his eye set her thinking. Was it the family feud he wished might be
+healed? He, who was the very foundation and cause of it?
+
+[Illustration: "SHE SO GENTLY MANIPULATED THE SWOLLEN ANKLE AND BOUND IT
+WITH THE LOTION."]
+
+She caught his hand in both hers, eagerly.
+
+"Do you mean that we might live at peace; in love, as kinsfolk should?
+Now--this peace day--when the Christ child comes? Is it that?"
+
+But Marshall made a little motion which might be warning or contempt.
+The old man's face hardened again.
+
+"What are you asking? Look, you've wet my cuffs! Your hands just out of
+hot water and all liniment!"
+
+"Never mind your cuffs. _Look out for your heart._ You're a poor, lonely
+old fellow, and I'm sorry for you."
+
+Before he knew what she was about, Amy had thrown her arms about her
+cousin's neck and imprinted a kiss--somewhere. It didn't much matter
+that it landed squarely on the tip of his pudgy nose. Archibald Wingate
+was so little in the habit of receiving kisses that he might easily have
+imagined this was quite the customary place for their bestowal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A PECULIAR INVITATION.
+
+
+It would be difficult to tell which was the most startled. Amy stepped
+back from the unresponsive object of her affectionate impulse and
+blushed furiously. She feared that he would think her bold and silly,
+yet she had only meant to be kind, to comfort him because she pitied
+him. Now, she was painfully conscious that Marshall was standing near,
+coolly observant, with a cynical smile upon his thin lips. It was a
+curious fact, which Amy instantly recognized, that this master of whom
+so many people stood in awe should himself stand in awe of his own
+valet.
+
+"Ahem--shall I remove the bath, sir? Has the young person finished?"
+
+Amy had not been accustomed to hearing herself spoken of as a "person,"
+and the word angered her. This restored her self-possession. She looked
+up, laughing.
+
+"I don't know how I came to do that, cousin Archibald. I hope you'll
+forgive me."
+
+"Oh, I'll forgive you. I don't know how you did it, either. Well, man,
+why are you standing there, grinning like a Cheshire cat. I tell you
+she has finished. You can take away the things."
+
+"Very well; it is time for your nap, sir."
+
+The worm turned. "What if I don't take one to-day? What will happen?"
+
+"I don't know, sir, except that you will probably be ill. The doctor's
+orders are, when you have an attack--"
+
+"Hang you and the doctor and the attacks, all together! You can leave
+the room, can't you? When I want you, I'll ring."
+
+Because he was too astonished to do otherwise, Marshall obeyed. He was a
+privileged person. His master did not often cross his will. There being
+no other apparent heirs, Marshall had, in his own imagination,
+constituted himself Mr. Wingate's heir. Why not? A lifelong service, an
+untiring devotion to whims of all sorts, a continual attention to the
+"creature comforts" which were so greatly a part of Archibald's
+life--these merited a rich reward. Marshall intended to receive this
+reward, should he be lucky enough to outlive his employer. He felt that
+he would fill the position of owner of Fairacres with dignity and
+profit. He did not like this new interest Mr. Wingate was taking, by
+fits and starts, in the deposed family who were his relatives
+and--enemies. In Marshall's opinion the breech between these kinsfolk
+ought not to be healed. Amy's presence in the house was a disastrous
+portent. She must be gotten out of it as soon as possible, and in such
+a way that she would not care to come again. But how?
+
+The servant revolved this question, as he carried away the bath, and so
+profoundly that he failed to notice where he was going and stepped down
+a forgotten stair so unexpectedly that he fell and drenched himself with
+the water from the tub.
+
+"Plague on her! Now, I'm in for it!" Which meant that before he could
+remove the damage to his attire Amy would probably have gained whatever
+she came to seek. He did not believe that anybody would visit his master
+without having "an axe to grind," for he judged all men by himself.
+
+However, having tasted the sweets of rebellion against this iron rule of
+Marshall, Mr. Wingate determined to enjoy it further.
+
+"He's a meddling old fool. He's a good servant, too. There isn't another
+man in the world would put up with my tempers as he does. Never a word
+in return, and as smooth as silk."
+
+Amy laughed. "He looks to me as if he had had his hair licked by
+kittens. It's so slick and flat. Do you have to mind him always?"
+
+"Mind him? _I_--mind my _servant_, eh?"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon. Of course--"
+
+Mr. Wingate's face was scarlet. The weakness which he had hardly
+acknowledged to himself had been instantly discovered by this
+bright-eyed girl. It wasn't a pleasant thing to have so observant a
+person about. He had something to say to her, however, and he would do
+it at once and get rid of her. All his newly aroused affection died in
+his resentment against her judgment.
+
+"I want to go to the studio. There is something there I don't mean to
+keep, and don't wish to destroy, without consulting some of you."
+
+Amy followed him quietly out of the house toward the building where her
+father had spent so many hours, and which she held in strictest
+veneration. Did it not still enclose the "great picture" which even she
+had never seen, and which had been kept screened from the sight of all?
+
+So she still expected to find the white curtain undisturbed; and as she
+entered the studio, paused--amazed. The canvas covered the end of the
+apartment; but after one hasty glance Amy shielded her eyes in a
+distress that was almost terror.
+
+"Hmm. It _is_ very realistic, isn't it? The thing is horrible. I don't
+wonder that Cuthbert's wits got scattered, working on it. It would drive
+me crazy in a week, and I'm a hard, matter-of-fact man. I kept it,
+because by right I might have kept everything that was here. I supposed
+I was getting something worth while. But this! I don't want it. I
+couldn't sell it. I hate to destroy it. What's to be done?"
+
+"Oh, I wish I hadn't seen it!"
+
+"So do I. I see it sometimes in the night and then I can't sleep. I
+mean I imagine I see it, for I never come here after dark. It's a
+wonderful picture, sure enough. A horrible one."
+
+The canvas fascinated Amy. It depicted a great fire. It was ugly in
+extreme. The big, bare building was in flames, everywhere. The windows
+seemed numberless, and at almost every window a face; on these faces all
+the gamut of fright, appeal, and unutterable despair. They were
+human--_living_. The girl felt impelled to run and snatch them from
+their doom; also the impulse to hide her eyes, that she might not see.
+
+Mr. Wingate had taken a chair before the painting, and was looking at it
+critically.
+
+"I tell you that's a marvellous thing, and it's as dreadful as masterly.
+There's only one way I can see by which a man could get any money out of
+it: that's by cutting out the separate faces and selling them singly. A
+body might endure to see one such countenance in his collection, but not
+more; or, it might be destroyed altogether. It explains why Cuthbert
+never recovered from the shock of the accident he was in. He never lost
+sight of it. He must have begun this while it was fresh in his brain,
+and he did his utmost to keep it fresh. Poor Salome, she had a hard
+life."
+
+"She had a happy life. She loved my father. He loved her. Whatever he
+did was right, just right in her eyes. You needn't pity her. But, oh, if
+she were only here to consult! Why did you show it to me? Why did I
+have to see it?"
+
+"Because it couldn't be helped. The thing _is_; it exists. Now what is
+to be done with it?"
+
+"I--will ask my father."
+
+"I don't know that that is wise. It might bring about a return of his
+malady, and I'm told he is improving in all respects."
+
+"I must do it; it is his. There is no other way."
+
+"What if it makes him worse again?"
+
+Poor Amy! All her Christmas cheer had died from her heart. She felt that
+it would be almost wicked to remind her father of this, his "life work,"
+of which she had not heard him speak since he left Fairacres. Yet it was
+his. He had given years to its completion, so far as it had neared that
+point.
+
+Mr. Wingate regarded her keenly. "Well?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I don't know what to say. Have you nothing to propose?"
+
+"Only what I did. To cut it up and sell the faces as so many small
+canvases. That would partially repay me for the things he still owes
+for--the paints and so on. But I detest the thing so I hate to spread
+the misery of it."
+
+"Repay you? Do you mean that you believe you have a right--you _own_
+that picture?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Why, it is the labor of--it means many years out of my poor father's
+life. Can such a thing be 'owned' by anybody except him?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Hark you. You go home and tell him what I offer. I will
+take the picture off his hands and allow him--hmm--maybe two hundred
+dollars; or, he can take it and owe me that much more. In any case I
+want to get rid of it. I won't have it left here much longer. I shall
+have other uses for this room, maybe. Anyway, I mean to get that off the
+place."
+
+Amy moved slowly toward the door. She did not know how to reply, and she
+felt her cousin was a very hard, unjust man. Yet she agreed with him
+that the picture was enough to make a person wish it out of sight, even
+out of existence.
+
+At the doorway he arrested her steps, by laying his hand upon her
+shoulder.
+
+"Help me down; I'm afraid of stairs. And there's another thing--that
+donkey."
+
+"Oh, yes; I had forgotten Balaam. May I ride him home? Will you have him
+brought around for me?"
+
+"Eh? What? Not so fast--not quite so fast! No, I don't mean the stairs.
+I can manage this pace for them. I mean the donkey. It came here of its
+own accord. It gave me an idea. If your brother wants to sell him--By
+the way, how do you expect to pay the rent?"
+
+Amy stopped short, halfway down the stairs, and so suddenly that Mr.
+Wingate remonstrated.
+
+"If you'd give warning of these spasmodic actions of yours, it would be
+more comfortable for those depending on you. There, please move along."
+
+"The rent? I had not thought. Didn't my mother attend to that?"
+
+"For the first quarter year, she did. To whom must I look now?"
+
+Unmindful, since this new distressing question had been raised, how much
+she inconvenienced him, Amy sat plump down and leaned her head against
+the hand-rail.
+
+It always appeared to aid her reflective powers if she could rest her
+troubled head against something material.
+
+"I'll try to think. I earn two dollars and a half a week."
+
+"Oh, my foot hurts again. Let's get into a decent room and talk it over
+there. I hate draughty halls and unwarmed rooms. There's a fire in the
+little side parlor off the dining room. That's my own private den. I
+want to get there and lie down. That rabbit pie I had for lunch doesn't
+agree with me, I'm afraid. Do you like rabbit pie?"
+
+"No, indeed; I wouldn't eat one for anything."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I should fancy the pretty creatures looking at me with their soft eyes.
+They're the gentlest animals in the world."
+
+"The most destructive, you mean."
+
+She did not contest. Besides, she was now in great haste to leave
+Fairacres and regain the shelter of her own home. Strange, she
+reflected, how quickly she had ceased to think of this house, her
+birthplace, as a home; since all that went to make it such had gone
+elsewhere.
+
+"About that rent money. If Hallam is able to keep at work we may
+together earn five dollars a week. That would be twenty dollars a month.
+The rent is ten. We will be able to pay it, I think."
+
+"Do you imagine you will be able to live upon the remainder? Upon two
+and a half dollars a week, four grown persons?"
+
+"If we have no more, we shall have to do so, shan't we?"
+
+"Excuse me; but what would you eat? I saw no sign of scrimping and
+pinching that day I first came here--to stay."
+
+"Oh, then Cleena was determined you should say no blame of her
+housekeeping. She gave you all in one meal. We've often laughed over it
+since."
+
+"Humph! But this two and a half per week, what would it buy?"
+
+"Meal and milk. Sometimes oat meal, sometimes corn. Once and again an
+egg or something for father. Oh, we'd manage."
+
+"Hmm, hmm; you'd rather live on that than run in debt? You younger
+Kayes, who are all I seem to take account of now--Salome is gone."
+
+"We will run in no debt we cannot pay, unless we are ill and it is
+impossible to help. Hal and I settled that long ago. So far we have
+managed, and now he is working too, I feel as rich as--rich."
+
+"Exactly. Amy, if this old house were yours, what would you do with it?"
+
+The answer was prompt and decided.
+
+"Make it into a Home for Mill Girls."
+
+"Whew! What in the world! Fairacres? The proudest old mansion in the
+country, or in this part of it! Are you beside yourself?"
+
+"I should be with delight, if I could make that dream a reality."
+
+"I gave you credit for more sense. But, business--that donkey. How much
+did Mr. Metcalf intend to pay for it?"
+
+"I suppose the same as he did for Pepita. Seventy-five dollars--burro,
+harness, and all."
+
+"At ten dollars a month, that would take you along well into next
+summer. Tell Hallam that I will keep the animal and allow him eight
+months' rent for it. That's giving you a half month, you see. Will you?"
+
+"Yes, I'll tell him," answered she, with a catch in her voice. "Only I
+had hoped to take him home with me. It would have made such a delightful
+Christmas for us all. You don't know how much we love those pretty
+creatures."
+
+"Pretty! Opinions differ."
+
+"And would it be quite right to make any such arrangements, after having
+asked the superintendent to buy it, and he agreeing? Wouldn't he be the
+one to say something about it?"
+
+"Amy, you're incorrigible. You're a radical. A thing is either
+absolutely right or it is absolutely wrong--according to your standard.
+You'll be in trouble as long as you live, for you'll find nobody else
+with such antiquated notions as yours. There are a great many things
+that are expedient."
+
+"I hate expedient things. I like just the easy, simple 'no' and 'yes'
+that was my darling mother's rule. I'm glad I'm at least a birthright
+Friend."
+
+Mr. Wingate was silent. He seemed to drop into a profound reverie, and
+the girl hesitated to disturb him, eager as she now was to be away.
+Finally, as she had made up her mind to speak, he did so himself.
+
+"Amy, do you ever use the plain speech now?"
+
+"Sometimes--between ourselves. For mother's sake we can never let it
+die."
+
+"Will thee use it to me now and then? It was the habit of my boyhood.
+Salome was my oldest friend. We've played together in this very room,
+again and again. She was my good angel. Until--No matter. You are her
+child. Not like her at all in face or manner. She was always gentle,
+and shrank from giving pain. Truthful and puritanical as she was in her
+ideas, she had the tact, the knowledge to say things without hurting
+those whom she corrected. She corrected me often and often, when we were
+young, but she hurt me--never. Now, you--heigho!"
+
+"Now, I hurt--thee. Of course. I speak first and think afterward. But
+does thee know, cousin Archibald, thee is the very queerest man I ever
+met?"
+
+"Have you--has thee--known many?"
+
+"Very few. Thee is so good on one side and so--so--not nice on the
+other. Like a half-ripened pear. But I am sorry for thee. I wish I could
+do thee good. Do I speak it as thee wishes?"
+
+"Indeed, yes. It is music, even though the words are unflattering
+enough. Well, I'll not keep thee longer. And I don't ask you to call
+attention to this whim of mine by saying 'thee' in public," he remarked,
+himself falling back into the habit of their intercourse.
+
+"No; if I say 'thee,' it is to be always, whenever I remember--like a
+bond to remind me I must be kind to thee for my mother's sake. If she
+did thee good, I must try to do thee good too."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+Amy reflected. The first, most obvious way, would be by cheering his
+solitude. Yet she hesitated. The thing which had come into her mind
+involved the desires of others also. She had no right, until she
+consulted them, to commit herself. Yet she disliked to leave this lonely
+old fellow, without trying to make him glad.
+
+She sat down again in the chair from which she had risen and regarded
+him critically.
+
+"Oh, cousin Archibald, if thee were only a little bit different!"
+
+"Thee, too!" he laughed--actually laughed; and the action seemed to
+clear his features like a sunburst.
+
+"Oh, of course. Well, it's this way. To-morrow's Christmas, isn't it?"
+
+"So I've heard."
+
+"And somebody--Teamster John--has sent Cleena 'the furnishing of a good
+dinner,' she told me. I don't know when we may have another such a meal,
+one that thee would think fit to eat. I'd like to ask thee to come and
+share it with us, instead of staying here alone, all grumpy with the
+gout. But it isn't my dinner, thee sees, and I'm going home to tell my
+people everything. About the picture and the donkey and all. If, after
+that, they agree with me that it would be nice to ask thee to spend the
+holiday with us, I'll bring thee word. If I do, will thee come?"
+
+Mr. Wingate leaned back in his easy-chair and hugged his gouty foot for
+so long and so silently that Amy grew impatient and rose.
+
+"Anyway, I must go home. I've been here ever so much later than I meant
+to stay. Good-by."
+
+"Wait! How impetuous you--thee is. Well, I've received a great many
+invitations to dine, from the banquets of bank presidents down to the
+boiled dinners of my own workmen, but I doubt if I ever received one so
+honest and so honestly expressed."
+
+"Will thee come, if thee is asked?"
+
+"Yes; I'll come--_if I'm asked_. Don't thee bother to walk all the way
+back again, though. If by nine o'clock to-night I have heard nothing to
+the contrary, I shall understand that I am expected to dine with my
+tenants at 'Spite House.' At what hour, please?"
+
+"On Christmas, dinner is usually at three o'clock. And, if thee pleases,
+it is no longer 'Spite' but 'Charity House.' My mother changed all that.
+Thee must not dishonor her wishes if thee loves her."
+
+A wonderful, an almost beautiful change passed over the old man's face.
+
+"Amy, thee speaks as if she were here still."
+
+"She is to me. She always will be. Good-by."
+
+She was gone, and the house seemed bigger and emptier after she had left
+it. But Archibald Wingate would not have had anybody know with what
+almost childish anxiety he waited the striking of the clock, as the hour
+of nine drew near. He had been judged a hard and bitter man. He was very
+human, after all. The small brown hand of his young cousin was pointing
+a new, strange way, wherein he might happily walk, and in secret he
+blessed her for it. But he was a man who liked his own will and to
+follow his own road still; though he might do his utmost to bend that
+road in the direction she had elected. Meanwhile, he would have his
+supper sent in and sitting at ease before his own hearth-blaze review
+many plans.
+
+So he did, and after the supper a comfortable nap, from which he roused
+with a start, fancying the old clock in the hall was striking the hour.
+
+"Eh? What? Is it nine already? That timepiece must be fast."
+
+"It's only me, sir, Marshall, with a bucket of coals. And, if you
+please, there's a young person outside insists upon seeing you, sir. Am
+I to bid him go away until morning?"
+
+In his disappointment the master's face really paled. Marshall noticed
+it and wondered, but he knew enough, sometimes, to hold his tongue. This
+seemed to him to be one of the times, and he therefore made no comment,
+nor even inquired for the master's health.
+
+"No, don't send anybody away. I fancy that was never the custom at
+Fairacres, on Christmas Eve, be the visitor who he might. We'll not
+disturb the old ways, more than we can help. After all--Bid the
+messenger come in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+TWO WANDERERS RETURN.
+
+
+The "young person" to whom Marshall referred in such contemptuous terms
+was Lionel Percival Jones. He so announced himself, as he was ushered
+into the presence of the great man.
+
+"I've come to bring a letter from Amy Kaye."
+
+"Indeed; would it not sound better if you said 'Miss Kaye,' or 'Miss
+Amy'? She is a kinswoman of mine."
+
+Lionel Percival was astonished. He had prepared himself for this visit
+with the utmost care. He had oiled his curly auburn locks with a scented
+pomatum, and parted them rakishly in the middle. He wore his most
+aggressive necktie and his yellowest shoes, also his Sunday suit of
+clothes. With the exception of the necktie and the pomatum, he would not
+have attracted attention to himself anywhere, and so would have been
+well dressed. With these, he seemed to be all-pervading. He had
+instantly, by means of them, offended Mr. Wingate's taste, and put
+himself at disadvantage.
+
+"Why, I'd just as lief say 'Miss,' but she's a mill girl, same as my own
+sister. I didn't go to mean no harm."
+
+The mill owner winced. Then inquired:--
+
+"Is there an answer expected?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Very well. Wait here."
+
+The master of Fairacres limped into the adjoining room and turned his
+back toward the door between, hiding his face from the lad's observation
+as he read.
+
+"Humph! She left it open, which is correct enough with reliable
+messengers. Probably, though, he had the curiosity to read what she had
+to say,"--in which he wholly wronged the bearer. But Mr. Wingate had yet
+to learn that even lads who attire themselves atrociously may still be
+true gentlemen at heart, and sin in taste through ignorance only.
+
+This was the note:--
+
+
+"DEAR COUSIN ARCHIBALD WINGATE: My father and Hallam will be very happy
+to have thee dine with us to-morrow, Christmas Day. Cleena says that
+dinner will be served at three o'clock. If thee knew her as well as I
+do, thee would understand that she means not a minute before nor one
+afterward. If thee pleases, I would rather not have any 'business' talk
+of any sort to-morrow. I would like it to be a day of peace, as my
+mother always kept it for us. Thee may meet some other guests, but we
+will try to make thee happy.
+
+"Good night,
+"AMY."
+
+
+It was a very cheerful and smiling old gentleman who returned to the
+room where Lionel Percival waited for the reply, a brief but stately
+acceptance of the invitation; for since Amy had set him the example, the
+mill owner considered that she regarded such formality essential.
+
+Then he called in Marshall and bade him see that the messenger had a bit
+of supper before his return walk, which proceeding made the valet stare,
+and the boy feel exceedingly proud. It would be something of which to
+boast among his comrades at the mill.
+
+The morning proved a cloudless one, mild and merciful to such as
+suffered from gout, and Mr. Wingate drove himself to "Charity House" in
+his own little phaeton. He felt this was an occasion when Marshall's too
+solicitous attentions might be in the way. He held a debate with
+himself, before setting off, whether he should or should not add to the
+feast from his own larder, and he decided against so doing by the simple
+test of "put yourself in his place."
+
+But there was plenty and to spare. Teamster John did nothing by halves.
+Those who have least of this world's goods are always the most generous.
+Cleena had prepared each dish with her best skill and waited upon her
+guests with smiling satisfaction. Afterward, in the kitchen, she and
+John discussed the strange reunion of their "betters," and Cleena
+speculated upon it in her own fashion:--
+
+"Sure, there's never fish, flesh, nor fowl could withstand the loving
+ways of me little colleen. And to hear them talkin' together, like lambs
+in the field. Them--"
+
+"I never heerd lambs talkin'," observed John, facetiously.
+
+"Then it's deaf ye've been belike. Oh, me fathers, if here doesn't come
+me own Gineral--Napoleon--Bonyparty! Where have ye been avick, avick?"
+she demanded, pushing hastily back from the board and hurrying out of
+doors. "Well, it's proof o' yer sense ye comes back in due time for a
+bit o' the nicest turkey ever was roast. But it's shamefaced ye be,
+small wonder o' that! Howsomever, it's a day o' good will. Come by. Wash
+up, eat yer meat, an' give thanks. To-morrow--_I'll settle old scores_.
+Come by."
+
+Yet when Fayette entered the kitchen and learned from John who were the
+guests in the dining room beyond, he scowled and would have gone away
+again. However, he had forgotten Cleena. That good woman, having
+received her prodigal back, did not intend to relinquish him. She saw
+his frown, his hasty movement, and shutting the door put her back
+against it.
+
+"You silly omahaun! If your betters forgives an' eats the bread o'
+peace, what's you to be settin' such a face on the matter? Come by. Be
+at peace. There's the blessed little hunchback eatin' cranberry sauce
+cheek by jowl with her 'boss,' an' can't you remember the Child was born
+for such as you, me poor silly lad? Come by."
+
+Fayette "came by" at last, silently and because he was half famished,
+and could not resist the savory odors of the tempting food Cleena
+offered him. Yet in his heart there was still anger and evil intent; and
+though he was amazed to find Mary Reese a guest at the Kayes' table, as
+well as their "mortal enemy," Mr. Wingate, he made no further comment,
+and as soon as the meal was over retreated without a word to his chamber
+and shut the door.
+
+"It's like he might ha' just stepped out yesternight, he drops into ways
+so quick," said Cleena.
+
+"But he's not the same lad. He'll give somebody trouble before long. You
+do wrong, woman, to harbor him. He's vindictive and dangerous."
+
+The trustful Cleena laughed the teamster to scorn.
+
+"Faith, give a dog a bad name an' he'll earn it. Let the lad be. In old
+Ireland we call such the 'touched of God.' We judge not, an' that's the
+size of a man--how he betreats the helpless ones. Put that in your pipe
+an' smoke it."
+
+Surely, John thought, there was a deal of good sense and heart kindness
+in this stalwart daughter of Erin. He was Yankee himself, to the
+backbone; yet, as he pushed back from the table, satisfied and at ease,
+he pulled from his pocket a small paper parcel. It was his Christmas
+gift for his hostess, and intended to suggest many things. She was
+bright enough to comprehend his meaning, if she chose. Would she? She
+gave no sign, if she did, as she unrolled the package and placed its
+contents--a small flag of Ireland and its mate, in size, of the United
+States--behind the kitchen clock, where the blended colors made a bit of
+gayety upon the whitewashed wall.
+
+"Long may they wave!" cried the donor.
+
+"Troth, I'm not seein' no wavin'. They're best as they be, with the
+timepiece betwixt. Each in its place, as the Lord wills, an' mine's
+here. So here I bides till I'm no longer wanted."
+
+"It's a biggish house," quoth the undismayed suitor. "There's room in it
+for me, too, I cal'late."
+
+But if Cleena heard this remark she ignored it, passing swiftly into the
+dining room to remove the dishes of the first course, and substituting
+the luxury of a basket of fruit which she had accumulated somehow, as
+only herself could have explained.
+
+Maybe there is no trivial thing that so greatly helps to bridge over a
+trying situation as good breeding. The breeding which is really good,
+out of the inner life: kindness and the reluctance to inflict pain. It
+was such breeding that enabled the oddly assorted company at that
+Christmas dinner table to pass the hours of their intercourse not only
+in peace, but with absolute enjoyment.
+
+Finally, when the elders pushed back their chairs, Mr. Kaye proposed
+that Amy should sing some of the old-time ballads familiar to the
+childhood of both himself and his kinsman. So Hallam took out his
+mother's guitar and tuned it, and his sister placed herself beside him.
+
+"Ah, how well I remember that little instrument," cried Mr. Wingate,
+"and the commotion it caused among the Friends. Music used to be the
+most 'worldly' and undesirable thing, but they are more tolerant now.
+Give us 'Lang Syne,' youngsters. It's the song for the day and--this
+hour."
+
+It was. They sang it lustily, and Amy was amazed to hear how finely that
+deep voice of their cousin could fill in the pauses of her own treble,
+sweet but not strong. Then there was "Annie Laurie," and "Edinboro'
+Toon," and "Buy my Caller Herrin'," and others; till Cleena drew John to
+the door to listen and applaud, forgetting for once the big pile of
+dishes standing unwashed upon her kitchen table.
+
+"For, aye, it's a time o' peace, thank God. An' her that has gone is
+among us never a doubt I doubt. What's a bit o' idlin' when a sight for
+saints is afore ye? If Fayetty, now--"
+
+But Fayette was not there. Neither was he in his own room when Cleena
+sought him there. He had left it while she was off guard and had made
+his escape unseen. Forces of good and evil were tormenting him: the
+struggle to do right and please these good friends, and the greater
+yearning to seek the wrong path to revenge.
+
+Yet, after all, what was this poor human waif to these happier folk? So
+he asked himself as he sneaked away in the twilight which hid his
+departure.
+
+Had Amy heard the question, she would have answered it promptly: "Much,
+Fayette. Everybody one knows is something to one's self."
+
+But she did not even hear of his brief visit, for, having discovered his
+fresh defection, Cleena decided to keep the matter to herself.
+
+It was getting quite late when Archibald Wingate drove away from
+"Charity House" toward Fairacres, and as he went he pondered of many
+things. Once or twice he fancied he saw a lurking shadow in the road,
+that was not due to either bush or tree which bordered it. But he
+thought little of the matter, so engrossed was he with the recollections
+of the evening.
+
+"Queer, what a pleasant time I had. Yet we are all, practically,
+enemies. Each side feels that the other side has been at fault. Anyway,
+I seem to hear Salome saying: 'Judge not my children by the mistakes of
+their parents.' Nor will I; of that I am resolved. I'll give even that
+top-lofty lad, Hallam, a fair show, by and by. I must test him a little
+longer first, then I'll begin. That is, if he's made of the right stuff.
+As for Amy, she's a witch. She's wheedled the heart right out of me with
+her bright, unflinching, honest eyes. Talked to me about getting up a
+'club' for the mill folks. 'The right sort of club, with books and
+pictures and everything helpful.' The saucebox! and she earning the
+mighty wage of two-fifty per week. Well, all in good course. I haven't
+toiled a lifetime to attain my object, then relinquish it without a
+little enjoyment of it; though, after all, possession isn't everything.
+The struggle was about as enjoyable as the result. But I succeeded! I am
+master of Fairacres, of Ardsley Mills, of half all Ardsley township. The
+old family is still on top. But, I'll buy Cuthbert's great picture and
+burn it up--sometime. Hmm. Wonder where that visionary Frederic Kaye is,
+of whose unpractical schemes I am reaping the benefit. Odd--buried
+himself in California, so to speak, and the only visible proofs that he
+had ever reached that happy land are a couple of braying burros.--Hello!
+hello, I say! Who's that? What's up?"
+
+The shadow which had dogged the track of the mill owner's phaeton had
+suddenly become a reality. His horse was seized, forced backward, the
+horsewhip wrenched from its socket, and before he could defend himself
+Mr. Wingate's head and shoulders felt the cuts of the whip, delivered in
+swift and furious intensity.
+
+"Hold on! hold--on! What--who--stop, stop, _s-t-o-p_! You're killing me!
+What's wanted? It's murder--_murder_!"
+
+And again after another visitation of stripes, that awful cry of
+"mur-der!"
+
+The word holds its own horror. No one can thus hear it shouted, in the
+stillness of the night, unmoved. It affected even the ferocious
+assailant of the lonely old man, and arrested his further blows.
+
+"Murder." That meant death, prison, everything that was hateful. Even to
+Fayette's dull brain there penetrated some realization of what his
+present deed implied. For this was he who had waylaid an "enemy" on the
+highroad and beaten him into unconsciousness.
+
+Then he remembered his own wrongs, and his anger flamed afresh.
+
+"Thought you could do all the lickin', did ye? How many times did _you_
+have _me_ thrashed? What did you care if the man who thrashed me 'bout
+killed me? What was I, only 'Bony,' out o' the poor farm! Ugh, you old
+rascal! Take that, and that, and that. Huckleberries! but it's fun to
+settle such scores."
+
+The old horse which Mr. Wingate drove stood quiet in the road, else the
+matter might have had a different ending; for had she run and dragged
+her now helpless master, he would surely have been killed. As it was,
+she did not move, so there was nothing to deaden the sound of the sharp
+blows Fayette administered; and in the silence of the place and night
+this sound carried far.
+
+It reached the ears of a foot passenger, toiling up the mill road toward
+Fairacres and quickened his pace. So that when the half-wit finally
+paused for breath, he felt himself caught by his collar and heard a
+stern voice demanding:--
+
+"What's this? Hold! Stop! This--_here_, in _Ardsley_?"
+
+Fayette looked up. The man who had gripped him was much taller than he,
+and seemed in that dim light a giant for strength. The capture brought
+back all those visions of punishment and the prison. In a twinkling the
+agile lad had writhed himself free from his short coat and leaped away
+into the darkness.
+
+The newcomer heard a sound of retreating footsteps and mocking laughter,
+then turned his attention to the injured man in the phaeton.
+
+"An old fellow, too, he seems. Hello! Are you alive? Hey! Can't you
+speak? That's serious."
+
+The stranger's actions were alert and decided. He gently raised the bent
+figure of the unconscious Mr. Wingate to as comfortable a position as he
+could, stepped into the vehicle, and took up the reins.
+
+"If nothing is changed, the nearest house is old Fairacres. But I didn't
+look for such a home-coming. Get up there, nag!"
+
+Not since the days of her youth had the sorrel mare been forced into
+such a pace as then. The rescuer drove for life and death, and as if all
+turnings of the old road were familiar to him. Nor did he slacken rein
+until he reached the front door of the mansion, and sung out in a voice
+to wake great echoes:--
+
+"Hello, there! Come out! A man in distress!"
+
+This hello reached the stable, where Fayette was loosing Balaam, and
+roused that intelligent beast to speak his opinion concerning these
+disturbances of his rest.
+
+Marshall, hurrying to answer the imperative demand at the front door,
+heard the burro's bray of protest, though he paid it small attention
+then, because of the nearer demand. Holding his candle high above his
+head, he slid back the bolts and peered out, but the sight which met his
+gaze set him trembling like an aspen.
+
+"Why--my land! Master, what--what's happened? Have they murdered you out
+of hand? Ah, but my mind misgave me how 'twould be. To think it--to
+think it!"
+
+"Hush! Put down the candle. Give a lift; he's powerful heavy. Is this
+your master?"
+
+The servant retreated. This might be the very person who had done the
+mill owner such terrible injury. He would put his own precious anatomy
+out of harm's reach.
+
+"Oh, you fool! Come back. You're safe. Leave that door open. I'll bring
+him in myself. Make way there--quick!"
+
+Marshall tried to barricade the entrance to the room beyond the hall by
+means of his own plump body, and was promptly kicked aside, as the
+stranger strode past him, bearing the unconscious man upon his
+shoulder, very much as if he had been a bag of meal.
+
+"Is this your master?"
+
+"Y-ye-s. Who--are you--ordering--"
+
+"Hot water--lights--a doctor--everything--_at once_. I'm Frederic Kaye."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+FREDERIC KAYE'S WELCOME HOME.
+
+
+The excitement at Ardsley was intense. Never had its quiet precincts
+been disturbed by a crime so unprovoked and dastardly.
+
+"To strike a man in the dark."
+
+"To waylay an old fellow like that. The man is a coward, whoever he be,
+that did it."
+
+"Poor old 'boss.' He wasn't to say over lovable, in ordinary, but I'd
+pity even a scoundrel got treated that way."
+
+"He ought to be punished with his own stripes."
+
+"Oh, he'll get what he deserves. Never fear. If old man Wingate had been
+poor--well, you might say. But a rich man has friends."
+
+Such talk all through the mill, on that day after Christmas, interfered
+seriously with the customary labor. But it was small wonder; and though
+he tried to enforce discipline and keep things running smoothly, even
+Mr. Metcalf himself was greatly disturbed and anxious.
+
+The news of the assault upon the mill owner had spread rapidly. At
+first the story told by the stranger, who had so suddenly and
+opportunely appeared upon the scene, was given credence. Then, when it
+was remembered that this stranger, now known to be Frederic Kaye, had
+been injured and supplanted by Archibald Wingate, a faint suspicion
+began to rise in men's minds.
+
+Only those who have suffered from it know with what terrible rapidity an
+unjust rumor grows and spreads. Inoculated by this evil germ, even the
+fairest judgment becomes diseased. Those who had best known Frederic
+Kaye, the old people who recalled his frank, impetuous, happy-go-lucky
+boyhood, here in the town where he was born and bred; those who had
+received good from his hand, and nothing but good; even these joined
+with the baser sort in considering the night attack upon the mill owner
+"quite natural. Just what might have been expected."
+
+"Of course no one knows what sort of life Kaye's led out there in
+Californy. The jumping-off place of creation."
+
+So, instead of finding himself among friends, the returned citizen
+discovered that he was among enemies, under the basest of suspicions. He
+had remained all night at Fairacres, with the doctor so hastily summoned
+there. This gentleman was an old acquaintance, and from him Mr.
+Frederic, as he had always been called in distinction from Mr. Kaye, the
+artist and his brother-in-law, learned the history of the past weeks.
+Yes, even of years.
+
+"It's a pity, a great pity! When I failed to pay what I owed on the
+property here, and Salome, my sister, saw that I would lose everything
+unless somebody came to my aid, she did so. I hoped, I fully expected,
+to be able to return what she advanced. All the world knows now that I
+was not."
+
+"She was not the first person who has been ruined by injudicious
+indorsement."
+
+The Californian winced. His home-coming was proving a terrible
+disappointment to him, and he little dreamed how much worse than
+disappointment was yet in store.
+
+"Well, bad luck has pursued me. I have lost in every speculation I ever
+undertook. The last I tried was the evaporation of fruits. There's money
+in it, if I had the capital--"
+
+"Then you did not know how badly things were going with your sister?"
+
+"I never dreamed it. You knew her well--Salome was never a whiner. If
+she had even intimated the straits which she was in, I would have thrown
+up every chance and come back at once, to put my shoulder to the wheel
+in some shape. I wouldn't have permitted it."
+
+"How happen you here just now?"
+
+"My niece, Amy, wrote me of her mother's death. It was a brief,
+heart-broken little letter. I have it here. It brought me home, but I
+still fancied that home was this house." The gentleman took from his
+pocket a small envelope and read its enclosure aloud. It was, as he had
+stated, extremely short and gave only the facts.
+
+
+"MY DEAR UNCLE FREDERIC: Our mother is dead. She is buried at Quaker
+cemetery. My father and Hallam are well. So is Cleena. I don't know how
+to write to you because you are really a stranger to me. The burros are
+both well. Your loving
+
+"AMY KAYE."
+
+
+"There, that's all. It was enough to bring me clear across the
+continent, however. My heart aches; I should have come sooner. Oh, for
+one sight of Salome's beautiful face before--" He dropped his head on
+his hand and a sob shook the strong frame.
+
+The doctor rose and busied himself about his patient. He respected the
+brother's grief, and he liked this man, unthrifty and neglectful as he
+might have been.
+
+Then Marshall made a sign, and the physician left the room so quietly
+that Mr. Kaye did not hear him go. Outside, in the hall, the valet was
+waiting, almost breathless with eagerness.
+
+"Will he live?" he questioned in a whisper.
+
+"Time will tell. I hope so," was the unsatisfactory response.
+
+"Well, if he don't, that's his--murderer."
+
+The other sprang back as if he had been struck.
+
+"Man, take care what you say! How dare you?"
+
+"Ain't it reasonable? Didn't he say he was the man that owned the mill,
+this house, everything before master did? Who else had a grudge against
+the poor old man?"
+
+"Lots of people, I reckon. It won't hurt him to tell the truth. He was
+as testy as a snapping turtle--you know that. Plenty of folks disliked
+him. Most likely the person who attacked him was a tramp who hoped to
+find money. By the way, did anybody look to see if there had been
+robbery as well as assault?"
+
+"I did. No; there wasn't anything stole, so far as I know. That's what,
+one thing--why it must have been--"
+
+Dr. Wise laid his hand on Marshall's shoulder.
+
+"Look here, man, you stop that talk. Not another word of it. How dare
+you, I say how dare you, thrust suspicion upon an innocent man? I'd
+stake my life on the integrity of any Kaye was ever born. Unfortunate
+this returned wanderer may be, but--If you let me hear one single word
+more of such fol-de-rol, I'll make it hot for you. Understand? Haven't
+we got enough on our hands to keep your master alive? There must be
+quiet here, absolute quiet. It's your business to have it maintained;
+and if you don't, I'll have you punished as accessory to the deed. Hear
+me?"
+
+All this had been delivered in the lowest tone possible, yet each
+syllable was as distinctly enunciated as if it had been shouted. The
+doctor knew Marshall. He chose that idle threat of "accessory" as the
+safest means to accomplish his own object.
+
+This was all very well, so far as it went. Unfortunately, the doctor was
+not the only person to whom the valet had already announced his
+suspicion. There were other servants in the kitchen, and they had been
+swiftly poisoned by his opinion. So that when, after a sleepless night
+of watching beside his kinsman's bed, Frederic Kaye set off for "Charity
+House" and his relatives, he was even then a marked man.
+
+Into the sacredness of reunion, when the little family on the knoll were
+discussing all that had befallen them, on either side, and the two men
+were renewing old affections, while Hallam and Amy were forming new ones
+for this new uncle, there came an alarming summons.
+
+A local officer of the law presented himself before the group and on
+behalf of the public safety arrested the stranger.
+
+"Arrest me? Why, what in the name of justice do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say. For the attack upon a peaceful citizen, who lies at
+the point of death, brought there by your villainous hand," repeated the
+sheriff, solemnly. He so seldom had opportunity to exercise his office
+that he now embellished it with all the dignity possible.
+
+"Indeed, take care of your words, friend! It was a case of rescue, not
+attack. You are slightly mixed in your ideas, sir. I found him suffering
+a terrible horsewhipping at the hands of somebody whom I do not know,
+who slipped away from me when I seized him, and disappeared in the
+darkness. I was too anxious over Mr. Wingate to notice, or even care,
+which direction the rascal took. But--aha, it's too absurd!"
+
+"Remember that whatever you say will be used against you," cautioned the
+officer of the law.
+
+"Let it. I could ask no better treatment."
+
+"You say you grabbed a fellow. What was he like?"
+
+"It was too dark to see distinctly. He appeared rather tall and slim. I
+don't remember that he said a word, but he laughed harshly as he ran.
+Somehow, that laugh gave me the impression that the man was demented.
+But I have nothing else to judge by, and I would not be unjust. The
+thing for which to be thankful is that Dr. Wise hopes my kinsman's
+injuries are not fatal."
+
+"Hmm. All the same, sir, you will have to go with me."
+
+Frederic Kaye turned toward his friends a countenance which expressed as
+much amusement as annoyance. Cuthbert Kaye had risen, and his face was
+white with indignation. The sight of this, determined his brother-in-law
+to yield quietly to the inevitable. He had heard much during his night
+with Dr. Wise of the artist's recent condition, and he felt it would be
+criminal to let him become excited now. So he laid his hand
+affectionately upon the trembling shoulder, and remarked, with laughing
+disdain:--
+
+"Why, lad, don't think of it. It's a ludicrous mistake, of course, and
+the best, the simplest way to correct it is for me to go with this
+gentleman; and I doubt not I'll be back in time for dinner. Why, Cleena,
+woman, take care! It's delightful to find you so loyal to your 'black
+sheep,' but fisticuffs won't answer, nor even a shillalah."
+
+This was a diversion, and everybody laughed. For Cleena had advanced
+threateningly toward the sheriff, raising her rolling-pin, that she
+happened to have in hand, as if she would bring it down upon his
+offending head. Her hand dropped to her side, but her eyes did not cease
+to hurl contempt upon the officer, as, under cover of the merriment
+resulting, Frederic Kaye himself led the way out of the house toward the
+"bar of justice."
+
+Because Cleena fancied that Amy had taken cold, the girl had remained at
+home that morning, but she now begged to be allowed to return to the
+mill.
+
+"I want to go and see Mr. Metcalf. He'll be the very one to help Uncle
+Frederic, if he needs help, and I'd rather tell him the story myself."
+
+"If you go, I will too," said Hallam, quickly. "I'll have no holidays
+you do not share."
+
+"Nonsense! Your work is 'piece work.' If you get behind at one time,
+you can make it up at another. The superintendent told me you could soon
+bring it home to do, if you wished."
+
+"But I shall not wish--not for the present. Let us both go."
+
+Mr. Kaye looked up as if he would remonstrate. Then he took up a western
+newspaper that their guest had laid down, and began to read. But his
+children had seen his glance, and interpreted it to themselves by a
+swift exchange of their own. Amy's eyes spoke to her brother's, as
+plainly as words:--
+
+"We mustn't leave him alone to-day," and Hallam's had telegraphed
+back:--
+
+"No, I see that. One of us must stay."
+
+"Well, father, Hal is not half so necessary to the success of Ardsley
+Mill as I am. He's going to help you mount those sketches this morning,
+while I hunt up Uncle Frederic, and try to get a 'day off' to visit with
+him. Cleena must dish up the remains of the yesterday dinner for us, and
+we'll keep Christmas over again. Isn't it just lovely, lovely, to have
+one's relatives turn up in this delightful fashion? First, Cousin
+Archibald, behaving just like other folks; and now this romantic arrival
+of the long-lost uncle. Good-by. I'll be back as soon as I can."
+
+Mr. Kaye and Hallam repaired to the upper floor as Amy went away, but
+Cleena remained standing for a long time, motionless in the middle of
+the room. Her head was bent, and her gaze fixed, as if she were studying
+some matter deeply. Finally she roused with a mighty sigh and stalked
+out of the room.
+
+"Sure, the pother o' life. It's an' up an' down, so fast it makes a body
+dizzy in their wits. That boy, Fayetty, one day as good as a fine fish
+o' Friday; the next--eatin' me heart out with the worry. Never a doubt I
+doubt 'twas himself belabored the old man on his road home. There's bad
+blood 'twixt 'em. But I'll aye see if he's in his bed the now."
+
+So she ascended to the back chamber that Fayette used. To her knock
+there came, at first, no response; but she kept on with her tapping and
+interspersed this with coaxing tones, and finally a voice answered her.
+
+"What you want?"
+
+"Yerself, avick."
+
+"Well, you can't have me."
+
+"Can I no? It's two makes a bargain."
+
+"Clear out."
+
+"After you is manners for me. Come by."
+
+"Leave me alone."
+
+"I'd take shame to myself. Have ye heard the fine doin's? No?"
+
+"What doings?"
+
+"The lad's back from foreign parts, Miss Amy's uncle. He's the one has
+donkeys in his pocket. Heard ye ever o' him?"
+
+"Where's he at?"
+
+"Faith, I d' know. Belike he's after takin' a stroll about, meetin' old
+friends. What for no? Come on an' help me get a fine dinner out o'
+scraps."
+
+"Suppose he'd give me one?"
+
+"Never a doubt I doubt, _he'll give ye all ye deserve_. Come by. There's
+kindlin' to split an' praties to peel, an'--Whist! What's that I hear?"
+
+Fayette's curiosity was very strong. It had led him into trouble more
+than once. It now induced him to open the door and peep through.
+
+"What's that, Cleena? Anything happenin'?"
+
+"Arrah musha, but I think yes!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Sure, if ye're askin', I'm believin' it's Willyum Gladstone happenin'
+down in your minin' hole."
+
+"Huckleberries!"
+
+The door flew open, Fayette rushed by as if he could not move half fast
+enough. It seemed to Cleena he cleared the stairs with two bounds, and
+an instant after she heard him hurrying into the cellar at the same
+headlong pace.
+
+"Hmm. I thought that'd fetch him," she chuckled. Then she suddenly
+remembered that she had once heard the lad speak of using "giant
+powder," or some such explosive in his work of the underground passage.
+She had strictly forbidden this, and had carefully watched lest any
+suspicious material might be brought upon the premises. She had even
+persuaded Teamster John to examine the trench and the articles which
+Fayette had placed there. He had found nothing wrong, and the pick and
+the shovel had been so long disused that they had rusted. Of late Cleena
+had let William Gladstone play down there in the soft dirt, while she
+was busy at other things.
+
+"Alanna, the day!"
+
+Cleena followed her leader only a trifle less swiftly, and reached the
+top of the cellar stairs just in time to receive a whirling object plump
+in her arms. The object was the incipient statesman, and in a second
+more the half-wit had also reached the kitchen floor and had shut the
+door behind him.
+
+"I'll teach him to interfere with my gold mine!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+FAIRACRES IS CLOSED.
+
+
+"Oh, Mr. Metcalf, may I come in?"
+
+The superintendent was alone in his office and admitted Amy at once.
+"Such strange things have happened, I've not come to work to-day, but to
+ask your help. My Uncle Frederic--"
+
+"Sit down, child, you are breathless with haste. You needn't talk. I
+have heard your news. Dr. Wise has sent me a message. I am expecting him
+here immediately."
+
+"Isn't it dreadful?"
+
+"Very," answered the gentleman, and his grave face emphasized his words.
+He knew Archibald Wingate better than anybody else could know him. He
+was the rich man's confidential employee, from whom no weaknesses were
+hid. He believed the mill owner to be vindictive, and he had heard his
+often-expressed contempt for the "whole family of Kaye, so far as its
+men are concerned." Of course, this had been some time ago; before
+Fairacres had become Mr. Wingate's home. Since then his enmity toward
+his relatives had seemed to slumber, it had even altered to a sort of
+friendliness; yet Mr. Metcalf had no faith in the endurance of this
+friendliness should any test be put upon it. The attack of the night
+before had pointed suspicion very strongly toward one of "the Kayes,"
+and should the victim recover, he would, doubtless, prosecute to the
+full extent of the law the person who had assaulted him.
+
+"Do you know how he is?"
+
+"Of whom do you ask?"
+
+"Cousin Archibald, of course. I am so sorry for him. If I hadn't to
+work, I would go and take care of him, if he'd let me."
+
+"I don't think he would. Besides, you would not be either strong or wise
+enough. He must have trained nursing, the best obtainable. I hear that
+he has recovered consciousness and is resting quietly. What
+complications may arise one cannot foresee. He has been a high liver,
+and he is an old man; but I hope for the best. I hope it not only for
+his sake, but everybody's concerned."
+
+"Wasn't it queer that that man, that officer,--a sheriff he called
+himself,--should come after my uncle? It frightened my father, so Hallam
+stayed with him. I'm sorry to be away from my place to-day, but Cleena
+fancies I have taken cold. Then, too, since Uncle Frederic came, of
+course I should devote myself to him. He's just splendid. So big and
+strong and jolly. Even under his sorrow about my mother he is as
+sunshiny as possible. He's like a fresh west wind that 'airs' a house
+so wonderfully. I do want you to see him; and I came to ask if you'd
+just go and explain to that sheriff how silly it is to suspect him."
+
+Mr. Metcalf regarded Amy for a moment in silence. With all her good
+sense, she was as ignorant as a child of many things in practical life.
+He answered her very gently:--
+
+"I expect to see him soon, that is my intention. Dr. Wise and I will
+become his 'bail', so that he can soon be set at liberty."
+
+"I do not understand you. What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, this: your uncle has been arrested upon suspicion of waylaying and
+assaulting Mr. Wingate. He will be imprisoned unless somebody becomes
+surety for him, that he will appear at court when summoned to stand his
+trial and prove his innocence if he can. It is right you should know
+this, though extremely disagreeable for me to speak of it."
+
+Amy's face paled as he talked. She did not wonder that her father had
+been frightened. The thing was horrible, and the disgrace of it crushed
+her. She bowed her head beneath its weight, and sat silent so long that
+the superintendent was moved to rise and comfort her.
+
+"Don't take it so to heart, my child; there is, of course, some great
+mistake. The thing is--to find out who the real assailant was and bring
+him to justice. This, unfortunately, will be a difficult matter."
+
+"No; I won't mind it. Why should I? If he had done this wicked thing, I
+should be right to feel shame; but he didn't. Oh! I've just thought of
+something that might help. Uncle Frederic said he caught the man by the
+collar, and the man slipped out of his coat and ran away. Where is the
+coat? Has anybody looked for it?"
+
+"Several persons, my own messenger among others. There is no trace of
+any garment anywhere near the highroad. If we could find that, as you
+say, it would simplify matters greatly. Come with me; I heard Nanette
+wishing she could show you her Christmas gifts. To hear her describe
+each, one would imagine she could see them. She is so interested about
+Balaam, too. She wonders where he is, and if he misses Pepita as much as
+she would miss one of her numerous sisters. When Dr. Wise has been here
+and we have concluded our business, I will call for you, probably, with
+your uncle. I have a new horse I'm anxious to try, and things are so
+unsettled here to-day--"
+
+"Unsettled?"
+
+"Yes; Ardsley doesn't often have such a sensation as its wealthiest
+citizen being horsewhipped. It's difficult to get the hands to work
+regularly. It's just as well you do not try, till it's blown over. You
+would be asked no end of questions, idle as the people who would put
+them."
+
+In his kind heart he wished to save her not only the questions, but the
+shadow which might rest upon her because of her misjudged relative. By
+nightfall, or earlier, he was determined to have the Californian set at
+liberty. It was an outrage that one who acted the good Samaritan should
+receive such reward, and he believed that two as influential townsmen as
+Dr. Wise and himself could, by their indorsement of the prisoner, turn
+the tide of public opinion in his favor.
+
+So Amy went again to the Metcalf home and forgot all her cares in the
+midst of its bright young people. The hours went swiftly round, and it
+was not till the gate clicked and a trio of gentlemen came striding up
+the path that she remembered how anxious she had been.
+
+Then she sped out of the house and flung herself into her uncle's arms.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad they found out their mistake! How ashamed that sheriff
+will be! Please, Mr. Metcalf, may I show him his own little Pepita, that
+was? And thank you for helping him to explain, or for the 'bail,' and
+everything. Thank you, too, Dr. Wise. Do you know how Mr. Wingate is?"
+
+"Improving. He's pretty badly scared and shocked, but I think he will
+come out all right."
+
+"Can he tell who struck him? That would clear everything up all right."
+
+"Yes; it would be a simple solution of the matter. I am hoping he will
+be able to tell, after a while; but for the present my object is to
+prevent, as far as possible, his recalling the incident. He must not be
+excited, else there may be fever. But all in good time, I think. Now Mr.
+Metcalf has invited us to ride behind his new horse. I have an hour of
+leisure, and I propose to show this old Ardsley boy the changes a few
+years have made, even in our quiet town. Did I hear anything about a
+small girl named Amy being one of the party?"
+
+"Indeed, you did. Oh, what a treat! A real Christmas gift. To ride
+behind a brand new horse, beside a brand new uncle, in a brand new
+carriage, is enough to turn my head; so forgive me if I'm silly--sillier
+than common. And oh, Mr. Metcalf, can't Nanette go too? She's so little
+she takes up no room worth mentioning, and I love her."
+
+It was a merry party. Amy believed that all the morning's trouble had
+been overcome, and did not realize that being out on bail was in itself
+sort of an imprisonment to a man of honor. Until the real culprit was
+found Frederic Kaye would still be under suspicion; yet he could enjoy
+his parole, and this ride had been purposely planned by his friends as a
+means of influencing that variable public opinion which had first
+promptly misjudged him.
+
+Therefore, they drove through the principal streets of the town, past
+all its business places, and lingered by the haunts of the village
+gossips, that Ardsleyites might see and comment.
+
+"Well, if that don't beat all!" exclaimed Mrs. Hackett to her
+customers. "There's Dr. Wise and the 'Supe' driving Mister Fred all over
+creation. I guess they don't believe anything against him, bad as things
+look. I don't know as 'tis right, either. I guess I'll wait and see
+before I make up my mind."
+
+But having already spread the "news" by means of every villager who had
+visited her place of business that morning, this was rather late in
+season to stem the tide of rumor; though on the principle of "better
+late than never," it may have done some good.
+
+When the ride was over and the Kayes deposited at the door of "Charity
+House," Amy was in the wildest of spirits. It seemed to her as if the
+world were the loveliest, friendliest place, and her gayety infected all
+about her. The gentlemen accompanied Mr. Frederic into the new home and
+spent an hour delightfully with the artist, amid his pictures. Then
+Cleena, aided by Amy, brought in a tray of luncheon, and they stayed to
+share it.
+
+"Blessings on Teamster John's turkey. What a lot of comfort it has given
+lots of folks!" remarked Amy to Cleena, in the kitchen, as she surveyed
+the neatly arranged tray.
+
+"Yes, so be. Arrah musha, were the man as sensible as his fowl I'd know.
+But, colleen, keep an eye to that back door. Fayette's behind, in the
+store closet. It's behind he must stay or there's mischief a-brewin'."
+
+"Indeed, I wonder he isn't putting himself forward, to attract Uncle
+Frederic's notice, as he always does of strangers. Well, poor lad, I
+fancy the introduction can wait. When you've carried in the tray, I'll
+go and serve them."
+
+But after the light meal was over and the guests departed, Hallam became
+absorbed in the new magazines that his uncle produced from his valise;
+while the elder Kayes dropped back into the reminiscences that were so
+interesting to themselves and so dull to Amy. Try as she would, now that
+all was quiet, she could not keep from her mind a picture of Archibald
+Wingate, riding home from a pleasant visit and suffering such mischance.
+
+"My first little dinner-party, too. I must go and see him. I must tell
+him that I am sorry. I must offer to help."
+
+So, after a while, as the afternoon waned, Amy put on her outdoor
+things, and telling only Cleena her errand, set off for Fairacres. She
+was admitted by a strange servant, and was passing straight toward the
+room which her cousin occupied when she was met and prevented by
+Marshall.
+
+"If you please, miss, he's allowed to see nobody."
+
+"Not even me? Surely, I will not disturb him. I won't even speak to him,
+if that will hurt him. I just want to satisfy myself how badly he's
+injured, and maybe smile at him. Just that little bit. Oh, Mr. Marshall,
+isn't it so sad! I'm so very, very sorry."
+
+"Yes, and well you might be, miss. No, not even to look at him. He's
+not to be worried by nobody."
+
+So Amy went sorrowfully home again, and as she had to resume her labor
+in the mill at such an early hour the following day, she could not
+repeat her visit until another night came round. Frederic Kaye had gone
+to the mansion, however, and had been coldly assured by the officious
+Marshall that "the master was doing well." This bulletin had been issued
+through the upper half of the old-fashioned door, which opened across
+its middle, and to effect an entrance the caller would have had to force
+the bolts of the lower half. The valet regarded the Californian with
+suspicion that, as the latter admitted, was not ill-founded; and he had
+not forgotten the feel of the stranger's boot-toe on the night of the
+accident. So he kept a safe barricade of the premises, and Frederic also
+went away unsatisfied.
+
+For several days these visits were repeated, with similar results; but
+when Sunday came round and she had daylight for her purpose, Amy again
+hurried to Fairacres.
+
+"I'll see him this time, if I have to climb over Marshall's objecting
+shoulders," she merrily cried to Cleena, as she departed.
+
+But when she reached the old homestead she found it desolate. The light
+snow which had fallen overnight lay everywhere undisturbed. No paths had
+been cleared nor entrances swept. The windows were closed and shuttered
+as Amy never had seen them. Even the stables were shut up and deserted;
+and after a half hour of vain efforts to arouse somebody, the
+disappointed girl returned to "Charity House."
+
+"Troth, ye went away like a feather, an' you come home like a log.
+What's happened, me colleen?"
+
+"He's gone. I can't see him. I can't tell him. Oh, I'm so sorry, so
+sorry!"
+
+To comfort her, Uncle Frederic paid a visit to Dr. Wise, and came back
+with news that was not very satisfactory. Without consulting the
+physician, Mr. Wingate had suddenly decided to go south for the winter.
+Marshall had attended to everything. The horses and cattle had been sent
+from Fairacres to one of the outlying farms belonging to the estate.
+There was no reference to future return, and Mr. Metcalf had been
+instructed to settle all accounts. Beyond this there was no mention of
+anybody, and no address was left except that of the mill owner's city
+bankers, who would forward any necessary papers. Mr. Wingate had gone
+away for absolute rest, and wished not to hear from Ardsley unless under
+extreme necessity.
+
+So Amy's dream of a reunited family, of that peace and happiness which
+should exist between Fairacres and "Charity House," came to an end. But
+other hopes and plans took its place, and she returned to her mill work
+on the Monday, too busy and eager to spend time in useless regret.
+
+"The best thing about life," observed this wise young person to her
+Uncle Frederic, "is that it has to keep right on. There's so much to do,
+and the days are so short, if a body grieves one moment he's sure to
+laugh the next. And, uncle, I've such a lovely idea about a 'club' for
+the mill folks. To take the place of one that--doesn't seem to help them
+much. I believe you're the very man to arrange everything, and that you
+were sent home just in time."
+
+"Wh-e-w! A Daniel come to judgment? No, a faithful daughter of a brave,
+unselfish woman. You'll never be Salome, little girl, but maybe you will
+be an improvement even on her. All her good sense with a little
+more--snap."
+
+"Considerable more snap than wisdom, I fancy," laughed she, and sped
+down the hill to join Gwendolyn for her walk millward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+MYSTERIES AND MASTERIES.
+
+
+"Sure, Mister Frederic, I'd be proud to show ye the cellar that's doin'
+below. Would he mind comin' the now?"
+
+"A 'cellar below' is surely in its proper place. I'll be delighted to
+view it, Mistress Goodsoul."
+
+"Alanna, it was ever yourself had a jest an' a twist of a body's words!
+To my notion, it's a tidy job, but I sometimes misgives it's no all
+right for the house."
+
+"Then it surely should be looked after. Who's doing it for you?"
+
+"That silly one I was tellin' you about. He's--he's--" The woman glanced
+over her shoulder, as if she feared to be heard. This was a curious
+circumstance in the case of one so frank as she, and her old friend
+commented on it.
+
+"Why so mysterious, Cleena? Secrets afoot? But it's after Christmas, not
+before it."
+
+"Come by."
+
+He followed her gayly down the stairs into the one central cellar, and
+from this slightly farther into another, being opened toward the side.
+She carried a lighted candle in her hand, and pointed with pride to the
+neatness of the work as far as it had proceeded.
+
+"Nobody could ha' done it finer, eh?"
+
+"It seems all right. The walls will have to be supported, of course,
+though it looks a solid rock. Old Ingraham obeyed the Scripture
+injunction in letter, if not in spirit. What does Cuthbert think of
+this?"
+
+"The same as of most things--nothin' at all. So long as he's his bit
+pictures an' books to pore over, the very house might tumble about his
+ears an' no heed. There's been no nerve frettin' nor crossness since the
+mistress was called--not once. He's a saint the now. But it's aye good
+ye're come home, Mister Fred."
+
+"And it's good to hear you say so, old friend. Yet if it suits you just
+as well, I'd prefer to have you say it up in the open. I'm not a lover
+of dark cellars, or of holes that may be cellars some day. Come out of
+it; it gives me the 'creeps.'"
+
+"Ye believe it's all safe, eh?"
+
+"Safe enough so far."
+
+"Come by. If you like not this place, you must e'en bide the kitchen a
+bit. I've somewhat to speak to you."
+
+Cleena started back over the way they had come, and Mr. Kaye was
+following her, when he stumbled against something soft, and fell
+headlong in the mud; but he was up again in an instant, no worse for the
+accident save by the soil upon his clothing. He had grasped the thing
+over which he had tripped, and held it up to the candle-light.
+
+"Hello! Seems to me I've seen this garment, or felt it, before. That
+peculiarity of a cloth coat with a leather collar is noticeable. Whose
+is it, Cleena?"
+
+"Fetch it," she commanded tersely, and he obeyed her. Once in the better
+lighted kitchen she extinguished the candle, carefully closed all the
+doors, and seated herself near her visitor. She had taken the coat from
+him, and laid it upon her own knees. Her manner was still full of that
+mystery which consorted so oddly with her honest, open face.
+
+"I thought so. I thought so, so I did."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+"Cease yer haverin', lad. There's matter here."
+
+"Considerable. Upon my clothes, too. The matter seems to be of the same
+sort--rather brown and sticky, what the farmers call 'loom.'"
+
+"Know you whose coat this be?"
+
+"Never a know I know," he mimicked, enjoying his bit of nonsense with
+this old friend of his youth.
+
+"It's Fayetty's."
+
+"Your superior cellar digger? Whew!"
+
+He had now become quite as serious as she desired. "Cleena, this is a
+bad business. This coat was on the back of the man who horsewhipped Mr.
+Wingate."
+
+"I thought it; but, mind you, me lad, he's not for punishin'."
+
+"Hold on, he certainly _is_. Don't you know that I--I, a Kaye, am under
+suspicion of this dastardly thing? Of course you do. Well, then, I'm
+going to step out from under the suspicion with neatness and despatch.
+How long have you been hiding this, Cleena?"
+
+"The poor chap's been here ever since. Only once a day he slips out, but
+he's back by night. Oh, he's safe enough the now."
+
+"Glad of it. Like to have him handy; and as soon as you've finished what
+you have to say, I'll walk into the village and inform the sheriff, or
+somebody who should know."
+
+"You'll do naught like it."
+
+"Why, Cleena, woman, have you lost your good sense?"
+
+"Have I saved it, no? Hear me. I know 'twas me poor little Gineral
+Bonyparty 't did the deed. I knew, soon as I heard the tale o' the coat.
+You're no so stupid yerself. You recognized it immediate. It was a part
+o' his uniform he wore a-paradin'. His notion 'twould save the collar
+clean o' the jacket I fixed him. He's never no care in all his hard life
+till he met up with me. The poor little gossoon!"
+
+"Cleena, Cleena, turncoat! Wasn't I once, on a day gone by, another
+'poor little gossoon'? But come, drop nonsense; it's a disgracefully
+serious business for me and for your whole family."
+
+"It's because o' the family I say it. The lad's for no punishin'. Not
+yet. You're big an' strong, an' uncommon light o' heart. It'll do ye no
+harm. The suspicioned you must be till--Wait lad. You loved the
+mistress, Salome?"
+
+"Why, Cleena, you know it!"
+
+"Love you her childer?"
+
+"Dearly; for their sakes I must shake off this obnoxious misjudgment."
+He shrugged his shoulders as if the obloquy were a tangible load that
+could be shifted.
+
+"Hallam, the cripple, that's walked never a step since a diny dony
+thing, an' a bad nurse set him prone on the cold stones o' the nasty
+cellar house where her kind lived. That winter in the town, an' me
+mindin' the mistress with Miss Amy a babe. How could we watch all the
+time? He must have the air, what for no? An' her with a face as smooth
+as bees-wax. Down on the cold, damp stones she'd put him, whiles off
+with her young man she'd be trapesin', an' him made a cripple for life."
+
+"Yes, Cleena, I remember it all. And how, as Amy tells me, almost a
+fortune has been spent to restore him. But if ever I earn enough to try
+again, I'll never rest till every doctor in the world, who understands
+such things, shall tell me there is no hope."
+
+"Good lad. Aye, aye, _good lad_!"
+
+The gentleman looked at her in amazement. This had been the old
+servant's term of commendation when he had refrained from some of his
+youthful and natural mischievousness. She seemed to mean it just as
+earnestly now. Suddenly she leaned forward and placed her hands upon his
+knees.
+
+"Say it again, avick. You'd do all in your power for me darlin' Master
+Hallam, what for no?"
+
+"What idleness to ask! I would give anything in this world to see him
+cured."
+
+"The Kayes are aye proud, in troth. Yer honor, lad; _even yer honor_?"
+
+"Hmm, well--yes. Even my honor."
+
+"Hark to me."
+
+For five minutes thereafter Cleena talked, and not once did her listener
+interrupt. Her words were spoken in that sibilant whisper that is louder
+than ordinary speech, and not one of them was lost. When she had
+finished, she rose and demanded, laying her hand upon Mr. Kaye's
+shoulder:--
+
+"Now, Mister Fred, will ye leave me gineral be?"
+
+"Yes, Cleena. For the present, till a final test comes, he shall be safe
+from any interference from me. I'll take him under my personal
+protection. I'll make myself his friend. He shall have a fair chance. If
+he fails--"
+
+"He'll no fail! he'll no fail, laddie! Such as him is the Lord's own.
+Whist, alanna, here he comes."
+
+Fayette approached the entrance, walking stealthily, and casting furtive
+glances toward that part of the building where the guest had hitherto
+remained. Apparently satisfied that the coast was clear, he crept to
+the door and tapped it twice.
+
+Cleena nodded her head, and Frederic Kaye opened to admit the boy, who
+would have retreated when he saw the stranger, had not his arm been
+caught and held so firmly he could not writhe himself free.
+
+"Leave me alone. What you doin'?"
+
+"Why, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you since Christmas night."
+
+"'Twasn't me. I never done it. Leave me be. Huckleberries! I'll smash
+ye!"
+
+"Why, Fayette, I'm astonished. Be quiet, listen. I know you--I know all
+about you. You have got to behave. You must stay here and do exactly
+what Cleena and I tell you to do. You'll be treated well. I'll show you
+how you can make a lot of that money you like so much; upon condition,
+though--upon the one condition that you simply behave correctly. You are
+wise enough to understand me. If you disobey or prove tricky--well, I
+have but to hand you over to the law and you're settled. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"You mean, if I don't mind, they'll jail me?"
+
+"That's it, exactly. You're cleverer than I hoped."
+
+"All right; I'll do it. Say, I believe Balaam's sick."
+
+"Balaam? Have you got him, too? Are you a horse thief as well as
+highwayman? Well, poor fellow, it's lucky your lot is cast in this
+peaceful valley instead of on the frontier. Where is he?"
+
+"I rode him to a place I know. There was plenty o' fodder once, but
+it's been took. He hain't had much to eat, an' maybe that's it. I was
+bound old Wingate shouldn't get him."
+
+"Look here, young man, call nobody names. That's not allowed. And now
+you travel after Balaam. If he's too sick for you to manage alone, I'll
+go with you; if not, you must do it. How far away is he?"
+
+"Not more 'n a mile."
+
+"Fetch him. I've something to tell you, for your own benefit. I'll teach
+you how to grow mushrooms, down in that cellar you're digging.
+Well-grown ones will bring you a dollar a pound. I know, I've raised
+them. I'd made a fortune only I love daylight and hate darkness. If you
+can stand the underground part just for fun, you'll make it pay."
+
+"Huckleberries! I'll get him. I'll hurry back."
+
+As if he expected the new enterprise to begin that very night the lad
+started down the hill. Already there was a manlier bearing about his
+ill-shaped body. The necessity for hiding which he had felt had been
+removed, and he was a free lad again.
+
+An hour later Frederic Kaye saw him reappear, riding the apparently
+restored burro, and smiled grimly.
+
+"Hmm. Well, I'm in for it. I'm to remain under the cloud for an
+indefinite time. If it succeeds--I'll not regret. If it doesn't, maybe
+the Lord will square it up to my account, against the thoughtless
+neglect I showed Salome. Now, I'll go out and interview my old
+acquaintance of the Sierras. I wonder is his voice as mellifluous as
+erstwhile!"
+
+"Br-a-a-ay! Ah-umph! A-h-h-u-m-p-h!!" responded Balaam, from afar.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+A PICNIC IN THE GLEN.
+
+
+It is amazing how fast time flies when one is busy. At "Charity House"
+all were busy, and to all the winter passed with incredible swiftness.
+
+To Amy each day seemed too short to accomplish half she desired, and
+each one held some new, fascinating interest in that study of life which
+so absorbed her.
+
+"You're the funniest girl, Amy. Even the lengthening of the days,
+getting a little lighter in the mornings, week by week, so we can see
+the sun rise and such things, as we walk to work--I'd never think of it,
+'cept for you."
+
+"Now you do think of it, isn't it interesting?"
+
+"Yes, I like it. Things seem to mean something, now I know you. Before,
+well--'pears like I didn't think at all; I just slid along and took no
+notice."
+
+"But it's so wonderful. Everything is wonderful,--even the way the
+months have gone. Here it is spring, the bloodroot lying in a white
+drift along the brookside, and the yellow lilies opening their funny
+tooth-shaped petals everywhere in the woods. Yet only a minute ago, as
+it seems, the dead leaves were falling, and I was on my way for the
+first time to work in the mill. I belong there now, a part of it. I have
+almost forgotten how it used to be when I was so idle."
+
+"Seems to me you could never have been idle, Amy. Anyway, you've got on
+splendid. The 'Supe' says he never had a girl go ahead so fast. Isn't it
+grand, though, to be out of the mill this lovely day? Saturday-half
+means ever so much more fun now than it used to do, and doesn't cost
+half so much money. Don't worry you half so much either, as it did to go
+shopping all the time. Say, Amy, I've about got Mis' Hackett paid up."
+
+"I'm delighted; it must be wretched to feel one's self in debt, I
+think."
+
+"It's mighty nice to feel one's self out of it. I've got you to thank
+for that, too, 'long of lots of other things. Isn't the club doing fine?
+We wouldn't have had that, either, but for you."
+
+"Nonsense! Indeed, you would. Hallam was as interested as I in the
+subject; and as soon as we told Uncle Fred, he was even more eager than
+we. But it is to father we all owe the most, I think."
+
+"So do I. To dream of a splendid gentleman like him, and such a painter,
+taking so much time and trouble just for a lot of mill folks, I think
+it's grand. I don't understand how he can."
+
+"Seeing that his own two children are 'mill folks,' I can, readily,"
+answered Amy, laughing. "But, indeed, I know he would go on with it now
+just as thoroughly, even if we were not in the case at all."
+
+This talk occurred one lovely afternoon when the half-holiday made a
+club picnic a possible and most delightful thing. The two girls,
+Gwendolyn and Amy, were a little earlier than the others, and were on
+their way to the appointed meeting place, "Treasure Island," a small
+piece of wooded ground rising in the middle of the Ardsley's widest
+span. From the island to the banks, on either side, were foot-bridges,
+and in the grove tables and benches had been built by the lads of the
+organization. It was an ideal picnic ground, and these were ideal
+picnickers; for those who toil the hardest on most days of the week
+enter most heartily into the recreations they do secure.
+
+The girls were passing down into the glen where Amy had once lost her
+way and been rescued by Fayette. It seemed so long ago that she could
+hardly realize how few months had really elapsed.
+
+She spoke of the matter to her companion, who seemed to be in a
+reflective mood that afternoon, and who again remarked upon the change
+in the mill boy, also.
+
+"Your uncle and Cleena Keegan have made him different, too. He's as
+proud as Punch of his mushroom raising, isn't he? He owes that to Mister
+Fred; but, odd! he's as scared of Cleena as if she owned him. He didn't
+forgive that thing about Balaam, and seems to feel he has a right to
+him, same's Mr. Metcalf has."
+
+"Poor old Balaam, he's made a lot of trouble, first and last; but I
+guess he's all right now, only Cleena won't let Fayette talk of him. She
+says it's 'punishment,'--the only sort she can inflict. I don't
+understand why she wants him punished, anyway."
+
+"Maybe for stealing him that Christmas night out of Mr. Wingate's
+stable."
+
+"Possibly; I don't know. She's like a mother puss with her kitten. One
+minute she pets him to foolishness, the next she gives him a mental slap
+that reduces him to the humblest, most timid mood. Well, I'm glad the
+burro business is settled, though it's odd how Fayette covets that
+animal; and the exercise of going up and down to his work, the days he
+has to go, isn't hurting Hallam at all. I never knew him to be so well
+and strong as he seems this spring."
+
+"Amy, how was it about Balaam? Ma says she never heard the rights of it
+yet. And say, she likes that book you lent her, about the woman went
+round the world alone, visiting them hospitals, better 'n any novel she
+ever read. She's going to give up the other story papers soon as the
+subscription runs out an' take one o' them library tickets you were
+telling about, or your uncle, where they send the books to you by mail
+and you can have your choose of hundreds. Say, wouldn't it be prime if
+we could get a big library here?"
+
+"Grand! We will, some day, too."
+
+"My! You say such things as if you expected them to be. How, I'd like to
+know?"
+
+"Well, if in no other way, by just us mill folks banding together and
+making a beginning. Indeed, I think my father would give his own little
+library as a start. There's a fine one at Fairacres, and I'm hoping when
+Cousin Archibald comes back he'll get interested in our work and help
+along."
+
+"Might as well look for miracles."
+
+"I do. I'm always finding them, too. There's one at your very feet.
+Don't tread upon it, please."
+
+Stooping, the girl pulled Gwendolyn's dress away from a tiny green
+speck, growing in dangerous proximity to the wood road.
+
+"What's it?"
+
+"This baby fern."
+
+"All that fuss about a fern!"
+
+"It's life, it's struggle. See, so dainty, so fine, yet so plucky,
+forcing its soft frond up through the earth, among all these bits of
+rocks; never stopping, never fearing, just trusting the Creator and
+doing its duty. It would be a pity to end it so soon."
+
+"Amy, did I ever! Well, there it is again. I shall never be able to
+crush anything like that without remembering what you've said just now.
+I--I wish you wouldn't. It makes me feel sort of wicked. And that's
+silly, just for a fern."
+
+"Gwen, anything that makes us more merciful can't be silly. Heigho!
+there are the picnickers all coming along the banks and over the
+bridges. Truly, a goodly company, yet we began with just you and Lionel,
+Mary Reese, Hallam, and me. Now there are a hundred members, old and
+young. There's one of the everyday miracles for you!"
+
+The vigorous young association which went by the name of the "Ardsley
+Club" flourished beyond even Amy's most sanguine expectation. Three
+rooms of "Charity House," the sunny western side of the higher story,
+had been cheerfully offered by Mr. Kaye as a home for the club. These
+rooms he had had fitted up under his own supervision, though the work
+had been done by the members themselves, in hours after mill duties were
+over. The color mixer had supplied the material with which the once ugly
+white walls were tinted; and upon the soft-hued groundwork there had
+been stencilled a delicate conventional design. At one end of the large
+room designated the "reading room" a scroll bore the legend which old
+Adam Burns had given Amy as a "rule of life": "Simplicity, Sincerity,
+Sympathy," and opposite gleamed in golden letters the other maxim: "Love
+Conquers All."
+
+"Love, Simplicity, Sincerity, and Sympathy, which is the synonym of
+Love, and forms with it the golden circle," was adopted as one of the
+by-laws, and it is true that each member endeavored to keep this one
+law inviolably. The result was a spirit of peace and goodwill rarely
+found in a gathering of so many varying natures. It had been Mr. Kaye's
+idea to make the affair one of no expense to the members, outside of his
+own household, but Frederic promptly vetoed that.
+
+"In the first place, there are none of us rich enough to do such a
+thing. There will be lights, firing, musical instruments, books, current
+literature, games--any number of things that cost money. Amy's idea is
+fine. A club of the right sort will be a powerful factor for good in
+this community of mill workers, but it must be made self-supporting. If
+you give the use of the rooms and will act as instructor along some
+lines,--art and literature, which you comprehend better than
+financiering, respected brother,--you will have done your generous
+share. Amy and Cleena will keep the rooms in order, with occasional aid
+from the girl members--after we secure them. A small sum, contributed by
+each member, will run the whole concern. People who are as constantly
+employed as these mill operatives have not the leisure nor means to
+acquire a book education, but a more intelligent, wider-awake, more
+receptive class is not to be found. Yet let nobody dare to approach them
+with anything at all in the nature of 'charity' or mental almsgiving.
+Your democrat beats your aristocrat in the matter of pride every time,
+and that is a paradox for you to consider. I relinquish the floor."
+
+"After having exhausted the subject," laughed Hallam. But the subject
+had not been exhausted. Amy proposed the matter the very next day, at
+"nooning," and secured the members as mentioned by her to Gwendolyn. In
+a week the membership had doubled; and as soon as the affair was really
+comprehended, that it was a mutual benefit organization in the highest
+sense of the word, applications were plentiful.
+
+Uncle Frederic had been a literal globe-trotter, and his journeyings on
+foot made him able to discourse in a familiar way of things no
+guide-book ever points out. Nor did Cleena's good cookery come in for
+any poor show among these healthy, happy folk. The club paid for the
+simple refreshments provided at their weekly "socials," and Cleena
+prepared them. Even this day, for their out-of-door reunion, she had
+made all the needful preparations, and had been so busy she had scarcely
+remembered to keep a close watch upon Fayette.
+
+"But troth, it's no more nor right he should take his bit fun with the
+rest," she remarked to herself, as she pulled the last tin of biscuits
+from the chimney oven and spread them with sweet butter and daintily
+sliced tongue. "He's aye restless betimes; and--but it's comin', it's
+comin', me blessed gossoon!"
+
+But to whom Cleena's exclamation referred it would have been difficult
+to say,--though possibly to Fayette, as her next words seemed to
+indicate. For the good creature still "conversed with Cleena" in every
+instance when she happened to be left alone, it being a necessity of
+her friendly nature that she should talk to somebody.
+
+"Me gineral's never got over the burro business yet, alanna! An' it do
+seem hard how 't one has so little an' t' other so much. That Mr.
+'Super' Metcalf now, as fine a man as treads shoe leather, never a doubt
+I doubt, yet himself judgin' it fair, since the man Wingate wanted the
+beast, the man Wingate should have him. Anyway, there he stands, brayin'
+his head off in the 'Supe's' stable, in trust for the old man'll never
+bestride him. Nobody rides him at all, Miss Amy says; yet here's me
+gineral heart-broke for him; an' the cripple goin' afoot; an' all them
+little Metcalfs envyin' an' covetin'; an' all because a man who's word
+is law said he'd take him for rent an' just kept him, whether or no. But
+a good job it was when Mister Fred come home, with money for rent an' a
+few trifles, but not much besides. Well, where's the need? Eight dollars
+a week is Miss Amy's wage now, God bless her! an' Master Hal's nigh the
+same,--let alone them bit pictures the master's be's doin' constant.
+Mister Fred's the knack o' sellin' 'em too. Well, if the mistress could
+see--and hark, me fathers! What's that?"
+
+Down in the fragrant glen and on the little island the hungry
+"Ardsleyites" waited long for the promised supper; and up on Bareacre
+knoll things were happening that would provide another sensation for the
+little town, quiet now since the Christmas horsewhipping episode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+A DOUBLE INHERITANCE IN A SINGLE DAY.
+
+
+Almost before she asked it, Cleena answered her own question.
+
+"The powder! the powder! It's Fayetty a-meddlin'! Oh, is he killed, the
+witless gossoon?"
+
+Then she turned toward the stairway leading into the cellar, and from
+whence she had heard the dull roar, and now imagined she saw smoke as
+she certainly did smell suggestive fumes. She needed not to descend,
+however, for at the stair's head the lad rushed against her, bruising
+her with something hard and heavy that he carried, and thus dispelling
+her first fear of his personal injury.
+
+"Fayetty--Fayetty! Hold by! What's amiss? What's--"
+
+He deposited a box upon the kitchen table, plump in the tray of
+biscuits, and catching Cleena about the waist began to execute a
+grotesque dance with her for helpless partner. After a moment she was
+able to extricate herself from his frantic clutch and to demand
+sternly:--
+
+"Ye omahaun, are ye gone daft?"
+
+"It's money, Cleena Keegan! _It's money!_ The cellar's full of it!
+Money, money, money! Chests full, cellars full--oh! oh! oh!"
+
+Then did her eye fall upon the box and the spot where it rested, and
+indignation seized her soul. With one grasp of her strong hands she
+flung it to the floor, where it fell heavily, cracked, and burst
+asunder.
+
+Both were then too astonished to speak. Fayette's wildest dreams had,
+evidently, come true. Cleena could not believe her eyes. Never in all
+her life had she seen so many precious coins. They were dimmed by age
+and moisture, yet, unmistakably, they were of gold, with a few that
+might be silver. All the fairy tales of her beloved Ireland rushed
+through her mind, and she regarded the half-wit with a new veneration.
+
+"Sure, you're one o' them elf-men, I believe; that different from
+ordinary you can even make dollars o' doughnuts. Arrah musha, 'twas a
+smart decent day when Miss Amy fetched you home to Fairacres! Sent, was
+ye, to make the old family rich; and the marvel o' cure in your long,
+lean hands. Troth, I'm struck all of a heap."
+
+But Fayette was not. He had never been so active. He began to gather up
+the coins which had been scattered by the breaking of the chest and, for
+want of something better in which to store them, pulled Cleena's apron
+from her waist and piled them in that. She sat on, silently regarding
+him. For a few minutes she honestly believed that he was a genuine
+specimen of the "little people" who were said to make green Erin their
+favorite home. But when he began to gabble in a hoarse, excited tone of
+how he had long been expecting this "find"; how he had watched his
+opportunity when all the household should be absent that he might
+disobey and use the explosive that would lessen his labor so greatly,
+she came back to common sense.
+
+[Illustration: "HE BEGAN TO GATHER UP THE COINS."]
+
+"So you've been lookin' for it, have ye? Well, now you've got it, but ye
+might ha' been killed in the job. What for no? With Mister Fred gone to
+town an' him tellin' ye most explicit ye should no touch nor meddle at
+all. Was aught like this found in either of them mushroom ones?"
+
+"I--don't--know," answered Fayette, slowly, still stooping and tying his
+bundle. "If there was--that man's--got it. It was _mine_. _I_ begun the
+digging. I--"
+
+"An' he finished, eh? Well, you take up your pack an' put it here in my
+dresser. Then go wash your face. Such a sight! Hold, did ye any more
+harm there below?"
+
+"Harm! harm! to dig such a treasure as this out of my mine? Well, if I
+used only a little bit of powder and got so much, what a lot I might
+have found if I'd used more. I'll bet the whole ground is full."
+
+"Oh, ye silly! Put that stuff down. It's makin' ye lose what little
+sense you've got. An', me neighbor, look here. See them beautiful
+biscuits all spoiled the day, the day!"
+
+This reminded the lad that he was hungry. He had been hard at work all
+day in the underground passage, the third and last of those he had set
+out to make beneath "Charity House." The first two had been completed,
+the walls shored, the rich beds for mushroom-raising made upon the dark
+damp floors. Already these beds were dotted with the white growths, that
+in a marvellous short time would be full-grown mushrooms and finding a
+place upon many an epicure's table.
+
+That very hour, even, Frederic Kaye was in the city negotiating for
+their regular sale at profitable prices; and wondering not a little, it
+may be, at the strange fact that "Spite House," instead of being the
+barren, unproductive spot at first supposed, would prove instead a
+veritable mine of support to the whole household. Of that other
+"mining," with its anticipated results in gold of which Fayette had
+sometimes babbled, Mr. Kaye took no account. Old Jacob Ingraham who
+built the house had been a hard, close-fisted man, if all accounts were
+true, and not at all likely to deposit his money in the ground, when
+there were investments which would help to increase it. But of old
+Jacob's wife, history said little, and Frederic never thought.
+
+Fayette placed the apron in the cupboard, as he had been bidden, and
+when he would have added the broken box also, Cleena prevented.
+
+"Oh, ye dirty boy! That--that mouldy, muddy, nasty thing! No, no! No,
+no!" and she tossed it unceremoniously into the box of kindling-wood.
+In the roomy "Dutch" oven in the wall she had baked many of her picnic
+biscuits, and she regarded the ruin Fayette had wrought among her
+sandwiches with an air absurdly sad.
+
+Now he had no scruples against a bit of dirt, and had already crammed
+his mouth full of the broken food, when Cleena looked round and saw him.
+His mouth was distended with laughter as well as bread, and this
+provoked her still further. Sweeping her long arm over the table, she
+brushed all the sandwiches into a big pan that stood conveniently near,
+and remarked grimly:--
+
+"Not another bite o' better food do you get till them's all ate."
+
+"All right. I like 'em. But what's the picnickers goin' to do?"
+
+"The best they can. An' you're to help. Go wash your hands."
+
+"I have."
+
+"Again, once more; then show 'em to me."
+
+The lad laughingly obeyed. Then demanded:--
+
+"What for?"
+
+Cleena replied by action rather than word. She tied a fresh gingham
+apron about his shoulders and brought the strings around in front so
+that his mud-stained clothing was entirely covered. Then she led him to
+her kneading-table and set a bucket of sifted flour before him.
+
+"Make biscuit."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"Three hundred. Fall to, measure, I'll count."
+
+She did. For two whole hours the pair labored in that kitchen, Fayette
+kneading, cutting out, slipping the pans into the ovens and removing
+them; while Cleena spread and cut tongue after tongue, till even more
+than the original supply had been reproduced. Then she paused and looked
+up.
+
+There stood Teamster John in the doorway, smiling and watching Fayette's
+new occupation with genuine surprise.
+
+"Shucks! makin' a cook out of him? Ain't ye rather late with your
+luncheon? I drove up to carry the baskets down to the 'Island.'"
+
+"Humph! Ready they was, fast enough. But--man, look here," and she
+opened the cupboard door to draw forth the apron of gold.
+
+"No, you shan't! He shan't touch it! It's mine--it's mine!" cried
+Fayette, and snatched the bundle from her hands. He had not tied it
+securely, and again the long-buried coins rolled into the sunlight and
+spread themselves over the floor.
+
+"To the--land's--sake!"
+
+"They're mine--they're all mine--every single one. I found 'em. I
+blasted 'em out. Nobody shall touch them--nobody!"
+
+"You--blasted them--out? From the cellar of this house? You--simpleton!"
+
+"Like to ha' done it yourself, hey?"
+
+"No; but I'm sorrier than I can tell that ever you were let to fool with
+powder. How'd Mister Frederic allow it?"
+
+Cleena answered promptly, "He didn't. He strict forbid it. Yes, I know,
+I know. It was a chance. If me guardian angel hadn't been nigh, you
+might never ha' seen old Cleena again. Arrah musha, but I'm that shook
+up I'd know! What say? Is it time yet for their supper down yon, or
+what?"
+
+"It'll be a little late, maybe, but never mind. My, my! Chests o' gold!
+Who'd believe it? Like a story book, now, ain't it? And where, in the
+name of common sense, did you get all this flour and meat an' fixings,
+Cleena, woman?"
+
+"Mister Fred. The last day he went to town. He was to buy enough for one
+picnic, so he brought home enough for two. That's ever his way. He's the
+good provider, is Mister Fred. Bless him!"
+
+"Exactly. Well, I'll tell you, it _is_ late, so I'll just drive down to
+tell the youngsters they'd better come up here and eat their supper.
+They'll be crazy wild for a sight of that chest and what was in it; and
+if they don't come to-day, they'll be besieging you all day to-morrow.
+When a thing like this happens, it belongs to the town."
+
+"Don't neither; belongs to _me_. I found it. I'll keep it. I dare ye!"
+
+"All right, lad. Don't worry. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
+I've heard of such things afore now, and never once that they didn't
+bring trouble. All I'm thankful for is you didn't kill anybody nor smash
+up the house with your fool blastin'. You won't get another chance to
+try, if I have to come right here and stay myself;" and he smiled
+sweetly toward Cleena, who ignored the smile, but agreed with the
+suggestion.
+
+"Yes; that's right. That's sense. What for no? Troth, to-morrow's a
+Sunday, an' not to be disturbed o' none such havers. What's a bit of old
+dollars dug out o' the mud? An' Monday's me wash. Faith, it's sense in
+small matters ye're havin', Teamster John. Drive yon an' make haste
+back. I'll spread me a cloth on the grass an' each may eat like a
+heathen, does he like, that same as he was down in the woods."
+
+"But they shan't touch it--they shan't even see it! It's mine. I'll keep
+it, understand?"
+
+Cleena understood not only the words, but the lad with whom she had to
+deal.
+
+"Whist, alanna, would you hide yourself, then? Faith, no; run avick. Put
+on your Sunday suit, brush yer hair, make yerself tidy, then stand up
+like a showman at Donnybrook fair, an' pass the time o' day with who
+comes. What for no? The box an' the gold must be showed. Such a thing
+can't be hid. Well, then, gossoon, just show it yerself."
+
+So when, not long after, the whole band of merrymakers came trooping
+over the knoll of Bareacre, they found not only their belated supper
+spread for them, but a sight to amuse their curiosity in the buried
+treasure, estimated at various sums by the excited beholders, and with
+an ever increasing value as the story passed from mouth to mouth.
+
+"It will belong to 'Bony,' of course."
+
+"No; to the Kayes. He doesn't own the house."
+
+"Nor they. If they did, they wouldn't take it from him. They're not that
+sort of folks."
+
+"But they're as poor as anybody now."
+
+"Archibald Wingate owns the property. I should think it belonged to
+him."
+
+"The 'Supe' will probably take it in charge."
+
+So the talk bandied back and forth till poor Fayette's weak brain was in
+a whirl; and amid it all there was one name that fell upon his hearing
+with a sense of pain,--"Archibald Wingate." The man he hated. Well, of
+one thing he was resolved--this unearthed treasure might be the mill
+owner's, but if it were, he should never, never touch it.
+
+Poor Fayette! So he still stood and proudly exhibited the wonder, and
+told over and again exactly how he had long suspected its existence, and
+had watched his opportunity, with this result. Since he was happy and
+watchful, Cleena felt he was secure--for the present. But all the time
+she longed for Mr. Frederic's return, or even for that of Mr. Kaye, who
+was abroad upon a sketching ramble. There should be somebody in
+authority present, since Hallam and Amy were both too young, and
+Teamster John--well, he might "do at a pinch." In any case, he must
+remain on guard till a better man appeared.
+
+This better man did arrive, just as the evening fell, in the person of
+Uncle Fred, riding up the driveway in old Israel Boggs's farm wagon. Amy
+was first to discover their approach and ran gayly to meet them,
+beginning her tale of the afternoon's adventure with her very
+salutation; but long before she reached the side of the wagon she saw
+that something was amiss with her jolly uncle. His face was very grave,
+and even his voice was hushed, so that though his greeting to his niece
+was even kinder than usual, it startled her by its solemnity.
+
+"Why, Uncle Fred, what is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"I'll tell you presently. But how come so many here? I thought the
+picnic was at 'Treasure Island.'"
+
+She nodded cheerfully to Israel, whose face was even more sad than
+Frederic Kaye's, and gave a rapid history of events. Strangely enough,
+neither of the two newcomers appeared much interested. It was as if some
+greater matter absorbed them, and their manner subdued Amy to silence;
+while the farmer tied old Fanny, and then followed his friend into the
+front part of the house, quite away from the excited groups surrounding
+Fayette and his wonderful exhibit.
+
+Once inside the shelter of the passage, Mr. Frederic laid his hand upon
+Amy's shoulder, and said, very gently:--
+
+"Prepare for a great sorrow, Amy dear. I have just come from the
+death-bed of our good friend, Adam Burn."
+
+Never till that moment had the girl known how well she loved the saintly
+old man. Rarely meeting, he had still exercised over her young life one
+of its most powerful influences, and an influence all for good.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Fred, it can't be. It mustn't be. He was so good, so kind,
+so--"
+
+"Altogether lovely. Yes, dear, all that. Old Israel, here, needs
+comfort. Talk to him a little."
+
+So she led the heart-broken Israel into the farthest room, and sitting
+down beside him persuaded him to speak with her of the one that had
+passed on, and in the act to find relief. Then she slipped away a moment
+and found Hallam, who, when he had heard this later news, quietly
+dismissed the club and brought the happy holiday to a reverent close.
+
+"Land! that makes all such ilk," said Teamster John, pointing to
+Fayette's glittering heap, "to seem of small account. What's a litter of
+gold alongside of such as him?"
+
+And not one among them all who had ever known Adam Burn found anything
+now worth discussing save the goodness and simplicity of their dead
+neighbor and friend.
+
+But late that night, after Israel had gone back to the desolate Clove,
+to make such arrangements for the old man's burial as his friends at
+"Charity House" had deemed fitting, Uncle Frederic remarked, casually:--
+
+"By the way, Amy, Mrs. Burn ('Sarah Jane,' you know) told me a bit of
+news, to the effect that you are the old man's heiress, because of your
+name that was his wife's. She says he gave you a sealed letter before he
+left Ardsley, which letter explained everything,--where the will was to
+be found, and the few directions necessary for the settlement of the
+estate. Your father and I are trustees, she thinks, until you come of
+age, but you are the heir. Good night."
+
+"No, no, uncle, I don't want to be! I want nothing that is gained by his
+death. And--I lost that letter, anyway."
+
+"Lost it? That's serious. However, it can doubtless be arranged. Good
+night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+ONE WONDERFUL AUTUMN DAY.
+
+
+The months flew by. The summer came and went. It was the hour for
+closing on a "Saturday-half," a whole year since Amy Kaye first visited
+the mills of Ardsley, and now she felt as they were a part of her very
+life. Beginning at the bottom she had industriously worked her way
+upward till she had just been promoted to the pleasant and well-paying
+task of "setter," in the big clean room, where the open windows admitted
+the soft air of another Indian summer.
+
+Away, at the extreme end of the long apartment, was a sunshiny office,
+lately constructed for the personal use of Archibald Wingate. This
+office was partitioned from the setting room by a glass sliding door,
+and through this, as Amy now lifted her eyes, she could see the broad
+back of her relative bending above a desk full of correspondence.
+
+At every setting frame there are two operators, for left hand and for
+right; and it was Amy's good fortune to have Mary Reese for her comrade,
+and a more sunshiny pair of workers could be found nowhere.
+
+For Hallam, also, it had been a busy, happy year. Like Amy, having
+begun with the humblest task and smallest wage, he had now advanced to
+be bookkeeper in one department, while he still retained his work of
+coloring and preparing the patterns for use in the weaving of the famous
+Ardsley carpets. He looked a far stronger, healthier lad than of old,
+and his disposition to think upon the dark side of things had now no
+time to develop, for activity effectually prevents brooding.
+
+Fayette was still a member of the Kaye household, and seemed to belong
+there as much as any of the others. He had been busy, too, all the year
+through, with his mushroom-raising, his gardening, and now that the
+autumn had come round again, with odd jobs at the mill. His deftness
+would always procure him employment of some sort, yet only that morning
+Mr. Metcalf had remarked to Hallam, confidentially:--
+
+"Queer, but I can never trust 'Bony.' He seems as honest and reliable as
+possible for a time, and then, suddenly, he will do something to
+disappoint me. I don't like his demeanor toward the 'boss.' Ever since
+Mr. Wingate returned, late this summer, and took to coming here every
+day, 'Bony' has come too. Have you noticed?"
+
+"I know he comes. I hadn't connected the two comings, however. I guess
+he's all right. There's a splendid side to that poor lad's nature, if
+you but knew it. Some day, I hope before very long now, he and I are to
+surprise the world."
+
+"Why, Hal, you're as gay as a blackbird. What's the surprise, eh? Too
+precious to disclose even to me?"
+
+"At present, yes. In a little while, a few days--Heigho!" and the lad
+looked significantly toward his crutches, leaning against the desk where
+he wrote.
+
+But the superintendent did not observe the glance. His mind was full of
+misgiving. Within a day or two he had had occasion to suspect that the
+half-wit had some uncanny scheme on hand. The lad's dislike of the old
+mill owner appeared to grow with the passage of time. The dull brain
+never forgot an injury, and it always seemed to Fayette that Mr. Wingate
+had wronged him. From the old days of his "bound out" life on the farm,
+when whippings and punishments were of almost daily occurrence, to the
+present, there had been no diminution in the mill boy's resentment. Now
+there was this later injury, or injustice, as he believed, about the
+money found in the cellar of "Charity House."
+
+The facts were these: the glittering coins had, when estimated, been of
+about one thousand dollars' value. To Fayette this seemed an enormous
+sum; to Mr. Wingate, a trifle. In the chest with the treasure had been
+also a time-yellowed letter, or memorandum, signed by the wife of Jacob
+Ingraham, and decreeing that the property thus hidden had been placed by
+her own hands in the wall of the cellar of "Spite House" for the
+"benefit of my nearest of kin."
+
+The document, in itself, was as curious as its hiding-place, and proved
+that the ancient dame had been a keen observer of men's failings, if not
+their virtues.
+
+"For I have seen, in this, my lifetime, that gold profits a man nothing.
+It is ever a bone of contention, and he who has it is poorer than he who
+has it not. I hope this chest will do him good who finds it; and if it
+is never found, then the earth will be so much the richer by this small
+portion of the wealth it has lost. In any case, to prevent evil, and, if
+possible, to secure a blessing, I have said one prayer over each coin
+herein disposed, and so, in duty to my conscience, I lock the box and
+throw the key down the old well of this Bareacre knoll."
+
+The letter had further added that nobody, not even Jacob Ingraham, had
+known of this bestowal of the chest, because had anybody, "most of all,
+he," so known, it would have been excavated and its contents scattered.
+
+Now Archibald Wingate was, on his mother's side, the last direct
+descendant of Mrs. Ingraham, and the property was clearly his. To him,
+as soon as he returned from his prolonged stay out of town, the broken
+chest and intact contents had been given by the superintendent, who, Mr.
+Kaye promptly decided, would be the proper guardian of the treasure
+until his employer returned.
+
+There had been a terrible scene with Fayette when Cleena told him this
+decision, and for several days thereafter the lad had not been visible.
+Some thought he had gone off in one of his wanderings through the woods
+and fields; but the truth was, he had been kept under lock and key by
+the energetic and masterful Cleena Keegan. She had assured that patient
+listener, herself, that:--
+
+"Sure, it do be right. Will I lose all the good we have gained for the
+sake o' bad temper? The end's in sight,--the blessed end o' the secrecy,
+an' the weary struggle o' keepin' me gineral's nose to the grindstone,
+and now to leave go? Not while Cleena Keegan draws a free breath, an'
+can handle a silly gossoon, like him yon."
+
+From the first it had been a strange and powerful influence that this
+good woman exercised over the foundling she adopted, and fortunately his
+imprisonment was not so very long, else it would have been impossible to
+conceal it from the rest of the household; not one of whom did, however,
+suspect such a proceeding.
+
+When the object for which she had restrained him of his liberty seemed
+quite gained, Cleena let Fayette go; and, oddly enough, after his
+liberty was granted him, he no longer cared for it. He kept close to
+Bareacres, bare no longer, but teeming with the rich vegetation
+resulting from his own labor, guided by Frederic Kaye's trained
+judgment. The summer had proved a most interesting as well as busy one
+to both these gardeners. The results of their mutual labor were
+harvested and stored for the family's winter use, and Fayette had
+returned to the mill. Idleness, or the want of that regular employment
+he had enjoyed, now reawoke the dark thoughts which had disturbed his
+clouded brain during the time of his "retreat" under Cleena's compelling
+will.
+
+This day, when Amy watched her cousin through the glass partition, and
+waited with Mary for Hallam to complete his own task in a room adjoining
+the private office of Mr. Wingate, Fayette was hanging about the mill,
+as if himself waiting for some one.
+
+Amy called to him once, and received a surly answer:--
+
+"I'll go when I get ready. I ain't hurting nobody--yet."
+
+"Of course not, who'd suppose so? I'd think you'd like a run in the
+woods after hours. There was a frost a few nights ago. There may be
+hickory nuts to gather."
+
+"Gather 'em, then, if you want 'em. I don't. I've got other fish to fry.
+I'll fry 'em, too."
+
+"Well, you're cross, 'Fayetty, me gineral.' I'll not wait much longer,
+even for Hal. You can come home with him, and help him bring the
+patterns he is to show father, please."
+
+"I thought you wanted to see Mr. Wingate, too, Amy," observed Mary,
+"about that legacy of yours. You're the queerest girl. Any other would
+be wild to have things fixed, but you don't seem to care a bit."
+
+"Why should I? We are very comfortable at 'Charity House.' Mrs. Burn,
+dear Adam's daughter-in-law, has gone abroad again. If she had time,
+she'd cheerfully help us--if she could. We think the letter of
+instruction will sometime be found, and that will make all clear. We
+don't like law, and Adam would have hated it. No; we'll wait for a time
+longer, but I promised father I'd consult Cousin Archibald, and see when
+he would meet either father or Uncle Fred to discuss it.
+
+"Meanwhile, old Israel and his wife are doing just the same at Burnside
+as if their master were still there. All I could think of taking the
+property for, it seems to me, would be to give my father such a lovely
+home again."
+
+"Well, Amy, I must go. I want to finish reading that book Mr. Kaye lent
+me, this afternoon. I'll see you at the club to-night. Good-by."
+
+With a kiss and a hand pressure, which revealed the depth of their
+friendship, Mary departed, and Amy turned to the open window to watch
+the cloud shadows drift over the lovely valley, wherein the Ardsley
+leaped and sparkled. As she gazed, thinking of many things, she became
+conscious, in an idle sort of fashion, that Fayette had passed out of
+doors, and was walking close beneath, or along the building's wall, and
+in a stealthy manner, suspicious in itself.
+
+"Heigho! What now, I wonder. He's up to some mischief, I'm afraid. How
+queer he is at times. Why, even when he was told that Mr. Wingate knew
+him for the person who horsewhipped him last Christmas and had refused
+to take any notice of it, except to thank Uncle Fred for his
+rescue--even then Fayette would not say that he thought my cousin good.
+All he did say was: 'Well, he better not. He knows too much. If he
+locked me up or had me fined, I'd lick him again soon's I got out. He
+ain't no fool. But that don't make me feel any different. He ain't
+jailed me, but he's got my money. _Mine_; I dug it out the cellar an'
+blasted, to the risk o' my life. He keeps it, when he's got a bank full,
+they say. Kept Balaam, too, or give him to one of them Metcalf
+youngsters. Well, his time'll come. I'm not forgettin', if I do keep my
+mouth shut for a spell.'"
+
+Recalling this speech, Amy tried to put herself in the half-wit's place,
+which effort made her pity him the more, yet watch his present
+manoeuvres none the less closely. But presently he disappeared in a
+distant lower doorway, and she forgot him and returned to her happy
+day-dreams.
+
+Fayette had bided his time. On such an afternoon, at such an hour, he
+judged that nobody would be in the mill building save the distant
+watchman and that indefatigable toiler, Archibald Wingate, with whom was
+the half-wit's present business. He had seen the last whisk of Mary's
+blue skirt disappearing above the back-stairway, and, knowing that Amy
+and she were waiting for Hallam, concluded that the trio had departed
+together.
+
+So he entered the little basement door gleefully. All seemed propitious,
+yet he meant once more and carefully to examine the preparations he had
+made, to see if there was any flaw anywhere. He was so absorbed, so
+excited, that he scarcely breathed as he crept slowly along the inside
+of the wall, just as a moment before he had passed along its outer
+surface. At one spot he paused and tried a simple-looking tube that had
+been brought from the outside, through a convenient aperture, into the
+inside of the building. The thing looked harmless, yet it ran along the
+groove where the floor and wall joined, clear into that cheery inner
+office, where Archibald Wingate sat that very moment, signing his name
+to one of the most generous letters of his life.
+
+"There," he reflected, as he leaned back in his chair and tossed aside
+his pen; "there, that is foolish enough to satisfy even my impractical
+small kinswoman, bless her! A thousand dollars isn't much, but it's--a
+thousand dollars; and when I double it by another thousand, which has
+never been buried by any ancient ancestress, it makes a tidy sum for a
+foundling lad. Poor 'Bony,' he hates me like poison. I wonder, when he
+finds out that I've done this for him, when I place it in his hands
+myself, and tell him, furthermore, that I have asked Fred Kaye to send
+west for several more of those burros he's given us a sample of, and
+that one is for the 'Rep-Dem-Prob' himself--I wonder, will there rise in
+his stunted heart some perception of what life should mean; of what it
+shall mean, during my last brief hold of it, to me? and all because of a
+girl's bright trustfulness and love."
+
+It was a day for musings. Even Fayette, intent on evil, had his
+own--like Amy and the lonely old man in the silent office. He wondered,
+pausing for a moment, how "it would feel to be blown up. That day when I
+found the money he's took from me, if I'd had a bigger charge of powder,
+would I ha' knowed what struck me, if it had gone off sudden? Hmm. I
+almost hate to do it. He seems--he'll never guess, though, and he hadn't
+any right. He's been again' me from the first. I'll do it. He hain't had
+no mercy--I won't, neither."
+
+So he crept softly back to the low entrance, and stooping, struck a
+match. The match burned well, and in an instant had communicated its own
+flame to the cheap fuse that ran along the wall. In the far-off office,
+concealed beneath the mill owner's desk, there was already waiting a
+powerful explosive, which Fayette had purloined from the store of the
+workmen who were excavating for the new wing of the building. In a
+moment more the fuse would have burned unnoticed to its fatal end, and
+an awful crime, of whose enormity the dull criminal had no real
+comprehension, would have been committed.
+
+But Hallam had caught the prevailing mood. He, like the others left
+lingering about the silent building, had fallen into a reverie which,
+judging by his bright expression, was full of happiness. For many
+months, and for the first time in his life, he had kept a secret from
+his father and Amy. If that can be called a secret which was known also
+to Cleena, to Uncle Frederic, and to Fayette, upon whose aid alone the
+success of this mystery had depended. The lad had been faithful. At most
+times his help had been rendered freely, out of love and sympathy; at
+others there had been compulsion on Cleena's side and from the other one
+of the quartette, who had himself suffered false blame and the disgrace
+of suspicion because of the secret.
+
+"To-morrow, please God, it shall end. I couldn't bear to tell them, who
+love me so, until I was sure, sure. The old surgeon said it might be a
+miracle would be enacted for my benefit. Well, it has, it has! I've
+known it, really, almost from the beginning, though it's been so hard
+and at times so seemingly hopeless. But if I hadn't loved them even more
+than myself, I wouldn't have kept on trying. To-morrow--the experiment
+in their presence! Will it ever come!"
+
+The lad stood up and arranged the papers in his own desk. Then he heard,
+or fancied that he did, a slight sound in the deserted building. The
+corps of operatives had been well drilled to watch for any sign of that
+dreaded element, fire, and he was alert now,--the more that, following
+this, there was a slight odor, pungent and more alarming than even the
+first sound.
+
+He wheeled about and--what was that? In the dimness of the angle where
+it lay, away out toward that closed office with its unsuspecting
+occupant, a tiny spark was making its steady, creeping progress. For an
+instant Hallam gazed at it astonished, the next he realized its full
+meaning and horror. Could he reach it? Was there time?
+
+With a shriek of warning he rushed forward,--stumbling against, leaping
+over obstacles,--gaining upon that menacing point of fire and fume,
+which now seemed to race him like a living thing.
+
+The miracle was wrought--two miracles! A few more seconds, and it would
+have been too late; but now the lame walked and, as it were, the dead
+came back to life.
+
+Hallam's shriek, the uproar of overturned obstructions, reverberated
+through the empty building and brought Archibald Wingate, Amy, and poor
+Fayette face to face with the panting, excited rescuer. All comprehended
+at once what had been attempted and how prevented. The mill owner laid
+an iron grip upon the half-wit's shoulder, who made no effort to escape;
+for at last, at last, there had penetrated to his dim intelligence the
+wide, the awful difference between good and evil. When he saw the once
+crippled lad, whom his own hands had restored to health, thus fling
+away his life with unstinted hand, that he might save the life of
+another,--once his enemy also,--there had roused within the dormant
+brain of the foundling a sudden perception of Hallam's nobility and his
+own baseness. Therefore, stunned by this new knowledge, he stood humble
+and unresisting.
+
+Amy's great heart comprehended just what and how her poor protege was
+suffering. With her, to think was to act. She sprang to him and laid her
+small hand on his other shoulder, and the tender sympathy of this touch
+thrilled him more than the hard grasp of his master.
+
+"Oh! but Hallam--Hallam--you _walked_! _walked!_ you ran! You--you--who
+never--"
+
+Her voice choked, ceased, and she turned from Fayette to fling herself
+headlong into her brother's arms. For the first time in their lives he
+could receive her and support her firmly. Then she stepped back and
+shook him. Gently at first, then violently. His crutches were--nobody
+cared where, though certainly not at hand; yet he stood fixedly,
+resisting her attacks, and again catching her to him with that
+overflowing joy that only such as he could guess.
+
+"But I don't understand. Tell--tell; not here, though. Is all safe? No
+danger any more?"
+
+"No," said Fayette to her demand, "there ain't no danger. Not 'less the
+fuse had burned out to the end. It's under the desk. He'll find it.
+I--I--but it's put out. I--"
+
+"You didn't mean it, did you, boy? You could not. You didn't
+understand."
+
+"No, I didn't, I didn't," whimpered the stricken fellow.
+
+Mr. Wingate relaxed his hold. How could he retain his fury against such
+an enemy? It was too unequal. The lad was dangerous, he must be
+punished, he--
+
+Hallam read these unspoken thoughts.
+
+"For my sake, Cousin Archibald, forgive him. It is he who has made me
+able to save you this day, even though it was he who put you in such
+peril. Months ago, Amy read in a paper how a lad was cured whose case
+was just like mine. There was only will power on the cripple's part, and
+the daily, sometimes hourly massage by one of those persons whose
+physical magnetism, or whatever it is, was strong. 'Bony' was such a
+person, and I just such a cripple. We began. For weeks I couldn't move
+my legs without using my hands to help. Then one day I found, just after
+the rubbing was over, that I could push one foot along the floor a tiny
+way. That gave us both courage. He has been untiring. We were soon on
+the road to what I believed, though with lots of set-backs, would be a
+cure. Uncle Fred knew; that's why he wouldn't let Fayette be arrested or
+punished for assaulting you. He took the blame himself, if the boy would
+stick to me. Cleena knew, too--"
+
+"And not us, father nor me!" exclaimed Amy, in a hurt tone.
+
+"No; that was to be my blessed surprise for you two. It was to your own
+suggestion, which I suppose you forgot soon after, with the newspaper
+scrap you brought, that I owe the beginning. It was Cleena kept us at
+it. She wouldn't let us give it up,--no, not if she had the whole crowd
+under lock and key on a bread and water diet; eh, Fayette?"
+
+The shamefaced fellow looked up, with a slight gleam in his eye, then
+dropped his gaze again.
+
+Hallam went on: "To-morrow, the First Day that mother loved, I was going
+to make an experiment before you all--my surprise. I have practised in
+private continually, and uncle, as well as Cleena, has urged me to tell
+you before; but I kept it till the anniversary--you know."
+
+"Ah," said Archibald Wingate, with a sudden recollection, "so it is. She
+was my best friend, my best beloved. You are her children. All my hard
+middle life seems to have slipped out of my memory, like a bad dream,
+and I am back in our youth-time again, with Salome and Cuthbert and
+Fred,--all gay and glad together. I wonder, I wonder what she would bid
+me do to you, poor fellow," he finished, regarding the abject natural
+with a pitying air.
+
+"I know! Forgive him, else thy Salome and my mother were not one."
+
+"Amy, thee is right. Come into the office, all of you."
+
+"Is it safe?" she asked, hanging back.
+
+"We'll make it safe. 'Bony,' or Fayette, take that stuff you put under
+the desk and step out there to the Ardsley. Behind that rock is a deep
+hole. I used to fish there as a lad. I can see if you obey. Drop that
+death powder into the stream and come back."
+
+Fayette obeyed, and they watched him, shivering. But when the water
+flowed on after an instant, undisturbed and merrily singing its
+deathless song, they breathed deeply and with complete relief.
+
+"Look here, Fayette; you think I've been a hard man. So I have--so I
+have. You've been a bad boy too, eh?"
+
+"Yes; I won't never--"
+
+"Of course you won't. Look here, I say. What's this--this heap of stuff
+I took out of the safe? Did you ever see it before?"
+
+"Yes; it's the money I blasted out."
+
+"Well, if it were yours, would you promise never again to blast anything
+or anybody or anywhere? Your very own to keep forever, if you liked."
+
+"Huckleberries! Do you mean it?"
+
+"If you promise, I mean it."
+
+"Oh, I do--I do. I'll keep my word. I meant to try and I did. But it's
+over. I'm glad; I wasn't happy, never. I promise, whether or no, money
+or not."
+
+"I believe you'll keep that promise: Hallam and Amy, here, are
+witnesses. Now, listen: I, too, promise. I'll not only give you this old
+hoard, but this besides." He swept into view a pile of golden eagles,
+larger than any there save himself had ever seen, and placed it beside
+that time-worn lot of similar material. In bestowing his gift he had
+provided to have it in such shape as he knew the half-wit would best
+comprehend. "This is for you, also. It is just as much more as you
+found. I give it to you because my little cousin here has taught me it
+is better to give than to receive. You must take both piles, in this new
+hand-bag, and ask Mr. Metcalf to take care of it for you. You trust
+_him_, don't you?"
+
+"Yes--yes," answered Fayette, in breathless eagerness.
+
+"Now, the condition: if you ever again, by word or deed, do any sort of
+injury to any human being or to any helpless animal, I will have you
+punished, punished in full for all you have done wrong in the past. Do
+you understand?"
+
+"Yes," sobbed the grateful and greatly excited youth. Somewhere he had
+heard, maybe from Cleena's lips, something about heaping coals. He felt
+at that moment as if the living coals were lying upon his own poor head.
+
+"Then go; and if it will give you any pleasure to know it, I believe
+that you are now about the richest of the mill operatives living in
+Ardsley village."
+
+Stumbling, through his tears, and truly far more grateful for the
+prevention of his crime than even for his unexpected good fortune and
+full forgiveness, Cleena's Fayetty went.
+
+As his footsteps died away, Amy, who seemed given to outbursts to
+relieve her full heart, threw her arms about the old man's neck and
+kissed him over and over.
+
+"That's better, child, that's better. The first time thee planted it on
+my nose, I seemed to have a dim perception that this was not the
+regulation feature for such gifts, but it answered; though I like them
+better on my cheek, child. Thee's improving. Now let's go home. Yes;
+it's the carryall. There's room for us all. On the way I'll tell thee--"
+
+"No, no; wait till we get home. Don't let's leave anybody out any more.
+By thy face I can see it's something delightful thee is going to tell.
+Oh, make the old horse travel, travel--fast, fast!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+On half-holidays Cleena had always the best dinner of the week. To its
+enjoyment were usually brought the best appetites of the week as well;
+for there was leisure and talk and laughter, and that interchange of
+experiences which kept their family life so united.
+
+Archibald Wingate joined the party at this present half-holiday dinner;
+yet even with such cheerfulness about him could not but shiver now and
+then, as he recalled his narrow escape of the afternoon. To have taken
+his meal alone, on that day, would have been to suffer greatly.
+
+But Amy had brought him in and placed him in the seat of honor, and amid
+the general rejoicing over Hallam's wonderful recovery and surprise,
+they had made him feel that he was a sharer. They had just drawn back
+from the table, and were going into the sitting room, when there came a
+tap at the door that Cleena answered. It was a small tap, very low down
+on the panel, but it was given due importance; for wasn't the visitor
+Master "Willyum Gladstone Jones," and wasn't Cleena just making fine
+progress in teaching him his "manners"?
+
+So they all paused to wait the child's important entrance, and to smile
+over Goodsoul's greeting:--
+
+"The top o' the evenin' to you, Mister Jones. An' what may be givin' us
+the pleasure of a visit from your lordship the now? A what? Speak up; a
+box is it? Miss Amy's box. Never a doubt I doubt you've made messes of
+its insides, by the way. No? Then your improvin', to that extent I must
+even be givin' ye a bite o' this fine apple pie. Hmm; exactly. Well,
+give the young lady her bit property, again' I slips on a plate an'
+teaches ye how to eat decent, as ye should."
+
+So the little fellow, who had just been promoted to his first trousers
+and felt as all boys do in such a case, walked proudly across the room
+and offered Amy a japanned casket.
+
+"Why, Sir William, how came you by that? I haven't seen it for ever so
+long. I used to keep my few letters in it. I wonder if they're here
+now."
+
+"Ev'y one. My mamma seen 'em all. She said the top one--I don't know.
+Somefin."
+
+"Arrah musha! but I remember one day, long syne, he was aye botherin'
+an' I set him to orderin' the box neat an' nice. He must ha' took it
+away with him an' me not payin' no attention. Well, a box o' such
+truck's neither here no more there, I forecast."
+
+Amy had stopped to admire the new garment, fashioned from an old one of
+Hallam's, and having thus satisfied the little one's innocent pride, now
+opened her recovered keepsake. She lifted the letters idly, dropped
+them, and again catching one that had, indeed, lain upon the top, sprang
+up and waved it overhead.
+
+"The letter! the letter! The lost one of Adam!"
+
+"No; is it really? To come in such a way--"
+
+"On such a day--oh, Hal!"
+
+She caught her brother's hands and wrung them in delight, then ran to
+her father and placed the letter before him.
+
+He looked at it critically.
+
+"Yes; that is Adam Burn's handwriting. His own familiar seal. These
+people who have had it in keeping--"
+
+"I hided it. Zen I dugged it out. Same like Fayetty," explained Sir
+William, between mouthfuls.
+
+"The blessed baby! that explains."
+
+"Let us go into the parlor and read it. It is yours, daughter; you must
+yourself break the seal."
+
+"Oh, I'll break it fast enough."
+
+"Hmm. Young lady, I thought you were the girl who didn't want to be an
+heiress," commented Uncle Fred, teasingly.
+
+Amy's face sobered.
+
+"You are right. I didn't so wish then, when the shock and sorrow were
+fresh; but now I do. Just think of all the comfort for all you folks in
+that lovely home."
+
+"Then I must lose my tenants, eh?" asked Mr. Wingate, smiling.
+
+"Thee'll lose nothing! Wait. If thee has plans to tell, so have I."
+
+The letter was a simple one, plain, and leaving no room for any sort of
+legal difficulty. Amy could enter upon her heritage that day, if she
+wished. The place where the will was stored was designated, and they
+knew it would there be found. But after the reading a little silence
+fell upon them all.
+
+The old mill owner was the first to break this. He did it almost
+reverently.
+
+"Speaking of wills, and after the events of the day, I've been thinking
+of mine. By the way, Amy, I suppose thee'll cease to work for me now."
+
+"I don't see why I should, unless my father needs me at home. We will
+see about that afterward. Tell us thy plans, please. I'd like to hear
+them."
+
+"And I'd like to have thee make them for me."
+
+"Make them? I?"
+
+"Yes; in truth and deed. If thee were me and had as much money as I
+have, and were just such a lonely, childless, forlorn old man, what
+would thee do, that would accomplish the most good? according to thy
+judgment, which I have found a fairly sound one."
+
+The elder Kayes listened in astonishment. They had been prepared by
+various matters for a great change in their kinsman, though not for one
+so radical. But the father began to perceive how this change had been
+wrought, and his heart gave thanks for the devoted, sunshiny daughter
+who seemed to shed an influence for happiness and goodness on all whom
+she knew. It was due to her, he believed, that this new Archibald had
+replaced the old.
+
+"Does thee mean it, truly?"
+
+"Yes; I mean it. Let me hear. If it is possible, I will carry out the
+wishes thee expresses, knowing they will be all for the benefit of
+somebody deserving."
+
+"Well, then, I'd help the unpractical Kaye family to get settled at
+Burnside Farm, on the condition that for my services I was given a big,
+delightful room in the old farmhouse, to live in and with them, forever
+and ever and ever, so long as the dear Lord permitted--that's if I were
+thee, Cousin Archibald."
+
+"But would that ne'er-do-well Kaye family take in an old curmudgeon,
+does thee think?"
+
+"Never. A curmudgeon is a thing they detest. They'd take in a nice, fat,
+old fellow, whose heart was so big it made his body grow to hold it, and
+who meant to do all the good with his money that his money would do, and
+not leave it for anybody to squabble over after he died."
+
+"Excellent, Miss Wisdom; proceed."
+
+"After I'd got a niche at Burnside, I'd take 'Charity House' and remodel
+it into a Modern Industrial School. I'd have 'designing' taught, in
+regular classes, by a well-known artist, named Cuthbert Kaye. I'd have
+agriculture under the instruction of another expert, Frederic Kaye. I'd
+have a school of scientific cookery--not by you, my Cleena, but by
+somebody who hates pies and adores oatmeal and _et cetera_. No, really,
+I do think the mill folks should understand more about foods and their
+uses. They'd save so much money and--dyspepsia."
+
+"Hurry up. Where do I come in?"
+
+"At the mercantile college end of the establishment, learned brother.
+There should be a splendid library, a gymnasium, a swimming pool--"
+
+"A swimming pool on the top of Bareacre knoll!"
+
+"Please don't interrupt, Hal. It's impolite. I'd have it--somewhere. I'd
+have a paddock full of burros--"
+
+"They're already ordered," cried Archibald, forgetting everything in his
+enjoyment of her happy face.
+
+"Am I to continue? May I let my fancy riot?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; give thyself full freedom for once."
+
+"Then I'd take beautiful Fairacres, that has been a happy home for
+generations, and I'd make it a Happy Home, with capital letters. I'd
+call to it all the tired and ailing mill folks in the country. I'd make
+its disused studio and book rooms into a hospital, and where father
+painted his picture of pain, that he destroyed, let all pain be soothed;
+and all the other big chambers into havens of rest for other girls who,
+unlike me, have no fathers, nor Uncle Freds, nor Hallams, nor Cousin
+Archibalds, nor anybody. I'd have Mary Reese trained to be its Little
+Mother; and Archibald Wingate should be full manager of all, beloved and
+venerated, reaping the happiness he has himself bestowed; and oh,
+cousin, if it might be true! and if I were not out of breath! There!
+have I 'rioted' enough?"
+
+Mr. Wingate turned his head sidewise and looked admiringly upon the
+unselfish girl who had planned so much for others, and had not,
+apparently, remembered to plan anything for herself.
+
+"Yes; thee has rioted enough. But, little one, if thee pleases, if my
+other kinsfolk here so please; if the dead past is indeed the dead past,
+and the future may be our happy own, there is no reason under the blue
+heaven why thee has not prophesied aright. What say, my friends? Shall
+Amy's word be that which the Spirit has moved her to say? Shall we make
+it real and tangible, this beautiful, helpful dream of hers? You are all
+interested alike. You are my next of kin. After me you will inherit--or
+these others whom she has named. Was Amy's word the true Word, Cuthbert?
+The word Salome would have spoken?"
+
+"It was the true Word, Archibald. Let it be as Salome's child has
+spoken," said Cuthbert Kaye, grasping his kinsman's hand.
+
+And all Ardsley now knows that as it was then agreed, so it is, and will
+remain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A DAUGHTER OF THE WEST
+
+THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN PRINCESS
+
+_By Evelyn Raymond_
+
+_347 pp. Cloth. $1.50_
+
+
+California ranch life is the setting of this bright story for young
+people. It will read like a fairy tale to those who know nothing of the
+wideness of life on a great ranch as compared with our overcrowded
+Eastern city existence. The story "moves." Incident follows incident
+with rapidity enough to maintain interest, and the teachings of the book
+tend to a sturdy wholesomeness throughout.--_Epworth Herald._
+
+It is not often that a woman succeeds in writing an Indian story,
+exciting enough to commend itself to boys, yet with a girl for its
+principal character, and with the noblest of teachings throughout the
+tale; but in "A Daughter of the West" Evelyn Raymond has accomplished
+precisely that feat. The scene is laid among the broad valleys and lofty
+mountains of California, and every chapter is crowded full of
+incident.--_Christian Endeavor World._
+
+This story of our western plains will appeal to many a youthful reader.
+The heroine, beloved by her people, the community, and even by the
+neighboring Indian tribes, carries the interest of the reader to the
+final page. Her courage in time of personal danger, her sweet
+disposition in her relations with those around her, are well depicted by
+the author. The book is well illustrated and attractively bound, and
+cannot fail to be a success.--_Journal of Education._
+
+This "Daughter of the West" is one of the freshest, breeziest, most
+wholesome stories we have read in a long time. The scene has a
+California ranch for its setting. But the writer tells her story in such
+a natural and charming style, that we relish every word of
+it.--_Christian Observer._
+
+"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, is a story of California
+ranch life, of which Patience Eliot is the heroine. By severe experience
+she comes to hold herself and all her large belongings of wealth as a
+sacred trust, to be spent in the service of others. The story is one
+which will tend to quicken the nobler aspirations of all young
+women.--_The Advance._
+
+This story of Evelyn Raymond's is not lacking in exciting incident, at
+least, even though it is not a love tale. Patience Eliot, the heroine, a
+California girl born and bred, as much at home in the saddle as the
+wildest rider of the plains, exhibits her training in season and out,
+and though she startles certain more conventional people with her ways,
+she illustrates well the excellence of the training of Nature's child.
+The atmosphere of the greater part of the story is that of Southern
+California, with its mingled society of Mexicans, Indians and reckless
+frontiersmen, and among them the heroine lives and thrives. It is a
+healthful out-of-door story, wholesomely interesting and
+alive.--_Colorado School Journal._
+
+"A Daughter of the West," by Evelyn Raymond, the story of an American
+princess, is a narrative of California ranch life. It affords a pleasant
+picture of that sort of life, and portrays effectively a certain type of
+training for the young. It also illustrates the striking changes that
+sometimes occur in personal careers in a country like our own. It is
+full of incident, and will promote patriotism and a high ideal of
+life.--_The Congregationalist._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A GIRL OF '76
+
+_By Amy E. Blanchard_
+
+_331 pp. Cloth. $1.50_
+
+
+"A Girl of '76," by Amy E. Blanchard, is one of the best stories of old
+Boston and its vicinity ever written. The value of the book as real
+history, and as an incentive to further historical study can hardly be
+over-estimated.--_The Bookseller._
+
+This is one of the season's books that deserves a wide reading among the
+girls. The events in which Elizabeth Hall, the heroine, took part
+occurred in those stirring times, beginning with the Boston Tea Party.
+The call to Lexington, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the burning of
+Charlestown follow, and in all these the little maid bears her share of
+the general anxiety and privation with a fortitude which makes wholesome
+reading.--_Watchman._
+
+The manners and customs of that time are vividly pictured in this
+interesting and well written story, and while we joyfully reach the
+"peace" chapter with which it ends, we are truly sorry to part with this
+charming girl of '76.--_Journal._
+
+The tale is told with sentiment and vivacity, giving bright pictures of
+a singing school, a quilting bee, and other old-time entertainments. It
+is just the book for the youngest of the D. A. R. societies, and is
+dedicated to "My Revolutionary Sires."--_Literary World._
+
+It is a thoroughly well-told tale, and of so genuine a charm as to
+challenge the interest of readers other than the youngsters. Here too,
+the pictures are of actual merit, and demand a share in the well
+deserved praise bestowed upon the book as a whole.--_S. S. Times._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A REVOLUTIONARY MAID.
+
+A STORY OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
+
+_321 pp. Cloth. $1.50._
+
+
+It is charmingly written, and the young reader will not only enjoy it as
+a story, but will also get a very clear knowledge of that part of
+history which relates to the war of the Revolution. The little
+"Revolutionary Maid," Kitty DeWitt, is a plucky little Whig, and full of
+courage; her presence of mind, on many occasions, saves her and others
+from the Red coats.--_Christian Observer._
+
+Amy E. Blanchard's "A Revolutionary Maid" sets a charming heroine in the
+middle period of the Revolutionary War, and keeps her a stanch little
+patriot in spite of her Tory surroundings.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+The plot of the story before us, without being intricate, is ingenious
+and the interest in the characters is fully sustained throughout. The
+trying experiences of Kitty DeWitt were those of a multitude of girls
+and women, and their decision for patriotism was a power in shaping the
+great national events which followed. Such books are educational in
+patriotism. The more American girls are made to feel and know their
+power and influence in national affairs the better.--_The Inter-Ocean._
+
+Among the large number of Revolutionary Books in the new literature, "A
+Revolutionary Maid" is not merely remarkably entertaining, but also
+unique.--_Boston Journal._
+
+There could be no better material with which to give an historical
+flavoring to a story than the New Jersey campaign, the battle of
+Germantown, and the winter at Valley Forge. Miss Blanchard has made the
+most of a large opportunity, and produced a happy companion book to her
+"Girl of '76."--_The Christian Endeavor World._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AN HISTORICAL NOVEL
+
+A SON OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+IN THE DAYS OF BURR'S CONSPIRACY
+
+_By Elbridge S. Brooks_
+
+_301 pages. Cloth, $1.50_
+
+
+Mr. Brooks knows how to catch and hold the attention of boys and girls.
+In this story of Aaron Burr's conspiracy he is very happy, choosing
+scenes and incidents of picturesque American history and weaving them
+into a patriotic and stirringly romantic narrative. The young hero is a
+fine character strongly presented, and from first page to last the
+interest is lively. We heartily recommend the book to our young readers
+as one sure to please and instruct them.--_The Independent._
+
+Elbridge S. Brooks has written nothing better than "A Son of the
+Revolution." Designed for boys, it is so spirited and interesting,
+dealing as it does with little known episodes in our past history as a
+nation, that it will gain many readers in the ranks of the grown up. It
+is really as the sub-title says, "an historical novel" of the days of
+Aaron Burr, when he was conspiring to create a western empire. A young
+fellow full of enthusiasm and patriotism, named Tom Edwards, comes under
+the fascination of Burr, and works with him for quite a period before
+considering his true aims and real character. When the day of awakening
+comes, the fight with his conscience is thrilling. No better book for
+boys can be mentioned, nor one so rich in lessons of true
+patriotism.--_The Publisher's Weekly._
+
+Elbridge S. Brooks has told in "A Son of the Revolution" a story which
+will stimulate the patriotism of all young Americans. He relates the
+adventures of an Ohio lad who was a relative of Aaron Burr and had
+implicit faith in that brilliant but unprincipled statesman. The story
+is remarkably well told and it is finely illustrated.--_The San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+Mr. Brooks in this volume presents to his readers a new field of
+interest and importance. No one incident in the history of our country,
+as a nation, is so full of the picturesque as the wild scheme of treason
+which stirred the soul of Aaron Burr to plot against the country he had
+struggled to establish. Every boy ought to know the history of this arch
+traitor.--_The Awakener._
+
+In this volume the author touches upon a field of interest but little
+known, and concerning which but slight attention has been given by
+historians and novelists.
+
+Burr's conspiracy, although not now considered as an historical event of
+marked importance, yet, during the period of opening up the middle
+western states was a serious episode in the nation's career. With this
+period and the events connected therewith the author has interested
+himself, and has presented to the reader a novel of intense feeling of
+patriotism and loyalty to the government.
+
+Coming at this time, when national affairs are strongest in the minds of
+the people, we predict for this story a widespread success.--_Journal of
+Education._
+
+An historical of Aaron Burr's time, by Elbridge S. Brooks, presenting
+the story of the adventures of the "young son" as faithful facts of
+history, but in an interesting and inspiring way which will hold and
+help the young reader.--_The International Evangel._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reels and Spindles, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REELS AND SPINDLES ***
+
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