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diff --git a/32401.txt b/32401.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..332d02a --- /dev/null +++ b/32401.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8382 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Girls of Hillcrest Farm, by Amy Bell +Marlowe + + +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: The Girls of Hillcrest Farm + The Secret of the Rocks + + +Author: Amy Bell Marlowe + + + +Release Date: May 16, 2010 [eBook #32401] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.fadedpage.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustration. + See 32401-h.htm or 32401-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32401/32401-h/32401-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32401/32401-h.zip) + + + + + +THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM + +Or + +The Secret of the Rocks + +by + +AMY BELL MARLOWE + +Author of +The Oldest of Four, A Little Miss Nobody, +The Girl from Sunset Ranch, Etc. + + +[Illustration: LUCAS TORE DOWN THE BANK AND WADED RIGHT INTO THE STREAM. +Frontispiece (Page 61.)] + + + + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers + +Made in the United States of America + +Copyright, 1914, by +Grosset & Dunlap + +_The Girls of Hillcrest Farm_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + I. EVERYTHING AT ONCE! 1 + II. AUNT JANE PROPOSES 10 + III. THE DOCTOR DISPOSES 24 + IV. THE PILGRIMAGE 37 + V. LUCAS PRITCHETT 51 + VI. NEIGHBORS 61 + VII. HILLCREST 73 + VIII. THE WHISPER IN THE DARK 85 + IX. MORNING AT HILLCREST 96 + X. THE VENTURE 109 + XI. AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE 126 + XII. THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER 134 + XIII. LYDDY DOESN'T WANT IT 144 + XIV. THE COLESWORTHS 161 + XV. ANOTHER BOARDER 171 + XVI. THE BALL KEEPS ROLLING 184 + XVII. THE RUNAWAY GRANDMOTHER 192 + XVIII. THE QUEER BOARDER 199 + XIX. WIDOW HARRISON'S TROUBLES 208 + XX. THE TEMPERANCE CLUB AGAIN 216 + XXI. CAUGHT 224 + XXII. THE HIDDEN TREASURE 236 + XXIII. THE VENDUE 248 + XXIV. PROFESSOR SPINK'S BOTTLES 258 + XXV. IN THE OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE 269 + XXVI. A BLOW-UP 276 + XXVII. THEY LOSE A BOARDER 283 + XXVIII. THE SECRET REVEALED 289 + XXIX. AN AUTOMOBILE RACE 298 + XXX. THE HILLCREST COMPANY, LIMITED 303 + + + + +THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EVERYTHING AT ONCE! + + +Whenever she heard the siren of the ladder-truck, as it swung out of its +station on the neighboring street, Lydia Bray ran to the single window +of the flat that looked out on Trimble Avenue. + +They were four flights up. There were twenty-three other families in this +"double-decker." A fire in the house was the oldest Bray girl's nightmare +by night and haunting spectre by day. + +Lydia just couldn't get used to these quarters, and they had been here +now three months. The old, quiet home on the edge of town had been so +different. To it she had returned from college so short a time ago to see +her mother die and find their affairs in a state of chaos. + +For her father was one of those men who leave everything to the capable +management of their wives. Euphemia, or "'Phemie," was only a schoolgirl, +then, in her junior year at high school; "Lyddy" was a sophomore at +Littleburg when her mother died, and she had never gone back. + +She couldn't. There were two very good reasons why her own and even +'Phemie's education had to cease abruptly. Their mother's income, derived +from their grandmother's estate, ceased with her death. They could not +live, let alone pursue education "on the heights," upon Mr. Bray's wages +as overseer in one of the rooms of the hat factory. + +"Mother's hundred dollars a month was just the difference between +poverty and comfort," Lyddy had decided, when she took the strings of +the household into her own hands. + +"I haven't that hundred dollars a month; father makes but fifteen dollars +weekly; _you_ will have to go to work at something, 'Phemie, and so will +I." + +And no longer could they pay twenty-five dollars a month house rent. +Lyddy had first placed her sister with a millinery firm at six dollars +weekly, and had then found this modest tenement about half-way between +her father's factory and 'Phemie's millinery shop, so that it would be +equally handy for both workers. + +As for herself, Lyddy wished to obtain some employment that would occupy +only a part of her day, and in this she had been unsuccessful as yet. She +religiously bought a paper every morning, and went through the "help +wanted" columns, answering every one that looked promising. She had tried +many kinds of "work at home for ladies," and canvassing, and the like. +The latter did not pay for shoe-leather, and the "work at home" people +were mostly swindlers. Lyddy was no needle-woman, so she could not make +anything as a seamstress. + +She had promised her mother to keep the family together and make a home +for her father. Mr. Bray was not well. For almost two years now the +doctor had been warning him to get out of the factory and into some +other business. The felt-dust was hurting him. + +He had come in but the minute before and had at once gone to lie down, +exhausted by his climb up the four flights of stairs. 'Phemie had not yet +returned from work, for it was nearing Easter, despite the rawness of +the days, and the millinery shop was busy until late. They always waited +supper for 'Phemie. + +Now, when Lyddy ran to the window at the raucous shriek of the +ladder-truck siren, she hoped she would see her sister turning the corner +into the avenue, where the electric arc-light threw a great circle of +radiance upon the wet walk. + +But although there was the usual crowd at the corner, and all seemed +to be in a hurry to-night, Lyddy saw nothing of either her sister or +the ladder-truck. She went back to the kitchen, satisfied that the fire +apparatus had not swung into their street, so the tenement must be safe +for the time being. + +She finished laying the table for supper. Once she looked up. There was +that man at the window again! + +That is, he _would_ be a man some day, Lyddy told herself. But she +believed, big as he was, he was just a hobbledehoy-boy. He was a boy who, +if one looked at him, just _had_ to smile. And he was always working in +a white apron and brown straw cuff-shields at that window which was a +little above the level of Lyddy's kitchen window. + +Lyddy Bray abominated flirting and such silly practises. And although +the boy at the window was really good to look upon--cleanly shaven, +rosy-cheeked, with good eyes set wide apart, and a firm, broad chin--Lyddy +did not like to see him every time she raised her eyes from her own +kitchen tasks. + +Often, even on dark days, she drew the shade down so that she should have +more privacy. For sometimes the young man looked idly out of the window +and Lyddy believed that, had she given him any encouragement, he would +have opened his own window and spoken to her. + +The place in which he worked was a tall loft building; she believed he +was employed in some sort of chemical laboratory. There were retorts, and +strange glass and copper instruments in partial view upon his bench. + +Now, having lighted the gas, Lyddy stepped to the window to pull down +the shade closely and shut the young man out. He was staring with strange +eagerness at her--or, at least, in her direction. + +"Master Impudence!" murmured Lyddy. + +He flung up his window just as she reached for the shade. But she saw then +that he was looking above her story. + +"It's those Smith girls, I declare," thought Lyddy. "Aren't they bold +creatures? And--really--I thought he was too nice a boy----" + +That was the girl of it! She was shocked at the thought of having any +clandestine acquaintance with the young man opposite; yet it cheapened him +dreadfully in Lyddy's eyes to see him fall prey to the designing girls +in the flat above. The Smith girls had flaunted their cheap finery in +the faces of Lyddy and 'Phemie Bray ever since the latter had come here +to live. + +She did not pull the shade down for a moment. That boy certainly was +acting in a most outrageous manner! + +His body was thrust half-way out of the window as he knelt on his bench +among the retorts. She saw several of the delicate glass instruments +overturned by his vigorous motions. She saw his lips open and he seemed +to be shouting something to those in the window above. + +"How rude of him," thought the disappointed Lyddy. He had looked to be +_such_ a nice young man. + +Again she would have pulled down the shade, but the boy's actions stayed +her hand. + +He leaped back from the window and disappeared--for just a moment. Then +he staggered into view, thrust a long and wide plank through his open +window, and, bearing down upon it, shoved hard and fast, thrusting the +novel bridge up to the sill of the window above Lyddy's own. + +"What under the sun does that fellow mean to do?" gasped the girl, half +tempted to raise her own window so as to look up the narrow shaft between +the two buildings. + +"He never would attempt to cross over to their flat," thought Lyddy. "That +would be quite too--ri--dic--u--lous----" + +The youth was adjusting the plank. At first he could not steady it upon +the sill above Lyddy's kitchen window. And how dangerous it would be if +he attempted to "walk the plank." + +And then there was a roaring sound above, a glare of light, a crash of +glass and a billow of black smoke suddenly--but only for a moment--filled +the space between the two buildings! + +The girl almost fell to the floor. She had always been afraid of fire, +and it had been ever in her mind since they moved into this big tenement +house. And now it had come without her knowing it! + +While she thought the young man to be trying to enter into a flirtation +with the girls in the flat above, the house was afire! No wonder so many +people had seemed running at the corner when she looked out of the front +window. The ladder-truck had swung around into the avenue without her +seeing it. Doubtless the street in front of the tenement was choked with +fire-fighting apparatus. + +"Oh, dear me!" gasped Lyddy, reeling for the moment. + +Then she dashed for the bedroom where her father lay. Smoke was sifting +in from the hall through the cracks about the ill-hung door. + +"Father! Father!" she gasped. + +He lay on the bed, as still as though sleeping. But the noise above should +have aroused him by this time, had her own shrill cry not done so. + +Yet he did not move. + +Lyddy leaped to the bedside, seizing her father's shoulder with desperate +clutch. She shook his frail body, and the head wagged from side to side on +the pillow in so horrible a way--so lifeless and helpless--that she was +smitten with terror. + +Was he dead? He had never been like this before, she was positive. + +She tore open his waistcoat and shirt and placed her hand upon his heart. +It was beating--but, oh, how feebly! + +And then she heard the flat door opened with a key--'Phemie's key. Her +sister cried: + +"Dear me, Lyddy! the hall is full of smoke. It isn't your stove that's +smoking so, I hope? And here's Aunt Jane Hammond come to see us. I met +her on the street, and these four flights of stairs have almost killed +her----Why! what's happened, Lyddy?" the younger girl broke off to ask, as +her sister's pale face appeared at the bedroom door. + +"Everything--everything's happened at once, I guess," replied Lyddy, +faintly. "Father's sick--we've got company--and the house is afire!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AUNT JANE PROPOSES + + +Aunt Jane Hammond stalked into the meagerly furnished parlor, and looked +around. It was the first time she had been to see the Bray girls since +their "come down" in the world. + +She was a tall, gaunt woman--their mother's half-sister, and much older +than Mrs. Bray would have been had she lived. Aunt Jane, indeed, had +been married herself when her father, Dr. "Polly" Phelps, had married +his second wife. + +"I must--say I--expected to--see some--angels sit--ting a--round--when +I got up here," panted Aunt Jane, grimly, and dropping into the most +comfortable chair. "Couldn't you have got a mite nearer heaven, if you'd +tried, Lyddy Bray?" + +"Ye-es," gasped Lyddy. "There's another story on top of this; but it's +afire just now." + +"_What?_" shrieked Aunt Jane. + +"Do you really mean it, Lyddy?" cried her sister. "And that's what the +smoke means?" + +"Well," declared their aunt, "them firemen will have to carry me out, +then. I couldn't walk downstairs again right now, for no money!" + +'Phemie ran to the hall door. But when she opened it a great blast of +choking smoke drove in. + +"Oh, oh!" she cried. "We can't escape by the stairway. What'll we do? What +_shall_ we do?" + +"There's the fire-escape," said Lyddy, trembling so that she could +scarcely stand. + +"What?" cried Aunt Jane again. "_Me_ go down one o' them dinky little +ladders--and me with a hole as big as a half-dollar in the back of my +stockin'? I never knowed it till I got started from home; the seam just +gave." + +"I'd look nice going down that ladder. I guess not, says Con!" and she +shook her head so vigorously that all the little jet trimmings upon her +bonnet danced and sparkled in the gaslight just as her beadlike, black +eyes snapped and danced. + +"We--we're in danger, Lyddy!" cried 'Phemie, tremulously. + +"Oh, the boy!" exclaimed Lyddy, and flew to the kitchen, just in time to +see the Smith family sliding down the plank into the laboratory--the two +girls ahead, then Mother Smith, then Johnny Smith, and then the father. +And all while the boy next door held the plank firmly in place against the +window-sill of the burning flat. + +Lyddy threw up the window and screamed something to him as the last Smith +passed him and disappeared. She couldn't have told what she said, for the +very life of her; but the young man across the shaft knew what she meant. + +He drew back the plank a little way, swung his weight upon the far end +of it, and then let it drop until it was just above the level of her sill. + +"Grab it and pull, Miss!" he called across the intervening space. + +Lyddy obeyed. There was great confusion in the hall now, and overhead the +fire roared loudly. The firemen were evidently pressing up the congested +stairway with a line or two of hose, and driving the frightened people +back into their tenements. If the fire was confined to the upper floor +of the double-decker there would be really little danger to those below. + +But Lyddy was too frightened to realize this last fact. She planted the +end of the plank upon her own sill and saw that it was secure. But it +sloped upward more than a trifle. How would they ever be able to creep up +that inclined plane--and four flights from the bottom of the shaft? + +But to her consternation, the young fellow across the way deliberately +stepped out upon the plank, sat down, and slid swiftly across to her. +Lyddy sprang back with a cry, and he came in at the window and stood +before her. + +"I don't believe you're in any danger, Miss," he said. "The firemen are on +the roof, and probably up through the halls, too. The fire has burned a +vent through the roof and----Yes! hear the water?" + +She could plainly hear the swish of the streams from the hosepipes. Then +the water thundered on the floor above their heads. Almost at once small +streams began to pour through the ceiling. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Lyddy. "Right on the supper table!" + +A stream fell hissing on the stove. The big boy drew her swiftly out of +the room into her father's bedroom. + +"That ceiling will come down," he said, hastily. "I'm sorry--but if you're +insured you'll be all right." + +Lyddy at that moment remembered that she had never taken out insurance on +the poor sticks of furniture left from the wreck of their larger home. +Yet, if everything was spoiled---- + +"What's the matter with him?" asked the young fellow, looking at the bed +where Mr. Bray lay. He had wonderfully sharp eyes, it seemed. + +"I don't know--I don't know," moaned Lyddy. "Do you think it is the smoke? +He has been ill a long time--almost too sick to work----" + +"Your father?" + +"Yes, sir," said the girl. + +"I'll get an ambulance, if you say so--and a doctor. Are you afraid to +stay here now? Are you all alone but for him?" + +"My sister--and my aunt," gasped Lyddy. "They're in the front room." + +"Keep 'em there," said the young man. "Maybe they won't pour so much water +into those front rooms. Look out for the ceilings. You might be hurt if +they came down." + +He found the key and unlocked and opened the door from the bedroom to the +hall. The smoke cloud was much thinner. But a torrent of water was pouring +down the stairs, and the shouting and stamping of the firemen above were +louder. + +Two black, serpent-like lines of hose encumbered the stairs. + +"Take care of yourself," called the young man. "I'll be back in a jiffy +with the doctor," and, bareheaded, and in shirt-sleeves as he was, he +dashed down the dark and smoky stairway. + +Lyddy bent over her father again; he was breathing more peacefully, it +seemed. But when she spoke to him he did not answer. + +'Phemie ran in, crying. "What is the matter with father?" she demanded, +as she noted his strange silence. Then, without waiting for an answer, she +snapped: + +"And Aunt Jane's got her head out of the window scolding at the firemen +in the street because they do not come up and carry her downstairs again." + +"Oh, the fire's nearly out, I guess," groaned Lyddy. + +Then the girls clutched each other and were stricken speechless as a great +crash sounded from the kitchen. As the young man from the laboratory had +prophesied, the ceiling had fallen. + +"And I had the nicest biscuits for supper I ever made," moaned Lyddy. +"They were just as fluffy----" + +"Oh, bother your biscuits!" snapped 'Phemie. "Have you had the doctor for +father?" + +"I--I've sent for one," replied Lyddy, faintly, suddenly +conscience-stricken by the fact that she had accepted the assistance of +the young stranger, to whom she had never been introduced! "Oh, dear! I +hope he comes soon." + +"How long has he been this way, Lyd? Why didn't you send for me?" demanded +the younger sister, clasping her hands and leaning over the unconscious +man. + +"Why, he came home from work just as usual. I--I didn't notice that he was +worse," replied the older girl, breathlessly. "He said he'd lie down----" + +"You should have called the doctor then." + +"Why, dear, I tell you he seemed just the same. He almost always lies down +when he comes home now. You know that." + +"Forgive me, Lyddy!" exclaimed 'Phemie, contritely. "Of course you are +just as careful of father as you can be. But--but it's so _awful_ to see +him lie like this." + +"He fainted without my knowing a thing about it," moaned Lyddy. + +"Oh! if it's only just a faint----" + +"He couldn't even have heard the noise upstairs over the fire." + +Just then a stream of water descended through the cracked bedroom ceiling, +first upon the back of 'Phemie's neck, and then upon the drugget which +covered the floor. + +"Suppose _this_ ceiling falls, too?" wailed Lyddy, wringing her hands. + +"I hope not! And we'll have to pay the doctor when he comes, Lyd. Have +you got money enough in your purse?" + +"I--I guess so." + +"I'll not have any more after this week," broke out 'Phemie, suddenly. +"They told me to-day the rush for Easter would be over Saturday night and +they would have to let me go till next season. Isn't that mean?" + +Lydia Bray had sat down upon the edge of their father's bed. + +"I guess everything _has_ happened at once," she sighed. "I don't see what +we shall do, 'Phemie." + +There came a scream from Aunt Jane. She charged into the bedroom wildly, +the back of her dress all wet and her bonnet dangling over one ear. + +"Why, your parlor ceiling is just spouting water, girls!" she cried. + +Then she turned to look closely at the man on the bed. "John Bray looks +awful bad, Lyddy. What does the doctor say?" + +Before her niece could reply there came a thundering knock at the hall +door. + +"The doctor!" cried 'Phemie. + +Lyddy feared it was the young stranger returning, and she could only gasp. +What should she say to him if he came in? How introduce him to Aunt Jane? + +But the latter lady took affairs into her own hands at this juncture and +went to the door. She unlocked and threw it open. Several helmets and +glistening rubber coats appeared vaguely in the hall. + +"Getting wet down here some; aren't you?" asked one of the firemen. "We'll +spread some tarpaulins over your stuff. Fire's out--about." + +"And the water's _in_," returned Aunt Jane, tartly. "Nice time to come and +try to save a body's furniture----" + +"Get it out of the adjusters. They'll be around," said the fireman, with +a grin. + +"How much insurance have you, Lyddy?" demanded the aunt, when the firemen, +after covering the already wet and bedraggled furniture, had clumped +out in their heavy boots. + +"Not a penny, Aunt Jane!" cried her niece, wildly. "I never thought of it!" + +"Ha! you're not so much like your mother, then, as I thought. _She_ would +never have overlooked such a detail." + +"I know it! I know it!" moaned Lyddy. + +"Now, you stop that, Aunt Jane!" exclaimed the bolder 'Phemie. "Don't you +hound Lyd. She's done fine--of course she has! But anybody might forget a +thing like insurance." + +"Humph!" grunted the old lady. Then she began again: + +"And what's the matter with John?" + +"It's the shop, Aunt," replied Lyddy. "He cannot stand the work any +longer. I wish he might never go back to that place again." + +"And how are you going to live? What's 'Phemie getting a week?" + +"Nothing--after this week," returned the younger girl, shortly. "I sha'n't +have any work, and I've only been earning six dollars." + +"Humph!" observed Aunt Jane for a second time. + +There came a light tap on the door. They could hear it, for the confusion +and shouting in the house had abated. The fire scare was over; but the +floor above was gutted, and a good deal of damage by water had been done +on this floor. + +It was a physician, bag in hand. 'Phemie let him in. Lyddy explained how +her father had come home and lain down and she had found him, when the +fire scare began, unconscious on the bed--just as he lay now. + +A few questions explained to the physician the condition of Mr. Bray, and +his own observation revealed the condition of the tenement. + +"He will be better off at the hospital. You are about wrecked here, I see. +That young man who called me said he would ring up the City Hospital." + +The girls were greatly troubled; but Aunt Jane was practical. + +"Of course, that's the best place for him," she said. "Why! this flat +isn't fit for a well person to stay in, let alone a sick man, until it +is cleared up. I shall take you girls out with me to my boarding house +for the night. Then--we'll see." + +The physician brought Mr. Bray to his senses; but the poor man knew +nothing about the fire, and was too weak to object when they told him +he was to be removed to the hospital for a time. + +The ambulance came and the young interne and the driver brought in the +stretcher, covered Mr. Bray with a gray blanket, and took him away. The +interne told the girls they could see their father in the morning and +he, too, said it was mainly exhaustion that had brought about the sudden +attack. + +Aunt Jane had been stalking about the sloppy flat--from the ruined kitchen +to the front window. + +"Shut and lock that kitchen window, and lock the doors, and we'll go out +and find a lodging," she said, briefly. "You girls can bring a bag for +the night. Mine's at the station hard by; I'm glad I didn't bring it up +here." + +It was when Lyddy shut and locked the kitchen window that she remembered +the young man again. The plank had been removed, the laboratory window +was closed, and the place unlighted. + +"I guess he has some of the instincts of a gentleman, after all," she told +herself. "He didn't come back to bother me after doing what he could to +help." + +Two hours later the Bray girls were seated in their aunt's comfortable +room at a boarding house on a much better block than the one on which the +tenement stood. Aunt Jane had ordered up tea and toast, and was sipping +the one and nibbling the other contentedly before a grate fire. + +"This is what I call comfort," declared the old lady, who still kept her +bonnet on--nor would she remove it save to change it for a nightcap when +she went to bed. + +"This is what I call comfort. A pleasant room in a house where I have no +responsibilities, and enough noise outside to assure me that I am in a +live town. My goodness me! when Hammond came along and wanted to marry +me, and I knew I could leave Hillcrest and never have to go back----Well, +I just about jumped down that man's throat I was so eager to say 'Yes!' +Marry him? I'd ha' married a Choctaw Injun, if he'd promised to take me +to the city." + +"Why, Aunt Jane!" exclaimed Lyddy. "Hillcrest Farm is a beautiful place. +Mother took us there once to see it. Don't you remember, 'Phemie? _She_ +loved it, too." + +"And I wish she'd had it as a gift from the old doctor," grumbled Aunt +Jane. "But it wasn't to be. It's never been anything but a nuisance to +me, if I _was_ born there." + +"Why, the view from the porch is the loveliest I ever saw," said Lyddy. + +"And all that romantic pile of rocks at the back of the farm!" exclaimed +'Phemie. + +"Ha! what's a view?" demanded the old lady, in her brusk way. "Just dirt +and water. And that's what they say _we're_ made of. I like to study human +bein's, I do; so I'd ruther have my view in town." + +"But it's so pretty----" + +"Fudge!" snapped Aunt Jane. "I've seen the time, when I was a growin' gal, +and the old doctor was off to see patients, that I've stood on that same +porch at Hillcrest and just _cried_ for the sight of somethin' movin' on +the face of Natur' besides a cow. + +"View, indeed!" she pursued, hotly. "If I've got to look at views, I want +plenty of 'life' in 'em; and I want the human figgers to be right up close +in the foreground, too!" + +'Phemie laughed. "And I think it would be just _blessed_ to get out of +this noisy, dirty city, and live in a place like Hillcrest. Wouldn't you +like it, Lyd?" + +"I'd love it!" declared her sister. + +"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Aunt Jane, sitting bolt upright, and looking +actually startled. "Ain't that a way out, mebbe?" + +"What do you mean, Aunt Jane?" asked Lydia, quickly. + +"You know how I'm fixed, girls. Hammond left me just money enough so't +I can live as I like to live--and no more. The farm's never been aught +but an expense to me. Cyrus Pritchett is supposed to farm a part of it +on shares; but my share of the crops never pays more'n the taxes and the +repairs to the roofs of the old buildings. + +"It'd be a shelter to ye. The furniture stands jest as it did in the old +doctor's day. Ye could move right in--and I expect it would mean a lease +of life to your father. + +"A second-hand man wouldn't give ye ten dollars for your stuff in that +flat. It's ruined. Ye couldn't live comfortable there any more. But if +ye wanter go to Hillcrest I'm sure ye air more than welcome to the use of +the place, and perhaps ye might git a bigger share of the crops out of +Cyrus if ye was there, than I've been able to git. + +"What d'you say, girls--what d'you say?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DOCTOR DISPOSES + + +The Bray girls scarcely slept a wink that night. Not alone were they +excited by the incidents of the evening, and the sudden illness of +their father; but the possibilities arising out of Aunt Jane Hammond's +suggestion fired the imagination of both Lyddy and 'Phemie. + +These sisters were eminently practical girls, and they came of practical +stock--as note the old-fashioned names which their unromantic parents had +put upon them in their helpless infancy. + +Yet there is a dignity to "Lydia" and a beauty to "Euphemia" which the +thoughtless may not at once appreciate. + +Practical as they were, the thought of going to the old farmhouse to +live--if their father could be moved to it at once--added a zest to their +present situation which almost made their misfortune seem a blessing. + +Their furniture was spoiled, as Aunt Jane had said. And father was sick--a +self-evident fact. This sudden ill turn which Mr. Bray had suffered +worried both of his daughters more than any other trouble--indeed, more +than all the others in combination. + +Their home was ruined--but, somehow, they would manage to find a shelter. +'Phemie would have no more work in her present position after this week, +and Lyddy had secured no work at all; but fortune must smile upon their +efforts and bring them work in time. + +These obstacles seemed small indeed beside the awful thought of their +father's illness. How very, very weak and ill he had looked when he was +carried out of the flat on that stretcher! The girls clung together in +their bed in the lodging house, and whispered about it, far into the night. + +"Suppose he never comes out of that hospital?" suggested 'Phemie, in a +trembling voice. + +"Oh, 'Phemie! don't!" begged her sister. "He _can't_ be so ill as all +that. It's just a breakdown, as that doctor said. He has overworked. +He--he mustn't ever go back to that hat shop again." + +"I know," breathed 'Phemie; "but what _will_ he do?" + +"It isn't up to him to do anything--it's up to _us_," declared Lyddy, +with some measure of her confidence returning. "Why, look at us! Two big, +healthy girls, with four capable hands and the average amount of brains. + +"I know, as city workers, we are arrant failures," she continued, in a +whisper, for their room was right next to Aunt Jane's, and the partition +was thin. + +"Do you suppose we could do better in the country?" asked 'Phemie, slowly. + +"And if I am not mistaken the house is full of old, fine furniture," +observed Lyddy. + +"Well!" sighed the younger sister, "we'd be sheltered, anyway. But how +about eating? Lyddy! I have _such_ an appetite." + +"She says we can have her share of the crops if we will pay the taxes and +make the necessary repairs." + +"Crops! what do you suppose is growing in those fields at this time of +the year?" + +"Nothing much. But if we could get out there early we might have a garden +and see to it that Mr. Pritchett planted a proper crop. And we could have +chickens--I'd love that," said Lyddy. + +"Oh, goodness, gracious me! Wouldn't we _all_ love it--father, too? But +how can we even get out there, much more live till vegetables and chickens +are ripe, on nothing a week?" + +"That--is--what--I--don't--see--yet," admitted Lyddy, slowly. + +"It's very kind of Aunt Jane," complained 'Phemie. "But it's just like +opening the door of Heaven to a person who has no wings! We can't even +reach Hillcrest." + +"You and I could," said her sister, vigorously. + +"How, please?" + +"We could walk." + +"Why, Lyd! It's fifty miles if it's a step!" + +"It's nearer seventy. Takes two hours on the train to the nearest station; +and then you ride up the mountain a long, long way. But we could walk it." + +"And be tramps--regular tramps," cried 'Phemie. + +"Well, I'd rather be a tramp than a pauper," declared the older sister, +vigorously. + +"But poor father!" + +"That's just it," agreed Lydia. "Of course, we can do nothing of the kind. +We cannot leave him while he is sick, nor can we take him out there to +Hillcrest if he gets on his feet again----" + +"Oh, Lyddy! don't talk that way. He _is_ going to be all right after a +few days' rest." + +"I do not think he will ever be well if he goes back to work in that hat +factory. If we could only get him to Hillcrest." + +"And there we'd all starve to death in a hurry," grumbled 'Phemie, +punching the hard, little boarding-house pillow. "Oh, dear! what's the use +of talking? There is no way out!" + +"There's always a way out--if we think hard enough," returned her sister. + +"Wish you'd promulgate one," sniffed 'Phemie. + +"I am going to think--and you do the same." + +"I'm going to----" + +"Snore!" finished 'Phemie. That ended the discussion for the time being. +But Lydia lay awake and racked her tired brain for hours. + +The pale light of the raw March morning streaked the window-pane when +Lydia was awakened by her sister hurrying into her clothes for the day's +work at the millinery store. There would be but two days more for her +there. + +And then? + +It was a serious problem. Lydia had perhaps ten dollars in her reserve +fund. Father might not be paid for his full week if he did not go back to +the shop. His firm was not generous, despite the fact that Mr. Bray had +worked so long for them. A man past forty, who is frequently sick a day +or two at a time, soon wears out the patience of employers, especially +when there is young blood in the firm. + +'Phemie would get her week's pay Saturday night. Altogether, Lyddy might +find thirty dollars in her hand with which to face the future for all +three of them! + +What could she get for their soaked furniture? These thoughts were with +her while she was dressing. + +'Phemie had hurried away after making her sister promise to telephone as +to her father's condition the minute they allowed Lyddy to see him at +the hospital. Aunt Jane was a luxurious lie-abed, and had ordered tea +and toast for nine o'clock. Her oldest niece put on her shabby hat and +coat and went out to the nearest lunch-room, where coffee and rolls were +her breakfast. + +Then she walked down to Trimble Avenue and approached the huge, +double-decker where they had lived. Salvage men were already carrying +away the charred fragments of the furniture from the top floor. Lyddy +hoped that, unlike herself, the Smiths and the others up there had been +insured against fire. + +She plodded wearily up the four flights and unlocked one of the flat +doors and entered. Two of the salvage men followed her in and removed the +tarpaulins--which had been worse than useless. + +"No harm done but a little water, Miss," said one of them, consolingly. +"But you talk up to the adjuster and he'll make it all right." + +They all thought, of course, that the Brays' furniture was insured. Lyddy +closed the door and looked over the wrecked flat. + +The parlor furniture coverings were all stained, and the carpet's colors +had "run" fearfully. Many of their little keepsakes and "gim-cracks" had +been broken when the tarpaulins were spread. + +The bedrooms were in better shape, although the bedding was somewhat wet. +But the kitchen was ruined. + +"Of course," thought Lyddy, "there wasn't much to ruin. Everything was +cheap enough. But what a mess to clean up!" + +She looked out of the window across the air-shaft. There was the boy! + +He nodded and beckoned to her. He had his own window open. Lydia +considered that she had no business to talk with this young man; yet he +had played the "friend in need" the evening before. + +"How's your father?" he called, the moment she opened her window. + +"I do not know yet. They told me not to come to the hospital until +nine-thirty." + +"I guess you're in a mess over there--eh?" he said, with his most boyish +smile. + +But Lyddy was not for idle converse. She nodded, thanked him for his +kindness the evening before, and firmly shut the window. She thought +she knew how to keep _that_ young man in his place. + +But she hadn't the heart to do anything toward tidying up the flat now. +And how she wished she might not _have_ to do it! + +"If we could only take our clothing and the bedding and little things, +and walk out," she murmured, standing in the middle of the little parlor. + +To try to "pick up the pieces" here was going to be dreadfully hard. + +"I wish some fairy would come along and transport us all to Hillcrest Farm +in the twinkling of an eye," said Lyddy to herself. "I--I'd rather starve +out there than live as we have for the past three months here." + +She went to the door of the flat just as somebody tapped gently on the +panel. A poorly dressed Jewish man stood hesitating on the threshold. + +"I'm sorry," said Lyddy, hastily; "but we had trouble here last night--a +fire. I can't cook anything, and really haven't a thing to give----" + +Her mother had boasted that she had never turned away a beggar hungry from +her door, and the oldest Bray girl always tried to feed the deserving. +The man shook his head eagerly. + +"You ain't de idee got, lady," he said. "I know dere vas a fire. I foller +de fires, lady." + +"You follow the fires?" returned Lyddy, in wonder. + +"Yes, lady. Don'dt you vant to sell de house-holdt furnishings? I pay de +highest mar-r-ket brice for 'em. Yes, lady--I pay cash." + +"Why--why----" + +"You vas nodt insured--yes?" + +"No," admitted Lyddy. + +"Den I bay you cash for de goots undt you go undt puy new--ain'dt idt?" + +But Lyddy wasn't thinking of buying new furniture--not at all. She opened +the door wider. + +"Come in and look," she invited. "What will you pay?" + +"Clodings, too?" he asked, shrewdly. + +"No, no! We will keep the clothing, bedding and kitchenware, and the like. +Just the furniture." + +The man went through the flat quickly, but his bright, beady eyes missed +nothing. Finally he said: + +"I gif you fifteen tollar, lady." + +"Oh, no! that is too little," gasped Lyddy. + +She had begun to figure mentally what it would cost to replace even the +poor little things they had. And yet, if she could get any fair price for +the goods she was almost tempted to sell out. + +"Lady! believe me, I make a goot offer," declared the man. "But I must +make it a profit--no?" + +"I couldn't sell for so little." + +"How much you vant, den?" he asked shrewdly. + +"Oh! a great deal more than that. Ten dollars more, at least." + +"Twenty-fife tollars!" he cried, wringing his hands. "Belief me, lady, I +shouldt be shtuck!" + +His use of English would have amused Lyddy at another time; but the girl's +mind was set upon something more important. If she only _could_ get enough +money together to carry them all to Hillcrest Farm--and to keep them +going for a while! + +"Fifteen dollars would not do me much good, I am afraid," the girl said. + +"Oh, lady! you could buy a whole new house-furnishings mit so much money +down--undt pay for de rest on de installment." + +"No," replied Lyddy, firmly. "I want to get away from here altogether. I +want to get out into the country. My father is sick; we had to send him +to the hospital last night." + +The second-hand man shook his head. "You vas a kindt-hearted lady," he +said, with less of his professional whine. "I gif you twenty." + +And above that sum Lyddy could not move him. But she would not decide +then and there. She felt that she must see her father, and consult with +'Phemie, and possibly talk to Aunt Jane, too. + +"You come here to-morrow morning and I'll tell you," she said, finally. + +She locked the flat again and followed the man down the long flights to +the street. It was not far to the hospital and Lyddy did not arrive there +much before the visitors' hour. + +The house physician called her into his office before she went up to the +ward in which her father had been placed. Already she was assured that he +was comfortable, so the keenness of her anxiety was allayed. + +"What are your circumstances, Miss Bray?" demanded the medical head of +the hospital, bluntly. "I mean your financial circumstances?" + +"We--we are poor, sir. And we were burned out last night, and have no +insurance. I do not know what we really shall do--yet." + +"You are the house-mother--eh?" he demanded. + +"I am the oldest. There are only Euphemia and me, beside poor papa----" + +"Well, it's regarding your father I must speak. He's in a bad way. We can +do him little good here, save that he will rest and have nourishing food. +But if he goes back to work again----" + +"I know it's bad for him!" cried Lyddy, with clasped hands. "But what +can we do? He _will_ crawl out to the shop as long as they will let him +come----" + +"He'll not crawl out for a couple of weeks--I'll see to that," said the +doctor, grimly. "He'll stay here. But beyond that time I cannot promise. +Our public wards are very crowded, and of course, you have no relatives, +nor friends, able to furnish a private room----" + +"Oh, no, sir!" gasped Lyddy. + +"Nor is _that_ the best for him. He ought to be out of the city +altogether--country air and food--mountain air especially----" + +"Hillcrest!" exclaimed Lyddy, aloud. + +"What's that?" the doctor snapped at her, quickly. + +She told him about the farm--where it was, and all. + +"That's a good place for him," replied the physician, coolly. "It's three +or four hundred feet higher above sea-level than the city. It will do +him more good to live in that air than a ton of medicine. And he can go in +two weeks, or so. Good-morning, Miss Bray," and the busy doctor hurried +away to his multitude of duties, having disposed of Mr. Bray's case on +the instant. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE PILGRIMAGE + + +Lydia Bray was shocked indeed when they allowed her in the ward to see +her father. A nurse had drawn a screen about the bed, and nodded to her +encouragingly. + +The pallor of Mr. Bray's countenance, as he lay there with his eyes +closed, unaware of her presence, frightened the girl. She had never +seen him utterly helpless before. He had managed to get around every day, +even if sometimes he could not go to work. + +But now the forces of his system seemed to have suddenly given out. He +had overtaxed Nature, and she was paying him for it. + +"Lyddy!" he whispered, when finally his heavy-lidded eyes opened and he +saw her standing beside the cot. + +The girl made a brave effort to look and speak cheerfully; and Mr. +Bray's comprehension was so dulled that she carried the matter off very +successfully while she remained. + +She spoke cheerfully; she chatted about their last night's experiences; +she even laughed over some of Aunt Jane's sayings--Aunt Jane was always +a source of much amusement to Mr. Bray. + +But the nurse had warned her to be brief, and soon she was beckoned away. +She knew he was in good hands at the hospital, and that they would do all +that they could for him. But what the house physician had told her was +uppermost in her mind as she left the institution. + +How were they to get to Hillcrest--and live after arriving there? + +"If that man paid me twenty dollars for our furniture, I might have fifty +dollars in hand," she thought. "It will cost us something like two dollars +each for our fares. And then there would be the freight and baggage, and +transportation for ourselves up to Hillcrest from the station. + +"And how would it do to bring father to an old, unheated house--and so +early in the spring? I guess the doctor didn't think about that. + +"And how will we live until it is time for us to go--until father is well +enough to be moved? All our little capital will be eaten up!" + +Lyddy's practical sense then came to her aid. Saturday night 'Phemie would +get through at the millinery shop. They must not remain dependent upon +Aunt Jane longer than over Sunday. + +"The thing to do," she decided, "is for 'Phemie and me to start for +Hillcrest immediately--on Monday morning at the latest. If one of us has +to come back for father when he can be moved, all right. The cost will not +be so great. Meanwhile we can be getting the old house into shape to +receive him." + +She found Aunt Jane sitting before her fire, with a tray of tea and toast +beside her, and her bonnet already set jauntily a-top of her head, the +strings flowing. + +"You found that flat in a mess, I'll be bound!" observed Aunt Jane. + +Lydia admitted it. She also told her what the second-hand man had offered. + +"Twenty dollars?" cried Aunt Jane. "Take it, quick, before he has a change +of heart!" + +But when Lyddy told her of what the doctor at the hospital had said about +Mr. Bray, and how they really seemed forced into taking up with the offer +of Hillcrest, the old lady looked and spoke more seriously. + +"You're just as welcome to the use of the old house, and all you can make +out of the farm-crop, as you can be. I stick to what I told you last +night. But I dunno whether you can really be comfortable there." + +"We'll find out; we'll try it," returned Lyddy, bravely. "Nothing like +trying, Aunt Jane." + +"Humph! there's a good many things better than trying, sometimes. You've +got to have sense in your trying. If it was me, I wouldn't go to Hillcrest +for any money you could name! + +"But then," she added, "I'm old and you are young. I wish I could sell +the old place for a decent sum; but an abandoned farm on the top of a +mountain, with the railroad station six miles away, ain't the kind of +property that sells easy in the real estate market, lemme tell you! + +"Besides, there ain't much of the two hundred acres that's tillable. Them +romantic-looking rocks that 'Phemie was exclaimin' over last night, are +jest a nuisance. Humph! the old doctor used to say there was money going +to waste up there in them rocks, though. I remember hearing him talk about +it once or twice; but jest what he meant I never knew." + +"Mineral deposits?" asked Lyddy, hopefully. + +"Not wuth anything. Time an' agin there's been college professors and +such, tappin' the rocks all over the farm for 'specimens.' But there ain't +nothing in the line of precious min'rals in that heap of rocks at the +back of Hillcrest Farm--believe me! + +"Dr. Polly useter say, however, that there was curative waters there. He +used 'em some in his practise towards the last. But he died suddent, you +know, and nobody ever knew where he got the water--'nless 'twas Jud Spink. +And Jud had run away with a medicine show years before father died. + +"Well!" sighed Aunt Jane. "If you can find any way of makin' a livin' +out of Hillcrest Farm, you're welcome to it. And--just as that hospital +doctor says--it may do your father good to live there for a spell. But +_me_--it always give me the fantods, it was that lonesome." + +It seemed, as Aunt Jane said, "a way opened." Yet Lyddy Bray could not +see very far ahead. As she told 'Phemie that night, they could get to the +farm, bag and baggage; but how they would exist after their arrival was +a question not so easy to answer. + +Lyddy had gone to one of the big grocers and bought and paid for an order +of staple groceries and canned goods which would be delivered at the +railroad station nearest to Hillcrest on Monday morning. Thus all their +possessions could be carted up to the farm at once. + +She had spent the afternoon at the flat collecting the clothing, bedding, +and other articles they proposed taking with them. These goods she had +taken out by an expressman and shipped by freight before six o'clock. + +In the morning she met the second-hand man at the ruined flat and he paid +her the twenty dollars as promised. And Lyddy was glad to shake the dust +of the Trimble Avenue double-decker from her feet. + +As she turned away from the door she heard a quick step behind her and an +eager voice exclaimed: + +"I say! I say! You're not moving; are you?" + +Lydia was exceedingly disturbed. She knew that boy in the laboratory +window had been watching closely what was going on in the flat. And now +he had _dared_ follow her. She turned upon him a face of pronounced +disapproval. + +"I--I beg your pardon," he stammered. "But I hope your father's better? +Nothing's happened to--to him?" + +"We are going to take him away from the city--thank you," replied Lyddy, +impersonally. + +She noted with satisfaction that he had run out without his cap, and in +his work-apron. He could not follow her far in such a rig through the +public streets, that was sure. + +"I--I'm awful sorry to have you go," he said, stammeringly. "But I hope +it will be beneficial to your father. I--I---- You see, my own father +is none too well and we have often talked of his living out of town +somewhere--not so far but that I could run out for the week-end, you know." + +Lyddy merely nodded. She would not encourage him by a single word. + +"Well--I wish you all kinds of luck!" exclaimed the young fellow, finally, +holding out his hand. + +"Thank you," returned the very proper Lyddy, and failed to see his +proffered hand, turning promptly and walking away, not even vouchsafing +him a backward look when she turned the corner, although she knew very +well that he was still standing, watching her. + +"He may be a very nice young man," thought Lyddy; "but, then----" + +Sunday the two girls spent a long hour with their father. They found him +prepared for the move in prospect for the family--indeed, he was cheerful +about it. The house physician had evidently taken time to speak to the +invalid about the change he advised. + +"Perhaps by fall I shall be my own self again, and we can come back to +town and all go to work. We'll worry along somehow in the country for one +season, I am sure," said Mr. Bray. + +But that was what troubled Lyddy more than anything else. They were all +so vague as to what they should do at Hillcrest--how they would be able +to live there! + +Father said something about when he used to have a garden in their +backyard, and how nice the fresh vegetables were; and how mother had once +kept hens. But Lyddy could not see yet how they were to have either a +garden or poultry. + +They were all three enthusiastic--to each other. And the father was sure +that in a fortnight he would be well enough to travel alone to Hillcrest; +they must not worry about him. Aunt Jane was to remain in town all that +time, and she promised to report frequently to the girls regarding their +father's condition. + +"I certainly wish I could help you gals out with money," said the old +lady that evening. "You're the only nieces I've got, and I feel as kindly +towards you as towards anybody in this wide world. + +"Maybe we can get a chance to sell the farm. If we can, I'll help you then +with a good, round sum. Now, then! you fix up the old place and make it +look less like the Wrath o' Fate had struck it and maybe some foolish +rich man will come along and want to buy it. If you find a customer, I'll +pay you a right fat commission, girls." + +But this was "all in the offing;" the Bray girls were concerned mostly +with their immediate adventures. + +To set forth on this pilgrimage to Hillcrest Farm--and alone--was an event +fraught with many possibilities. Both Lyddy and 'Phemie possessed their +share of imagination, despite their practical characters; and despite +the older girl's having gone to college for two years, she, or 'Phemie, +knew little about the world at large. + +So they looked forward to Monday morning as the Great Adventure. + +It was a moist, sweet morning, even in the city, when they betook +themselves early to the railway station, leaving Aunt Jane luxuriously +sipping tea and nibbling toast in bed--_this_ time with her nightcap on. + +March had come in like a lion; but its lamblike qualities were now +manifest and it really did seem as though the breath of spring permeated +the atmosphere--even down here in the smoky, dirty city. The thought +of growing things inspired 'Phemie to stop at a seed store near the +station and squander a few pennies in sweet-peas. + +"I know mother used to put them in just as soon as she could dig at all +in the ground," she told her sister. + +"I don't believe they'll be a very profitable crop," observed Lyddy. + +"My goodness me!" exclaimed 'Phemie, "let's retain a little sentiment, +Lyd! We can't eat 'em--no; but they're sweet and restful to look at. I'm +going to have moon-flowers and morning-glories, too," and she recklessly +expended more pennies for those seeds. + +Their train was waiting when they reached the station and the sisters +boarded it in some excitement. 'Phemie's gaiety increased the nearer they +approached to Bridleburg, which was their goal. She was a plump, rosy +girl, with broad, thick plaits of light-brown hair ("molasses-color" +she called it in contempt) which she had begun to "do up" only upon going +to work. She had a quick blue eye, a laughing mouth, rather wide, but +fine; a nose that an enemy--had laughing, good-natured Euphemia Bray +owned one--might have called "slightly snubbed," and her figure was just +coming into womanhood. + +Lydia's appearance was entirely different. They did not look much like +sisters, to state the truth. + +The older girl was tall, straight as a dart, with a dignity of carriage +beyond her years, dark hair that waved very prettily and required little +dressing, and a clear, colorless complexion. Her eyes were very dark +gray, her nose high and well chiseled, like Aunt Jane's. She was more +of a Phelps. Aunt Jane declared Lyddy resembled Dr. Apollo, or "Polly," +Phelps more than had either of his own children. + +The train passed through a dun and sodden country. The late thaw and the +rains had swept the snow from these lowlands; the unfilled fields were +brown and bare. + +Here and there, however, rye and wheat sprouted green and promising, +and in the distance a hedge of water-maples along the river bank seemed +standing in a purple mist, for their young leaves were already pushing +into the light. + +"There will be pussy-willows," exclaimed 'Phemie, "and hepaticas in the +woods. Think of _that_, Lyddy Bray!" + +"And the house will be as damp as the tomb--and not a stick of wood +cut--and no stoves," returned the older girl. + +"Oh, dear, me! you're such an old grump!" ejaculated 'Phemie. "Why try +to cross bridges before you come to them?" + +"Lucky for you, Miss, that I _do_ think ahead," retorted Lyddy with some +sharpness. + +There was a grade before the train climbed into Bridleburg. Back of the +straggling old town the mountain ridge sloped up, a green and brown wall, +breaking the wind from the north and west, thus partially sheltering the +town. There was what farmers call "early land" about Bridleburg, and some +trucking was carried on. + +But the town itself was much behind the times--being one of those +old-fashioned New England settlements left uncontaminated by the mill +interests and not yet awakened by the summer visitor, so rife now in +most of the quiet villages of the six Pilgrim States. + +The rambling wooden structure with its long, unroofed platform, which +served Bridleburg as a station, showed plainly what the railroad company +thought of the town. Many villages of less population along the line +boasted modern station buildings, grass plots, and hedges. All that +surrounded Bridleburg's barrack-like depot was a plaza of bare, rolled +cinders. + +On this were drawn up the two 'buses from the rival hotels--the "New +Brick Hotel," built just after the Civil War, and the Eagle House. Their +respective drivers called languidly for customers as the passengers +disembarked from the train. + +Most of these were traveling men, or townspeople. It was only mid-forenoon +and Lyddy did not wish to spend either time or money at the local +hostelries, so she shook her head firmly at the 'bus drivers. + +"We want to get settled by night at Hillcrest--if we can," she told +'Phemie. "Let's see if your baggage and freight are here, first of all." + +She waited until the station agent was at leisure and learned that all +their goods--a small, one-horse load--had arrived. + +"You two girls goin' up to the old Polly Phelps house?" ejaculated the +agent, who was a "native son" and knew all about the "old doctor," as Dr. +Apollo Phelps had been known throughout two counties and on both sides +of the mountain ridge. + +"Why, it ain't fit for a stray cat to live in, I don't believe--that house +ain't," he added. "More'n twenty year since the old doctor died, and it's +been shut up ever since. + +"What! you his grandchildren? Sho! Mis' Bray--I remember. She was the old +doctor's daughter by his secon' wife. Ya-as. + +"Well, if I was you, I'd go to Pritchett's house to stop first. Can't +be that the old house is fit to live in, an' Pritchett is your nighest +neighbor." + +"Thank you," Lyddy said, quietly. "And can you tell me whom we could get +to transport our goods--and ourselves--to the top of the ridge?" + +"Huh? Why! I seen Pritchett's long-laiged boy in town jest now--Lucas +Pritchett. He ain't got away yet," responded the station agent. + +"I ventur' to say you'll find him up Market Street a piece--at Birch's +store, or the post-office. This train brung in the mail. + +"If he's goin' up light he oughter be willin' to help you out cheap. It's +a six-mile tug, you know; you wouldn't wanter walk it." + +He pointed up the mountainside. Far, far toward the summit of the ridge, +nestling in a background of brown and green, was a splash of vivid white. + +"That's Pritchett's," vouchsafed the station agent. "If Dr. Polly Phelps' +house had a coat of whitewash you could see it, too--jest to the right +and above Pritchett's. Highest house on the ridge, it is, and a mighty +purty site, to my notion." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LUCAS PRITCHETT + + +The Bray girls walked up the village street, which opened directly out +of the square. It might have been a quarter of a mile in length, the red +brick courthouse facing them at the far end, flanked by the two hotels. +When "court sat" Bridleburg was a livelier town than at present. + +On either hand were alternately rows of one, or two-story "blocks" of +stores and offices, or roomy old homesteads set in the midst of their own +wide, terraced lawns. + +There were a few pleasant-looking people on the walks and most of these +turned again to look curiously after the Bray girls. Strangers--save in +court week--were a novelty in Bridleburg, that was sure. + +Market Street was wide and maple-shaded. Here and there before the stores +were "hitching racks"--long wooden bars with iron rings set every few +feet--to which a few horses, or teams, were hitched. Many of the vehicles +were buckboards, much appreciated in the hill country; but there were +farm wagons, as well. It was for one of these latter the Bray girls were +in search. The station agent had described Lucas Pritchett's rig. + +"There it is," gasped the quick-eyed 'Phemie, "Oh, Lyd! _do_ look at those +ponies. They're as ragged-looking as an old cowhide trunk." + +"And that wagon," sighed Lyddy. "Shall we ride in it? We'll be a sight +going through the village." + +"We'd better wait and see if he'll take us," remarked 'Phemie. "But I +should worry about what people here think of us!" + +As she spoke a lanky fellow, with a lean and sallow face, lounged out +of the post-office and across the walk to the heads of the +disreputable-looking ponies. He wore a long snuff-colored overcoat that +might have been in the family for two or three generations, and his +overalls were stuck into the tops of leg-boots. + +"That's Lucas--sure," whispered 'Phemie. + +But she hung back, just the same, and let her sister do the talking. +And the first effect of Lyddy's speech upon Lucas Pritchett was most +disconcerting. + +"Good morning!" Lyddy said, smiling upon the lanky young farmer. "You are +Mr. Lucas Pritchett, I presume?" + +He made no audible reply, although his lips moved and they saw his very +prominent Adam's apple rise and fall convulsively. A wave of red suddenly +washed up over his face like a big breaker rolling up a sea-beach; and +each individual freckle at once took on a vividness of aspect that was +fairly startling to the beholder. + +"You _are_ Mr. Pritchett?" repeated Lyddy, hearing a sudden half-strangled +giggle from 'Phemie, who was behind her. + +"Ya-as--I be," finally acknowledged the bashful Lucas, that Adam's apple +going up and down again like the slide on a trombone. + +"You are going home without much of a load; aren't you, Mr. Pritchett?" +pursued Lyddy, with a glance into the empty wagon-body. + +"Ya-as--I be," repeated Lucas, with another gulp, trying to look at both +girls at once and succeeding only in looking cross-eyed. + +"We are going to be your nearest neighbors, Mr. Pritchett," said Lyddy, +briskly. "Our aunt, Mrs. Hammond, has loaned us Hillcrest to live in and +we have our baggage and some other things at the railway station to be +carted up to the house. Will you take it--and us? And how much will you +charge?" + +Lucas just gasped--'Phemie declared afterward, "like a dying fish." This +was altogether too much for Lucas to grasp at once; but he had followed +Lyddy up to a certain point. He held forth a broad, grimed, calloused +palm, and faintly exclaimed: + +"You're Mis' Hammon's nieces? Do tell! Maw'll be pleased to see ye--an' +so'll Sairy." + +He shook hands solemnly with Lyddy and then with 'Phemie, who flashed him +but a single glance from her laughing eyes. The "Italian sunset effect," +as 'Phemie dubbed Lucas's blushes, began to fade out of his countenance. + +"Can you take us home with you?" asked Lyddy, impatient to settle the +matter. + +"I surely can," exclaimed Lucas. "You hop right in." + +"No. We want to know what you will charge first--for us and the things +at the depot?" + +"Not a big load; air they?" queried Lucas, doubtfully. "You know the +hill's some steep." + +Lyddy enumerated the packages, Lucas checking them off with nods. + +"I see," he said. "We kin take 'em all. You hop in----" + +But 'Phemie was pulling the skirt of her sister's jacket and Lyddy said: + +"No. We have some errands to do. We'll meet you up the street. That is +your way home?" and she indicated the far end of Market Street. + +"Ya-as." + +"And what will you charge us?" + +"Not more'n a dollar, Miss," he said, grinning. "I wouldn't ax ye nothin'; +but this is dad's team and when I git a job like this he allus expects +his halvings." + +"All right, Mr. Pritchett. We'll pay you a dollar," agreed Lyddy, in her +sedate way. "And we'll meet you up the street." + +Lucas unhitched the ponies and stepped into the wagon. When he turned them +and gave them their heads the ragged little beasts showed that they were +a good deal like the proverbial singed cat--far better than they looked. + +"I thought you didn't care what people thought of you here?" observed +Lyddy to her sister, as the wagon went rattling down the street. "Yet +it seems you don't wish to ride through Bridleburg in Mr. Pritchett's +wagon." + +"My goodness!" gasped 'Phemie, breathless from giggling. "I don't mind +the wagon. But _he's_ a freak, Lyd!" + +"Sh!" + +"Did you ever see such a face? And those freckles!" went on the girl, +heedless of her sister's admonishing voice. + +"Somebody may hear you," urged Lyddy. + +"What if?" + +"And repeat what you say to him." + +"And _that_ should worry me!" returned 'Phemie, gaily. "Oh, dear, Lyd! +don't be a grump. This is all a great, big joke--the people and all. And +Lucas is certainly the capsheaf. Did you ever in your life before even +imagine such a freak?" + +But Lyddy would not join in her hilarity. + +"These country people may seem peculiar to us, who come fresh from the +city," she said, with some gravity. "But I wonder if we don't appear quite +as 'queer' and 'green' to them as they do to us?" + +"We couldn't," gasped 'Phemie. "Hurry on, Lyd. Don't let him overtake us +before we get to the edge of town." + +They passed the courthouse and waited for Lucas and the farm wagon on the +outskirts of the village--where the more detached houses gave place to +open fields. No plow had been put into these lower fields as yet; still, +the coming spring had breathed upon the landscape and already the banks by +the wayside were turning green. + +'Phemie became enthusiastic at once and before Lucas hove in view, +evidently anxiously looking for them, the younger girl had gathered a +great bunch of early flowers. + +"They're mighty purty," commented the young farmer, as the girls climbed +over the wheel with their muddy boots and all. + +'Phemie, giggling, took her seat on the other side of him. She had given +one look at the awkwardly arranged load on the wagon-body and at once +became helpless with suppressed laughter. If the girls she had worked +with in the millinery store for the last few months could see them and +their "lares and penates" perched upon this farm wagon, with this son of +Jehu for a driver! + +"I reckon you expect to stay a spell?" said Lucas, with a significant +glance from the conglomerate load to Lyddy. + +"Yes--we hope to," replied the oldest Bray girl. "Do you think the house +is in very bad shape inside?" + +"I dunno. We never go in it, Miss," responded Lucas, shaking his head. +"Mis' Hammon' never left us the key--not to upstairs. Dad's stored cider +and vinegar in the cellar under the east ell for sev'ral years. It's a +better cellar'n we've got. + +"An' I dunno what dad'll say," he added, "to your goin' up there to live." + +"What's he got to do with it?" asked 'Phemie, quickly. + +"Why, we work the farm on shares an' we was calc'latin' to do so this +year." + +"Our living in the house doesn't interfere with that arrangement," said +Lyddy, quietly. "Aunt Jane told us all about that. I have a letter from +her for your father." + +"Aw--well," commented Lucas, slowly. + +The ponies had begun to mount the rise in earnest now. They tugged eagerly +at the load, and trotted on the level stretches as though tireless. Lyddy +commented upon this, and Lucas flushed with delight at her praise. + +"They're hill-bred, they be," he said, proudly. "Tackle 'em to a buggy, or +a light cart, an' up hill or down hill means the same to 'em. They won't +break their trot. + +"When it comes plowin' time we clip 'em, an' then they don't look so bad +in harness," confided the young fellow. "If--if you like, I'll take you +drivin' over the hills some day--when the roads git settled." + +"Thank you," responded Lyddy, non-committally. + +But 'Phemie giggled "How nice!" and watched the red flow into the young +fellow's face with wicked appreciation. + +The roads certainly had not "settled" after the winter frosts, if this one +they were now climbing was a proper sample. 'Phemie and Lyddy held on with +both hands to the smooth board which served for a seat to the springless +wagon--and they were being bumped about in a most exciting way. + +'Phemie began to wonder if Lucas was not quite as much amused by their +unfamiliarity with this method of transportation as she was by his +bashfulness and awkward manners. Lyddy fairly wailed, at last: + +"Wha--what a dread--dreadful ro-o-o-ad!" and she seized Lucas suddenly by +the arm nearest to her and frankly held on, while the forward wheel on her +side bounced into the air. + +"Oh, this ain't bad for a mountain road," the young farmer declared, +calmly. + +"Oh, oh!" squealed 'Phemie, the wheel on her side suddenly sinking into +a deep rut, so that she slid to the extreme end of the board. + +"Better ketch holt on me, Miss," advised Lucas, crooking the arm nearest +'Phemie. "You city folks ain't useter this kind of travelin', I can see." + +But 'Phemie refused, unwilling to be "beholden" to him, and the very next +moment the ponies clattered over a culvert, through which the brown flood +of a mountain stream spurted in such volume that the pool below the road +was both deep and angry-looking. + +There was a washout gullied in the road here. Down went the wheel on +'Phemie's side, and with the lurch the young girl lost her insecure hold +upon the plank. + +With a screech she toppled over, plunging sideways from the wagon-seat, +and as the hard-bitted ponies swept on 'Phemie dived into the +foam-streaked pool! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NEIGHBORS + + +Lucas Pritchett was not as slow as he seemed. + +In one motion he drew in the plunging ponies to a dead stop, thrust the +lines into Lyddy's hands, and vaulted over the wheel of the farm wagon. + +"Hold 'em!" he commanded, pulling off the long, snuff-colored overcoat. +Flinging it behind him he tore down the bank and, in his high boots, waded +right into the stream. + +Poor 'Phemie was beyond her depth, although she rose "right side up" when +she came to the surface. And when Lucas seized her she had sense enough +not to struggle much. + +"Oh, oh, oh!" she moaned. "The wa--water is s-so cold!" + +"I bet ye it is!" agreed the young fellow, and gathering her right up +into his arms, saturated as her clothing was, he bore her to the bank +and clambered to where Lyddy was doing all she could to hold the restive +ponies. + +"Whoa, Spot and Daybright!" commanded the young farmer, soothing the +ponies much quicker than he could his human burden. "Now, Miss, you're +all right----" + +"All r-r-right!" gasped 'Phemie, her teeth chattering like castanets. +"I--I'm anything _but_ right!" + +"Oh, 'Phemie! you might have been drowned," cried her anxious sister. + +"And now I'm likely to be frozen stiff right here in this road. Mrs. +Lot wasn't a circumstance to me. She only turned to salt, while I am +be-be-coming a pillar of ice!" + +But Lucas had set her firmly on her feet, and now he snatched up the old +overcoat which had so much amused 'Phemie, and wrapped it about her, +covering her from neck to heel. + +"In you go--sit 'twixt your sister and me this time," panted the young +man. "We'll hustle home an' maw'll git you 'twixt blankets in a hurry." + +"She'll get her death!" moaned Lyddy, holding the coat close about the wet +girl. + +"Look out! We'll travel some now," exclaimed Lucas, leaping in, and having +seized the reins, he shook them over the backs of the ponies and shouted +to them. + +The remainder of that ride up the mountain was merely a nightmare for the +girls. Lucas allowed the ponies to lose no time, despite the load they +drew. But haste was imperative. + +A ducking in an icy mountain brook at this time of the year might easily +be fraught with serious consequences. Although it was drawing toward noon +and the sun was now shining, there was no great amount of warmth in the +air. Lucas must have felt the keen wind himself, for he was wet, too; but +he neither shivered nor complained. + +Luckily they were well up the mountainside when the accident occurred. The +ponies flew around a bend where a grove of trees had shut off the view, +and there lay the Pritchett house and outbuildings, fresh in their coat +of whitewash. + +"Maw and Sairy'll see to ye now," cried Lucas, as he neatly clipped the +gatepost with one hub and brought the lathered ponies to an abrupt stop in +the yard beside the porch. + +"Hi, Maw!" he added, as a very stout woman appeared in the doorway--quite +filling the opening, in fact. "Hi, Maw! Here's Mis' Hammon's nieces--an' +one of 'em's been in Pounder's Brook!" + +"For the land's sake!" gasped the farmer's wife, pulling a pair of +steel-bowed spectacles down from her brows that she might peer through +them at the Bray girls. "Ain't it a mite airly for sech didoes as them?" + +"Why, Maw!" sputtered Lucas, growing red again. "She didn't _go_ for to +do it--no, ma'am!" + +"Wa-al! I didn't know. City folks is funny. But come in--do! Mis' Hammon's +nieces, d'ye say? Then you must be John Horrocks Bray's gals--ain't ye?" + +"We are," said Lyddy, who had quickly climbed out over the wheel and +now eased down the clumsy bundle which was her sister. "Can you stand, +'Phemie?" + +"Ye-es," chattered her sister. + +"I hope you can take us in for a little while, Mrs. Pritchett," went on +the older girl. "We are going up to Hillcrest to live." + +"Take ye in? Sure! An' 'twon't be the first city folks we've harbored," +declared the lady, chuckling comfortably. "They're beginnin' to come as +thick as spatters in summer to Bridleburg, an' some of 'em git clear up +this way---- For the land's sake! that gal's as wet as sop." + +"It--it was wet water I tumbled into," stuttered 'Phemie. + +Mrs. Pritchett ushered them into the big, warm kitchen, where the table +was already set for dinner. A young woman--not so _very_ young, either--as +lank and lean as Lucas himself, was busy at the stove. She turned to +stare at the visitors with near-sighted eyes. + +"This is my darter, Sairy," said "Maw" Pritchett. "She taught school two +terms to Pounder's school; but it was bad for her eyes. I tell her to git +specs; but she 'lows she's too young for sech things." + +"The oculists advise glasses nowadays for very young persons," observed +Lyddy politely, as Sairy Pritchett bobbed her head at them in greeting. + +"So I tell her," declared the farmer's wife. "But she won't listen to +reason. Ye know how young gals air!" + +This assumption of Sairy's extreme youth, and that Lyddy would understand +her foibles because she was so much older, amused the latter immensely. +Sairy was about thirty-five. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Pritchett bustled about with remarkable spryness to make +'Phemie comfortable. There was a warm bedroom right off the kitchen--for +this was an old-fashioned New England farmhouse--and in this the younger +Bray girl took off her wet clothing. Lyddy brought in their bag and +'Phemie managed to make herself dry and tidy--all but her great plaits +of hair--in a very short time. + +She would not listen to Mrs. Pritchett's advice that she go to bed. But +she swallowed a bowl of hot tea and then declared herself "as good as new." + +The Bray girls had now to tell Mrs. Pritchett and her daughter their +reason for coming to Hillcrest, and what they hoped to do there. + +"For the land's sake!" gasped the farmer's wife. "I dunno what Cyrus'll +say to this." + +It struck Lyddy that they all seemed to be somewhat in fear of what Mr. +Pritchett might say. He seemed to be a good deal of a "bogie" in the +family. + +"We shall not interfere with Mr. Pritchett's original arrangement with +Aunt Jane," exclaimed Lyddy, patiently. + +"Well, ye'll hafter talk to Cyrus when he comes in to dinner," said the +farmer's wife. "I dunno how he'll take it." + +"_We_ should worry about how he 'takes it,'" commented 'Phemie in Lyddy's +ear. "I guess we've got the keys to Hillcrest and Aunt Jane's permission +to live in the house and make what we can off the place. What more is +there to it?" + +But the older Bray girl caught a glimpse of Cyrus Pritchett as he came up +the path from the stables, and she saw that he was nothing at all like +his rotund and jolly wife--not in outward appearance, at least. + +The Pritchett children got their extreme height from Cyrus--and their +leanness. He was a grizzled man, whose head stooped forward because he +was so tall, and who looked fiercely on the world from under penthouse +brows. + +Every feature of his countenance was grim and forbidding. His cheeks were +gray, with a stubble of grizzled beard upon them. When he came in and was +introduced to the visitors he merely grunted an acknowledgment of their +names and immediately dropped into his seat at the head of the table. + +As the others came flocking about the board, Cyrus Pritchett opened his +lips just once, and not until the grace had been uttered did the visitors +understand that it was meant for a reverence before meat. + +"For wha' we're 'bout to r'ceive make us tru' grat'ful--pass the butter, +Sairy," and the old man helped himself generously and began at once to +stow the provender away without regard to the need or comfort of the +others about his board. + +But Maw Pritchett and her son and daughter seemed to be used to the old +man's way, and they helped each other and the Bray girls with no niggard +hand. Nor did the shuttle of conversation lag. + +"Why, I ain't been in the old doctor's house since he died," said Mrs. +Pritchett, reflectively. "Mis' Hammon', she's been up here two or three +times, an' she allus goes up an' looks things over; but I'm too fat for +walkin' up to Hillcrest--I be," concluded the lady, with a chuckle. + +She seemed as jolly and full of fun as her husband was morose. Cyrus +Pritchett only glowered on the Bray girls when he looked at them at all. + +But Lyddy and 'Phemie joined in the conversation with the rest of the +family. 'Phemie, although she had made so much fun of Lucas at first, +now made amends by declaring him to be a hero--and sticking to it! + +"I'd never have got out of that pool if it hadn't been for Lucas," she +repeated; "unless I could have drunk up the water and walked ashore that +way! And o-o-oh! wasn't it cold!" + +"Hope you're not going to feel the effects of it later," said her sister, +still anxious. + +"I'm all right," assured the confident 'Phemie. + +"I dunno as it'll be fit for you gals to stay in the old house to-night," +urged Mrs. Pritchett. "You'll hafter have some wood cut." + +"I'll do that when I take their stuff up to Hillcrest," said Lucas, +eagerly, but flushing again as though stricken with a sudden fever. + +"There are no stoves in the house, I suppose?" Lyddy asked, wistfully. + +"Bless ye! Dr. Polly wouldn't never have a stove in his house, saving a +cook-stove in the kitchen, an' of course, that's ate up with rust afore +this," exclaimed the farmer's wife. "He said open fireplaces assured every +room its proper ventilation. He didn't believe in these new-fangled ways +of shuttin' up chimbleys. My! but he was powerful sot on fresh air an' +sunshine. + +"Onct," pursued Mrs. Pritchett, "he was called to see Mis' Fibbetts--she +that was a widder and lived on 'tother side of the ridge, on the road to +Adams. She had a mis'ry of some kind, and was abed with all the winders +of her room tight closed. + +"'Open them winders,' says Dr. Polly to the neighbor what was a-nussin' of +Mis' Fibbetts. + +"Next time he come the winders was down again. Dr. Polly warn't no gentle +man, an' he swore hard, he did. He flung up the winders himself, an' +stamped out o' the room. + +"It was right keen weather," chuckled Mrs. Pritchett, her double chins +shaking with enjoyment, "and Mis' Fibbetts was scart to death of a leetle +air. Minute Dr. Polly was out o' sight she made the neighbor woman shet +the winders ag'in. + +"But when Dr. Polly turned up the ridge road he craned out'n the buggy an' +he seen the winders shet. He jerked his old boss aroun', drove back to the +house, stalked into the sick woman's room, cane in hand, and smashed +every pane of glass in them winders, one after another. + +"'Now I reckon ye'll git air enough to cure ye 'fore ye git them mended,' +says he, and marched him out again. An' sure 'nough old Mis' Fibbetts +got well an' lived ten year after. But she never had a good word for Dr. +Polly Phelps, jest the same," chuckled the narrator. + +"Well, we'll make out somehow about fires," said Lyddy, cheerfully, "if +Lucas can cut us enough wood to keep them going." + +"I sure can," declared the ever-ready youth, and just here Cyrus +Pritchett, having eaten his fill, broke in upon the conversation in a +tone that quite startled Lyddy and 'Phemie Bray. + +"I wanter know what ye mean to do up there on the old Polly Phelps +place?" he asked, pushing back his chair, having set down his coffee-cup +noisily, and wiped his cuff across his lips. "I gotta oral contract +with Jane Hammon' to work that farm. It's been in force year arter year +for more'n ten good year. An' that contract ain't to be busted so easy." + +"Now, Father!" admonished Mrs. Pritchett; but the old man glared at her +and she at once subsided. + +Cyrus Pritchett certainly was a masterful man in his own household. Lucas +dropped his gaze to his plate and his face flamed again. But Sairy turned +actually pale. + +Somehow the cross old man did not make Lyddy Bray tremble. She only felt +angry that he should be such a bully in his own home. + +"Suppose you read Aunt Jane's letter, Mr. Pritchett," she said, taking +it from her handbag and laying it before the farmer. + +The old man grunted and slit the flap of the envelope with his greasy +tableknife. He drew his brows down into even a deeper scowl as he read. + +"So she turns her part of the contract over to you two chits of gals; does +she?" said Mr. Pritchett, at last. "Humph! I don't think much of that, now +I tell ye." + +"Mr. Pritchett," said Lyddy, firmly, "if you don't care to work the farm +for us on half shares, as you have heretofore with Aunt Jane, pray say +so. I assure you we will not be offended." + +"And what'll you do then?" he growled. + +"If you refuse to put in a crop for us?" + +"Ya-as." + +"Get some other neighboring farmer to do so," replied Lyddy, promptly. + +"Oh, you will, eh?" growled Cyrus Pritchett, sitting forward and resting +his big hands on his knees, while he glared like an angry dog at the +slight girl before him. + +The kitchen was quite still save for his booming voice. The family was +evidently afraid of the old man's outbursts of temper. + +But Lyddy Bray's courage rose with her indignation. This cross old farmer +was a mere bully after all, and there was never a bully yet who was not a +moral coward! + +"Mr. Pritchett," she told him, calmly, "you cannot frighten me by shouting +at me. I may as well tell you right now that the crops you have raised +for Aunt Jane of late years have not been satisfactory. We expect a +better crop this year, and if you do not wish to put it in, some other +neighbor will. + +"This is a good time to decide the matter. What do you say?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +HILLCREST + + +Mrs. Pritchett and Sairy really were frightened by Lyddy Bray's temerity. +As for Lucas, he still hung his head and would not look at his father. + +Cyrus Pritchett had bullied his family so long that to be bearded in his +own house certainly amazed him. He glared at the girl for fully a minute, +without being able to formulate any reply. Then he burst out with: + +"You let me ketch any other man on this ridge puttin' a plow inter the +old doctor's land! I've tilled it for years, I tell ye----" + +"And you can till it again, Mr. Pritchett," said Lyddy, softly. "You +needn't holler so about it--we all hear you." + +The coolness of the girl silenced him. + +"So, now it's understood," she went on, smiling at him brightly. "And +we'll try this year to make a little better crop. We really must get +something more out of it than the taxes." + +"Jane Hammon' won't buy no fertilizer," growled Mr. Pritchett, put on +the defensive--though he couldn't tell why. "An' ye can't grow corn on +run-down land without potash an' kainit, and the like." + +"Well, you shall tell us all about that later," declared Lyddy, "and +we'll see. I understand that you can't get blood from a turnip. We want +to put Hillcrest in better shape--both in and out of the house--and then +there'll be a better chance to sell it." + +Cyrus Pritchett's eyes suddenly twinkled with a shrewd light. + +"Does Jane Hammon' really want to sell the farm?" he queried. + +"If she gets a good offer," replied Lyddy. "That's what we hope to do +while we're at Hillcrest--make the place more valuable and more attractive +to the possible buyer." + +"Ha!" grunted Cyrus, sneeringly. "She'll get a fancy price for +Hillcrest--not!" + +But that ended the discussion. "Maw" Pritchett looked on in wonder. She +had seen her husband beaten in an argument by a "chit of a girl"--and +really, Cyrus did not seem to be very ugly, or put out about it, either! + +He told Lucas to put the ponies to the wagon again, and to take the Bray +girls and their belongings up to Hillcrest; and to see that they were +comfortable for the night before he came back. + +This encouraged Mrs. Pritchett, when Lyddy took out her purse to pay for +their entertainment, to declare: + +"For the good land, no! We ain't goin' to charge ye for a meal of +vittles--and you gals Dr. Polly Phelps's own grandchildren! B'sides, we +want ye to be neighborly. It's nice for Sairy to have young companions, +too. I tell her she'll git to be a reg'lar old maid if she don't 'sociate +more with gals of her own age." + +Sairy bridled and blushed at this. But she wasn't an unkind girl, and +she helped 'Phemie gather their possessions--especially the latter's wet +clothing. + +"I'm sure I wish ye joy up there at the old house," said Sairy, with a +shudder. "But ye wouldn't ketch me." + +"Catch you doing what?" asked 'Phemie, wonderingly. + +"Stayin' in Dr. Phelps's old house over night," explained Sairy. + +"Why not?" + +The farmer's daughter drew close to 'Phemie's ear and whispered: + +"It's ha'nted!" + +"_What?_" cried 'Phemie. + +"Ghosts," exclaimed Sairy, in a thrilling voice. "All old houses is +ha'nted. And that's been give up to ghosts for years an' years." + +"Oh, goody!" exclaimed 'Phemie, clasping her hands and almost dancing in +delight. "Do you mean it's a really, truly haunted house?" + +Sairy Pritchett gazed at her with slack jaw and round eyes for a minute. +Then she sniffed. + +"Wa-al!" she muttered. "I re'lly thought you was _bright_. But I see ye +ain't got any too much sense, after all," and forthwith refused to say +anything more to 'Phemie. + +But the younger Bray girl decided to say nothing about the supposed +ghostly occupants of Hillcrest to her sister--for the present, at least. + +There was still half a mile of road to climb to Hillcrest, for the way was +more winding than it had been below; and as the girls viewed the summit +of the ridge behind Aunt Jane's old farm they saw that the heaped-up +rocks were far more rugged than romantic, after all. + +"There's two hundred acres of it," Lucas observed, chirruping to the +ponies. "But more'n a hundred is little more'n rocks. And even the timber +growin' among 'em ain't wuth the cuttin'. Ye couldn't draw it out. +There's firewood enough on the place, and a-plenty! But that's 'bout +all--'nless ye wanted to cut fence rails, or posts." + +"What are those trees at one side, near the house?" queried Lyddy, +interestedly. + +"The old orchard. _There's_ your nearest firewood. Ain't been much fruit +there since I can remember. All run down." + +And, indeed, Hillcrest looked to be, as they approached it, a typical +run-down farm. Tall, dry weed-stalks clashed a welcome to them from the +fence corners as the ponies turned into the lane from the public road. The +sun had drawn a veil of cloud across his face and the wind moaned in the +gaunt branches of the beech trees that fringed the lane. + +The house was set upon a knoll, with a crumbling, roofed porch around +the front and sides. There were trees, but they were not planted near +enough to the house to break the view on every side but one of the +sloping, green and brown mountainside, falling away in terraced fields, +patches of forest, tablelands of rich, tillable soil, and bush-cluttered +pastures, down into the shadowy valley, through which the river and the +railroad wound. + +Behind Hillcrest, beyond the outbuildings, and across the narrow, +poverty-stricken fields, were the battlements of rock, shutting out all +view but that of the sky. + +Lonely it was, as Aunt Jane had declared; but to the youthful eyes of the +Bray girls the outlook was beautiful beyond compare! + +"Our land jines this farm down yonder a piece," explained Lucas, drawing +in the ponies beside the old house. "Ye ain't got nobody behind ye till +ye git over the top of the ridge. Your line follers the road on this side, +and on the other side of the road is Eben Brewster's stock farm of a +thousand acres--mostly bush-parsture an' rocks, up this a-way." + +The girls were but momentarily interested in the outlook, however. It was +the old house itself which their bright eyes scanned more particularly +as they climbed down from the wagon. + +There were two wings, or "ells." In the west wing was the kitchen and +evidently both sitting and sleeping rooms, upstairs and down--enough to +serve all their present needs. Aunt Jane had told them that there were, +altogether, twenty-two rooms in the old house. + +Lucas hitched his horses and then began to lift down their luggage. Lyddy +led the way to the side door, of which she had the key. + +The lower windows were defended by tight board shutters, all about the +house. The old house had been well guarded from the depredations of casual +wayfarers. Had tramps passed this way the possible plunder in the old +house had promised to be too bulky to attract them; and such wanderers +could have slept as warmly in the outbuildings. + +Lyddy inserted the key and, after some trouble, for the lock was rusty, +turned it. There was an ancient brass latch, and she lifted it and pushed +the door open. + +"My! isn't it dark--and musty," the older sister said, hesitating on the +threshold. + +"Welcome to the ghosts of Hillcrest," spoke 'Phemie, in a sepulchral voice. + +"Oh, don't!" gasped Lyddy. + +She had not been afraid of Cyrus Pritchett, but 'Phemie's irreverence for +the spirits of the old house shocked her. + +"All right," laughed the younger girl. "We'll cut out the ghosts, then." + +"We most certainly _will_. If I met a ghost here I'd certainly cut him +dead!" + +'Phemie went forward boldly and opened the door leading into the big +kitchen. It was gloomy there, too, for the shutters kept out most of the +light. The girls could see, however, that it was a well-furnished room. +They were delighted, too, for this must be their living-room until they +could set the house to rights. + +"Dust, dust everywhere," said 'Phemie, making a long mark in it with her +finger on the dresser. + +"But _only_ dust. We can get cleaned up here all right by evening. Come! +unhook the shutters and let in the light of day." + +The younger girl raised one of the small-paned window sashes, unbolted the +shutter, and pushed both leaves open. The light streamed in and almost +at once Lucas's head appeared. + +"How does it look to ye--eh?" he asked, grinning. "Gee! the hearth's all +cleared and somebody's had a fire here." + +"It must have been a long time ago," returned Lyddy, noting the crusted +ashes between the andirons. + +"Wa-al," said Lucas, slowly. "I'll git to work with the axe an' soon start +ye a fire there, B-r-r-r! it's cold as a dog's nose in there," and he +disappeared again. + +But the sunlight and air which soon flooded the room through all the +windows quickly gave the long-shut-up kitchen a new atmosphere. + +'Phemie already had on a working dress, having changed at the Pritchett +house after her unfortunate ducking; Lyddy soon laid aside her own better +frock, too. + +Then they found their bundle of brooms and brushes, and set to work. There +was a pump on the back porch and a well in the yard. During all these +empty years the leather valve of the pump had rotted away; but Lucas +brought them water from the well. + +"I kin git the shoemaker in town to cut ye out a new leather," said the +young farmer. "He's got a pattern. An' I can put it in for ye. The pump'll +be a sight handier than the well for you two gals." + +"Now, isn't he a nice boy?" demanded Lyddy of her sister. "And you called +him a freak." + +"Don't rub it in, Lyd," snapped 'Phemie. "But it is hard to have to accept +a veritable gawk of a fellow like Lucas--for that's what he _is_!--as a +sure-enough hero." + +This was said aside, of course, and while Lucas was doing yeoman's work at +the woodpile. He had brought in a huge backlog, placed it carefully, +laid a forestick and the kindling, and soon blue and yellow flames +were weaving through the well-built structure of the fire. There was a +swinging crane for the kettle and a long bar with hooks upon it, from +which various cooking pots could dangle. Built into the chimney, too, +was a brick oven with a sheet-iron door. The girls thought all these +old-fashioned arrangements delightful, whether they proved convenient, or +not. + +They swept and dusted the old kitchen thoroughly, and cleaned the +cupboards and pantry-closet. Then they turned their attention to the +half bedchamber, half sitting-room that opened directly out of the +kitchen. In these two rooms they proposed to live at first--until +their father could join them, at least. + +There was an old-time high, four-post bed in this second room. It had been +built long before some smart man had invented springs, and its frame was +laced from side to side, and up and down, like the warp and woof of a +rug, with a "bedrope" long since rotted and moth-eaten. + +"My goodness me!" exclaimed 'Phemie, laughing. "That will never hold you +and me, Lyd. We'll just have to stuff that old tick with hay and sleep on +the floor." + +But Lucas heard their discussion and again came to their help. Lyddy had +bought a new clothesline when she purchased her food supplies at the city +department store, and the clever Lucas quickly roped the old bedstead. + +"That boy certainly is rising by leaps and bounds in my estimation," +admitted 'Phemie, in a whisper, to her sister. + +Then came the problem of the bed. Lyddy had saved their pillows from +the wreck of the flat; but the mattresses had gone with the furniture to +the second-hand man. There might be good feather beds in the farmhouse +attic; Aunt Jane had said something about them, Lyddy believed. But there +was no time to hunt for these now. + +"Here is a tick," 'Phemie said again. "What'll we fill it with?" + +"Give it to me," volunteered Lucas. "One of the stable lofts is half full +of rye straw. We thrashed some rye on this place last year. It's jest as +good beddin' for humans as it is for cattle, I declare." + +"All right," sighed 'Phemie. "We'll bed down like the cows for a while. I +don't see anything better to do." + +But really, by sunset, they were nearly to rights and the prospect for a +comfortable first night at Hillcrest was good. + +Lucas's huge fire warmed both the kitchen and the bedroom, despite the +fact that the evening promised to be chilly, with the wind mourning about +the old house and rattling the shutters. The girls closed the blinds, +made all cozy, and bade young Pritchett good-night. + +Lyddy had paid him the promised dollar for transporting their goods, +and another half-dollar for the work he had done about the house that +afternoon. + +"And I'll come up in the mornin' an' bring ye the milk an' eggs maw +promised ye," said Lucas, as he drove away, "and I'll cut ye some more +wood then." + +There was already a great heap of sticks beside the hearth, and in the +porch another windrow, sheltered from any possible storm. + +"We're in luck to have such good neighbors," sighed Lyddy, as the farm +wagon rattled away. + +"My! but we're going to have good times here," declared 'Phemie, coming +into the house after her and closing and locking the door. + +"It's a long way off from everybody else," observed the older sister, in +a doubtful tone. "But I don't believe we shall be disturbed." + +"Nonsense!" cried 'Phemie. "Let's have supper. I'm starved to death." + +She swung the blackened old tea-kettle over the blaze, and moved briskly +about the room laying the cloth, while Lyddy got out crackers and cheese +and opened a tin of meat before she brewed the comforting cup of tea that +both girls wanted. + +However, they _were_ alone--half a mile from the nearest habitation--and +if nothing else, they could not help secretly comparing their loneliness +with the tenement in the city from which they had so recently graduated. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE WHISPER IN THE DARK + + +'Phemie was very bold--until something really scared her--and then she +was quite likely to lose her head altogether. Lyddy was timid by nature, +but an emergency forced her courage to high pressure. + +They both, however, tried to ignore the fact that they were alone in the +old house, far up on the mountainside, and a considerable distance from +any neighbor. + +That was why they chattered so all through supper--and afterward. Neither +girl cared to let silence fall upon the room. + +The singing of the kettle on the crane was a blessing. It made music that +drove away "that lonesome feeling." And when it actually bubbled over and +the drip of it fell hissing into the fire, 'Phemie laughed as though it +were a great joke. + +"Such a jolly thing as an open fire is, I declare," she said, sitting down +at last in one of the low, splint-bottomed chairs, when the supper dishes +were put away. "I don't blame Grandfather Phelps for refusing to allow +stoves to be put up in his day." + +"I fancy it would take a deal of wood to heat the old house in real cold +weather," Lyddy said. "But it _is_ cheerful." + +"Woo-oo! woo-oo-oo!" moaned the wind around the corner of the house. A +ghostly hand rattled a shutter. Then a shrill whistle in the chimney +startled them. + +At such times the sisters talked all the faster--and louder. It was really +quite remarkable how much they found to say to each other. + +They wondered how father was getting along at the hospital, and if Aunt +Jane would surely see him every day or two, and write them. Then they +exchanged comments upon what they had seen of Bridleburg, and finally +fell back upon the Pritchetts as a topic of conversation--and that family +seemed an unfailing source of suggestion until finally 'Phemie jumped +up, declaring: + +"What's the use of this, Lyd? Let's go to bed. We're both half scared to +death, but we'll be no worse off in bed----And, b-r-r-r! the fire's going +down." + +They banked the fire as Lucas had advised them, put out the lamp, and +retired with the candle to the bedroom. The straw mattress rustled as +though it were full of mice, when the sisters had said their prayers and +climbed into bed. 'Phemie blew out the candle; but she had laid matches +near it on the high stand beside her pillow. + +"I hope there _are_ feather beds in the garret," she murmured, drowsily. +"This old straw is _so_ scratchy." + +"We'll look to-morrow," Lyddy said. "Aunt Jane said we could make use of +anything we found here. But, my! it's a big house for only three people." + +"It is," admitted 'Phemie. "I'd feel a whole lot better if it was full of +folks." + +"I have it!" exclaimed Lyddy, suddenly. "We might take boarders." + +"Summer boarders?" asked her sister, curiously. + +"I--I s'pose so." + +"That's a long way ahead. It's winter yet," and 'Phemie snuggled down +into her pillow. "Folks from the city would never want to come to an old +house like this--with so few conveniences in it." + +"_We_ like it; don't we?" demanded Lyddy. + +"I don't know whether we do yet, or not," replied 'Phemie. "Let's wait +and see." + +'Phemie was drowsy, yet somehow she couldn't fall asleep. Usually she +was the first of the two to do so; but to-night Lyddy's deeper breathing +assured the younger sister that she alone was awake in all the great, +empty house. + +And Sairy Pritchett had intimated that Hillcrest was haunted! + +Now, 'Phemie didn't believe in ghosts--not at all. She would have been +very angry had anyone suggested that there was a superstitious strain in +her character. + +Yet, as she lay there beside her sleeping sister she began to hear the +strangest sounds. + +It wasn't the wind; nor was it the low crackling of the fire on the +kitchen hearth. She could easily distinguish both of these. Soon, too, +she made out the insistent gnawing of a rat behind the mopboard. That +long-tailed gentleman seemed determined to get in; but 'Phemie was not +afraid of rats. At least, not so long as they kept out of sight. + +But there were other noises. Once 'Phemie had all but lost herself in +sleep when--it seemed--a voice spoke directly in her ear. It said: + +"_I thought I'd find you here._" + +'Phemie started into a sitting posture in the rustling straw bed. She +listened hard. + +The voice was silent. The fire was still. The wind had suddenly dropped. +Even the rat had ceased his sapping and mining operations. + +What had frightened Mr. Rat away? + +He, too, must have heard that mysterious voice. 'Phemie could not believe +she had imagined it. + +Was that a rustling sound? Were those distant steps she heard--somewhere +in the house? Did she hear a door creak? + +She slipped out of bed, drew on her woollen wrapper and thrust her feet +into slippers. She saw that it was bright moonlight outside, for a pencil +of light came through a chink in one of the shutters. + +Lyddy slept as calmly as a baby--and 'Phemie was glad. Of course, it +was all foolishness about ghosts; but she believed there was somebody +prowling about the house. + +She lit the candle and after the flame had sputtered a bit and began to +burn clear she carried it into the kitchen. Their little round alarm clock +ticked modestly on the dresser. It was not yet ten o'clock. + +"Not the 'witching hour of midnight, when graveyards yawn'--and other +people do, too," thought 'Phemie, giggling nervously. "Surely ghosts +cannot be walking yet." + +Indeed, she was quite assured that what she had heard--both the voice +and the footsteps--were very much of the earth, earthy. There was nothing +supernatural in the mysterious sounds. + +And it seemed to 'Phemie as though the steps had retreated toward the east +ell--the other wing of the rambling old farmhouse. + +What was it Lucas Pritchett had said about his father using the +cellar under the east wing at Hillcrest? Yet, what would bring Cyrus +Pritchett--or anybody else--up here to the vinegar cellar at ten +o'clock at night? + +'Phemie grew braver by the minute. She determined to run this mystery +down, and she was quite sure that it would prove to be a very human and +commonplace mystery after all. She opened the door between the kitchen and +the dark side hall by which they had first entered the old house that +afternoon. Although she had never been this way, 'Phemie knew that out of +this square hall opened a long passage leading through the main house +to the east wing. + +And she easily found the door giving entrance to this corridor. But she +hesitated when she stood on the threshold, and almost gave up the venture +altogether. + +A cold, damp breath rushed out at her--just as though some huge, +subterranean monster lay in wait for her in the darkness--a darkness +so dense that the feeble ray of her candle could only penetrate it a +very little way. + +"How foolish of me!" murmured 'Phemie. "I've come so far--I guess I can +see it through." + +She certainly did not believe that the steps and voice were inside the +house. The passage was empty before her. She refused to let the rising +tide of trepidation wash away her self-control. + +So she stepped in boldly, holding the candle high, and proceeded along +the corridor. There were tightly closed doors on either side, and behind +each door was a mystery. She could not help but feel this. Every door was +a menace to her peace of mind. + +"But I will _not_ think of such things," she told herself. "I know if +there _is_ anybody about the house, it is a very human somebody +indeed--and he has no business here at this time of night!" + +In her bed-slippers 'Phemie's light feet fell softly on the frayed +oilcloth that carpeted the long hall. Dimly she saw two or three heavy, +ancient pieces of furniture standing about--a tall escritoire with +three paneled mirrors, which reflected herself and her candle dimly; a +long davenport with hungry arms and the dust lying thick upon its +haircloth upholstery; chairs with highly ornate spindles in their +perfectly "straight up and down," uncomfortable-looking backs. + +She came to the end of the hall. A door faced her which she was sure +must lead into the east wing. There, Aunt Jane had said, old Dr. Polly +Phelps had had his office, consultation room, and workshop, or laboratory. +'Phemie's hand hesitated on the latch. + +Should she venture into the old doctor's rooms? The greater part of his +long and useful life had been spent behind this green-painted door. +'Phemie, of course, had never seen her grandfather; but she had seen +his picture--that of a tall, pink-faced, full-bodied man, his cheeks +and lips cleanly shaven, but with a fringe of silvery beard under his +chin, and long hair. + +It seemed to her for a moment as though, if she opened this door, the +apparition of the old doctor, just as he was in his picture, would be +there to face her. + +"You little fool!" whispered the shaken 'Phemie to herself. "Go on!" + +She lifted the latch. The door seemed to stick. She pressed her knee +against the panel; it did not give at all. + +And then she discovered that the door was locked. But the key was there, +and in a moment she turned it creakingly and pushed the door open. + +The air in the corridor had been still; but suddenly a strong breeze drew +this green door wide open. The wind rushed past, blew out the candle, +and behind her the other door, which she had left ajar, banged heavily, +echoing and reechoing through the empty house. + +'Phemie was startled, but she understood at once the snuffing of her +candle and the closing of the other door. She only hoped Lyddy would +not be frightened by the noise--or by her absence from her side. + +"I'll see it through, just the same," declared the girl, her teeth set +firmly on her lower lip. "Ha! driven away by a draught--not I!" + +She groped her way into the room and closed the green door. There was a +match upon her candlestick and she again lighted the taper. Quickly the +first room in this east wing suite was revealed to her gaze. + +This had been the anteroom, or waiting-room for the old doctor's patients. +There was a door opening on the side porch. A long, old-fashioned settee +stood against one wall, and some splint-bottomed chairs were set stiffly +about the room, while a shaky mahogany table, with one pedestal leg, +occupied the center of the apartment. + +'Phemie was more careful of the candle now and shielded the flame with +her hollowed palm as she pushed open the door of the adjoining room. + +Here was a big desk with a high top and drop lid, while there were rows +upon rows of drawers underneath. A wide-armed chair stood before the desk, +just as it must have been used by the old doctor. The room was lined to +the ceiling with cases of books and cupboards. Nobody had disturbed the +doctor's possessions after his death. No younger physician had "taken +over" his practice. + +'Phemie went near enough to see that the desk, and the cupboards as well, +were locked. There was a long case standing like an overgrown clock-case +in one corner. The candle-light was reflected in the front of this case +as though the door was a mirror. + +But when 'Phemie approached it she saw that it was merely a glass door +with a curtain of black cambric hung behind it. She was curious to know +what was in the case. It had no lock and key and she stretched forth a +tentative hand and turned the old-fashioned button which held it closed. + +The door seemed fairly to spring open, as though pushed from within, +and, as it swung outward and the flickering candle-light penetrated its +interior, 'Phemie heard a sudden surprising sound. + +Somewhere--behind her, above, below, in the air, all about her--was a +sigh! Nay, it was more than a sigh; it was a mighty and unmistakable yawn! + +And on the heels of this yawn a voice exclaimed: + +"I'm getting mighty tired of this!" + +'Phemie flashed her gaze back to the open case. Fear held her by the +throat and choked back the shriek she would have been glad to utter. +For, dangling there in the case, its eyeless skull on a level with her +own face, hung an articulated skeleton; and to 'Phemie Bray's excited +comprehension it seemed as though both the yawn and the apt speech which +followed it, had proceeded from the grinning jaws of the skull! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MORNING AT HILLCREST + + +The bang of the door, closed by the draught when 'Phemie had opened +the way into the east wing, _had_ aroused Lyddy. She came to herself--to +a consciousness of her strange surroundings--with a sharpness of +apprehension that set every nerve in her body to tingling. + +"'Phemie! what is it?" she whispered. + +Then, rolling over on the rustling straw mattress, she reached for her +sister's hand. But 'Phemie was not there. + +"'Phemie!" Lyddy cried loudly, sitting straight up in bed. She knew she +was alone in the room, and hopped out of bed, shivering. She groped for +her robe and her slippers. Then she sped swiftly into the kitchen. + +She knew where the lamp and the match-box were. Quickly she had the lamp +a-light and then swept the big room with a startled glance. + +'Phemie had disappeared. The outside door was still locked. It seemed to +Lyddy as though the echoing slam of the door that had awakened her was +still ringing in her ears. + +She ran to the hall door and opened it. Dark--and not a sound! + +Where could 'Phemie have gone? + +The older sister had never known 'Phemie to walk in her sleep. She had no +tricks of somnambulism that Lyddy knew anything about. + +And yet the older Bray girl was quite sure her sister had come this way. +The lamplight, when the door was opened wide, illuminated the square +hall quite well. Lyddy ran across it and pushed open the door of the +long corridor. + +There was no light in it, yet she could see outlined the huge pieces of +furniture, and the ugly chairs. And at the very moment she opened this +door, the door at the far end was flung wide and a white figure plunged +toward her. + +"'Phemie!" screamed the older sister. + +"Lyddy!" wailed 'Phemie. + +And in a moment they were in each other's arms and Lyddy was dragging +'Phemie across the entrance hall into the lighted kitchen. + +"What is it? What _is_ it?" gasped Lyddy. + +"Oh, oh, oh!" was all 'Phemie was able to say for the moment; then, as she +realized how really terrified her sister was, she continued her series +of "ohs" while she thought very quickly. + +She knew very well what had scared her; but why add to Lyddy's fright? She +could not explain away the voice she had heard. Of course, she knew very +well it had _not_ proceeded from the skeleton. But why terrify Lyddy by +saying anything about that awful thing? + +"What scared you so?" repeated Lyddy, shaking her a bit. + +"I--I don't know," stammered 'Phemie--and she didn't! + +"But why did you get up?" + +"I thought I heard something--voices--people talking--steps," gasped +'Phemie, and now her teeth began to chatter so that she could scarcely +speak. + +"Foolish girl!" exclaimed Lyddy, rapidly recovering her own self-control. +"You dreamed it. And now you've got a chill, wandering through this old +house. Here! sit down there!" + +She drove her into a low chair beside the hearth. She ran for an extra +comforter to wrap around her. She raked the ashes off the coals of the +fire, and set the tea-kettle right down upon the glowing bed. + +In a minute it began to steam and gurgle, and Lyddy made her sister an +old-fashioned brew of ginger tea. When the younger girl had swallowed half +a bowlful of the scalding mixture she ceased shaking. And by that time, +too, she had quite recovered her self-control. + +"You're a very foolish little girl," declared Lyddy, warningly, "to +get up alone and go wandering about this house. Why, _I_ wouldn't do it +for--for the whole farm!" + +"I--I dropped my candle. It went out," said 'Phemie, quietly. "I guess +being in the dark scared me more than anything." + +"Now, that's enough. Forget it! We'll go to bed again and see if we can't +get some sleep. Why! it's past eleven." + +So the sisters crept into bed again, and lay in each other's arms, +whispering a bit and finally, before either of them knew it, they were +asleep. And neither ghosts, nor whispering voices, nor any other midnight +sounds disturbed their slumbers for the remainder of that first night +at Hillcrest. + +They were awake betimes--and without the help of the alarm clock. It was +pretty cold in the two rooms; but they threw kindling on the coals and +soon the flames were playing tag through the interlacing sticks that +'Phemie heaped upon the fire. + +The kettle was soon bubbling again, while Lyddy mixed batter cakes. A +little bed of live coals was raked together in front of the main fire +and on this a well greased griddle was set, where the cakes baked to a +tender brown and were skillfully lifted off by 'Phemie and buttered and +sugared. + +What if a black coal or two _did_ snap over the cakes? And what if +'Phemie's hair _did_ get smoked and "smelly?" Both girls declared cooking +before an open fire to be great fun. They had yet, however, to learn a +lot about "how our foremothers cooked." + +"I don't for the life of me see how they ever used that brick oven," said +Lyddy, pointing to the door in the side of the chimney. "Surely, that hole +in the bricks would never heat from _this_ fire." + +"Ask Lucas," advised 'Phemie, and as though in answer to that word, Lucas +himself appeared, bearing offerings of milk, eggs, and new bread. + +"Huh!" he said, in a gratified tone, sniffing in the doorway. "I told maw +you two gals wouldn't go hungry. Ye air a sight too clever." + +"Thank you, Lucas," said Lyddy, demurely. "Will you have a cup of tea!" + +"No'm. I've had my breakfast. It's seven now and I'll go right t' work +cutting wood for ye. That's what ye'll want most, I reckon. And I want to +git ye a pile ready, for it won't be many days before we start plowin', +an' then dad won't hear to me workin' away from home." + +Lyddy went out of doors for a moment and spoke to him from the porch. + +"Don't do too much trimming in the orchard, Lucas, till I have a look at +the trees. I have a book about the care of an old orchard, and perhaps I +can make something out of this one." + +"Plenty of other wood handy, Miss Lyddy," declared the lanky young fellow. +"And it'll be easier to split than apple and peach wood, too." + +'Phemie, meanwhile, had said she would run in and find the candle she had +dropped in her fright the night before; but in truth it was more for the +purpose of seeing the east wing of the old house by daylight--and that +skeleton. + +"No need for Lyddy to come in here and have a conniption fit, too," +thought the younger sister, "through coming unexpectedly upon that Thing +in the case. + +"And, my gracious! he might just as well have been the author of that +mysterious speech I heard. I should think he _would_ be tired of staying +shut up in that box," pursued the girl, giggling nervously, as she stood +before the open case in which the horrid thing dangled. + +Light enough came through the cracks in the closed shutters to reveal to +her the rooms that the old doctor had so long occupied. + +'Phemie closed the skeleton case and picked up her candle. Then she +continued her investigation of the suite to the third room. Here were +shelves and work-benches littered with a heterogeneous collection of +bottles, tubes, retorts, filters, and other things of which 'Phemie +did not even know the names or uses. + +There was a door, too, that opened directly into the back yard. But this +door was locked and double-bolted. She was sure that the person, or +persons, whom she had heard talking the night before had not been in this +room. When she withdrew from the east wing she locked the green-painted +door as she had found it; but in addition, she removed the key and hid +it where she was sure nobody but herself would be likely to find it. + +Later she tackled Lucas. + +"I don't suppose you--or any of your folks--were up here last night, +Lucas?" she asked the young farmer, out of her sister's hearing. + +"Me, Miss? I should say not!" replied the surprised Lucas. + +"But I heard voices around the house." + +"Do tell!" exclaimed he. + +"Who would be likely to come here at night?" + +"Why, I never heard the beat o' that," declared Lucas. "No, ma'am!" + +"Sh! don't let my sister hear," whispered 'Phemie. "She heard nothing." + +"Air you sure----" began Lucas, but at that the young girl snapped him up +quick enough: + +"I am confident I even heard some things they said. They were men. It +sounded as though they spoke over there by the east wing--_or in the +cellar_." + +"Ye don't mean it!" exclaimed the wondering Lucas, leading the way slowly +to the cellar-hatch just under the windows of the old doctor's workshop. + +This hatch was fastened by a big brass padlock. + +"Dad's got the key to that," said Lucas. "Jest like I told you, we have +stored vinegar in it, some. Ain't many barrels left at this time o' year. +Dad sells off as he can during the winter." + +"And, of course, your father didn't come up here last night?" + +"Shucks! O' course not," replied the young farmer. "Ain't no vinegar buyer +around in this neighborhood now--an' 'specially not at night. Dad ain't +much for goin' out in the evenin', nohow. He does sit up an' read arter +we're all gone to bed sometimes. But it couldn't be dad you heard up +here--no, Miss." + +So the puzzle remained a puzzle. However, the Bray girls had so much to +do, and so much to think of that, after all, the mystery of the night +occupied a very small part of 'Phemie's thought. + +Lyddy had something--and a very important something, she thought--on her +mind. It had risen naturally out of the talk the girls had had when they +first went to bed the evening before. 'Phemie had wished for a houseful +of company to make Hillcrest less lonely; the older sister had seized +upon the idea as a practical suggestion. + +Why not fill the big house--if they could? Why not enter the lists in the +land-wide struggle for summer boarders? + +Of course, if Aunt Jane would approve. + +First of all, however, Lyddy wanted to see the house--the chambers +upstairs especially; and she proposed to her sister, when their morning's +work was done, that they make a tour of discovery. + +"Lead on," 'Phemie replied, eagerly. "I hope we find a softer bed than +that straw mattress--and one that won't tickle so! Aunt Jane said we could +do just as we pleased with things here; didn't she?" + +"Within reason," agreed Lyddy. "And that's all very well up to a certain +point, I fancy. But I guess Aunt Jane doesn't expect us to make use of +the whole house. We will probably find this west wing roomy enough for +our needs, even when father comes." + +They ventured first up the stairs leading to the rooms in this wing. +There were two nice ones here and a wide hall with windows overlooking +the slope of the mountainside toward Bridleburg. They could see for miles +the winding road up which they had climbed the day before. + +"Yes, this wing will do very nicely for _us_," Lyddy said, thinking aloud. +"We can make that room downstairs where we're sleeping, our sitting-room +when it comes warm weather; and that will give us all the rest of the +house----" + +"All but the old doctor's offices," suggested 'Phemie, doubtfully. "There +are three of them." + +"Well," returned Lyddy, "three and four are seven; and seven from +twenty-two leaves fifteen. Some of the first-floor rooms we'll have to +use as dining and sitting-rooms for the boarders----" + +"My goodness me!" exclaimed her sister, again breaking in upon her +ruminations. "You've got the house full of boarders already; have you? +What will Aunt Jane say?" + +"That we'll find out. But there ought to be at least twelve rooms to let. +If there's as much furniture and stuff in all as there is in these----" + +"But how'll we ever get the boarders? And how'd we cook for 'em over that +open fire? It's ridiculous!" declared 'Phemie. + +"_That_ is yet to be proved," returned her sister, unruffled. + +They pursued their investigation through the second-floor rooms. There +were eight of them in the main part of the house and two in the east wing +over the old doctor's offices. The last two were only partially furnished +and had been used in their grandfather's day more for "lumber rooms" +than aught else. It was evident that Dr. Phelps had demanded quiet and +freedom in his own particular wing of Hillcrest. + +But the eight rooms in the main part of the house on this second floor +were all of good size, well lighted, and completely furnished. Some of +them had probably not been slept in for fifty years, for when the girls' +mother, and even Aunt Jane, were young, Dr. Apollo Phelps's immediate +family was not a large one. + +"The furniture is all old-fashioned, it is true," Lyddy said, +reflectively. "There isn't a metal bed in the whole house----" + +"And I had just as lief sleep in a coffin as in some of these high-headed +carved walnut bedsteads," declared 'Phemie. + +"You don't have to sleep in them," responded her sister, quietly. "But +some people would think it a privilege to do so." + +"They can have _my_ share, and no charge," sniffed the younger girl. "That +bed downstairs is bad enough. And what would we do for mattresses? That's +_one_ antique they wouldn't stand for--believe me! Straw beds, indeed!" + +"We'll see about that. We might get some cheap elastic-felt mattresses, +one at a time, as we needed them." + +"And springs?" + +"Some of the bedsteads are roped like the one we sleep on. Others have +old-fashioned spiral springs--and there are no better made to-day. The +rust can be cleaned off and they can be painted." + +"I see plainly you're laying out a lot of work for us," sighed 'Phemie. + +"Well, we've got to work to live," responded her sister, briskly. + +"Ya-as," drawled 'Phemie, in imitation of Lucas Pritchett. "But I don't +want to feel as though I was just living to work!" + +"Lazybones!" laughed Lyddy. "You know, if we really got started in this +game----" + +"A game; is it? Keeping boarders!" + +"Well?" + +"I fancy it's downright hard work," quoth 'Phemie. + +"But if it makes us independent? If it will keep poor father out of the +shop? If it can be made to support us?" cried Lyddy. + +'Phemie flushed suddenly and her eyes sparkled. She seized her more sedate +sister and danced her about the room. + +"Oh, I don't care how hard I work if it'll do all that!" she agreed. "Come +on, Lyd! Let's write to Aunt Jane right away." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE VENTURE + + +But Lyddy Bray never made up her mind in a hurry. Perhaps she was inclined +to err on the side of caution. + +Whereas 'Phemie eagerly accepted a new thing, was enthusiastic about it +for a time, and then tired of it unless she got "her second wind," as she +herself laughingly admitted, Lyddy would talk over a project a long time +before she really decided to act upon it. + +It was so in this case. Once having seen the vista of possibilities that +Lyddy's plan revealed, the younger girl was eager to plunge into the +summer-boarder project at once. But Lyddy was determined to know just what +they had to work with, and just what they would need, before broaching the +plan to Aunt Jane. + +So she insisted upon giving a more than cursory examination to each +of the eight chambers on this second floor. Some of the pieces of old +furniture needed mending; but most of the mending could be done with +a pot of glue and a little ingenuity. Furthermore, a can of prepared +varnish and some linseed oil and alcohol would give most of the well-made +and age-darkened furniture the gloss it needed. + +There were old-style stone-china toilet sets in profusion, and plenty of +mirrors, while there was closet room galore. The main lack, as 'Phemie +had pointed out, was in the mattress line. + +But when the girls climbed to the garret floor they found one finished +room there--a very good sleeping-room indeed--and on the bedstead in this +room were stacked, one on top of another, at least a dozen feather beds. + +Each bed was wrapped in sheets of tarred paper--hermetically sealed from +moths or other insect life. + +"Oh, for goodness sake, Lyd!" cried 'Phemie, "let's take one of these to +sleep on. There are pillows, too; but we've got _them_. Say! we can put +one of these beds on top of the straw tick and be in comfort at last." + +"All right. But the feather bed would be pretty warm for summer use," +sighed Lyddy, as she helped her sister lift down one of the +beds--priceless treasures of the old-time housewife. + +"Country folk--some of them--sleep on feathers the year 'round," +proclaimed 'Phemie. "Perhaps your summer boarders can be educated up to +it--or _down_ to it." + +"Well, we'll try the 'down' and see how it works," agreed Lyddy. "My! +these feathers are pressed as flat as a pancake. The bed must go out into +the sun and air and be tossed once in a while, so that the air will get +through it, before there'll be any 'life' in these feathers. Now, don't +try to do it all, 'Phemie. I'll help you downstairs with it in a minute. +I just want to look into the big garret while we're up here. Dear me! +isn't it dusty?" + +Such an attractive-looking assortment of chests, trunks, old presses, +boxes, chests of drawers, decrepit furniture, and the like as was set +about that garret! There was no end of old clothing hanging from the +rafters, too--a forest of garments that would have delighted an old clo' +man; but---- + +"Oo! Oo! Ooo!" hooted 'Phemie. "Look at the spider webs. Why, I wouldn't +touch those things for the whole farm. I bet there are fat old spiders up +there as big as silver dollars." + +"Well, we can keep away from that corner," said Lyddy, with a shudder. "I +don't want old coats and hats. But I wonder what _is_ in those drawers. We +shall want bed linen if we go into the business of keeping boarders." + +She tried to open some of the nearest presses and bureaus, but all were +locked. So, rather dusty and disheveled, they retired to the floor below, +between them managing to carry the feather bed out upon the porch where +the sun could shine upon it. + +At noon Lyddy "buzzed" Lucas, as 'Phemie called it, about the way folk in +the neighborhood cooked with an open fire, and especially about the use +of the brick oven that was built into the side of the chimney. + +"That air contraption," confessed the young farmer, "ain't much more real +use than a fifth leg on a caow--for a fac'. But old folks used 'em. My +grandmaw did. + +"She useter shovel live coals inter the oven an' build a reg'lar fire on +the oven bottom. Arter it was het right up she'd sweep aout the brands +and ashes with long-handled brushes, an' then set the bread, an' pies, +an' Injun puddin' an' the like--sometimes the beanpot, too--on the oven +floor. Ye see, them bricks will hold heat a long time. + +"But lemme tell ye," continued Lucas, shaking his head, "it took the _know +how_, I reckon, ter bake stuff right by sech means. My maw never could +do it. She says either her bread would be all crust, or 'twas raw in the +middle. + +"But now," pursued Lucas, "these 'ere what they call 'Dutch ovens' ain't +so bad. I kin remember before dad bought maw the stove, she used a Dutch +oven--an' she's got it yet. I know she'd lend it to you gals." + +"That's real nice of you, Lucas," said 'Phemie, briskly. "But what is it?" + +"Why, it's a big sheet-iron pan with a tight cover. You set it right in +the coals and shovel coals on top of it and all around it. Things bake +purty good in a Dutch oven--ya-as'm! Beans never taste so good to my +notion as they useter when maw baked 'em in the old Dutch oven. An' dad +says they was 'nough sight better when _he_ was a boy an' grandmaw baked +'em in an oven like that one there," and Lucas nodded at the closet in +the chimney that 'Phemie had opened to peer into. + +"Ye see, it's the slow, steady heat that don't die down till +mornin'--that's what bakes beans nice," declared this Yankee epicure. + +Lucas had a "knack" with the axe, and he cut and piled enough wood to +last the girls at least a fortnight. Lyddy felt as though she could not +afford to hire him more than that one day at present; but he was going +to town next day and he promised to bring back a pump leather and some few +other necessities that the girls needed. + +Before he went home Lucas got 'Phemie off to one side and managed to +stammer: + +"If you gals air scart--or the like o' that--you jest say so an' I'll keep +watch around here for a night or two, an' see if I kin ketch the fellers +you heard talkin' last night." + +"Oh, Lucas! I wouldn't trouble you for the world," returned 'Phemie. + +Lucas's countenance was a wonderful lobster-like red, and he was so +bashful that his eyes fairly watered. + +"'Twouldn't be no trouble, Miss 'Phemie," he told her. "'Twould be a +pleasure--it re'lly would." + +"But what would folks say?" gasped 'Phemie, her eyes dancing. "What would +your sister and mother say?" + +"They needn't know a thing about it," declared Lucas, eagerly. "I--I could +slip out o' my winder an' down the shed ruff, an' sneak up here with my +shot-gun." + +"Why, Mr. Pritchett! I believe you are in the habit of doing such things. +I am afraid you get out that way often, and the family knows nothing about +it." + +"Naw, I don't--only circus days, an' w'en the Wild West show comes, +an'--an' Fourth of July mornin's. But don't you tell; will yer?" + +"Cross my heart!" promised 'Phemie, giggling. "But suppose you should +shoot somebody around here with that gun?" + +"Sarve 'em aout jest right!" declared the young farmer, boldly. "B'sides, +I'd only load it with rock-salt. 'Twould pepper 'em some." + +"Salt and pepper 'em, Lucas," giggled the girl. "And season 'em right, I +expect, for breaking our rest." + +"I'll do it!" declared Lucas. + +"Don't you dare!" threatened 'Phemie. + +"Why--why----" + +Lucas was swamped in his own confusion again. + +"Not unless I tell you you may," said 'Phemie, smiling on him dazzlingly +once more. + +"Wa-al." + +"Wait and see if we are disturbed again," spoke the girl, more kindly. +"I really am obliged to you, Lucas; but I couldn't hear of your watching +under our windows these cold nights--and, of course, it wouldn't be proper +for us to let you stay in the house." + +"Wa-al," agreed the disappointed youth. "But if ye need me, ye'll let me +know?" + +"Sure pop!" she told him, and was only sorry when he was gone that +she could not tell Lyddy all about it, and give her older sister "an +imitation" of Lucas as a cavalier. + +The girls wrote the letter to Aunt Jane that evening and the next morning +they watched for the rural mail-carrier, who came along the highroad, past +the end of their lane, before noon. + +He brought a letter from Aunt Jane for Lyddy, and he was ready to stop and +gossip with the girls who had so recently come to Hillcrest Farm. + +"I'm glad to see some life about the old doctor's house again," declared +the man. "I can remember Dr. Polly--everybody called him that--right +well. He was a queer customer some ways--brusk, and sort of rough. But he +was a good deal like a chestnut burr. His outside was his worst side. +He didn't have no soothing bedside mannerisms; but if a feller was real +_sick_, it was a new lease of life to jest have the old doctor come inter +the room!" + +It made the girls happy and proud to have people speak this way of their +grandfather. + +"He warn't a man who didn't make enemies," ruminated the mail-carrier. +"He was too strong a man not to be well hated in certain quarters. He +warn't pussy-footed. What he meant he said out square and straight, an' +when he put his foot down he put it down emphatic. Yes, sir! + +"But he had a sight more friends than enemies when he died. And lots o' +folks that thought they hated Dr. Polly could look back--when he was dead +and gone--an' see how he'd done 'em many a kind turn unbeknownst to 'em +at the time. + +"Why," rambled on the mail-carrier, "I was talkin' to Jud Spink in Birch's +store only las' night. Jud ain't been 'round here for some time before, +an' suthin' started talk about the old doctor. Jud, of course, sailed +inter him." + +"Why?" asked 'Phemie, trying to appear interested, while Lyddy swiftly +read her letter. + +"Oh, I reckon you two gals--bein' only granddaughters of the old +doctor--never heard much about Jud Spink--Lemuel Judson Spink he calls +hisself now, an' puts a 'professor' in front of his name, too." + +"Is he a professor?" asked 'Phemie. + +"I dunno. He's been a good many things. Injun doctor--actor--medicine +show fakir--patent medicine pedlar; and now he owns 'Diamond Grits'--the +greatest food on airth, _he_ claims, an' I tell him it's great all right, +for man _an'_ beast!" and the mail-carrier went off into a spasm of +laughter over his own joke. + +"Diamond Grits is a breakfast food," chuckled 'Phemie. "Do you s'pose +horses would eat it, too?" + +"Mine will," said the mail-carrier. "Jud sent me a case of Grits and I +fed most of it to this critter. Sassige an' buckwheats satisfy me better +of a mornin', an' I dunno as this hoss has re'lly been in as good shape +since I give it the Grits. + +"Wa-al, Jud's as rich as cream naow; but the old doctor took him as a boy +out o' the poorhouse." + +"And yet you say he talks against grandfather?" asked 'Phemie, rather +curious. + +"Ain't it just like folks?" pursued the man, shaking his head. "Yes, sir! +Dr. Polly took Jud Spink inter his fam'bly and might have made suthin' of +him; but Jud ran away with a medicine show----" + +"He's made a rich man of himself, you say?" questioned 'Phemie. + +"Ya-as," admitted the mail-carrier. "But everybody respected the old +doctor, an' nobody respects Jud Spink--they respect his money. + +"Las' night Jud says the old doctor was as close as a clam with the +lockjaw, an' never let go of a dollar till the eagle screamed for marcy. +But he done a sight more good than folks knowed about--till after he +died. An' d'ye know the most important clause in his will, Miss?" + +"In grandfather's will?" + +"Ya-as. It was the instructions to his execketer to give a receipted +bill to ev'ry patient of his that applied for the same, free gratis for +nothin'! An' lemme tell ye," added the mail-carrier, preparing to drive +on again, "there was some folks on both sides o' this ridge that was +down on the old doctor's books for sums they could never hope to pay." + +As he started off 'Phemie called after him, brightly: + +"I'm obliged to you for telling me what you have about grandfather." + +"Beginning to get interested in neighborhood gossip already; are you?" +said her sister, when 'Phemie joined her, and they walked back up the lane. + +"I believe I am getting interested in everything folks can tell us about +grandfather. In his way, Lyddy, Dr. Apollo Phelps must have been a great +man." + +"I--I always had an idea he was a little _queer_," confessed Lyddy. "His +name you know, and all----" + +"But people really _loved_ him. He helped them. He gave unostentatiously, +and he must have been a very, very good doctor. I--I wonder what Aunt Jane +meant by saying that grandfather used to say there were curative waters on +the farm?" + +"I haven't the least idea," replied Lyddy. "Sulphur spring, perhaps--nasty +stuff to drink. But listen here to what Aunt Jane says about father." + +"He's better?" cried 'Phemie. + +The older girl's tone was troubled. "I can't make out that he is," she +said, slowly, and then she began to read Aunt Jane's disjointed account +of her visit the day before to the hospital: + + * * * * * + +"I never _do_ like to go to such places, girls; they smell so of ether, +and arniky, and collodion, and a whole lot of other unpleasant things. I +wonder what makes drugs so nasty to smell of? + +"But, anyhow, I seen your father. John Bray is a sick man. Maybe he don't +know it himself, but the doctors know it, and you girls ought to know +it. I'm plain-spoken, and there isn't any use in making you believe he is +on the road to recovery when he's going just the other way. + +"This head-doctor here, says he has no chance at all in the city. Of +course, for me, if I was sick with anything, from housemaid's knee to +spinal mengetus, going into the country would be my complete finish! But +the doctors say it's different with your father. + +"And just as soon as John Bray can ride in a railroad car, I am going to +see that he joins you at Hillcrest." + +"Bully!" cried 'Phemie, the optimistic. "Oh, Lyddy! he's bound to get well +up here." For this chanced to be a very beautiful spring day and the girls +were more than ever enamored of the situation. + +"I am not so sure," said Lyddy, slowly. + +"Don't be a grump!" commanded her sister. "He's just _got_ to get well +up here." But Lyddy wondered afterward if 'Phemie believed what she said +herself! + +They finished cleaning thoroughly the two rooms they were at present +occupying and began on the chambers above. Dust and the hateful spiderwebs +certainly had collected in the years the house had been unoccupied; but +the Bray girls were not afraid of hard work. Indeed, they enjoyed it. + +Toward evening Lucas and his sister appeared, and the former set to work +to repair the old pump on the porch, while Sairy sat down to "visit" with +the girls of Hillcrest Farm. + +"It's goin' to be nice havin' you here, I declare," said Miss Pritchett, +who had arranged two curls on either side of her forehead, which shook +in a very kittenish manner when she laughed and bridled. + +"I guess, as maw says, I'm too much with old folks. Fust I know they'll +be puttin' me away in the Home for Indignant Old Maids over there to +Adams--though why 'indignant' I can't for the life of me guess, 'nless +it's because they're indignant over the men's passin' of 'em by!" and +Miss Pritchett giggled and shook her curls, to 'Phemie's vast amusement. + +Indeed, the younger Bray girl confessed to her sister, after the visitors +had gone, that Sairy was more fun than Lucas. + +"But I'm afraid she's far on the way to the Home for Indigent Spinsters, +and doesn't know it," chuckled 'Phemie. "What a freak she is!" + +"That's what you called Lucas--at first," admonished Lyddy. "And they're +both real kind. Lucas wouldn't take a cent for mending the pump, and +Sairy came especially to invite us to the Temperance Club meeting, at +the schoolhouse Saturday night, and to go to church in their carriage +with her and her mother on Sunday." + +"Yes; I suppose they _are_ kind," admitted 'Phemie. "And they can't help +being funny." + +"Besides," said the wise Lyddy, "if we _do_ try to take boarders we'll +need Lucas's help. We'll have to hire him to go back and forth to town +for us, and depend on him for the outside chores. Why! we'd be like two +marooned sailors on a desert island, up here on Hillcrest, if it wasn't +for Lucas Pritchett!" + +The girls spent a few anxious days waiting for Aunt Jane's answer. And +meantime they discussed the project of taking boarders from all its +various angles. + +"Of course, we can't get boarders yet awhile," sighed 'Phemie. "It's much +too early in the season." + +"Why is it? Aren't _we_ glad to be here at Hillcrest?" demanded Lyddy. + +"But see what sort of a place we lived in," said her sister. + +"And lots of other people live hived up in the cities just as close, only +in better houses. There isn't much difference between apartment-houses +and tenement-houses except the front entrance!" + +"That may be epigrammatical," chuckled 'Phemie, "but you couldn't make +many folks admit it." + +"Just the same, there are people who need just this climate we've got here +at this time of year. It will do them as much good as it will father." + +"You'd make a regular sanitarium of Hillcrest," cried 'Phemie. + +"Well, why not?" retorted Lyddy. "I guess the neighbors wouldn't object." + +'Phemie giggled. "Advertise to take folks back to old-fashioned times and +old-fashioned cooking." + +"Why not?" + +"Sleeping on feather beds; cooking in a brick oven like our +great-great-grandmothers used to do! Open fireplaces. Great!" + +"Plain, wholesome food. They won't have to eat out of cans. No extras or +luxuries. We could afford to take them cheap," concluded Lyddy, earnestly. +"And we'll get a big garden planted and feed 'em on vegetables through +the summer." + +"Oh, Lyddy, it _sounds_ good," sighed 'Phemie. "But do you suppose Aunt +Jane will consent to it?" + +They received Aunt Jane's letter in reply to their own, on Saturday. + + * * * * * + +"You two girls go ahead and do what you please inside or outside +Hillcrest," she wrote, "only don't disturb the old doctor's stuff in +the lower rooms of the east ell. As long as you don't burn the house +down I don't see that you can do any harm. And if you really think +you can find folks foolish enough to want to live up there on the +ridge, six miles from a lemon, why go ahead and do it. But I tell you +frankly, girls, I'd want to be paid for doing it, and paid high!" + +Then the kind, if brusk, old lady went on to tell them where to find many +things packed away that they would need if they _did_ succeed in getting +boarders, including stores of linen, and blankets, and the like, as well +as some good china and old silver, buried in one of the great chests in +the attic. + +However, nothing Aunt Jane could write could quench the girls' enthusiasm. +Already Lyddy and 'Phemie had written an advertisement for the city +papers, and five dollars of Lyddy's fast shrinking capital was to be +set aside for putting their desires before the newspaper-reading public. + +They could feel then that their new venture was really launched. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE + + +It was scarcely dusk on Saturday when Lucas drove into the side yard +at Hillcrest with the ponies hitched to a double-seated buckboard. +Entertainments begin early in the rural districts. + +The ponies had been clipped and looked less like animated cowhide trunks +than they had when the Bray girls had first seen them and their young +master in Bridleburg. + +"School teacher came along an' maw made Sairy go with him in his buggy," +exclaimed Lucas, with a broad grin. "If Sairy don't ketch a feller 'fore +long, an' clamp to him, 'twon't be maw's fault." + +Lucas was evidently much impressed by the appearance of Lyddy and 'Phemie +when they locked the side door and climbed into the buckboard. Because of +their mother's recent death the girls had dressed very quietly; but their +black frocks were now very shabby, it was coming warmer weather, and the +only dresses they owned which were fit to wear to an evening function of +any kind were those that they had worn "for best" the year previous. + +But the two girls from the city had no idea they would create such a +sensation as they did when Lucas pulled in the ponies with a flourish +and stopped directly before the door of the schoolhouse. + +The building was already lighted up and there was quite an assemblage of +young men and boys about the two front entrances. On the girls' porch, +too, a number of the feminine members of the Temperance Club were grouped, +and with them Sairy Pritchett. + +Her own arrival with the schoolmaster had been an effective one and she +had waited with the other girls to welcome the newcomers from Hillcrest +Farm, and introduce them to her more particular friends. + +But the Bray girls looked as though they were from another sphere. Not +that their frocks were so fanciful in either design or material; but there +was a style about them that made the finery of the other girls look both +cheap and tawdry. + +"So _them_ stuck-up things air goin' to live 'round here; be they?" +whispered one rosy-cheeked, buxom farmer's daughter to Sairy +Pritchett--and her whisper carried far. "Well, I tell you right now I +don't like their looks. See that Joe Badger; will you? He's got to +help 'em down out o' Lucas's waggin'; has he? Well, I declare!" + +"An' Hen Jackson, too!" cried another girl, shrilly. "They'd let airy one +of us girls fall out on our heads." + +"Huh!" said Sairy, airily, "if you can't keep Joe an' Hen from shinin' +around every new gal that comes to the club, I guess you ain't caught 'em +very fast." + +"He, he!" giggled another. "Sairy thinks she's hooked the school teacher +all right, and that he won't get away from her." + +"Cat!" snapped Miss Pritchett, descending the steps in her most stately +manner to meet her new friends. + +"Cat yourself!" returned the other. "I guess you'll show your claws, Miss, +if you have a chance." + +Perhaps Sairy did not hear all of this; and surely the Bray girls did +not. Sairy Pritchett was rather proud of counting these city girls as +her particular friends. She welcomed Lydia and Euphemia warmly. + +"I hope Lucas didn't try to tip you into the brook again, Miss Bray," +Sairy giggled to 'Phemie. "Oh, yes! Miss Lydia Bray, Mr. Badger; Mr. +Jackson, Miss Bray. And this is Miss Euphemia, Mr. Badger--_and_ Mr. +Jackson. + +"Now, that'll do very well, Joe--and Hen. You go 'tend to your own girls; +we can git on without you." + +Sairy deliberately led the newcomers into the schoolhouse by the boys' +entrance, thus ignoring the girls who had roused her ire. She introduced +Lyddy and 'Phemie right and left to such of the young fellows as were not +too bashful. + +Sairy suddenly arrived at the conclusion that to pilot the sisters from +Hillcrest about would be "good business." The newcomers attracted the +better class of young bachelors at the club meeting and Sairy--heretofore +something of a "wall flower" on such occasions--found herself the very +centre of the group. + +Lyddy and 'Phemie were naturally a little disturbed by the prominent +position in which they were placed by Sairy's manoeuvring; but, of +course, the sisters had been used to going into society, and Lyddy's +experience at college and her natural sedateness of character enabled +her to appear to advantage. As for the younger girl, she was so much +amused by Sairy, and the others, that she quite forgot to feel confused. + +Indeed, she found that just by looking at most of these young men, and +smiling, she could throw them into spasms of self-consciousness. They +were almost as bad as Lucas Pritchett, and Lucas was getting to be such a +good friend now that 'Phemie couldn't really enjoy making him feel unhappy. + +She was, indeed, particularly nice to him when young Pritchett struggled +to her side after the girls were settled in adjoining seats, half-way up +the aisle on the "girls' side" of the schoolroom. + +These young girls and fellows had--most of them--attended the district +school, or were now attending it; therefore, they were used to being +divided according to the sexes, and those boys who actually had not +accompanied their girlfriends to the club meeting, sat by themselves +on the boys' side, while the girls grouped together on the other side +of the house. + +There were a few young married couples present, and these matrons made +their husbands sit beside them during the exercises; but for a young man +and young girl to sit together was almost a formal announcement in that +community that they "had intentions!" + +All this was quite unsuspected by Lyddy and 'Phemie Bray, and the latter +had no idea of the joy that possessed Lucas Pritchett's soul when she +allowed him to take the seat beside her. + +Her sister sat at her other hand, and Sairy was beyond Lyddy. No other +young fellow could get within touch of the city girls, therefore, although +there was doubtless many a swain who would have been glad to do so. + +This club, the fundamental idea of which was "temperance," had gradually +developed into something much broader. While it still demanded a +pledge from its members regarding abstinence from alcoholic beverages, +including the bane of the countryside--hard cider--its semimonthly +meetings were mainly of a literary and musical nature. + +The reigning school teacher for the current term was supposed to take +the lead in governing the club and pushing forward the local talent. +Mr. Somers was the name of the young man with the bald brow and the +eyeglasses, who was presiding over the welfare of Pounder's District +School. The Bray girls thought he seemed to be an intelligent and +well-mannered young man, if a trifle self-conscious. + +And he evidently had an element that was difficult to handle. + +Soon after the meeting was called to order it became plain that a group +of boys down in the corner by the desk were much more noisy than was +necessary. + +The huge stove, by which the room was overheated, was down there, its +smoke-pipe crossing, in a L-shaped figure, the entire room to the chimney +at one side, and it did seem as though none of those boys could move +without kicking their boots against this stove. + +These uncouth noises interfered with the opening address of the teacher +and punctuated the "roll call" by the secretary, who was a small, almost +dwarf-like young man, out of whose mouth rolled the names of the members +in a voice that fairly shook the casements. Such a thunderous tone from +so puny a source was in itself amazing, and convulsed 'Phemie. + +"Ain't he got a great voice?" asked Lucas, in a whisper. "He sings bass in +the church choir and sometimes, begum! ye can't hear nawthin' but Elbert +Hooker holler." + +"Is _that_ his name?" gasped 'Phemie. + +"Yep. Elbert Hooker. 'Yell-bert' the boys call him. He kin sure holler +like a bull!" + +And at that very moment, as the bombastic Elbert was subsiding and the +window panes ceased from rattling with the reverberations of his voice, +one of the boys in the corner fell more heavily than before against the +stove--or, it might have been Elbert Hooker's tones had shaken loose the +joints of stovepipe that crossed the schoolroom; however, there was a +yell from those down front, the girls scrambled out of the way, the smoke +began to spurt from between the joints, and it was seen that only the +wires fastened to the ceiling kept the soot-laden lengths of pipe from +falling to the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER + + +The soot began sifting down in little clouds; but the sections of pipe had +come apart so gently that no great damage was done immediately. The girls +sitting under the pipe, however, were thrown into a panic, and fairly +climbed over the desks and seats to get out of the way. + +Besides, considerable smoke began to issue from the stove. One of the +young scamps to whose mischievousness was due this incident, had thrown +into the fire, just as the pipe broke loose, some woolen garment, or the +like, and it now began to smoulder with a stench and an amount of smoke +that frightened some of the audience. + +"Don't you be skeert none," exclaimed Lucas, to 'Phemie and her sister, +and jumping up from his seat himself. "'Taint nothin' but them Buckley +boys and Ike Hewlett. Little scamps----" + +"But we don't want to get soot all over us, Lucas!" cried his sister. + +"Or be choked by smoke," coughed 'Phemie. + +There was indeed a great hullabaloo for a time; but the windows were +opened, the teacher rescued the burning woolen rag from the fire with the +tongs and threw it out of the window, and several of the bigger fellows +swooped down upon the malicious youngsters and bundled them out of the +schoolhouse in a hurry--and in no gentle manner--while others, including +Lucas, stripped off their coats and set to work to repair the stovepipe. + +An hour was lost in repairs and airing the schoolhouse, and then everybody +trooped back. Meanwhile, the Bray girls had made many acquaintances among +the young folk. + +Mr. Somers, the teacher, was plainly delighted to meet Lyddy--a girl who +had actually spent two years at Littleburg. He was seminary-bred himself, +with an idea of going back to take the divinity course after he had taught +a couple of years. + +But it suddenly became apparent to 'Phemie--who was observant--that Sairy +looked upon this interest of the school teacher in Lyddy with "a green +eye." + +Mr. Somers, who allowed the boys and young men to repair the damage +created by his pupils while he rested from his labors, sat by Lyddy all +the time until the meeting was called to order once more. + +Sairy, who had begun by bridling and looking askance at the two who talked +so easily about things with which she was not conversant, soon tossed +her head and began to talk with others who gathered around. And when +Mr. Somers went to the desk to preside again Sairy was not sitting in +the same row with the Bray girls and left them to their own devices for +the rest of the evening. + +Lucas, the faithful, came back to 'Phemie's side, however. Some of the +other girls were laughing at Sairy Pritchett and their taunts fed her ire +with fresh fuel. + +She talked very loud and laughed very much between the numbers of the +program, and indeed was not always quiet while the entertainment itself +was in progress. This she did as though to show the company in general +that she neither cared for the schoolmaster's attentions nor that she +considered her friendship with the Bray girls of any importance. + +Of course, the girls with whom she had wrangled on the schoolhouse steps +were delighted with what they considered Sairy's "let-down." If a girl +really came to an evening party with a young man, he was supposed to +"stick" and to show interest in no other girl during the evening. + +When the intermission came Mr. Somers deliberately took a seat again +beside Lyddy. + +"Well, I never!" shrilled Sairy. "Some folks are as bold as brass. Humph!" + +Now, as it happened, both Lyddy and the school teacher were quite ignorant +of the stir they were creating. The green-eyed monster roared right +in their ears without either of them being the wiser. Lyddy was only +sorry that Sairy Pritchett proved to be such a loud-talking and rather +unladylike person. + +But 'Phemie, who was younger, and observant, soon saw what was the +matter. She wished to warn Lyddy, but did not know how to do so. And, of +course, she knew her sister and the school teacher were talking of +quite impersonal things. + +These girls expected everybody to be of their own calibre. 'Phemie had +seen the same class of girls in her experience in the millinery shop. +But it was quite impossible for Lyddy to understand such people, her +experience with young girls at school and college not having prepared her +for the outlook on life which these country girls had. + +'Phemie turned to Lucas--who stuck to her like a limpet to a rock--for +help. + +"Lucas," she said, "you have been very kind to bring us here; but I want +to ask you to take us home early; will you?" + +"What's the matter--ye ain't sick; be you?" demanded the anxious young +farmer. + +"No. But your sister is," said 'Phemie, unable to treat the matter with +entire seriousness. + +"Sairy?" + +"Yes." + +"What's the matter with _her_?" grunted Lucas. + +"Don't you _see_?" exclaimed 'Phemie, in an undertone. + +"By cracky!" laughed Lucas. "Ye mean because teacher's forgot she's on +airth?" + +"Yes," snapped 'Phemie. "You know Lyddy doesn't care anything about that +Mr. Somers. But she has to be polite." + +"Why--why----" + +"Will you take us home ahead of them all?" demanded the girl. "Then your +sister can have the schoolmaster." + +"By cracky! is that it?" queried Lucas. "Why--if you say so. I'll do just +like you want me to, Miss 'Phemie." + +"You are a good boy, Lucas--and I hope you won't be silly," said 'Phemie. +"We like you, but we have been brought up to have boy friends who don't +play at being grown up," added 'Phemie, as earnestly as she had ever +spoken in her life. "We like to have _friends_, not _beaux_. Won't you +be our friend, Lucas?" + +She said this so low that nobody else could hear it but young Pritchett; +but so emphatically that the tears came to her eyes. Lucas gaped at her +for a moment; then he seemed to understand. + +"I get yer, 'Phemie," he declared, with emphasis, "an' you kin bank on +me. Sairy's foolish--maw's made her so, I s'pose. But I ain't as big a +fool as I look." + +"You don't look like a fool, Lucas," said 'Phemie, faintly. + +"You've been brought up different from us folks," pursued the young +farmer. "And I can see that we look mighty silly to you gals from the +city. But I'll play fair. You let me be your friend, 'Phemie." + +The young girl had to wink hard to keep back the tears. There was "good +stuff" in this young farmer, and she was sorry she had ever--even in +secret--made fun of him. + +"Lucas, you are a good boy," she repeated, "and we both like you. You'll +get us away from here and let Sairy have her chance at the schoolmaster?" + +"You bet!" he said. "Though I don't care about Sairy. She's old enough to +know better," he added, with the usual brother's callousness regarding +his sister. + +"She feels neglected and will naturally be mad at Lyddy," 'Phemie said. +"But if we slip out during some recitation or song, it won't be noticed +much." + +"All right," agreed Lucas. "I'll go out ahead and unhitch the ponies and +get their blankets off. You gals can come along in about five minutes. +Now! Mayme Lowry is going to read the 'Club Chronicles'--that's a sort of +history of neighborhood doin's since the last meetin'. She hits on most +ev'rybody, and they will all wanter hear. We'll git aout quiet like." + +So, when Miss Lowry arose to read her manuscript, Lucas left his seat and +'Phemie whispered to Lyddy: + +"Get your coat, dear. I want to go home. Lucas has gone out to get the +team." + +"Why--what's the matter, child?" demanded the older sister, anxiously. + +"Nothing. Only I want to go." + +"We-ell--if you must----" + +"Don't say anything more, but come on," commanded 'Phemie. + +They arose together and tiptoed out. If Sairy saw them she made no sign, +nor did anybody bar their escape. + +Lucas had got his team into the road. "Here ye be!" he said, cheerfully. + +"But--but how about Sairy?" cried the puzzled Lyddy. + +"Oh, she'll ride home with the school teacher," declared Lucas, chuckling. + +"But I really am surprised at you, 'Phemie," said the older sister. +"It seems rather discourteous to leave before the entertainment was +over--unless you are ill?" + +"I'm sorry," said the younger girl, demurely. "But I got _so_ nervous." + +"I know," whispered Lyddy. "Some of those awful recitations _were_ trying." + +And 'Phemie had to giggle at that; but she made no further explanation. + +The ponies drew them swiftly over the mountain road and under the white +light of a misty moon they quickly turned into the lane leading to +Hillcrest. As the team dropped to a walk, 'Phemie suddenly leaned forward +and clutched the driver's arm. + +"Look yonder, Lucas!" she whispered. "There, by the corner of the house." + +"Whoa!" muttered Lucas, and brought the horses to a halt. + +The girls and Lucas all saw the two figures. They wavered for a moment +and then one hurried behind the high stone wall between the yard and the +old orchard. The other crossed the front yard boldly toward the highroad. + +"They came from the direction of the east wing," whispered 'Phemie. + +"Who do you suppose they are?" asked Lyddy, more placidly. "Somebody who +tried to call on us?" + +"That there feller," said Lucas, slowly, his voice shaking oddly, as he +pointed with his whip after the man who just then gained the highroad, +"that there feller is Lem Judson Spink--I know his long hair and +broad-brimmed hat." + +"What?" cried 'Phemie. "The man who lived here at Hillcrest when he was +a boy?" + +"So they say," admitted Lucas. "Dad knew him. They went to school +together. He's a rich man now." + +"But what could he possibly want up here?" queried Lyddy, as the ponies +went on. "And who was the other man?" + +"I--I dunno who he was," blurted out Lucas, still much disturbed in voice +and appearance. + +But after the girls had disembarked, and bidden Lucas good night, and the +young farmer had driven away, 'Phemie said to her sister, as the latter +was unlocking the door of the farmhouse: + +"_I_ know who that other man was." + +"What other man?" + +"The one who ran behind the stone wall." + +"Why, who was it, 'Phemie?" queried her sister, with revived interest. + +"Cyrus Pritchett," stated 'Phemie, with conviction, and nothing her sister +could say would shake her belief in that fact. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +LYDDY DOESN'T WANT IT + + +"Who is this Mr. Spink?" asked Lydia Bray the following morning, as they +prepared for church. + +It was a beautiful spring morning. There had been a pattering shower +at sunrise and the eaves were still dripping, while every blade of the +freshly springing grass in the side yard--which was directly beneath +the girls' window--sparkled as though diamond-decked over night. + +The old trees in the orchard were pushing both leaf and +blossom--especially the plum and peach trees. In the distance other +orchards were blowing, too, and that spattered the mountainside with +patches of what looked to be pale pink mist. + +The faint tinkling of the sheep-bells came across the hills to the ears +of Lyddy and 'Phemie. The girls were continually going to the window or +door to watch the vast panorama of the mountainside and valley, spread +below them. + +"Who _is_ this Mr. Spink?" repeated Lyddy. + +Her sister explained what she knew of the man who--once a poorhouse +boy--was now counted a rich man and the proprietor of Diamond Grits, +the popular breakfast food. + +"He lived here at Hillcrest as a boy, with grandfather," 'Phemie said. + +"But what's _that_ got to do with his coming up here now--and at night?" + +"And with Mr. Pritchett?" finished 'Phemie. + +"Yes. I am going to ask Mr. Pritchett about it. They surely weren't after +vinegar so late at night," Lyddy observed. + +But 'Phemie did not prolong the discussion. In her secret thoughts the +younger Bray girl believed that it was Cyrus Pritchett and Mr. Spink whom +she had heard about the old house the night she and Lyddy had first slept +at Hillcrest. + +There was no use worrying Lyddy about it, she told herself. + +A little later the roan ponies appeared with the Pritchett buckboard. +Instead of Mrs. Pritchett and her daughter, however, the good lady's +companion on the front seat was Lucas, who drove. + +"Oh, dear me!" cried Lyddy. "I hope we haven't turned Miss Pritchett out +of her seat. Surely we three girls could have squeezed in here on the back +seat." + +"Nope," said Mrs. Pritchett. "That ain't it, at all. Sairy ain't goin' to +church this mornin'." + +"She's not ill?" asked Lyddy. + +"I dunno. She ain't got no misery as I can find out; but she sartainly +has a grouch! A bear with a sore head in fly time would be a smilin' +work of Grace 'side of Sairy Pritchett ever since she come home from +the Temperance Club las' night." + +"Oh!" came from 'Phemie. + +"Why----She surely isn't angry because we went home early?" cried Lyddy. +"My sister, you see, got nervous----" + +"I reckon 'taint that," Lucas hastened to say. "More likely she's sore +on me." + +"'Tain't nawthin' of the kind, an' you know it, Lucas," declared his +mother. "Though ye might have driven 'round by the schoolhouse ag'in and +brought her home." + +"Wal, I thought she'd ride back with school teacher. She went with him," +returned Lucas, on the defensive. + +"She walked home," said Mrs. Pritchett, shortly. "I dunno why. She won't +tell _me_." + +"I hope she isn't ill," remarked the unconscious Lyddy. + +But Lucas cast a knowing look over his shoulder at 'Phemie and the latter +had hard work to keep her own countenance straight. + +"Well," said Mrs. Pritchett, more briskly, "ye can't always sometimes tell +what the matter is with these young gals. They gits crotchets in their +heads." + +She kept up the fiction that Sairy was a young and flighty miss; but even +'Phemie could no longer laugh at her for it. It was the mother's pitiful +attempt to aid her daughter's chances for that greatly-to-be-desired +condition--matrimony. + +The roads were still muddy; nevertheless the drive over the ridge to +Cornell Chapel was lovely. For some time the girls had been noting the +procession of carriages and wagons winding over the mountain roads, all +verging upon this main trail over the ridge which passed so close to +Hillcrest. + +Lucas, driving the ponies at a good clip, joined the procession. Lyddy +and 'Phemie recognized several of the young people they had met the night +before at the Temperance Club--notably the young men. + +Joe Badger flashed by in a red-wheeled buggy and beside him sat the buxom, +red-faced girl who had voiced her distaste for the city-bred newcomers +right at the start. Badger bowed with a flourish; but his companion's nose +was in the air. + +"I never did think that Nettie Meyers had very good manners," announced +Mrs. Pritchett. + +They overtook the schoolmaster jogging along behind his old gray mare. +He, likewise, bowed profoundly to the Bray girls. + +"I am afraid you did not enjoy yourself last night at the club, Miss +Bray," he said to Lyddy, who was on his side of the buckboard, as Lucas +pulled out to pass him. "You went home so early. I was looking for you +after it was all over." + +"Oh, but you are mistaken," declared Lyddy, pleasantly. "I had a very nice +time." + +As they drove on Mrs. Pritchett's fat face became a study. + +"And he never even asked arter Sairy!" she gasped. "And he let her come +home alone last night. Humph! he must ha' been busy huntin' for _you_, +Miss Bray." + +Lucas cast oil on the troubled waters by saying: + +"An' I carried Miss Lyddy and Miss 'Phemie away from all of 'em. I guess +_all_ the Pritchetts ain't so slow, Maw." + +"Humph! Wa-al," admitted the good lady, somewhat mollified, "you _hev_ +seemed to 'woke up lately, Lucas." + +The chapel was built of graystone and its north wall was entirely covered +with ivy. It nestled in a grove of evergreens, with the tidy fenced +graveyard behind it. The visitors thought it a very beautiful place. + +Everybody was rustling into church when they arrived, so there were no +introductions then. The pastor was a stooped, gray old man, who had been +the incumbent for many years, and to the Bray girls his discourse seemed +as helpful as any they had ever heard. + +After service the girls of Hillcrest Farm were introduced to many of the +congregation by Mrs. Pritchett. Naturally these were the middle-aged, or +older, members of the flock--mostly ladies who knew, or remembered, the +girls' mother and Aunt Jane. Indeed, it was rather noticeable that the +young women and girls did not come forward to meet Lyddy and 'Phemie. + +Not that either of the sisters cared. They liked the matrons who attended +Cornell Chapel much better than they had most of the youthful members of +the Temperance Club. + +Some of the young men waited their chance in the vestibule to get a bow +and a smile of recognition from the newcomers; but only the schoolmaster +dared attach himself for any length of time to the Pritchett party. + +And Mrs. Pritchett could not fail to take note of this at length. The +teacher was deep in some unimportant discussion with Lyddy, who was +sweetly unconscious that she was fanning the fire of suspicion in Mrs. +Pritchett's breast. + +That lady finally broke in with a loud "Ahem!" following it with: "I +re'lly don't know what's happened to my Sairy. She's right poorly to-day, +Mr. Somers." + +"Why--I--I'm sorry to hear it," said the startled, yet quite unsuspicious +teacher. "She seemed to be in good health and spirits when we were on our +way to the club meeting last evening." + +"Ya-as," agreed Mrs. Pritchett, simpering and looking at him sideways. +"She seems to have changed since then. She ain't been herself since she +walked home from the meeting." + +"Perhaps she has a cold?" suggested the teacher, blandly. + +"Oh, Sairy is not subject to colds," declared Mrs. Pritchett. "But she +is easily chilled in other ways--yes, indeed! I don't suppose there is +a more sensitive young girl on the ridge than my Sairy." + +Mr. Somers began to wake up to the fact that the farmer's wife was not +shooting idly at him; there was "something behind it!" + +"I am sorry if Miss Sairy is offended, or has been hurt in any way," he +said, gravely. "It was a pity she had to walk home from the club. If I +had known----" + +"Wa-al," drawled Mrs. Pritchett, "_you_ took her there yourself in your +buggy." + +"Indeed!" he exclaimed, flushing a little. "I had no idea that bound me +to the necessity of taking her home again. Her brother was there with your +carriage. I am sure I do not understand your meaning, Mrs. Pritchett." + +"Oh, I don't mean anything!" exclaimed the lady, but very red in the face +now, and her bonnet shaking. "Come, gals! we must be going." + +Both Lyddy and 'Phemie had begun to feel rather unhappy by this time. Mrs. +Pritchett swept them up the aisle ahead of her as though she were shooing +a flock of chickens with her ample skirts. + +They went through the vestibule with a rush. Lucas was ready with the +ponies. Mrs. Pritchett was evidently very angry over her encounter with +the teacher; and she could not fail to hold the Bray girls somewhat +accountable for her daughter's failure to keep the interest of Mr. Somers. + +She said but little on the drive homeward. There had been something said +earlier about the girls going down to the Pritchett farm for dinner; but +the angry lady said nothing more about it, and Lyddy and 'Phemie were +rather glad when Hillcrest came into view. + +"Ye better stop in an' go along down to the house with us," said the +good-natured Lucas, hesitating about turning the ponies' heads in at the +lane. + +"Oh, we could not possibly," Lyddy replied, gracefully. "We are a thousand +times obliged for your making it possible for us to attend church. You +are all so kind, Mrs. Pritchett. But this afternoon I must plead the +wicked intention of writing letters. I haven't written a line to one of +my college friends since I came to Hillcrest." + +Mrs. Pritchett merely grunted. Lucas covered his mother's grumpiness by +inconsequential chatter with 'Phemie while he drove in and turned the +ponies so that the girls could get out. + +"A thousand thanks!" cried 'Phemie. + +"Good-day!" exclaimed Lyddy, brightly. + +Mrs. Pritchett's bonnet only shook the harder, and she did not turn to +look at the girls. Lucas cast a very rueful glance in their direction as +he drove hastily away. + +"Now we've done it!" gasped 'Phemie, half laughing, half in disgust. + +"Why! whatever is the matter, do you suppose?" demanded her sister. + +"Well, if you can't see _that_----" + +"I see she's angry over Sairy and the school teacher--poor man! But what +have we to do with that?" + +"It's your fatal attractiveness," sighed 'Phemie. Then she began to +laugh. "You're a very innocent baby, Lyd. Don't you see that Maw Pritchett +thought--or hoped--that she had Mr. Somers nicely entangled with Sairy? +And he neglected her for you. Bing! it's all off, and we're at outs with +the Pritchett family." + +"What awful language!" sighed Lyddy, unlocking the door. "I am sorry +you ever went to work in that millinery shop, 'Phemie. It has made your +mind--er--almost common!" + +But 'Phemie only laughed. + +If the Pritchett females were "at outs" with them, the men of the family +did not appear to be. At least, Cyrus and his son were at Hillcrest bright +and early on Monday morning, with two teams ready for plowing. Lyddy had +a serious talk with Mr. Pritchett first. + +"Ya-as. That's good 'tater and truckin' land behind the barn. It's laid +out a good many years now, for it's only an acre, or so, and we never +tilled it for corn. It's out o' the way, kinder," said the elder Pritchett. + +"Then I want that for a garden," Lyddy declared. + +"It don't pay me to work none of this 'off' land for garden trucks," said +Cyrus, shortly. "Not 'nless ye want a few rows o' stuff in the cornfield +jest where I can cultivate with the hosses." + +"But if you plant corn here, you must plant my garden, too," insisted +Lyddy, who was quite as obstinate as the old farmer. "And I'd like to have +a big garden, and plenty of potatoes, too. I am going to keep boarders +this summer, and I want to raise enough to feed them--or partly feed them, +at least." + +"Huh! Boarders, eh? A gal like you!" + +"We're not rich enough to sit with idle hands, and I mean to try and earn +something," Lyddy declared. "And we'll want vegetables to carry us over +winter, too." + +Lucas had been listening with flushed and anxious face. Now he broke in +eagerly: + +"You said I could till a piece for myself this year, Dad. Lemme do it up +here. There's a better chance to sell trucks in Bridleburg than there has +been. I'll plow and take care of two acres up here, if Miss Lyddy says so, +for half the crops, she to supply seed and fertilizer." + +"Will--will it cost much, Lucas?" asked Lyddy, doubtfully. + +"That land's rich, but it may be sour. Ain't that so, Dad? It won't take +so very much phosphate; will it?" + +Cyrus was slower mentally than these eager young folk. He had to think +it over and discuss it from different angles. But finally he gave his +consent to the plan and advised his son and Lyddy how to manage the matter. + +"You kin git your fertilizer on time--six or nine months--right here in +Bridleburg. That gives you a chance to raise your crop and market it +before paying for the fertilizer," he said. "You'll have to get corn +fertilizer, too, in the same way. But 'most ev'rybody else on the ridge +does the same. We ain't a very fore-handed community, and that's a fac'." + +At noon Lyddy and 'Phemie talked over the garden project more fully with +Lucas. They planned what early seeds should be planted, and Lucas began +plowing that particular piece behind the barn right after dinner. + +Lyddy had very little money to work with, but she believed in "nothing +ventured, nothing gained." She told Lucas to purchase a bag of potatoes +for planting the next day when he went to town, and he was to buy a few +papers of early garden seeds, too. + +And when Lucas came back with the potatoes he brought a surprise for the +Bray girls. He drove into the yard with a flourish. 'Phemie looked out +of the window, uttered a scream of joy and surprise, and rushed out to +receive her father in her strong young arms as he got down from the seat. + +How feeble and tired he looked! 'Phemie began to cry; but Lyddy "braced +up" and declared he looked a whole lot better already and that Hillcrest +would cure him in just no time. + +"And that foolish 'Phemie is only crying for joy at seeing you so +unexpectedly, Father," said Lyddy, scowling frightfully at her sister +over their father's bowed head as they helped him into the house. + +Lucas hovered in the background; but he could not help them. 'Phemie saw, +however, that the young farmer fully appreciated the situation and was +truly sympathetic. + +The change in Mr. Bray's appearance was a great shock to both girls. Of +course, the doctor at the hospital had promised Lyddy no great improvement +in the patient until he could be got up here on the hills, where the air +was pure and healing. + +Aunt Jane had come as far as the junction with him; but he had come +on alone to Bridleburg from there, and the agent at the station had +telephoned uptown to tell Lucas that the invalid wished to get to +Hillcrest. + +"I'm all right; I'm all right!" he kept repeating. But the girls almost +carried him between them into the house. + +"The doctors said you could do more for me up here than they could do for +me there," panted Mr. Bray, smiling faintly at his daughters, who hovered +about him as he sat before the crackling wood fire in the kitchen. + +"And Aunt Jane never told us you were coming!" gasped Lyddy. + +"What's the odds, as long as he's here?" demanded 'Phemie. + +"Why, I shall soon be my old self again up here," Mr. Bray declared, +hopefully. "Now, don't fuss over me, girls. You've got other things to +do. That young fellow who brought me up here seems to be your chief cook +and bottle-washer, and he wants to speak to you, I reckon," for Lucas +was waiting to learn where he should put the potatoes and other things. + +Mr. Bray knew all about the boarding house project and approved of it. +"Why, I can soon help around myself. And I must do something," he told +them, that evening, "or I shall go crazy. I couldn't endure the rest +cure." But it was complete rest that he had to endure for several days +after his unexpected arrival. + +The girls gave up their room to their father, and went upstairs to sleep. +'Phemie had to admit that even _she_ was glad there was at last somebody +else in the house. Especially a man! + +"But I never have thought to ask Mr. Pritchett about his being up here +with that Spink man last Saturday night," Lyddy said, sleepily. + +"You'd better let it drop," advised 'Phemie. "We don't want to get the +whole Pritchett family down on us." + +"What nonsense! Of course I shall ask him," declared her sister. + +But as it happened something occurred the following day to quite put this +small matter out of Lyddy's mind. The postman brought the first letter in +answer to their advertisement. Lyddy was about to tear open the envelope +when she halted in amazement. The card printed in the corner included the +number of Trimble Avenue right next to the big tenement house in which the +Brays had lived before coming here to Hillcrest. + +"Isn't that strange?" she murmured, and read the card again: + + _Commonwealth Chemical Company_ + _407 Trimble Avenue_ + _Easthampton_ + +"Right from the very next door!" sparkled 'Phemie. "Don't that beat +all!--as Lucas says." + +But Lyddy had now opened the letter and read as follows: + + "L. Bray, Hillcrest Farm, Bridleburg P. O. + "Dear Madam: + + I have read your advertisement and believe that you offer exactly + what my father and I have been looking for--a quiet, homelike + boarding house in the hills, and not too far away for me to get + easily back and forth. If agreeable, we shall come to Bridleburg + Saturday and would be glad to have you meet the 10:14 train on its + arrival. If both parties are suited we can then discuss terms. + + "Respectfully, + "Harris Colesworth." + +"Why, what's the matter, Lyd?" demanded her sister, in amazement. + +But Lyddy Bray did not explain. In her own mind she was much disturbed. +She was confident that the writer of this note was the "fresh" young +fellow who had always been at work in the chemical laboratory right across +the air-shaft from her kitchen window! + +Of course, it was quite by chance--in all probability--that he had +answered her advertisement. Yet Lyddy Bray had an intuition that if she +answered the letter, and the Colesworths came here to Hillcrest, trouble +would ensue. + +She had hoped very much to obtain boarders, and to get even one thus early +in the season seemed too good to be true. Yet, now that she had got what +she wanted, Lyddy was doubtful if she wanted it after all. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE COLESWORTHS + + +Mr. Bray fell in with the boarder project, as we have seen, with +enthusiasm. Although he could do nothing as yet, his mind was active +enough and he gaily planned with 'Phemie what they should do and how +they should arrange the rooms for the horde of visitors who were, they +were sure, already on their way to Hillcrest. + +"Though Lyd won't show the very first letter she's received in answer to +our ad.," complained the younger sister. "What's the matter with those +folks, Lyddy? Do they actually live right there near where we did on +Trimble Avenue?" + +"That was a loft building next to us," said their father, curiously. "Who +are the people, daughter?" + +"Somebody by the name of Colesworth. The Commonwealth Chemical Company +office. It's about an old man to stay here." + +"One man only!" exclaimed 'Phemie. + +"With a young man--the one who writes--to come up over Sundays, I +suppose," acknowledged Lyddy, doubtfully. + +"Goody!" cried her sister. "_That_ sounds better." + +"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, 'Phemie!" chided Lyddy, with some +asperity. + +But Mr. Bray only laughed. "I guess I can play 'he-chaperon' for all the +young men who come here," he said. "Your sister is only making fun, Lydia." + +But Lyddy was more worried in secret about the Colesworth proposition +than she was ready to acknowledge. She "just felt" that Harris Colesworth +was the young man who had helped them the evening of the fire in the +Trimble Avenue tenement. + +"He found out our name, of course, and when he saw my advertisement he +knew who it was. He may even have found out where we were going when +we left for the country. In some way he could have done so," thought +Lyddy, putting the young man's character before her mind in the very +worst possible light. + +"He is altogether too persistent. I hope he is as energetic in a better +way--I hope he attends to his business as faithfully as he seems to attend +to _our_ affairs," continued Lyddy, bitterly. + +"I don't suppose this idea of his father coming up here into the hills is +entirely an excuse for him to become familiar with--with _us_. But it +looks very much like it. I--I wonder what kind of a man old Mr. Colesworth +can be?" + +Lyddy ruminated upon the letter she had received all that day and refused +to answer it right away. Indeed, as far as she could see, the letter did +not really need an answer. This Harris Colesworth spoke just as though +he expected they would be only too glad to meet him on Saturday with a rig. + +"And, if it were anybody else, I suppose I would be glad to do so," Lyddy +finally had to admit. "I suppose that 'beggars mustn't be choosers'; and +if this Harris Colesworth isn't a perfectly proper young man to have +about, father will very quickly attend to _his_ case." + +Really, Lyddy Bray thought much more about the Colesworths than her sister +and father thought she did. After being urged by 'Phemie several times she +finally allowed her sister to reply to the letter, promising to have a +carriage at the station for the train mentioned in Harris Colesworth's +letter. + +Of course, this meant hiring Lucas Pritchett and the buckboard. Lucas was +at Hillcrest a good deal of the time that week. He got the garden plowed +and the early potatoes planted, as well as some few other seeds which +would not be hurt by the late frosts. + +Mr. Bray got around very slowly; at first he could only walk up and down +in the sun, or sit on the porch, well wrapped up. + +Like most men born in the country and forced to be city dwellers for +many years, John Bray had longed more deeply than he could easily express +for country living. He appreciated the sights and sounds about him--the +mellow, refreshing air that blew over the hills--the sunshine and the +pattering rain which, on these early spring days, drifted alternately +across the fields and woods. + +With the girls he planned for the future. Some day they would have a +cow. There was pasture on the farm for a dozen. And already Lyddy was +studying poultry catalogs and trying to figure out a little spare money +to purchase some eggs for hatching. + +Of course they had no hens and at this time of the year the neighbors +were likely to want their own setting hens for incubating purposes. Lyddy +sounded Silas Trent, the mail-carrier, about this and Mr. Trent had an +offer to make. + +"I tell ye what it is," said the garrulous Silas, "the chicken business is +a good business--if ye kin 'tend to it right. I tried it--went in deep +for incubator, brooders, and the like; and it would have been all right +if I didn't hafter be away from home so much durin' the day. + +"My wife's got rheumatiz, and she can't git out to 'tend to little chicks, +and for a few weeks they need a sight of attention--that's right. They'd +oughter be fed every two hours, or so, and watched pretty close. + +"So I had ter give it up last year, an' this year I ain't put an egg in +my incubator. + +"But if I could git 'em growed to scratchin' state--say, when they're +broiler-size--I sartainly would like it. Tell ye what I'll do, Miss. I'll +let ye have my incubator. It's 200-egg size. In course, ye don't hafter +fill it first time if ye don't wanter. Put in a hundred eggs and see how +ye come out." + +"But how could I pay you?" asked Lyddy. + +"I'll sell ye the incubator outright, if ye want to buy. And I'll take my +pay in chickens when they're broiler-size--say three months old." + +"What do you want for your incubator?" queried Lyddy, thoughtfully. + +"Ten dollars. It's a good one. And I'll take a flock of twenty +three-months-old chicks in pay for it--fifteen pullets and five cockerels. +What kind of hens do you favor, Miss Bray?" + +Lyddy told him the breed she had thought of purchasing--and the strain. + +"Them's fine birds," declared Mr. Trent. "For heavy fowl they are good +layers--and when ye butcher one of 'em for the table, ye got suthin' to +eat. Now, you think my offer over. I'll stick to it. And I'll set the +incubator up and show ye how to run it." + +Lyddy was very anxious to venture into the chicken business--and here was +a chance to do it cheaply. It was the five dollars for a hundred hatching +eggs that made her hesitate. + +But Aunt Jane had shown herself to be more than a little interested in +the girls' venture at Hillcrest Farm, and when she expressed the keys +of the garret chests and bureaus to Lyddy--so that the girl could get +at the stores of linen left from the old doctor's day--she sent, too, +twenty-five dollars. + +"Keep it against emergencies. Pay it back when you can. And don't let's +have no talk about it," was the old lady's characteristic note. + +Lyddy was only doubtful as to whether this desire of hers to raise +chickens was really "an emergency." But finally she decided to venture, +and she wrote off for the eggs, sending the money by a post-office order, +and Lucas brought up Silas Trent's incubator. + +Friday night Trent drove up to Hillcrest and spent the evening with the +Brays. He set the incubator up in the little washhouse, which opened +directly off the back porch. It was a small, tight room, with only one +window, and was easily heated by an oil-lamp. The lamp of the incubator +itself would do the trick, Trent said. + +He leveled the machine with great care, showed Lyddy all about the +trays, the water, the regulation of heat, and gave her a lot of advice +on various matters connected with the raising of chicks with the "wooden +hen." + +They were all vastly interested in the new vocation and the evening passed +pleasantly enough. Just before Trent went, he asked: + +"By the way, what's Jud Spink doing up this way so much? I seen him again +to-day when I came over the ridge. He was crossin' the back of your farm. +He didn't have no gun; and, at any rate, there ain't nothin' in season +jest now--'nless it's crows," and the mail-carrier laughed. + +"Spink?" asked Mr. Bray, who had not yet gone to bed. "Who is he?" + +"Lemuel Judson Spink," explained 'Phemie. "He's a man who used to live +here with grandfather when he was a boy--when _Spink_ was a boy; not +grandfather." + +"He's a rich man now," said Lyddy. "He owns a breakfast food." + +"Diamond Grits," added 'Phemie. + +"He's rich enough," grunted Trent. "Rich enough so't he can loaf around +Bridleburg for months at a time. Been here now for some time." + +"Why, could that be the Spink your Aunt Jane told me once made her an +offer for the farm?" asked Mr. Bray, thoughtfully. + +"For Hillcrest?" cried 'Phemie. "Oh, I hope not." + +"Well, child, if she could sell the place it would be a good thing for +Jane. She has none too much money." + +"But why didn't she sell to him?" asked Lyddy, quite as anxious as her +sister. + +"He didn't offer her much, if anything, for it." + +"Ain't that like Jud?" cackled Trent. "He is allus grouching about the +old doctor for being as tight as the bark to a tree; but when it comes +to a bargain, Jud Spink will wring yer nose ev'ry time--if he can. Glad +Mis' Hammon' didn't sell to him." + +"Perhaps he didn't want Hillcrest very much," said Mr. Bray, quietly. + +"He don't want nothin' 'nless it's cheap," declared Trent. "He's picked up +some mortgage notes, and the like, on property he thinks he can foreclose +on. Got a jedgment against the Widder Harrison's little place over the +ridge, I understand. But Jud Spink wouldn't pay more'n ha'f price for a +gold eagle. He'd claim 'twas second-hand, if it warn't fresh from the +mint," and the mail-carrier went off, chuckling over his own joke. + +Both Lyddy and 'Phemie forgot, however, about the curious actions of Mr. +Spink, or his desire to buy Hillcrest, in their interest in the coming +of the only people who had, thus far, answered their advertisement for +boarders. + +Lucas met the 10:14 train on Saturday morning, and before noon he drove +into the side yard with an old gentleman and a young man on the rear seat +of the buckboard. + +Before this the two girls, working hard, had swept and garnished the whole +lower floor of the big farmhouse, save the east wing, which was locked. +Indeed, Lyddy had never ventured into the old doctor's suite of offices, +for she couldn't find the key. + +A fire had been laid and was burning cheerfully in the dining-room--that +apartment being just across the square side entrance hall from the +kitchen. Lyddy was busy over the cooking arrangements when the visitors +arrived, and 'Phemie was giving the finishing touches to the table in +the dining-room. + +But Mr. Bray, leaning on his cane, met the Colesworths as they alighted +from the buckboard. Lucas drove away at once, promising to return again +with the team in time to catch the four-fifty train back to town. + +Lyddy found time to peep out of the kitchen window. Yes! there was that +very bold young man who had troubled her so much--at times--while they +lived in Trimble Avenue. + +He met Mr. Bray with a warm handshake, and he helped his father up the +wide stone steps with a delicacy that would have pleased Lyddy in anybody +else. + +But she had made up her mind that Harris Colesworth was going to be a +very objectionable person to have about, and so she would not accept his +friendly attitude or thoughtfulness as real virtues. He might attract the +rest of the family--already 'Phemie was standing in the door, smiling and +with her hand held out; but Lyddy Bray proposed to watch this young man +very closely! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANOTHER BOARDER + + +Lyddy heard her sister and Harris Colesworth in the hall, and then in the +dining-room. The girls had not made a fire in any other room in the house. +It took too much wood, and the dining-room was large enough to be used as +a sitting-room "for company," too. + +And with the fresh maple branches and arbutus decorating the space over +the mantel, and the great dish of violets on the table, and the odorous +plum branches everywhere, that dining-room was certainly an attractive +apartment. + +The old-fashioned blue-and-white china and the few pieces of heavy +silverware "dressed" the table very nicely. The linen was yellow with +age, but every glass and spoon shone. + +The sun streamed warmly in at the windows, the view from which was lovely. +Lyddy heard the appreciative remarks of the young man as 'Phemie ushered +him in. + +But she ran out to greet the old gentleman. The elder Colesworth was sixty +or more--a frail, scholarly-looking man, with a winning smile. He, like +Mr. Bray, leaned on a cane; but Mr. Bray was at least fifteen years Mr. +Colesworth's junior. + +"So _you_ are 'L. Bray'; are you?" asked the old gentleman, shaking hands +with her. "You are the elder daughter and head of the household, your +father tells me." + +"I am older than 'Phemie--yes," admitted Lyddy, blushing. "But we have +no 'head' here. I do my part of the work, and she does hers." + +"And, please God," said Mr. Bray, earnestly, "I shall soon be able to do +mine." + +"Work is the word, then!" cried the old gentleman. "I tell Harris that's +all that is the matter with me. I knocked off work too early. 'Retired,' +they call it. But it doesn't pay--it doesn't pay." + +"There will be plenty for you to do up here, Mr. Colesworth," suggested +Lyddy, laughing. "We'll let you chop your own wood, if you like. But +perhaps picking flowers for the table will be more to your taste--at +first." + +"I don't know--I don't know," returned the old gentleman. "I was brought +up on a farm. I used to know how to swing an axe. And I can remember yet +how I hated a buck-saw." + +They went into the house; but Lyddy slipped back to the kitchen and +allowed her father to follow Harris Colesworth and 'Phemie, with the old +gentleman, into the dining-room. + +'Phemie soon came out to help, leaving their father to entertain the +visitors while dinner was being served. Lyddy had prepared a simple meal, +of which the staple was the New England standby--baked beans. + +She had been up before light, had built a huge fire in the brick oven, +had heated it to a high temperature, and had then baked her pies, a huge +pan of gingerbread, her white bread, and potatoes for dinner. She had +steamed her "brown loaf" in a kettle hanging from the crane, and the +sealed beanpot had been all night in the ashes on the hearth, the right +"finish" being given in the brick oven as it gradually cooled off. + +The girl had had wonderfully good luck with her baking. The bread was +neither "all crust" nor was it dough in the middle. The pies were flaky +as to crust and the apples which filled them were tender. + +When Lyddy brought in the beanpot, wrapped in a blue and white towel to +retain the heat, she met Harris Colesworth for the first time. To her +surprise he did not attempt to appear amazed to see her. + +"Miss Bray!" he cried, coming forward to shake hands with her. "I have +been telling your father that we are already acquainted. But I never _did_ +expect to see you again when you sold out and went away from Trimble +Avenue that morning." + +"Shows how small the world is," said Mr. Bray, smiling. "We lived +right beside the building in which Mr. Colesworth works, and he saw +our advertisement in the paper----" + +"Oh, I was sure it was Miss Bray," interrupted young Colesworth, openly +acknowledging his uncalled-for interest (so Lyddy expressed it to herself) +in their affairs. + +"You see," said this very frank young man, "I knew your name was Bray. +And I knew you were going into the country for Mr. Bray's health. I--I +even asked at the hospital about you several times," he added, flushing +a little. + +"How very kind!" murmured Lyddy, but without looking at him, as 'Phemie +brought in some of the other dishes. + +"Not at all; I was interested," said the young man, laughing. "You always +were afraid of getting acquainted with me when I used to watch you working +about your kitchen. But now, Miss Bray, if father decides to come out +here to board with you, you'll just _have_ to be acquainted with me." + +Mr. Bray laughed at this, and 'Phemie giggled. Lyddy's face was a study. +It did seem impossible to keep this very presuming young man at a proper +distance. + +But they gathered around the table then, and Lyddy had another reason for +blushing. The visitors praised her cooking highly, and when they learned +of the old-fashioned means by which the cooking was done, their wonder +grew. + +And Lyddy deserved some praise, that was sure. The potatoes came out of +their crisp skins as light as feathers. The thickened pork gravy that +went with them was something Mr. Colesworth the elder declared he had +not tasted since he was a boy. + +And when the beans were ladled from the pot--brown, moist, every bean +firm in its individual jacket, but seasoned through and through--the +Colesworths fairly reveled in them. The fresh bread and good butter, +and the flaky wedges of apple pie, each flanked by its pilot of cheese, +were likewise enjoyed. + +"If you can put us up only half comfortably," declared the elder +Colesworth, bowing to Lyddy, "I can tell you right now, young lady, that +we will stay. Let us see your rooms, we will come to terms, and then +I'll take a nap, if you will allow me. I need it after this heavy dinner. +Why, Harris! I haven't eaten so heartily for months." + +"Never saw you sail into the menu with any more enjoyment, Dad," declared +his son, in delight. + +But Lyddy made her sister show them over the house. They were some time in +making up their minds regarding the choice of apartments; but finally +they decided upon one of the large rooms the girls proposed making over +into bed-chambers on the ground floor. This room was nearest the east +wing, had long windows opening upon the side porch, and with the two small +beds removed from the half-furnished rooms on the second floor of the +east wing, and brought downstairs, together with one or two other pieces +of furniture, the Colesworths declared themselves satisfied with the +accommodations. + +Young Colesworth would come out on Saturdays and return Monday mornings. +He would arrange with Lucas to drive him back and forth. And the old +gentleman would come out, bag and baggage, on the coming Monday to take +possession of the room. + +To bind the bargain Harris handed Lyddy fifteen dollars, and asked for a +receipt. Fifteen dollars a week! Lyddy had scarcely dared ask for it--had +done so with fear and trembling, in fact. But the Colesworths seemed to +consider it quite within reason. + +"Oh, 'Phemie!" gasped Lyddy, hugging her sister tight out in the kitchen. +"Just think of _fifteen dollars_ coming in every week. Why! we can all +_live_ on that!" + +"M--m; yes," said 'Phemie, ruminatively. "But hasn't he a handsome nose?" + +"Who--what---- 'Phemie Bray! haven't you anything else in your head but +young men's noses?" cried her sister, in sudden wrath. + +But it was a beginning. They had really "got into business," as their +father said that night at the supper table. + +"I only fear that the work will be too much for us," he observed. + +"For 'Phemie and me, you mean, Father," said Lyddy, firmly. "You are +not to work. You're to get well. _That_ is your business--and your only +business." + +"You girls will baby me to death!" cried Mr. Bray, wiping his eyes. "I +refuse to be laid on the shelf. I hope I am not useless----" + +"My goodness me! Far from it," cried 'Phemie. "But you'll be lots more +help to us when you are perfectly well and strong again." + +"There'll be plenty you can do without taxing your strength--and without +keeping you indoors," Lyddy added. "Just think if we get the chicken +business started. You can do all of that--after the biddies are hatched." + +"I feel so much better already, girls," declared their father, gravely, +"that I am sure I shall have a giant's strength before fall." + +Aunt Jane had written them, however, certain advice which the doctor at +the hospital had given to her regarding Mr. Bray. He was to be discouraged +from performing any heavy tasks of whatsoever nature, and his diet was +to consist mainly of milk and eggs--tissue-building fuel for the system. + +He had worked so long in the hat shop that his lungs were in a weakened +state, if not actually affected. For months they would have to watch him +carefully. And to return to his work in the city would be suicidal. + +Therefore were Lyddy and 'Phemie more than ever anxious to make the +boarders' project pay. And with the Colesworths' fifteen dollars a week +it seemed as though a famous start had been made in that direction. + +By serving simple food, plainly cooked, Lyddy was confident that she could +keep the table for all five from the board paid by Mr. Colesworth and +his son. If they got other boarders, a goodly share of _their_ weekly +stipends could be added on the profit side of the ledger. + +Lucas helped them for a couple of hours Monday morning, and the girls +managed to put the room the newcomers had chosen into readiness for the +old gentleman. Lucas drove to town to meet Mr. Colesworth. Lucas was +beginning to make something out of the Bray girls' project, too, and he +grinned broadly as he said to 'Phemie: + +"I'm goin' to be able to put up for a brand new buggy nex' fall, Miss +'Phemie--a better one than Joe Badger's got. What 'twixt this cartin' +boarders over the roads, and makin' Miss Lyddy's garden, I'm going to be +well fixed." + +"On the road to be a millionaire; are you, Lucas?" suggested 'Phemie, +laughing. + +"Nope. Jest got one object in view," grinned Lucas. + +"What's that?" + +"I wanter drive you to church in my new buggy, and make Joe Badger an' +that Nettie Meyers look like thirty cents. That's what _I_ want." + +"Oh, Lucas! _That_ isn't a very high ambition," she cried. + +"But it's goin' to give me an almighty lot of satisfaction," declared the +young farmer. "You won't go back on me; will yer, Miss 'Phemie?" + +"I'll ride with you--of course," replied 'Phemie. "But I'd just as lief +go in the buckboard." + +"Now _that_," said the somewhat puzzled Lucas, "is another thing that +makes you gals diff'rent from the gals around here." + +Old Mr. Colesworth came and made himself at home very quickly. He played +cribbage with Mr. Bray in the evening while the girls did up the work and +sewed; and during the early days of his stay with them he proved to be a +very pleasant old gentleman, with few crotchets, and no special demands +upon the girls for attention. + +He walked a good deal, proved to be something of a geologist, and pottered +about the rocky section of the farm with a little hammer and bag for hours +together. + +As Mr. Bray could walk only a little way, Mr. Colesworth did most of his +rambling about Hillcrest alone. And he grew fonder and fonder of the +place as the first week advanced. + +As far as his entertainment went, he could have no complaint as to that, +for he was getting all that Lyddy had promised him--a comfortable bed, +a fire on his hearth when he wanted it, and the same plain food that the +family ate. + +The girls of Hillcrest Farm had received no further answer to their +advertisement, but the news that they were keeping boarders had gone +broadcast over the ridge, of course. Silas Trent would have spread this +bit of news, if nobody else. + +But on Saturday morning, soon after breakfast, Mr. Somers's old gray mare +turned up their lane, and Lyddy put on a clean apron and rolled down her +sleeves to go out and speak to the school teacher. + +"That's a very good thing about that lane," 'Phemie remarked, aside. "It +is just long enough so that, if we see anybody turn in, we can primp a +little before they get to the house." + +"Miss Bray," said the teacher, hopping out of his buggy and shaking hands, +"you see me here, a veritable beggar." + +"A beggar?" queried Lyddy, in surprise. + +"Yes, I have come to beg a favor. And a very great one, too." + +"Why--I----" + +He laughed and went on to explain--yet his explanation at first puzzled +her. + +"Where do you suppose I slept last night, Miss Bray?" he asked. + +"In your bed," she returned. + +"Wrong!" + +"Is it a joke--or a puzzle?" + +"Why, I had to sleep in the barn. You see, thus far this term I have +boarded with Sam Larribee. But yesterday his boy came down with the +measles. He had been out of school for several days--had been visiting the +other side of the ridge. They think he caught it there--at his cousin's. + +"However," continued Mr. Somers, "that does not help me. When I came home +from school and heard the doctor's report, I refused to enter the house. +We don't want an epidemic of measles at Pounder's School. + +"So I slept in the barn with Old Molly, here. And now I must find another +boarding place. They--er--tell me, Miss Bray, that you intend to take +boarders?" + +"Why--er--yes," admitted Lyddy, faintly. + +"You have some already?" + +"Mr. Colesworth and his son. They have just come." + +"Couldn't you put me--and Molly--up for the rest of the term?" asked the +school teacher, laughing. + +"Why, I don't know but I could," said Lyddy, her business sense coming to +her aid. "I--why, yes! I am quite sure about _you_; but about the horse, I +do not know." + +"You surely have a stall to spare?" + +"Plenty; but no feed." + +"Oh, I will bring my own grain; and I'll let her pasture in your orchard. +She doesn't work hard and doesn't need much forage except what she can +glean at this time of year for herself." + +"Well, then, perhaps it can be arranged," said Lyddy. "Will you come in +and see what our accommodations are?" + +And so that is how another boarder came to Hillcrest Farm. Mr. Somers +chose one of the smaller rooms upstairs, and agreed to pay for his own +entertainment and pasturage for his horse--six dollars and a half a week. +It was a little more than he had been paying at Larribee's, he said--but +then, Mr. Somers wanted to come to Hillcrest. + +He drove away to get his trunk out of the window of his bedroom at the +measles-stricken farmhouse down the hill; he would not risk entering by +the door for the sake of his other pupils. + +A little later Lucas drove up from town with Harris Colesworth and his bag. + +"Say!" whispered the lanky farmer, leaning from his seat to whisper to +'Phemie. "I hear tell you've got school teacher for a boarder, too? Is +that so?" + +"What of it?" demanded 'Phemie, somewhat vexed. + +"Oh, nawthin'. Only ye oughter seen Sairy's face when maw told her!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE BALL KEEPS ROLLING + + +The school teacher pressingly invited the Bray girls to accompany him to +the temperance meeting that evening; his buggy would hold the three, he +declared. But both Lyddy and 'Phemie had good reason for being excused. +There was now work for them--and plenty of it. + +They had to disappoint Lucas in this matter, too; but Harris Colesworth +laughingly accepted the teacher's later proposal that _he_ attend, and +the two young men drove off together, leaving the girls in the kitchen +and old Mr. Colesworth and Mr. Bray playing cribbage in the dining-room. + +It was while 'Phemie was clearing the supper table that her attention was +caught by something that Mr. Colesworth said. + +"Who is your neighbor that I see so much up yonder among the rocks, at +the back of this farm, Mr. Bray?" he asked. + +"Mr. Pritchett?" suggested Mr. Bray. "Cyrus Pritchett. The long-legged +boy's father. He farms a part of these acres----" + +"No. It is not Cyrus Pritchett I mean. And he is no farmer." + +"I couldn't tell you," said Mr. Bray. + +"A rather peculiar-looking man--long hair, black coat, broad-brimmed hat. +I have frequently come upon him during the last few days. He always walks +off as though in haste. I never have got near enough to speak to him." + +"Why," responded Mr. Bray, thoughtfully scanning his hand, and evidently +giving little attention to Mr. Colesworth's mystery, "why, I'm sure I +don't know what would attract anybody up in that part of the farm." + +"Saving a man interested in breaking open rocks to see what's in them," +chuckled Mr. Colesworth. "But this fellow is no geologist." + +'Phemie, however, decided that she knew who it was. Silas Trent had +mentioned seeing the man, Spink, up that way; and, on more than one +occasion, 'Phemie was sure the owner of the Diamond Grits breakfast food +had been lurking about Hillcrest. + +"Lyddy has never asked Cyrus Pritchett about that evening he and Spink +were up here--two weeks ago this very night. I almost wish she'd do so. +This mystery is getting on my nerves!" + +And yet 'Phemie was not at all sure that there was any mystery about it. + +Lyddy, on the strength of getting her first boarders, renewed her +advertisement in the Easthampton papers. At once she received half a dozen +inquiries. It was yet too early in the season to expect many people to +wish to come to the country to board; yet Lyddy painstakingly answered +each letter, and in full. + +But she really did not see how she would be able to get on over the summer +with the open fire and the brick oven. It would be dreadfully hot in that +kitchen. And she would have been glad to use Mrs. Pritchett's Dutch oven +that Lucas had told her about. + +But since the first Sunday neither Mrs. Pritchett or Sairy had been +near Hillcrest. Now that Mr. Somers had established himself here, the +Bray girls did not expect to ever be forgiven by "Maw" Pritchett and her +daughter. + +"It's too bad people are so foolish," said Lyddy, wearily. "I haven't done +anything to Sairy." + +"But she and her mother think you have. By your wiles you have inveigled +Mr. Somers away from Sairy," giggled 'Phemie. + +"'Phemie!" gasped her sister. "If you say such a thing again, I'll send +Mr. Somers packing!" + +"Oh, shucks! Can't you see the fun of it!?" + +"There is no fun in it," declared the very proper Lyddy. "It is only +disgraceful." + +"I'd like to tell that young Mr. Colesworth about it," laughed 'Phemie. +"He'd just be tickled to death." + +Lyddy looked at her haughtily. "You _dare_ include me in any gossip of +such a character, and I--" + +"Well? You'll what?" demanded the younger girl, saucily. + +"I shall feel very much like spanking you!" declared Lyddy. "And that is +just what you would deserve." + +"Oh, now--don't get mad, Lyd," urged 'Phemie. "You take things altogether +too seriously." + +"Well," responded the older girl, going back to the main subject, "the +problem of how we are to cook when it comes warm weather is a very, very +serious matter." + +"We've just got to have a range--ought to have one with a tank, on the +end in which to heat water. I've seen 'em advertised." + +"But how can we? I've gone into debt now for more than thirty dollars' +worth of commercial fertilizer. I don't dare get deeper into the mire." + +"But," cried the sanguine 'Phemie, "the crops will more than pay for +_that_ outlay." + +"Perhaps." + +"You're a born grump, Lyddy Bray!" + +"Somebody has to look ahead," sighed Lyddy. "The crops may fail. Such +things happen. Or we may get no more boarders. Or father may get worse." + +"_Don't_ say such things, Lyddy!" cried her sister, stamping her foot. +"Especially about father." + +The older girl put her arms about 'Phemie and the latter began to weep +on her shoulder. + +"Don't let us hide our true beliefs from each other," whispered Lyddy, +brokenly. "Father is _not_ mending--not as we hoped he would, at least. +And yet the hospital doctor told Aunt Jane that there was absolutely +nothing medicine could do for him." + +"I know! I know!" sobbed 'Phemie. "But don't let's talk about it. He is so +brave himself. He talks just as though he was gaining every day; but his +step is so feeble----" + +"And he has no color," groaned Lyddy. + +"But, anyhow," 'Phemie pursued, wiping her eyes, her flurry of tears +quickly over, as was her nature, "there is one good thing." + +"What is that?" + +"He doesn't lose hope himself. And _we_ mustn't lose it, either. Of course +things will come out right--even the boarders will come." + +"We don't know that," said Lyddy, shaking her head again. + +"How about the woman who wrote you a second time?" queried 'Phemie. "Mrs. +Castle. I bet _she_ comes next week." + +And 'Phemie was right in _that_ prophecy. They had Lucas meet the train +for Mrs. Castle on Saturday, and 'Phemie went with him. There were +supplies to buy for the house and the young girl made her purchases +before train time. + +A little old lady in a Paisley shawl and black, close bonnet, got out of +the train. The porter lifted down an ancient carpet-bag--something 'Phemie +had never in her life seen before. Even Lucas was amazed by the little old +woman's outfit. + +"By cracky!" he whispered to 'Phemie. "You reckon _that's_ the party? Why, +she's dressed more behind the times than my grandmother useter be. Guess +there must be places on this airth more countrified than Bridleburg." + +But 'Phemie knew that Mrs. Castle's letter had come from an address in +Easthampton which the Brays knew to be in a very good neighborhood. Nobody +but wealthy people lived on that street. Yet Mrs. Castle--aside from +the valuable but old-fashioned shawl--did not look to be worth any great +fortune. + +"Are you the girl who wrote to me?" asked the old lady, briskly, when +'Phemie came forward to take the carpet-bag. + +Mrs. Castle's voice was very resonant; she had sharp blue eyes behind +her gold-bowed spectacles; and she clipped her words and sentences in +a manner that belied her age and appearance. + +"No, ma'am," said 'Phemie, doubtfully. "It was my sister who wrote. _I_ +am Euphemia Bray." + +"Ha! And what is your sister's name? What does the 'L' stand for?" + +"Lydia." + +"Good!" ejaculated this strange old lady. "Then I'll ride out to the +farm with you. Such good, old-fashioned names promise just what your +sister said: An old-fashioned house and old-time ways. If 'L!' had meant +'Lillie,' or 'Luella,' or 'Lilas'--and if _you_, young lady, had been +called 'Marie'--I'd have taken the very next train back to town." + +'Phemie could only stare and nod. In her secret thoughts she told herself +that this queer old woman was doubtless a harmless lunatic. She did not +know whether it was quite best to have Lucas drive them to Hillcrest or +not. + +"You got a trunk, ma'am?" asked the long-legged youth, as the old lady +hopped youthfully into the buckboard, and 'Phemie lifted in the heavy +carpet-bag. + +"No, I haven't. This is no fashionable boarding house I'm going to, I +s'pose?" she added, eyeing 'Phemie sternly. + +"Oh, no, ma'am!" returned the girl. + +"Then I've got enough with me in this bag, and on my back, to last me a +fortnight. If I like, I'll send for something more, then." + +She certainly knew her own mind, this old lady. 'Phemie had first thought +her to be near the three-score-and-ten mark; but every moment she seemed +to get younger. Her face was wrinkled, but they were fine wrinkles, and +her coloring made her look like a withered russet apple. Out of this +golden-brown countenance the blue eyes sparkled in a really wonderful way. + +"But I don't care," thought 'Phemie, as they clattered out of town. "Crazy +or not, if she can pay her board she's so much help. Let the ball keep +on rolling. It's getting bigger and bigger. Perhaps we _shall_ have a +houseful at Hillcrest, after all." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE RUNAWAY GRANDMOTHER + + +But 'Phemie was immensely curious about this strange little old lady +who was dressed so oddly, yet who apparently came from the wealthiest +section of the city of Easthampton. The young girl could not bring herself +to ask questions of their visitor--let Lyddy do that, if she thought +it necessary. But, as it chanced, up to a certain point Mrs. Castle was +quite open of speech and free to communicate information about herself. + +As soon as they had got out of town she turned to 'Phemie and said: + +"I expect you think I'm as queer as Dick's hat-band, Euphemia? I am quite +sure you never saw a person like me before?" + +"Why--Mrs. Castle--not _just_ like you," admitted the embarrassed 'Phemie. + +"I expect not! Well, I presume there are other old women, who are +grandmothers, and have got all tangled up in these new-fangled notions +that women have--Laws' sake! I might as well tell you right off that I've +run away!" + +"Run away?" gasped 'Phemie, with a vision of keepers from an asylum coming +to Hillcrest to take away their new boarder. + +"That's exactly what I have done! None of my folks know where I have +gone. I just wrote a note, telling them not to look for me, and that I was +going back to old-fashioned times, if I could find 'em. Then I got this +bag out of the cupboard--I'd kept it all these years--packed it with my +very oldest duds, and--well, here I am!" and the old lady's laugh rang +out as shrill and clear as a blackbird's call. + +"I have astonished you; have I?" she pursued. "And I suppose I have +astonished my folks. But they know I'm perfectly capable of taking care +of myself. I ought to be. Why, I'm a grandmother three times!" + +"'Three times?'" repeated the amazed 'Phemie. + +"Yes, Miss Euphemia Bray. Three grandchildren--two girls and a boy. And +they are always telling folks how up-to-date grandma is! I'm sick of being +up-to-date. I'm sick of dressing so that folks behind me on the street +can't tell whether I'm a grandmother or my own youngest grandchild! + +"We just live in a perfect whirl of excitement. 'Pleasure,' they call +it. But it's gotten to be a nuisance. My daughter-in-law has her head +full of society matters and club work. The girls and Tom spend all but the +little time they are obliged to give to books in the private schools they +attend, in dancing and theatre parties, and the like. + +"And here a week ago I found my son--their father--a man forty-five years +old, and bald, and getting fat, being taught the tango by a French dancing +professor in the back drawing-room!" exclaimed Mrs. Castle, in a tone of +disgust that almost convulsed 'Phemie. + +"That was enough. That was the last straw on the camel's back. I made up +my mind when I read your sister's advertisement that I would like to live +simply and with simple people again. I'd like really to _feel_ like a +grandmother, and _dress_ like one, and _be_ one. + +"And if I like it up here at your place I shall stay through the summer. +No hunting-lodge in the Adirondacks for me this spring, or Newport, or +the Pier later, or anything of that kind. I'm going to sit on your porch +and knit socks. My mother did when _she_ was a grandmother. This is her +shawl, and mother and father took this old carpet-bag with them when they +went on their honeymoon. + +"Mother enjoyed her old age. She spent it quietly, and it was _lovely_," +declared Mrs. Castle, with a note in her voice that made 'Phemie sober +at once. "I am going to have quiet, and repose, and a simple life, too, +before I have to die. + +"It's just killing me keeping up with the times. I don't want to keep +up with 'em. I want them to drift by me, and leave me stranded in some +pleasant, sunny place, where I only have to look on. And that's what I +am going to get at Hillcrest--just that kind of a place--if you've got it +to sell," completed this strange old lady, with emphasis. + +'Phemie Bray scarcely knew what to say. She was not sure that Mrs. Castle +was quite right in her mind; yet what she said, though so surprising, +sounded like sense. + +"I'll leave it to Lyddy; she'll know what to say and do," thought the +younger sister, with faith in the ability of Lyddy to handle any emergency. + +And Lyddy handled the old lady as simply as she did everything. She +refused to see anything particularly odd in Mrs. Castle's dress, manner, +or outlook on life. + +The old lady chose one of the larger rooms on the second floor, considered +the terms moderate, and approved of everything she saw about the house. + +"Make no excuses for giving me a feather bed to sleep on. I believe it +will add half a dozen years to my life," she declared. "Feather beds! My! +I never expected to see such a joy again--let alone experience it." + +"Our circle is broadening," said old Mr. Colesworth, at supper that +evening. "Come! I have a three-handed counter for cribbage. Shall we +take Mrs. Castle into our game, Mr. Bray?" + +"If she will so honor us," agreed the girls' father, bowing to the little +old lady. + +"Well! that's hearty of you," said the brisk Mrs. Castle. "I'll postpone +beginning knitting my son a pair of socks that he'd never wear, until +to-morrow." + +For she had actually brought along with her knitting needles and a hank of +grey yarn. It grew into a nightly occurrence, this three-handed cribbage +game. When Mr. Somers had no lessons to "get up," or no examination papers +to mark, he spent the evening with Lyddy and 'Phemie. He even helped +with the dish-wiping and helped to bring in the wood for the morning fires. + +Fire was laid in the three chambers, as well as the dining-room, to light +on cold mornings, or on damp days; Lucas had spent a couple more days in +chopping wood. But as the season advanced there was less and less need +of these in the sleeping rooms. + +There were, of course, wet and gloomy days, when the old folks were glad +to sit over the dining-room fire, the elements forbidding outdoors to +them. But they kept cheerful. And not a little of this cheerfulness was +spread by Lyddy and 'Phemie. The older girl's thoughtfulness for others +made her much beloved, while 'Phemie's high spirits were contagious. + +On Saturday, when Harris Colesworth arrived from town to remain over +Sunday, Hillcrest was indeed a lively place. This very self-possessed +young man took a pleasant interest in everything that went on about the +house and farm. Lyddy was still inclined to snub him--only, he wouldn't +be snubbed. He did not force his attentions upon her; but while he was at +Hillcrest it seemed to Lyddy as though he was right at her elbow all the +time. + +"He pervades the whole place," she complained to 'Phemie. "Why--he's under +foot, like a kitten!" + +"Huh!" exclaimed the younger sister. "He's hanging about you no more than +the school teacher--and Mr. Somers has the best chance, too." + +"'Phemie!" + +"Oh, don't be a grump! Mr. Colesworth is ever so nice. He's worth any +_two_ of your Somerses, too!" + +And at that Lyddy became so indignant that she would not speak to her +sister for the rest of the day. But _that_ did not solve the problem. +There was Harris Colesworth, always doing something for her, ready to do +her bidding at any time, his words cheerful, his looks smiling, and, as +Lyddy declared in her own mind, "utterly unable to keep his place." + +There never _was_ so bold a young man, she verily believed! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE QUEER BOARDER + + +Spring marched on apace those days. The garden at Hillcrest began to +take form, and the green things sprouted beautifully. Lucas Pritchett +was working very hard, for his father did not allow him to neglect any +of his regular work to keep the contract the young man had made with +Lyddy Bray. + +In another line the prospect for a crop was anxiously canvassed, too. The +eggs Lyddy had sent for had arrived and, after running the incubator for +a couple of days to make sure that they understood it, the girls put the +hundred eggs into the trays. + +The eggs were guaranteed sixty per cent. fertile and after eight days +they tested them as Trent had advised. They left eighty-seven eggs in the +incubator after the test. + +But the incubator took an enormous amount of attention--at least, the +girls thought it did. + +This was not so bad by day; but they went to bed tired enough at night, +and Lyddy was sure the lamp should be looked to at midnight. + +It was three o'clock the first night before 'Phemie awoke with a start, +and lay with throbbing pulse and with some sound ringing in her ears +which she could not explain immediately. But almost at once she recalled +another night--their first one at Hillcrest--when she had gone rambling +about the lower floor of the old house. + +But she thought of the incubator and leaped out of bed. The lamp might +have flared up and cooked all those eggs. Or it might have expired and +left them to freeze out there in the washhouse. + +She did not arouse Lyddy, but slipped into her wrapper and slippers and +crept downstairs with her candle. There _had_ been a sound that aroused +her. She heard somebody moving about the kitchen. + +"Surely father hasn't got up--he promised he wouldn't," thought 'Phemie. + +She was not afraid of outside marauders now. Both Mr. Somers and young +Mr. Colesworth were in the house. 'Phemie went boldly into the kitchen +from the hall. + +The porch door opened and a wavering light appeared--another candle. +There was Harris Colesworth, in _his_ robe and slippers, coming from +the direction of the washhouse. + +'Phemie shrank back and hid by the foot of the stairs. But she was not +quick enough in putting her light out--or else he heard her giggle. + +"Halt! who goes there?" demanded Colesworth, in a sepulchral voice. + +"A--a fr-r-riend," chattered 'Phemie. + +"Advance, friend, and give the countersign," commanded the young man. + +"Chickens!" gasped 'Phemie, convulsed with laughter. + +"You'd have had fried eggs, maybe, for all your interest in the +incubator," said Harris, with a chuckle. "So 'Chickens' is no longer the +password." + +"Oh, they didn't get too hot?" pleaded the girl, in despair. + +"Nope. This is the second time I've been out. To tell you the truth," said +Harris, laughing, "I think the incubator is all right and will work like a +charm; but I understand they're a good deal like ships--likely to develop +some crotchet at almost any time." + +"But it's good of you to take the trouble to look at it for us." + +"Sure it is!" he laughed. "But that's what I'm on earth for--to do +good--didn't you know that, Miss 'Phemie?" + +She told her sister about Harris Colesworth's kindness in the morning. +But Lyddy took it the other way about. + +"I declare! he can't keep his fingers out of our pie at any stage of the +game; can he?" she snapped. + +"Why, Lyd!" + +"Oh--don't talk to me!" returned her older sister, who seemed to be rather +snappish this morning. "That young man is getting on my nerves." + +It was Sunday and the Colesworths had engaged a two-seated carriage +in town to take Mrs. Castle and Mr. Bray with them to church. There +was a seat beside Mr. Somers, behind Old Molly, for one of the girls. +The teacher plainly wanted to take Lyddy, but that young lady had not +recovered from her ill-temper of the early morning. + +"Lyd got out of bed on the wrong side this morning," said 'Phemie. +However, she went with Mr. Somers in her sister's stead. + +And Lyddy Bray was glad to be left alone. No one could honestly call +Hillcrest Farm a lonesome place these days! + +"I'm not sure that I wouldn't be glad to be alone here again, with just +'Phemie and father," the young girl told herself. "There is one drawback +to keeping a boarding house--one has no privacy. In trying to make it +homelike for the boarders, we lose all our own home life. Ah, dear, well! +at least we are earning our support." + +For Lyddy Bray kept her books carefully, and she had been engaged in +this new business long enough to enable her to strike a balance. From her +present boarders she was receiving thirty-one and a half dollars weekly. +At least ten of it represented her profit. + +But the two young girls were working very hard. The cooking was becoming +a greater burden because of the makeshifts necessary at the open fire. +And the washing of bed and table linen was a task that was becoming too +heavy for them. + +"If we had a couple of other good paying boarders," mused Lyddy, as she +sat resting on the side porch, "we might afford to take somebody into the +kitchen to help us. It would have to be somebody who would work cheap, +of course; we could pay no fancy wages. But we need help." + +As she thus ruminated she was startled by seeing a figure cross the field +from behind the barn. It was not Cyrus Pritchett, although the farmer +spent most of his Sabbaths wandering about the fields examining the crops. +Corn had not yet been planted, anyway--not here on the Hillcrest Farm. + +But this was a man fully as large as Cyrus Pritchett. As he drew nearer, +Lyddy thought that he was a man she had never seen before. + +He wore a broad-brimmed felt hat--of the kind affected by Western +statesmen. His black hair--rather oily-looking it was, like an +Indian's--flowed to the collar of his coat. + +That coat was a frock, but it was unbuttoned, displaying a pearl gray +vest and trousers of the same shade. He even wore gray spats over his +shoes and was altogether more elaborately dressed than any native Lyddy +had heretofore seen. + +He came across the yard at a swinging stride, and took off his hat with a +flourish. She saw then that his countenance was deeply tanned, that he +had a large nose, thick, smoothly-shaven lips, and heavy-lidded eyes. + +"Miss Bray, I have no doubt?" he began, recovering from his bow. + +Lyddy had risen rather quickly, and only nodded. She scarcely knew what to +make of this stranger--and she was alone. + +"Pray sit down again," he urged, with a wave of his hand. "And allow me +to sit here at your feet. It is a lovely day--but warm." + +"It is, indeed," admitted Lyddy, faintly. + +"You have a beautiful view of the valley here." + +"Yes, sir." + +"I am told below," said the man, with a free gesture taking in Bridleburg +and several square miles of surrounding country, "that you take boarders +here at Hillcrest?" + +"Yes, sir," said Lyddy again. + +"Good! Your rooms are not yet all engaged, my dear young lady?" said the +man, who seemed unable to discuss the simplest subject without using what +later she learned to call "his platform manner." + +"Oh, no; we haven't many guests as yet." + +"Good!" he exclaimed again. Then, after a moment's pursing of his lips, +he added: "This is not strictly speaking a legal day for making bargains. +But we may _talk_ of an arrangement; mayn't we?" + +"I do not understand you, sir," said Lyddy. + +"Ah! No! I am referring to the possibility of my taking board with you, +Miss Bray." + +"I see," responded the girl, with sudden interest. "Do you think you would +be suited with the accommodations we have to offer?" + +"Ah, my dear miss!" he exclaimed, with a broad smile. "I am an old +campaigner. I have slept gypsy-fashion under the stars many and many a +night. A straw pallet has often been my lot. Indeed, I am naturally +simple of taste and habit." + +He said all this with an air as though entirely different demands might +reasonably be expected of such as he. He evidently had a very good opinion +of himself. + +Lyddy did not much care for his appearance; but he was respectably--if +strikingly--dressed, and he was perfectly respectful. + +"I will show you what we have," said Lyddy, and rose and accompanied him +through the house. + +"You do not let any of the rooms in the east wing?" he asked, finally. + +"No, sir. Neither upstairs nor down. We probably shall not disturb those +rooms at all." + +Finally they talked terms. The stranger seemed to forget all his scruples +about doing business on Sunday, for he was a hard bargainer. As a result +he obtained from Lyddy quite as good accommodations as Mrs. Castle +had--and for two dollars less per week. + +Not until they had come downstairs did Lyddy think to ask him his name. + +"And one not unknown to fame, my dear young lady," he said, drawing out +his cardcase. "Famous in more than one field of effort, too--as you may +see. + +"Your terms are quite satisfactory, I will have my trunk brought up in +the morning, and I will do myself the honor to sup with you to-morrow +evening. Good-day, Miss Bray," and he lifted his hat and went away +whistling, leaving Lyddy staring in surprise at the card in her hand: + + PROF. LEMUEL JUDSON SPINK, M.D. + Proprietor: Stonehedge Bitters + Likewise of the World Famous + DIAMOND GRITS + "_The Breakfast of the Million_" + +"Why! it's the Spink man we've heard so much about--the boy who was taken +out of the poorhouse by grandfather. I--I wonder if I have done right to +take him as a boarder?" murmured Lyddy at last. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE WIDOW HARRISON'S TROUBLES + + +Later Lyddy Bray had more than "two minds" about taking Professor Lemuel +Judson Spink to board. And 'Phemie's "You never took him!" when she +first heard the news on her return from church, was not the least of the +reasons for Lyddy's doubts. + +But 'Phemie denied flatly--the next minute--that she had any real and +sensible reason for opposing Mr. Spink's coming to Hillcrest to board. +Indeed, she said emphatically that she had never yet expressed any dislike +for the proprietor of Diamond Grits--the breakfast of the million. + +"My goodness me! why _not_ take him?" she said. "As long as we don't have +to eat his breakfast food, I see no reason for objecting." + +But in her secret heart 'Phemie was puzzled by what "Jud Spink," as he +was called by his old associates, was up to! + +She believed Cyrus Pritchett knew; but 'Phemie stood rather in fear of +the stern farmer, as did his whole household. + +Only Lyddy had faced the bullying old man and seemed perfectly fearless +of him; but 'Phemie shrank from adding to the burden on Lyddy's mind by +explaining to her all the suspicions _she_ held of this Spink. + +The man had tried to purchase Hillcrest of Aunt Jane for a nominal sum. +He had been lurking about the old house--especially about the old doctor's +offices in the east wing--more than once, to 'Phemie's actual knowledge. + +And Spink was interested in something at the back of Hillcrest Farm. He +had been hunting among the rocks there until old Mr. Colesworth's presence +had driven him away. + +What was he after on the old farm where he had lived for some years as a +boy? What was the secret of the rocks? And had the mystery finally brought +Professor Lemuel Judson Spink to the house itself as a boarder? + +These questions puzzled 'Phemie greatly. But she wouldn't put them before +her sister. If Lyddy was not suspicious, let her remain so. + +It was their duty to take all the boarders they could get. Mr. Spink added +his quota to their profits. 'Phemie was just as eager as Lyddy to keep +father on the farm and out of the shop that had so nearly proved fatal to +him. + +"So there's no use in refusing to swallow the breakfast food magnate," +decided 'Phemie. "We'll down him, and if we have to make a face at the +bitter dose, all right!" + +Professor Spink came the very next evening. He was a distinct addition +to the party at supper. Indeed, his booming voice, his well rounded +periods, his unctuous manner, his frock coat, and his entire physical +and mental make-up seemed to dominate the dining-room. + +Mr. Colesworth listened to his supposedly scientific jargon with a quiet +smile; the geologist plainly sized up Professor Spink for the quack he +was. Mr. Bray tried to be a polite listener to all the big man said. + +The girls were utterly silenced by the ever-flowing voice of the +ex-medicine show lecturer; but Mr. Somers was inclined to argue on a +point or two with Professor Spink. This, however, only made the man +"boom" the louder. + +Mrs. Castle seemed willing to listen to the Professor's verbosity and +agreed with all he said. She was willing after supper to withdraw from the +usual cribbage game and play "enthralled audience" for the ex-lecturer's +harangues. + +He boomed away at her upon a number of subjects, while she placidly nodded +acquiescence and made her knitting needles flash--and he talked, and +talked, and talked. + +When the little old lady retired to bed Lyddy went to her room, as she +usually did, to see if she was comfortable for the night. + +"I am afraid our new guest rather bored you, Mrs. Castle?" Lyddy ventured. + +"On the contrary, Lydia," replied the old lady, promptly, "his talk is +very soothing; and I can knit with perfect assurance that I shall not miss +count while he is talking--for I don't really listen to a word he says!" + +Professor Spink did not, however, make himself offensive. He only seemed +likely to become a dreadful bore. + +During the day he wandered about the farm--a good deal like Mr. +Colesworth. Only he did not carry with him a little hammer and bag. + +'Phemie wondered if the professor had not come here to board for the +express purpose of continuing his mysterious search at the back of the +farm without arousing either objection or comment. + +He watched Mr. Colesworth, too. There could be no doubt of that. When the +old geologist started out with his hammer and bag, the professor trailed +him. But the two never went together. + +Mr. Colesworth often brought in curious specimens of rock; but he said +frankly that he had come across no mineral of value on the farm in +sufficient quantities to promise the owner returns for mining the ore. + +Aunt Jane, too, had said that the rocks back of Hillcrest had been +examined by geologists time and again. There was no mineral treasure on +the farm. _That_ was surely not the secret of the rocks--and it wasn't +mineral Professor Spink was after. + +But the week passed without 'Phemie's having studied out a single sensible +idea about the matter. Friday was a very hard and busy day for the +girls. It was the big baking day of the week. They made a fire twice in +the big brick oven, and left two pots of beans in it over night. + +"But there's enough in the larder to last over Sunday, thanks be!" sighed +'Phemie, when she and Lyddy crept to bed. + +"I hope so. What a lot they do eat!" said Lyddy, sleepily. + +"A double baking of bread. A dozen apple pies; four squash pies; and an +extra lemon-meringue for Sunday dinner. Oh, dear, Lyd! I wish you'd let +me go and ask Maw Pritchett for her Dutch oven." + +"No," replied the older sister, drowsily. "We will not risk a refusal. +Besides, Mr. Somers said something about an old lady over the +ridge--beyond the chapel--who is selling out--or being sold out--Mrs. +Harrison. Maybe she has something of the kind that she will sell cheap." + +"Well--that--old--brick--oven--is--kill--ing--me!" yawned 'Phemie, and +then was sound asleep in half a minute. + +The next morning, however, the girls hustled about as rapidly as possible +and when Lucas drove up with young Mr. Colesworth they were ready to take +a drive with the young farmer over the ridge. + +"We want to see what this Mrs. Harrison has to sell," explained Lyddy to +Lucas. "You see, we need some things." + +"All right," he agreed. "I'll take ye. But whether the poor old critter +is let to sell anything private, or not, I dunno. They sold her real +estate last week, and this sale of household goods is to satisfy the +judgment. The farm wasn't much, and it went for a song. Poor old critter! +She is certainly getting the worst end of it, and after putting up with +Bob Harrison's crotchets so many years." + +'Phemie was interested in Mrs. Harrison and wanted to ask Lucas about her; +but just as they started Harris Colesworth darted out of the house again, +having seen his father. + +"Hold on! don't be stingy!" he cried. "There's a seat empty beside you, +Miss Lyddy. Can't I go, too?" + +Now, how could you refuse a person as bold as that? Besides, Harris was a +"paying guest" and she did not want to offend him! So Lyddy bowed demurely +and young Colesworth hopped in. + +"Let 'em go, Lucas!" he cried. "Now, this is what _I_ call a mighty nice +little family party--I don't see Somers in it." + +At that Lucas laughed so he could scarcely hold the reins. But Lyddy only +looked offended. + +"Stop your silly giggling, Lucas," commanded 'Phemie, fearful that her +sister would become angry and "speak out in meeting." "I want to know all +about this Mrs. Harrison." + +"Is that where you're bound--to the Widow Harrison's?" asked Harris. +"I have been told that our new friend, Professor Spink, has sold her +out--stock, lock, and barrel." + +"Is _that_ who is making her trouble?" demanded 'Phemie, hotly. "I _knew_ +he was a mean man." + +"Well, he was a bad man to go to for money, I reckon," agreed Harris. + +"Bob Harrison didn't mortgage his place to Jud Spink," explained Lucas. +"No sir! He got the money of Reuben Smiles, years ago. And he and his +widder allus paid the intrust prompt." + +"Well--how did it come into Spink's hands?" + +"Why--I dunno. Guess Spink offered Smiles a bonus. At any rate, the +original mortgage had long since run out, and was bein' renewed from +year to year. When it come time for renewal, Jud Spink showed his hand and +foreclosed. They had a sale, and it didn't begin to pay the face of the +mortgage. You see, the place had all run down. Bob hadn't turned a stroke +of work on it for years before he died, and the widder'd only made shift +to make a garden. + +"Wal, there was a clause covering all personal property--and the widder +had subscribed to it. So now the sheriff is going to have a vendue an' see +if he kin satisfy Jud Spink's claim in full. Dunno what _will_ become of +Mis' Harrison," added Lucas, shaking his head. "She's quite spry, if she +is old; but she ain't got a soul beholden to her, an' I reckon she'll +be took to the poor farm." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE TEMPERANCE CLUB AGAIN + + +The boys sat in the buckboard and talked earnestly while Lyddy and +'Phemie Bray "visited" with the Widow Harrison. She was a tall, gaunt, +sad woman--quite "spry," as Lucas had said; but she was evidently troubled +about her future. + +Her poor sticks of furniture could not bring any great sum at the auction, +which was slated for the next Monday. She admitted to the Bray girls that +she expected the money raised would all have to go to the mortgagee. + +"I _did_ 'spect I'd be 'lowed to live here in Bob's place till I died," +she sighed. "Bob was hard to git along with. I paid dear for my home, I +did. And now it's goin' to be took away from me." + +"And you have no relatives, Mrs. Harrison? Nobody whose home you would +be welcome in?" asked Lyddy, thoughtfully. + +"Not a soul belongin' to me," declared Mrs. Harrison. "An' I wouldn't ask +charity of nobody--give me my way." + +"You think you could work yet?" ventured Lyddy. + +"Why, bless ye! I've gone out washin' an' scrubbin' when I could. But +folks on this ridge ain't able to have much help. Still, them I've worked +for will give me a good word. No _young_ woman can ekal me, I'm proud to +say. I was brought up to work, I was, an' I ain't never got rusty." + +Lyddy looked at 'Phemie with shining eyes. At first the younger sister +didn't comprehend what Lyddy was driving at. But suddenly a light flooded +her mind. + +"Goody! that's just the thing!" cried 'Phemie, clasping her hands. + +"What might ye be meanin'?" demanded the puzzled Mrs. Harrison, looking +at the girls alternately. + +"You are just the person we want, Mrs. Harrison," Lyddy declared, "and we +are just the persons _you_ want. It is a mutual need, and for once the two +needs have come together." + +"I don't make out what ye mean, child," returned the old woman. + +"Why, you want work and a home. We need somebody to help us, and we +have plenty of space so that you can have a nice big room to yourself +at Hillcrest, and I _know_ we shall get along famously. Do, _do_, Mrs. +Harrison! Let's try it!" + +A blush rose slowly into the old woman's face. Her eyes shone with sudden +unshed tears as she continued to look at Lyddy. + +"You don't know what you're saying, child!" she finally declared, hoarsely. + +"Yes, dear Mrs. Harrison! We need you--and perhaps you need us." + +"Need ye!" The stern New England nature of the woman could not break up +easily. Her face worked as she simply repeated the words, in a tone that +brought a choking feeling into 'Phemie's throat: "_Need ye!_" + +But Lyddy went on to explain details, and bye-and-bye Mrs. Harrison gained +control of her emotions. Lyddy told her what she felt she could afford +to pay. + +"It isn't great pay, I know; but we're not making much money out of the +boarders yet; if we fill the house, you shall have more. And we will be +sure to treat you nicely, Mrs. Harrison." + +"Stop, child! don't say another word!" gasped the old woman. "Of course, +I'll come. Why--you don't know what you're doing for me----" + +"No; we're doing for ourselves," laughed Lyddy. + +"You're givin' me a chance to be independent," cried Mrs. Harrison. +"That's the greatest thing in the world." + +"Isn't it?" returned Lyddy, sweetly. "I think so. That's what we are +trying to do ourselves. So you'll come?" + +"Sure as I'm alive, Miss," declared the old woman. "Ye need have no fear I +won't. I'll be over in time to help ye with supper Monday night. And wait +till Tuesday with your washin'. I'm a good washer, if I _do_ say it as +shouldn't." + +The young folks drove back to Hillcrest much more gaily than they had +come. At least, 'Phemie and Lucas were very gay on the front seat. Harris +Colesworth said to Lyddy: + +"Lucas has been giving me the full history of the Widow Harrison's +troubles. And her being sold out of house and home isn't the worst +she's been through." + +"No?" + +"The man she married--late in life--was a Tartar, I tell you! Just as +cranky and mean as he could be. Everybody thought he was an old soldier. +He was away from here all during the Civil War--from '61 to '65--and folks +supposed he'd get a pension, and that his widow would have _something_ +for her trouble of marrying and living with the old grouch. + +"But it seems he never enlisted at all. He was just a sutler, or camp +follower, or something. He couldn't get a pension. And he let folks think +that he had brought home a lot of money, and had hidden it; but when he +died two years ago Mrs. Harrison didn't find a penny. He'd just mortgaged +the old place, and they'd been living on the money he got that way." + +"It seems too bad she should lose everything," agreed Lyddy. + +"I am going to stay over Monday and go to the vendue," said Harris. "Lucas +says she has a few pieces of furniture that maybe I'd like to have--a +chest of drawers, and a desk----" + +"Oh, yes! I saw them," responded Lyddy, "And she's got some kitchen things +I'd like to have, too. I _need_ her Dutch oven." + +"Oh, I say, Miss Lyddy!" he exclaimed, eagerly, yet bashfully, "you're not +going to try to cook over that open fire all this summer? It will kill +you." + +"I _do_ need a stove--a big range," admitted the young girl. "But I don't +see how----" + +"Let me lend you the money!" exclaimed Harris. "See! I'll pay you ahead +for father and me as many weeks as you like----" + +"I most certainly shall not accept your offer, Mr. Colesworth!" declared +Lyddy, immediately on guard again with this too friendly young man. "Of +course, I am obliged to you; but I could not think of it." + +She chilled his ardor on this point so successfully that Harris scarcely +dared suggest that they four go to the Temperance Club meeting at the +schoolhouse that night. Evidently Lucas and he had talked it over, +and were anxious to have the girls go. 'Phemie welcomed the suggestion +gladly, too. And feeling that she had too sharply refused Mr. Colesworth's +kindly suggestion regarding the kitchen range, Lyddy graciously agreed to +go. + +Mr. Somers, the school teacher, was possibly somewhat offended because +Lyddy had refused to accompany _him_ to the club meeting; but for once +Lyddy took her own way without so much regard for the possible "feelings" +of other people. The teacher could not comfortably take both her and +'Phemie in his buggy; and why offend Lucas Pritchett, who was certainly +their loyal friend and helper? + +So when the ponies and buckboard appeared after supper the two girls were +in some little flutter of preparation. Old Mr. Colesworth and Grandma +Castle (as she loved to have the girls call her) were on the porch to see +the party off. + +The girls had worked so very hard these past few weeks that they were both +eager for a little fun. Even Lyddy admitted that desire now. Since their +first venture to the schoolhouse and to the chapel, Lyddy had met very +few of the young people. And 'Phemie had not been about much. + +Since Sairy Pritchett and her mother had put their social veto on the Bray +girls the young people of the community--the girls, at least--acted very +coldly toward Lyddy and 'Phemie. The latter saw this more clearly than her +sister, for she had occasion to meet some of them both at chapel and in +Bridleburg, where she had gone with Lucas several times for provisions. + +Indeed she had heard from Lucas that quite a number of the neighbors +considered 'Phemie and her sister "rather odd," to put it mildly. The +Larribees were angry because Mr. Somers, the school teacher, had left them +to board at Hillcrest. "Measles," they said, "was only an excuse." + +And there were other taxpayers in the district who thought Mr. Somers +ought to have boarded with _them_, if he had to leave Sam Larribee's! + +And of course, the way that oldest Bray girl had taken the school teacher +right away from Sairy Pritchett---- + +'Phemie thought all this was funny. Yet she was glad Lyddy had not heard +much of it, for Lyddy's idea of fun did not coincide with such gossip and +ill-natured criticisms. + +'Phemie was not, however, surprised by the cold looks and lack of friendly +greeting that met them when they came to the schoolhouse this evening. +Mr. Somers had got there ahead of them. There was much whispering when the +Bray girls came in with Harris Colesworth, and 'Phemie overheard one +girl whisper: + +"Guess Mr. Somers got throwed down, too. I see she's got a new string to +her bow!" + +"Now, if Lyddy hears such talk as that she'll be really hurt," thought +'Phemie. "I really wish we hadn't come." + +But they were in their seats then, with Harris beside Lyddy and Lucas +beside herself. There didn't seem to be any easy way of getting out of the +place. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +CAUGHT + + +Nettie Meyers was there--Joe Badger's buxom friend. She stared hard at +'Phemie and her sister, and then tossed her head. But Mr. Badger came over +particularly to speak to the girls. + +Sairy Pritchett was very much in evidence. She sat with half a dozen +other young women and by their looks and laughter they were evidently +commenting unfavorably upon the Bray girls' appearance and character. + +Lyddy bowed pleasantly to Mr. Badger and the other young men who spoke +to her; but she gave her main attention to Harris. But 'Phemie noted all +the sidelong glances, the secret whispering, the bold and harsh words. +She was very sorry they had come. + +Alone, 'Phemie could have given these girls "as good as they sent." Young +as she was, her experience among common-minded girls like these had +prepared her to hold her own with them. There had been many unpleasant +happenings in the millinery shop where she had worked, of which she +had told Lyddy nothing. + +Mr. Somers came down from the desk to speak to the party from Hillcrest +before the meeting opened. But everybody turned around to stare when he +did so, and the teacher grew red to his very ears and remained but a +moment under fire. + +"Hul-_lo_!" exclaimed Harris Colesworth, under his breath, and 'Phemie +knew that he immediately realized the situation. The whole membership--at +least, the female portion of it--was hostile to the party from Hillcrest. + +While the entertainment was proceeding, however, the Bray girls and their +escorts were left in peace. Sairy Pritchett sat where she could stare at +Lyddy and 'Phemie, and they were conscious of her antagonistic gaze all +the time. + +But Lucas was quite undisturbed by his sister's ogling and when there came +a break in the program he leaned over and demanded of her in a perfectly +audible voice: + +"I say, Sairy! You keep on starin' like that and you'll git suthin' wuss'n +a squint--you'll git cross-eyed, and it'll stay fixed! Anything about _me_ +you don't like the look of? Is my necktie crooked?" + +Some of the others laughed--and at Sairy. It made the spinster furious. + +"You're a perfect fool, Lucas Pritchett!" she snapped. "If you ever _did_ +have any brains, you've addled 'em now over certain folks that I might +mention." + +"Go it, old gal!" said the slangy Lucas. "Ev'ry knock's a boost--don't +forgit that!" + +"Hush!" commanded 'Phemie, in a whisper. + +"Huh! that cat's goin' to do somethin' mean. I can see it," growled Lucas. + +"She is your sister," admonished 'Phemie. + +"That's how I come to know her so well," returned Lucas, calmly. "If she'd +only been a boy I'd licked her aout o' this afore naow!" + +"About _what_?" asked the troubled 'Phemie. + +"Oh, just over her 'tarnal meanness. And maw's so foolish, too; _she_ +could stop her." + +"I'm sorry we came here to-night, Lucas," 'Phemie whispered. + +And at the same moment Lyddy was saying exactly the same thing to Harris +Colesworth. + +"Pshaw!" said the young chemist, in return, "don't give 'em the +satisfaction of seeing we're disturbed. They know no better. I can't +understand why they should be so nasty to us." + +"It's Lucas's sister," sighed Lyddy. "She thinks she has reason for being +offended with me. But I _did_ hope that feeling had died out by this time." + +"You say the word and we'll get out of here, Miss Lydia," urged Harris. + +"Sh! No," she whispered, for somebody was painfully playing a march on +the tin-panny old piano, and Mr. Somers was scowling directly down upon +the Hillcrest party to obtain silence. + +"Say! what's the matter with that Somers chap, too?" muttered Harris. + +But Lyddy feared that the teacher felt he had cause for offence, and she +certainly _was_ uncomfortable. + +The recess--or intermission--between the two halves of the literary and +musical program, was announced. This was a time always given to social +intercourse. The company broke up into groups and chattered and laughed +in a friendly--if somewhat boisterous--way. + +Newcomers and visitors were made welcome at this time. Nobody now came +near the Bray girls--not even Mr. Somers. Whether this was intentional +neglect on his part or not they did not know, for the teacher seemed busy +at the desk with first one and then another. + +Sairy Pritchett and the club historian had their heads together, and the +latter, Mayme Lowry, was evidently adding several items to her "Club +Chronicles," which amused the two immensely. And there was a deal of +nudging and tittering over this among the other girls who gathered about +the arch-plotters. + +"I'm glad they've got something besides us to giggle about," Lyddy +confided to her sister. + +But 'Phemie was not sure that the ill-natured girls were not hatching up +some scheme to offend the Hillcrest party. + +"I believe I'd like to go home," ventured 'Phemie. + +"Aw! don't let 'em chase you away," exclaimed the young farmer. + +"Oh, I know: 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never +hurt me!' But being called names--or, even having names _looked_ at +one--isn't pleasant." + +Lyddy heard her and said quickly, her expression very decided indeed: + +"We're not going--yet. Let us stay until the finish." + +"Yes, by jove!" muttered Harris. "I'd just like to see what these Rubes +would dare do!" + +But girls are not like boys--at least, some girls are not. They won't +fight fair. + +The Hillcrest party need not have expected an attack in any way that could +be openly answered--no, indeed. But they did not escape. + +Mr. Somers rang his desk bell at last and called the company to order. +After a song from the school song-book, in which everybody joined, the +"Club Chronicles" were announced. + +This "history"--being mainly hits on what had happened in the community +since the last meeting of the Temperance Club--was very popular. Mayme +Lowry was a more than ordinarily bright girl, and had a gift for +composition. It was whispered that she wrote the "Pounder's Brook Items" +for the Bridleburg _Weekly Clarion_. + +Miss Lowry rose and unfolded her manuscript. It was written in a somewhat +irreverent imitation of the scriptural "Chronicles;" but that seemed to +please the young folks here gathered all the more. She began: + +"And it came to pass in the reign of King Westerville Somers, who was +likewise a seer and a prophet, and in the fourth month of the second year +of his reign over the Pounder's School District, that a certain youth +whose name rhymes with 'hitch it,' hitched himself to the apron-strings +of a maid, who was at that time sojourning at the top of the hill--and +was hitched so tight that you couldn't have pried the two apart with a +crowbar!" + +"Oh, by cracky!" gasped the suddenly ruddy-faced Lucas. "What a wallop!" + +The paragraph was punctuated with a general titter from the girls all over +the room, while some of the boys hooted at Lucas in vast joy. + +Lyddy turned pale; 'Phemie's countenance for once rivalled Lucas's own +in hue. But Miss Lowry went on to the next paragraph, which was quite as +severe a slap at somebody else. + +"Don't get mad with _me_, Miss 'Phemie," begged Lucas, in a whisper. + +"Oh, you can't help it, Lucas," she said. "But I'll never come to this +place with you again. Don't expect it!" + +The amusing but sometimes merely foolish paragraphs were reeled off, one +after the other. Sometimes the crowd shouted with laughter; sometimes +there was almost dead silence as Miss Lowry delivered a particularly hard +hit, or one that was not entirely understood at first. + +"And it came to pass in those days that certain damsels of the Pounder's +Brook Temperance Club gathered themselves together in one place, and +saith, the one to the other: + +"Is it not so that the young men of Pounder's Brook are no longer +attracted by our girls? They no longer care to listen to our songs, or +when we play upon the harp or psaltery. They pass us by with unseeing +vision. Verily an Easter bonnet no longer catcheth the eye of the wayward +youth, and holdeth his attention. Selah. + +"Therefore spake one damsel to the others gathered together, and sayeth: +'Surely we are not wise. The young men of our tribe goeth after strange +gods. Therefore, let us awake, and go forth, and show the wisdom of +serpents and--each and every one of us--start a boarding house!'" + +The young men, who had begun to look exceedingly foolish during this +harangue, suddenly broke into a chorus of laughter. Even Lucas and Harris +Colesworth could not hide a grin, and the school teacher hid his face +from the company. + +The whole room was a-roar. Lyddy and 'Phemie suffered under the +indignity--and yet 'Phemie could scarcely forbear a grin. It was a +coarse joke, but laughter is contagious--even when the joke is against +oneself. + +Miss Lowry gave them no time to recover from this _bon mot_. She went on +with: + +"And it was said of a certain young man, as he rode on the way to +Bridleburg, that he was met by another youth, who halted and asked a +question of the traveler. But the traveler was strangely smitten at +that moment, and all he could do was to _bray_." + +There were no more shots at the Hillcrest folk after that--at least, if +there were, the Bray girls did not hear them. The "Chronicles" came to +an end at last. Somehow the sisters got away from the hateful place with +their escorts. + +"But don't ever ask me to go to that schoolhouse again," said Lyddy, +who was infrequently angry and so, when she displayed wrath, was the +more impressive. "I think, Lucas, the people around here are the most +ill-mannered and brutal folk who ever lived. They are in the stone age. +They should be living in caves in the hillside and be wearing skins of +wild animals instead of civilized clothing." + +"Yes, ma'am," replied Lucas, gently. "I reckon it looks so to you. But +they have all got used to Mayme Lowry's shots--it's give an' take with +most of 'em." + +"There is no excuse--there _can_ be no excuse for such cruelty," +reiterated Lyddy. "And we never have done a single thing knowingly to +hurt them." + +Harris Colesworth was silent, but 'Phemie saw that his eyes danced. He +only said, soothingly: + +"They are a different class from your own, Miss Lydia. They look on life +differently. You cannot understand them any more than they can understand +you. Forget it!" + +But that was more easily said than done. Forget it, indeed! Lydia declared +when she went to bed with 'Phemie that she still "burned all over" at the +recollection of the impudence of that Lowry girl! + +Of course, common sense should have come to the aid of the Bray sisters +and aided them to scorn the matter. "Overlook it" was the wise thing +to do. But a tiny thorn in the thumb may irritate more than a much more +serious injury. + +Lyddy considered Mr. Somers quite as much at fault for what had happened +at the meeting as anybody else. He was nominally in charge of the +temperance meeting. On the other hand 'Phemie decided that she would not +be seen so much in Lucas's company--although Lucas was a loyal friend. + +The morrow was the first Sunday of the month of May, and its dawn promised +as perfect a day as the month ever produced. Now the girls' flower +gardens were made, the vines 'Phemie had planted were growing, the +old lawns about the big farmhouse were a vernal green and the garden +displayed many promising rows of spring vegetables. + +The girls were up early and swept the great porch all the way around the +house, and set several comfortable old chairs out where they would catch +the morning sun for the early risers. + +The earliest of the boarders to appear was Harris Colesworth, wrapped in +a long raincoat and carrying a couple of bath towels over his arm. + +"I found a fine swimming hole up yonder in the brook where it comes +through the back of the farm," he declared to the sisters. "It's going to +be pretty cold, I know; but nothing like a beginning. I hope to get a +plunge in that brook every morning that I am up here." + +And he went away cheerfully whistling. A moment later 'Phemie saw +Professor Spink dart out of the side door and peer after the departing +Harris, around a corner of the house. The professor did not know that +he was observed. He shook his head, scowled, stamped his foot, and +finally ran in for his hat and followed upon Harris's track. + +"He's suspicious of everybody who goes up there to the rocks," thought +'Phemie. "What under the sun is it Spink's got up there?" + +Later in the day--it was an hour or more before their usual Sunday dinner +time--something else happened which quite chased the professor's odd +actions out of 'Phemie's mind--and it gave the rest of the household +plenty to talk about, too. + +The procession of carriages going to Cornell Chapel had passed some time +since when another vehicle was spied far down the road toward Bridleburg. +A faint throbbing in the air soon assured the watchers on Hillcrest that +this was an automobile. + +Not many autos climbed this stiff hill to Adams; there was a longer +and better road which did not touch Bridleburg and the Pounder's Brook +District at all. But this big touring car came pluckily up the hill, +and it did not slow down until it reached the bottom of the Hillcrest lane. + +There were several people in the car, and one, a lithe and active youth, +leaped out and ran up the lane. Plainly he came to ask a question, for +he dashed across the front yard toward where the family party were sitting +on the porch. + +"Oh, I say," he began, doffing his cap to the girls, "can you tell a +fellow----" + +His gaze had wandered, and now his speech trailed off into silence and his +eyes grew as large as saucers. He was staring at the placidly-knitting +Mrs. Castle, who sat listening to the Professor's booming voice. + +"Grandma! Great--jumping--horse--chestnuts!" the youth yelled. + +Mrs. Castle dropped her ball of yarn, and it went rolling down the steps +into the grass. She laid down her knitting, took off the spectacles and +wiped them, and them put them on again the better to see the amazed youth +below her. + +"Well," she said, at length, "I guess I'm caught." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE HIDDEN TREASURE + + +"I'm going to call up the governor--and mom--and Lucy--and Jinny," gasped +the young fellow, who had so suddenly laid claim to being Mrs. Castle's +grandson. "I just want them to _see_ you, Grandma. Why--why, _where_ did +you ever get those duds? And for all the world!--_you're knitting!_" + +"You can call 'em up, Tommy," said the old lady, placidly. "I've got the +bit in my teeth now, and I'm going to stay." + +"Can we drive in here?" asked Master Tom, quickly, of the girls, whom he +instinctively knew were in charge. + +"Yes," said Lyddy. "Of course any friends of Mrs. Castle's will be +welcome." + +Tom sang out for the chauffeur to turn into the lane, and in a minute or +two the motor party stopped in the grass-grown driveway within plain view +of the people on the porch. + +"Will you look at who's here?" demanded Master Tom, standing with his legs +wide apart and waving his arms excitedly. + +The rather stout, ruddy-faced man reading the Sunday paper dropped the +sheet and gazed across at the bridling old lady. + +"Why, Mother!" he cried. + +"Grandma--if it isn't!" exclaimed one young lady, who was about nineteen. + +"Mother Castle!" gasped the lady who sat beside Mr. Castle on the rear +seat. + +"Hullo, Grandma!" shouted the other girl, who was younger than Tom. + +"I hope you all know me," said Grandmother Castle, rising and leaving her +knitting in her chair, as she approached the automobile. "I thought some +of sending for some more clothing to-morrow; but you can take my order in +to-day." + +"Mother Castle! what _is_ the meaning of this masquerade?" demanded her +daughter-in-law, raising a gold-handled lorgnette through which to stare +at the old lady. + +"Thank you, Daughter Sarah," returned Mrs. Castle, tartly. "I consider +that from _you_ a compliment. I expect that a gown, fitted to my age and +position in life, _does_ look like a fancy dress to you." + +"Ho, ho!" roared her son, suddenly doubled up with laughter. "She's got +you there, Sadie, I swear! Mother, you look just as your own mother used +to look. I remember grandma well enough." + +"Thank you, Rufus," said the old lady, and there were tears in her eyes. +"Your grandmother was a fine woman." + +"'Deed she was," admitted Mr. Castle, who was getting out of the car +heavily. He now came forward and kissed his mother warmly. "Well, if you +like this, I don't see why you shouldn't have it," he added, standing off +and looking at her plain dress, and her cap, and the little shawl over +her shoulders. + +The girls and Master Tom had already kissed her; now Mrs. Castle the +younger got down and pecked at her mother-in-law's cheek. + +"I'm sure," she said, "I've always done everything to make you feel at +home with us, Mother Castle. I've tried to make you one of the family +right along. And you belong to the same clubs I do. Surely----" + +"That's just exactly it!" cried the little old lady, shaking her head. "I +don't belong in the same clubs with you. I don't want to belong to any +club--unless it's a grandmothers' club. And I want simple living--and +country air----" + +"And all these Rubes?" chuckled Mr. Castle, waving his hand to take in +the surrounding country. + +"Quite so, Rufus. But you would better postpone your criticisms until---- +Ah, let me introduce my son, Mr. Colesworth," she added, as the old +gentleman and Harris appeared from the side yard. "And young Mr. Harris +Colesworth, of the Commonwealth Chemical Company. Perhaps you've heard of +the Colesworths, Rufus?" + +"Bless us and save us!" murmured Mr. Castle. "You're from Easthampton, +too?" + +The old lady continued to introduce her family to the Brays, to Mr. +Somers, and even to Professor Spink. The latter came forward with a +flourish. + +"Spink--Lemuel Judson Spink, M.D., proprietor of Stonehedge Bitters, and +Diamond Grits, the breakfast of the million," the professor explained, +bowing low before Mrs. Rufus Castle. + +"And these two smart girls I have adopted as grandchildren, too," declared +the older Mrs. Castle, drawing Lyddy and 'Phemie forward. "These are the +hard-working, cheerful, kind-hearted girls who make this delightful home +at Hillcrest for us all." + +"Oh, Mrs. Castle makes too much of what we do," said Lyddy, softly. "You +see, 'Phemie and I are only too glad to have a grandmother; we do not +remember ours." + +"And, God forgive me! I'd almost forgotten what mine was like," said Mr. +Castle, softly, eyeing his old mother with misty vision. + +"Well, now!" spoke the old lady, briskly, "do you suppose you could +find enough in that pantry of yours to feed this hungry mob of people +in addition to your regular guests, Lyddy?" + +"Why--if they'll take 'pot luck,'" laughed Lyddy. "Literally 'pot luck,' I +mean, for the piece de resistance will be two huge pots of baked beans." + +"And such beans!" exclaimed Grandmother Castle. + +"And such 'brown loaf' to go with them," suggested Harris Colesworth. + +"And old-fashioned 'Injun pudding' baked in a brick oven," added Mr. Bray, +smiling. "There is a huge one, I know." + +"I am not sure that there wasn't method in your madness, Mother," declared +Mr. Castle. "All this sounds mighty tempting." + +"And it will taste even more tempting," declared the elder Mrs. Castle. + +"Let the hamper stay where it is," commanded her son, to the chauffeur. +"We'll partake of the Misses Bray's hospitality." + +The younger Castles, and the gentleman's wife, might have been in some +doubt at first; but when they were set down to the long dining table, +with Lyddy's hot viands steaming on the cloth--with the flowers, and +beautiful old damask, and blue-and-white china of a by-gone day, and the +heavy silver, and the brightness and cheerfulness of it all, they, too, +became enthusiastic. + +"It's the most delightful place to visit we've ever found," declared Miss +Virginia Castle. + +"It's too sweet for anything," agreed Miss Lucy. "I hope you'll come this +way in the car again, Dad." + +"I reckon we will if Grandma is going to make this her headquarters--and +she declares she's going to stay," said Master Tom. + +"Do you blame her?" returned his father, with a sigh of plenitude, as he +pushed back from the table. + +"Well! I can't convince myself that she ought to stay here; but you're all +against me, I see," said their mother. "And, it really _is_ a delightful +place." + +The Bray girls were proud of their success in satisfying such a party; and +Lyddy was particularly pleased when Mr. Castle drew her aside and put a +ten-dollar note in her hand. + +"Don't say a word! It was worth it. I only hope you won't be over-run by +auto parties and your place be spoiled. If you have any others, however, +charge them enough. It is better entertainment than we could possibly get +at any road house for the same money." + +And so Lyddy got ten dollars toward her kitchen range. + +While the ladies were getting into the tonneau, however, Miss Bray +overheard a few words 'twixt Harris Colesworth and young Tom Castle that +made her suspicious. She came out upon the side porch to wave them +good-bye with the dish-cloth, and there were Harris and Tom directly +beneath her. + +And they did not observe Lyddy. + +"All right, old man," Master Tom was saying, as he wrung the young +chemist's hand. "The governor and I _were_ a bit worried about grandma, +and your tip came in the nick of time. + +"But," he added, with a chuckle, "I had no end of trouble getting Mom and +the girls to let James come up this way. You see, they'd never been this +way over the hill before." + +"Now," said Lyddy to herself, when the boys had passed out of hearing, +"here is another case where this Harris Colesworth deliberately put +his--his _nose_ into other people's business! + +"He knew these Castles. At least, he knew that they belonged to grandma. +And he took it upon himself to be a talebearer. I don't like him! I +declare I never _shall_ really like him. + +"Of course, perhaps grandma's son and the rest of the family might be +getting anxious about her. But suppose they'd been nasty about it and +tried to make her go home with them? + +"No. 'Phemie is always saying Harris Colesworth has 'such a nice nose.' +It is nothing of the kind! It is too much in other people's business to +suit me," quoth Lyddy, with decision. + +Her opinion of him, however, did not feaze Harris in the least. Mr. Somers +was inclined to be stiff and "offish" since the previous evening, but +Harris was jolly, and kept everybody cheered up--even grandma, who was +undoubtedly a little woe-begone after her family had departed--for a +while, at least. + +It was a little too cool yet to sit out of doors after sunset, and that +evening after supper they gathered about a clear, brisk fire on the +dining-room hearth, and Harris Colesworth led the conversation. + +And perhaps he had an ulterior design in leading the talk to the Widow +Harrison's troubles. He said nothing at which Jud Spink could take +offense, but it seemed that Harris had informed himself regarding the +old woman's life with her peculiar husband, and he knew much about Bob +Harrison himself. + +"Say--he was a caution--he was!" cried Harris. "And he kept folks guessing +all about here for years. The Pritchetts say Bob was a ne'er-do-well +when he was a boy----" + +"And that is quite so," put in Professor Spink. "I can remember the way +the old folks talked about him when I was a boy about here." + +"Just so," agreed Harris. "He made out he was entitled to a pension from +the government, for years. And he always told folks he had brought a +fortune home from the war with him. Let on that he had hidden it about +the house, too." + +Professor Spink's eyes snapped, and he leaned forward. + +"You don't reckon there is anything in that story; do you, Mr. +Colesworth?" he asked. + +"Why--I don't--know," said Harris, slowly, but with a perfectly grave +face. "As I make it out, when the old fellow died the widow made search +for this hidden treasure he had hinted at so often; but when the lawyers +found out that he was entitled to no pension--that he'd lied about +_that_--and that about all he had left her was a mortgage on the place, +Mrs. Harrison gave up the search for money in disgust. She said as he'd +lied about the pension, and about other things, why, of course he'd lied +about the hidden treasure." + +"And don't you think he did?" asked Spink, with so much interest that the +others were amused. + +"Humph!" responded Harris, gravely. "I don't know. He _might_ have hidden +bonds--or deeds--or even bank notes." + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Mr. Bray, laughing. "That's imagination." + +"You need not mind, Professor," said old Mr. Colesworth, sharply. "If +there is money, or treasure, hidden there in the house, or on the place, +and you have bid the place in, as I understand you have, it will be +'treasure trove'--it will belong to you--if you find it." + +"Ha!" ejaculated Professor Spink, darting the old gentleman rather an +angry glance. + +"I don't know whether it is altogether talk and imagination, or not," +said Harris, ruminatively. "Cyrus Pritchett was with Bob Harrison when he +died. And he says the old man talked of this hidden money--or treasure--or +what-not--up to the very time be became unconscious. He had a shock, +you know, and it stopped his speech like _that_," and Harris snapped his +finger and thumb. + +"It sounds like a story-book," said Grandma Castle, complacently. + +"It doesn't sound sensible," observed Lyddy, drily. + +"I'm giving it to you for what it's worth," remarked Harris, +good-naturedly. "Mr. Pritchett was sitting up with Harrison when the old +man had his final shock. Harrison had been mumbling along to Cyrus +about what he wanted done with certain of his possessions. And he says: + +"'There's that hid away that will be wuth money--five thousand in hard +cash--some day, Cy.' + +"Those are the words he used," said Harris, earnestly, and watching +Professor Spink from one corner of his eye. "He was sitting up, Cy said, +and as he spoke he pointed at---- Well," broke off Harris, abruptly, +"never mind what he pointed at. He died before he could finish what he +was saying." + +"Is that the truth, Harris Colesworth?" demanded 'Phemie, regarding him +seriously. + +"I got it from Lucas. Then I asked his father. That is just the way the +story was told to me," declared the young fellow, warmly. + +"And--and they never found anything?" asked Mr. Bray. + +"No. They searched. They searched the old pieces of--of furniture, too. +But Mrs. Harrison gave it up when it was found that Bob had been such a--a +prevaricator." + +"He probably lied about the fortune," said Mr. Bray, quietly. + +"Well--maybe," grunted Harris. + +But Lyddy remembered that Harris had already told her that he proposed to +go to the vendue and buy in several pieces of the widow's furniture. Did +that mean that Harris really thought he had a clue to the hidden treasure? + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE VENDUE + + +Lucas Pritchett drove into the yard with the two-seated buckboard about +nine o'clock the next forenoon. And, wonders of wonders! his mother sat +on the front seat beside him. + +'Phemie ran out in a hurry. Lyddy was getting ready to go to the vendue. +She wanted to bid in that Dutch oven--and some other things. + +"Why, Mrs. Pritchett!" exclaimed the younger Bray girl, "you are welcome! +You haven't been here for an age." + +Mrs. Pritchett looked pretty grim; but 'Phemie found it was tears that +made her eyes wink so fast. + +"I ain't never been here but onct since you gals came. And I'm ashamed +of myself," said "Maw" Pritchett. "I hope you'll overlook it." + +"For goodness' sake! how you talk!" gasped 'Phemie. + +"Is it true you gals have saved that poor old critter from the farm?" +demanded Mrs. Pritchett, earnestly, and letting the tears run unchecked +down her fat cheeks. + +"Why--why----" + +"Widder Harrison, she means," grunted Lucas. "It all come out yesterday +at church. The widder told about it herself. The parson got hold of it, +and he put it into his sermon. And by cracky! some of those folks that +treated ye so mean at the schoolhouse, Saturday night, feel pretty cheap +after what the parson said." + +"And if my Sairy ever says a mean word to one o' you gals--or as much as +_looks_ one," cried Mother Pritchett, "big as she is an',--an', yes--_old_ +as she is, I'll spank her!" + +"Mrs. Pritchett! Lucas!" gasped 'Phemie. "It isn't so. You're making it up +out of whole cloth. We haven't really done a thing for Mrs. Harrison----" + +"You've thought to take her in and give her a home----" + +"No, no! I am sure she will earn her living here." + +"But none of us--folks that had knowed her for years--thought to give +the poor old critter a chanst," burst out the lady. "Oh, I know Cyrus +wouldn't 'a' heard to our taking her; and I dunno as we could have +exactly afforded it, for me an' Sairy is amply able to do the work; but +our Ladies' Aid never thought to do a thing for her--nor nobody else," +declared Mrs. Pritchett. + +"You two gals was ministerin' angels. I don't suppose we none of us really +knowed how Mis' Harrison felt about going to the poorhouse. But we didn't +inquire none, either. + +"And here's Lyddy! My dear, I'm too fat to get down easy. I hope you'll +come and shake hands with me." + +"Why--certainly," responded Lyddy. "And I am really glad to see you, dear +Mrs. Pritchett." + +She had evidently overheard some, if not all, of the good lady's earnest +speech. Harris Colesworth appeared, too, and Professor Spink was right +behind him. + +"You stopped for me, as I asked you to, Lucas?" asked the young chemist. + +"Sure, Mr. Colesworth." + +"Miss Lydia is going, too," said the young man. + +"That'll fill the bill, then, sir," said Lucas, grinning. + +"But I say!" exclaimed the professor, suddenly. "Can't you squeeze _me_ +in? I'm going over the hill, too." + +"Don't see how it kin be done, Professor," said Lucas. + +"But you said you thought that there'd be an extra seat----" + +"Didn't know maw was going, then," replied the unabashed Lucas. + +"And Somers has driven off to school with his old mare," exclaimed Spink. + +"I believe he has," observed Harris. + +"This is a pretty pass!" and Mr. Spink was evidently angry. "I've just +_got_ to get to that vendue." + +"I'm afraid you'll have to walk--and it's advertised to begin in ha'f an +hour," quoth Lucas. + +"Say! where's your other rig?" demanded the professor. "I'll hire it." + +"Dad's plowin' with the big team," said Lucas, flicking the backs of the +ponies with his whip, as they started, "and our old mare is lame. Gid-up! + +"That Jud Spink is gittin' jest as pop'lar 'round here as a pedlar sellin' +mustard plasters in the lower regions!" observed young Pritchett, as they +whirled out of the yard. + +"Why, Lucas Pritchett! how you talk!" gasped his mother. + +The widow's auction sale--or "vendue"--brought together, as such affairs +usually do in the country, more people, and aroused a deal more interest, +than does a funeral. + +There was a goodly crowd before the little house, or moving idly through +the half-dismantled lower rooms when Lucas halted the ponies to let Harris +and the ladies out. + +To Lyddy's surprise, the women present--or most of them--welcomed her +with more warmth than she had experienced in a greeting since she and +her sister had first come to Hillcrest. + +But the auctioneer began to put up the household articles for sale very +soon and that relieved Lyddy of some embarrassment in meeting these folk +who so suddenly had veered toward her. + +There were only a few things the girl could afford to buy. The Dutch oven +was the most important; and fortunately most of the farmers' wives had +stoves in their kitchens, so there was not much bidding. Lyddy had it +nocked down to her for sixty cents. + +Mrs. Harrison seemed very sad to see some of her things go, and Lyddy +believed that every article that the widow seemed particularly anxious +about, young Harris Colesworth bid in. + +At least, he bought a bureau, a worktable, an old rocking chair with +stuffed back and cushion, and last of all an old, age-darkened, birdseye +maple desk, which seemed shaky and half-ready to fall to pieces. + +"That article ought to bring ye in a forchune, Mr. Colesworth," +declared the auctioneer, cheerfully. "That's where they say Bob hid his +forchune--yessir!" + +"And it looks--from the back of it--that worms had got inter the +forchune," chuckled one of the farmers, as the wood-worm dust rattled out +of the old contraption when Harris and Lucas carried it out and set it +down with the other articles Harris had bought. + +"So you got it; did you, young man?" snarled a voice behind the two +youths, and there stood Professor Spink. + +He was much heated, his boots and trousers were muddy, and his frock +coat had a bad, three-cornered tear in it. Evidently he had come across +lots--and he had hurried. + +"Why--were you interested in that old desk I bought in?" asked Harris with +a grin. + +"I'll give ye a dollar for your bargain," blurted out the professor. + +"I tell you honest, I didn't pay but two dollars for it," replied Harris. + +"I'll double it--give you four." + +"No. I guess I'll keep it." + +"Five," snapped the breakfast food magnate. + +"No, sir," responded Harris, turning away. + +"Good work! keep it up!" Lyddy heard Lucas whisper to the other youth. "I +bet I kin tell jest what dad told him. Dad's jest close-mouthed enough +to make the professor fidgetty. He begins to believe it all now." + +"Shut up!" warned Harris. + +The next moment the anxious professor was at him again. + +"I want that desk, Colesworth. I'll give you ten dollars for it--fifteen!" + +"Say," said Harris, in apparent disgust, "I'll tell you the truth; I +bought that desk--and these other things--to give back to old Mrs. +Harrison. She seemed to set store by them." + +"Ha!" + +"Now, the desk is hers. If she wants to sell it for twenty-five +dollars----" + +"You hush up! I'll make my own bargain with her," growled the professor. + +"No you won't, by jove!" exclaimed the city youth. "If you want the desk +you'll pay all its worth. Hey! Mrs. Harrison!" + +The widow approached, wonderingly. + +"I made up my mind," said Harris, hurriedly, "that I'd give you these +things here. You might like to have them in your room at Hillcrest." + +"Thank you, young man!" returned the widow, flushing. "I don't know what +makes you young folks so kind to me----" + +"Hold on! there's something else," interrupted Harris. "Now, Professor +Spink here wants to buy that desk." + +"And I'll give ye a good price for it, Widder," said Spink. "I want it to +remember Bob by. I'll give you----" + +"He's already offered me twenty-five dollars for it----" + +"No, I ain't!" exclaimed Spink. + +"Oh, then, you don't want it, after all," returned Harris, coolly. "I +thought you did." + +"Well! suppose I do offer you twenty-five for it, Mis' Harrison?" +exclaimed Spink, evidently greatly spurred by desire, yet curbed by his +own natural penuriousness. + +"Take my advice and bid him up, Mrs. Harrison," said Harris, with a wink. +"He knows more about this old desk than he ought to, it seems to me." + +"For the land's sake----" began the widow; but Spink burst forth in a rage: + +"I'll make ye a last offer for it--you can take it or leave it." He drew +forth a wad of bills and peeled off several into the widow's hand. + +"There's fifty dollars. Is the desk mine?" he fairly yelled. + +The vociferous speech of the professor drew people from the auction. They +gathered around. Harris nodded to the old lady, and her hand clamped upon +the bills. + +"Remember, this is Mrs. Harrison's own money," said young Colesworth, +evenly. "The desk was bought at auction for two dollars." + +"Well, is it mine?" demanded Spink. + +"It is yours, Jud Spink," replied the old lady, stuffing the money into +her handbag. + +"Gimme that hatchet!" cried the professor, seizing the implement from a +man who stood by. He attacked the old desk in a fury. + +"Oh! that's too bad!" gasped Mrs. Harrison. "I _did_ want the old thing." + +Spink grinned at them. "I'll make you both sicker than you be!" he +snarled. "Out o' the way!" + +He banged the desk two or three more clips--and out fell a secret panel +in the back of it. + +"By cracky! money--real money!" yelled Lucas Pritchett. "Oh, Mr. Harris! +we done it now!" + +For from the shallow opening behind the panel there were scattered upon +the ground several packets of apparently brand-new, if somewhat discolored +banknotes. + +Professor Spink dropped the axe and picked up the packages eagerly. Others +crowded around. They ran them over quickly. + +"Five thousand dollars--if there's a cent!" gasped somebody, in an awed +whisper. + +"An' she sold it for fifty dollars," said Lucas, almost in tears. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +PROFESSOR SPINK'S BOTTLES + + +But Professor Lemuel Judson Spink did not look happy--not at all! + +While the neighbors were crowding around, emitting "ohs" and "ahs" over +his find in the broken old desk, the proprietor of "the breakfast for the +million" began to look pretty sick. + +"Five thousand dollars! My mercy!" gasped the Widow Harrison. "Then Bob +_didn't_ lie about bringing home that fortune when he came from the army." + +"It's a shame, Widder!" cried one man. "That five thousand ought to belong +to you." + +"Dad got it right; didn't he?" said Lucas, shaking his head sadly. "He +allus said Harrison was trying to tell him where it was hid when he had +his last stroke." + +Harris Colesworth spoke for the first time since the packages of notes +were discovered: + +"Mr. Harrison told Cyrus Pritchett that he had hid away 'that that would +be wuth five thousand.' It's plain what he had in his mind--and a whole +lot of other foolish people had it in their minds just after the Civil +War." + +"What do you mean, Mr. Colesworth?" cried Lyddy, who was clinging to the +widow's hand and patting it soothingly. + +"Why," chuckled Harris, "there were folks who believed--and they believed +it for years after the Civil War--that some day the Federal Government was +going to redeem all the paper money printed by the Confederate States----" + +"_What?_" bawled Lucas, fairly springing off the ground. + +"Confederate money?" repeated the crowd in chorus. + +No wonder Professor Spink looked sick. He broke through the group, +flinging the neat packages of bills behind him as he strode away. + +"How about the desk, Professor?" shouted Harris; "don't you want it?" + +"Give it to the old woman--you swindler!" snarled Spink. + +And then the crowd roared! The humor of the thing struck them and it was +half an hour before the auctioneer could go on with the sale. + +"No; I did not know the bills were there," Harris avowed. "But I thought +the professor was so avaricious that he could be made to bid up the old +desk. Had he bid on it when it was put up by the auctioneer, however, Mrs. +Harrison would not have benefited. You see, the best the auctioneer can +do, what he gets from the sale will not entirely satisfy Spink's claim. +But the money-grabber can't touch that fifty dollars in good money he paid +over to Mrs. Harrison with his own hands." + +"Oh, it was splendid, Harris!" gasped Lyddy, seizing both his hands. Then +she retired suddenly to Mrs. Harrison's side and never said another word +to the young man. + +"Gee, cracky!" said Lucas, with a sigh. "I was scairt stiff when I seen +them bills fall out of the old desk. I thought sure they were good." + +"I confess I knew what they were immediately--and so did Spink," replied +Harris. + +The young folks had got enough of the vendue now, and so had Mrs. +Pritchett. Lucas agreed to come up with the farm wagon for the pieces of +furniture with which Harris had presented the Widow Harrison--including +the broken desk--and transport them and the widow herself to Hillcrest +before night. + +Mrs. Pritchett was enthusiastic over the girls taking Mrs. Harrison to +the farm, and she could not say enough in praise of it. So Lyddy was glad +to get out of the buckboard with Harris Colesworth at the bottom of the +lane. + +"You all talk too much about it, Mrs. Pritchett!" she cried, when bidding +the farmer's wife good-bye. "But I'd be glad to have you come up here as +often as you can--and talk on any other subject!" and she ran laughing +into the house. + +Lyddy feared that Professor Spink would make trouble. At least, he and +Harris Colesworth must be at swords' point. And she was sorry now that +she had so impulsively given the young chemist her commendation for what +he had done for the Widow Harrison. + +However, Harris went off at noon, walking to town to take the afternoon +train to the city; and as the professor did not show up again until +nightfall there was no friction that day at Hillcrest--nor for the rest of +the week. + +Mrs. Harrison came and got into the work "two-fisted," as she said +herself. She was a strong old woman, and had been brought up to work. +Lyddy and 'Phemie were at once relieved of many hard jobs--and none too +quickly, for the girls were growing thin under the burden they had assumed. + +That very week their advertisements brought them a gentleman and his wife +with a little crippled daughter. It was getting warm enough now so that +people were not afraid to come to board in a house that had no heating +arrangements but open fireplaces. + +As the numbers of the boarders increased, however, Lyddy did not find +that the profit increased proportionately. She was now handling fifty-one +dollars and a half each week; but the demands for vegetables and fresh +eggs made a big item; and as yet there had been no returns from the +garden, although everything was growing splendidly. + +The chickens had hatched--seventy-two of them. Mr. Bray had taken up the +study of the poultry papers and catalogs, and he declared himself well +enough to take entire charge of the fluffy little fellows as soon as they +came from the shell. He really did appear to be getting on a little; but +the girls watched him closely and could scarcely believe that he made any +material gain in health. + +With Harris Colesworth's help one Saturday, he had knocked together a +couple of home-made brooders and movable runs, and soon the flock, divided +in half, were chirping gladly in the spring sunshine on the side lawn. + +They fed them scientifically, and with care. Mr. Bray was at the pens +every two hours all day--or oftener. At night, two jugs of hot water went +into the brooders, and the little biddies never seemed to miss having a +real mother. + +Luckily Lyddy had chosen a hardy strain of fowl and during the first +fortnight they lost only two of the fluffy little fellows. Lyddy saw the +beginning of a profitable chicken business ahead of her; but, of course, +it was only an expense as yet. + +She could not see her way clear to buying the kitchen range that was so +much needed; and the days were growing warmer. May promised to be the +forerunner of an exceedingly hot summer. + +At Hillcrest there was, however, almost always a breeze. Seldom did the +huge piles of rocks at the back of the farm shut the house off from the +cooling winds. The people who came to enjoy the simple comforts of the +farmhouse were loud in their praises of the spot. + +"If we can get along till July--or even the last of June," quoth Lyddy +to her sister, "I feel sure that we will get the house well filled, the +garden will help to support us, and we shall be on the way to making a +good living----" + +"If we aren't dead," sighed 'Phemie. "I _do_ get so tired sometimes. It's +a blessing we got Mother Harrison," for so they had come to call the widow. + +"We knew we'd have to work if we took boarders," said Lyddy. + +"Goodness me! we didn't know we had to work our fingers to the bone--mine +are coming through the flesh--the bones, I mean." + +"What nonsense!" + +"And I know I have lost ten pounds. I'm only a skeleton. You could hang me +up in that closet in the old doctor's office in place of that skeleton----" + +"What's _that_, 'Phemie Bray?" demanded the older sister, in wonder. + +'Phemie realized that she had almost let _that_ secret out of the bag, and +she jumped up with a sudden cry: + +"Mercy! do you know the time, Lyd? If we're going to pick those wild +strawberries for tea, we'd better be off at once. It's almost three +o'clock." + +And so she escaped telling Lyddy all she knew about what was behind the +mysteriously locked green door at the end of the long corridor of the +farmhouse. + +Harris Colesworth, on his early Sunday morning jaunts to the swimming-hole +in Pounder's Brook, had discovered a patch of wild strawberries, and +had told the girls. Up to this time Lyddy and 'Phemie had found little +time in which to walk over the farm. As for traversing the rocky part +of it, as old Mr. Colesworth and Professor Spink did, that was out of the +question. + +But fruit was high, and the chance to pick a dish for supper--enough for +all the boarders--was a great temptation to the frugal Lyddy. + +She caught up her sunbonnet and pail and followed her sister. 'Phemie's +bonnet was blue and Lyddy's was pink. As they crossed the cornfield, their +bright tin pails flashing in the afternoon sunlight, Grandma Castle saw +them from the shady porch. + +"What do you think about those two girls, Mrs. Chadwick?" she demanded of +the little lame girl's mother. + +"I have been here so short a time I scarcely know how to answer that +question, Mrs. Castle," responded the other lady. + +"I'll tell you: They're wonderful!" declared Grandma Castle. "If my +granddaughters had half the get-up-and-get to 'em that Lydia and Euphemia +have, I'd be as proud as Mrs. Lucifer! So I would." + +Meanwhile the girls of Hillcrest Farm had passed through the young +corn--acres and acres of it, running clear down to Mr. Pritchett's +line--and climbed the stone fence into the upper pasture. + +Here a path, winding among the huge boulders, brought them within sound of +Pounder's Brook. 'Phemie laughed now at the remembrance of her intimate +acquaintance with that brook the day they had first come to Hillcrest. + +It broadened here in a deep brown pool under an overhanging boulder. A +big beech tree, too, shaded it. It certainly was a most attractive place. + +"Wish I was a boy!" gasped 'Phemie, in delight. "I certainly would get +a bathing suit and come up here like Harris Colesworth. And Lucas comes +here and plunges in after his day's work--he told me so." + +"Dear me! I hope nobody will come here for a bath just now," observed +Lyddy. "It would be rather awkward." + +"And I reckon the water's cold, too," agreed her sister, with a giggle. +"This stream is fed by a dozen different springs around among the rocks +here, so Lucas says. And I expect one spring is just a little colder than +another!" + +"Oh, look!" exclaimed Lyddy. "There are the strawberries." + +The girls were down upon their knees immediately, picking into their +tins--and their mouths. They could not resist the luscious berries--"tame" +strawberries never can be as sweet as the wild kind. + +And this patch near the swimming hole afforded a splendid crop. The girls +saw that they might come here again and again to pick berries for their +table--and every free boon of Nature like this helped in the management of +the boarding house! + +But suddenly--when their kettles were near full--'Phemie jumped up with a +shrill whisper: + +"What's that?" + +"Hush, 'Phemie!" exclaimed her sister. "How you scared me." + +"Hush yourself! don't you hear it?" + +Lyddy did. Surely that was a strange clinking noise to be heard up here +in the woods. It sounded like a milkman going along the street carrying +a bunch of empty bottles. + +"It's no wild animal--unless he's got glass teeth and is gnashing 'em," +giggled 'Phemie. "Come on! I want to know what it means." + +"I wouldn't, 'Phemie----" + +"Well, _I_ would, Lyddy. Come on! Who's afraid of bottles?" + +"But _is_ it bottles we hear?" + +"We'll find out in a jiff," declared her younger sister, leading the way +deeper into the woods. + +The sound was from up stream. They followed the noisy brook for some +hundreds of yards. Then they came suddenly upon a little hollow, where +water dripped over a huge boulder into another still pool--but smaller +than the swimming hole. + +Behind the drip of the water was a ledge, and on this ledge stood a row of +variously assorted bottles. A man was just setting several other bottles +on the same ledge. + +These were the bottles the girls had heard striking together as the man +walked through the woods. And the man himself was Professor Spink. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +IN THE OLD DOCTOR'S OFFICE + + +The two girls, almost at once, began to shrink away through the bushes +again--and this without a word or look having passed between them. Both +Lyddy and 'Phemie were unwilling to meet the professor under these +conditions. + +They were back at the strawberry patch before either of them spoke aloud. + +"What _do_ you suppose he was about?" whispered 'Phemie. + +"How do I know? And those bottles!" + +"What do you think was in them?" + +"Looked like water--nothing but water," said Lyddy. "It certainly _is_ +a puzzle." + +"I should say so!" + +"And there doesn't seem to be any sense in it," cried Lyddy. "Let's go +home, 'Phemie. We've got enough berries for supper." + +As they went along the pasture trail, the younger girl suggested: + +"Do you suppose he could be making up another of his fake medicines? +Like those 'Stonehedge Bitters?' Lucas says they ought to be called +'_Stonefence_ Bitters,' for they are just hard cider and bad whiskey--and +that's what the folks hereabout call 'stonefence.'" + +"It looked like only water in those bottles," Lyddy said, slowly. + +"And he's so afraid old Mr. Colesworth--or Harris--will come up here and +find him at work--or come across his water-bottles," continued 'Phemie. +"Lucky this new boarder--Mr. Chadwick--isn't much for long walks. It would +keep old Spink busier than a hen on a hot griddle, as Lucas says, to watch +all of them." + +"Well, I wish I knew what it meant. It puzzles me," remarked Lyddy. "And +I never yet asked Mr. Pritchett about the evening we saw him and a man +whom I now think must have been Professor Spink at the farmhouse." + +"Ask him--do," urged 'Phemie, at last curious enough to have Lyddy share +all the mystery that had been troubling her own mind since they first came +to Hillcrest. + +"I'll do so the very first time I see him," declared Lyddy. + +But something else happened first--and something that brought the mystery +regarding Professor Lemuel Judson Spink to a head for the time being, at +least. + +'Phemie lost the key to the green door! + +Now, off and on, that missing key had troubled Lyddy. She had seldom +spoken of it, for she had never even known it had been in the door when +the girls came to Hillcrest. Only 'Phemie, it will be remembered, had +the midnight adventure in the old doctor's suite of offices in the east +wing. + +Lyddy only said, occasionally, that it was odd Aunt Jane had not sent the +key to the green door when she expressed all the other keys to her nieces +when the project of keeping boarders at Hillcrest was first broached. + +At these times 'Phemie had kept as still as a mouse. Sometimes the key +was worn on a string around her neck; sometimes it was concealed in a +cunning little pocket she had sewn into her skirt. But wherever it was, +it always seemed--to 'Phemie--to be burning a hole in her garments and +trying to make its appearance. + +After finding Professor Spink filling the bottles with water up by +Pounder's Brook, the girl was more than usually troubled about the east +wing and the mystery. + +She moved the key about from place to place. One day she wore it; another +she hid it in some corner. And finally, one night when she came to go to +bed, she found that the cord on which she had worn the key that day was +broken and the key was gone. + +She screamed so loud at this discovery that her sister was sure she had +seen a mouse, and she bounded into bed, half dressed as she was. + +"Where--where is it, 'Phemie?" she gasped, for Lyddy was as afraid of mice +as she was of rats. + +"Oh, mercy me!" wailed 'Phemie, "that's what I'd like to know." + +"Didn't you see it?" cried her trembling sister. + +"It's gone!" returned 'Phemie. + +Lyddy got gingerly down from the bed. + +"Then I'd like to know what you yelled so for--if the mouse has +disappeared?" she demanded, quite sternly. + +And then 'Phemie, understanding her, and realizing that she had almost +given her secret away, burst into a hysterical giggle, which nothing but +Lyddy's shaking finally relieved. + +"You're just as twittery as a sparrow," declared Lyddy. "I never _did_ +see such a girl. First you're squealing as though you were hurt, and then +you laugh in a most idiotic way. Come! do behave yourself and go to bed!" + +But even after 'Phemie obeyed she could not go to sleep. + +Suppose somebody picked up that key? She had no idea, of course, where +it had been dropped. Certainly not on the floor of her bedroom. Some time +during the day, inside, or outside of the house, the key, with its little +brass tag stamped with the words "East Wing," had slipped to the ground. + +Now--suppose it was found? + +'Phemie got out of bed quietly, slipped on her slippers and shrugged +herself into her robe. Somebody might be down there in old Dr. Phelps's +offices right now. + +And that somebody, of course, in 'Phemie's mind, meant just one +person--Professor Lemuel Judson Spink. + +Why had he come to Hillcrest to board, anyway? And why hadn't he gone away +when he had been made the topic of many a joke about old Bob Harrison's +treasure trove? + +For nearly a fortnight now the professor had stood grimly the jokes and +laughing comments aimed at him by the other boarders. The presence of Mrs. +Harrison, too, in the house, was a constant reminder to the breakfast food +magnate of how his own acquisitiveness had made him over-reach himself. + +'Phemie went downstairs, taking a comforter with her, and went into +the long corridor leading from the west wing entry to the green door. +The girls had never taken the old davenport out of this wide hall, and +'Phemie curled up on this--with its hard, hair-cloth-covered arm for a +pillow--spread the quilt over her, and tried to compose her nerves here +within sight and sound of the east wing entrance. + +Suppose somebody was already in the offices? + +The thought became so insistent that, after ten minutes, she was forced +to creep along to the green door and try the latch. + +With her hand on it, she heard a sudden sound from the room nearby. Was +somebody astir in the Colesworth quarters? + +This was late Saturday night--almost midnight, in fact; and of course +Harris Colesworth was in the house. Sometimes he read until very late. + +So 'Phemie turned again, after a moment, and lifted the latch. Then she +pushed tentatively on the door, and---- + +_It swung open!_ + +'Phemie gasped--an appalling sound it seemed in the stillness of the +corridor and at that hour of the night. + +Often, while the key had been in her possession, she had tried the door as +she passed it while working about the house. It had been securely locked. + +Then, she told herself now, on the instant, the key had been found and it +had been put to use. Somebody had already been in the old doctor's offices +and had ransacked the rooms. + +She crossed the threshold swiftly and groped her way to the door of the +second room--the old doctor's consulting room. Here the light of the moon +filtered through the shutters sufficiently to show her the place. + +There seemed to be nobody there, and she stepped in, leaving the green +door open behind her, but pulling shut the door between the anteroom and +the office. + +There was the old doctor's big desk, and the bookcases all about the room, +and the jars with "specimens" in them and--yes!--the skeleton case in the +corner. + +She had advanced to the middle of the room when suddenly she saw that the +door into the lumber room, or laboratory, at the back, was open. A white +wand of light shot through this open door, and played upon the ceiling, +then upon the wall, of the old doctor's office. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A BLOW-UP + + +'Phemie's heart beat quickly; but she was no more afraid than she had +been the moment before, when she found the green door unlocked. There was +somebody--the person who had found the lost key--still in the offices +of the east wing. + +The wand of white light playing about her was from an electric torch. She +stooped, and literally crawled on all fours out of the range of the light +from the rear doorway. + +Before she knew it she was right beside the case containing the skeleton. +Indeed, she hid in its shadow. + +And her interest in that moving light--and the person behind it--made her +forget her original terror of what was in the box. + +She heard a rustle--then a step on the boards. It was a heavy person +approaching. The door opened farther between the workshop and the room +in which she was hidden. + +Then she recognized the tall figure entering. It was as she had expected. +It was Professor Spink. + +The breakfast food magnate came directly toward the high, locked desk +belonging to the dead and gone physician, who had been a kind friend and +patron of this quack medicine man when he was a boy. + +'Phemie had heard all the particulars of Spink's connection with Dr. Polly +Phelps. The good old doctor had been called to attend the boy in some +childish disease while he was an inmate of the county poorhouse. His +parents--who were gypsies, or like wanderers--had deserted the boy and he +had "gone on the town," as the saying was. + +Dr. Polly had taken a fancy to the little fellow. He was then twelve years +old--or thereabout--smart and sharp. The old doctor brought him home to +Hillcrest, sent him to school, made him useful to him in a dozen ways, +and began even to train him as a doctor. + +For five years Jud Spink had remained with the old physician. Then he had +run away with a medicine show. It was said, too, that he stole money from +Dr. Polly when he went; but the physician had never said so, nor taken +any means to punish the wayward boy if he returned. + +And Jud Spink had never re-appeared in Bridleburg, or the vicinity, while +the old doctor was alive. + +Then his visits had been few and far between until, at last, coming +back a few months before, a self-confessed rich man, he had declared +his intention of settling down in the community. + +But 'Phemie Bray believed that the false professor had come here to +Hillcrest for a special object. He was money-mad--his avariciousness had +been already well displayed. + +She believed that there was something on Hillcrest that Jud Spink +wanted--something he could make money out of. + +She was not surprised, then, to see a short iron bar in the professor's +hand. It was flattened and sharpened at one end. + +By the light of the hand-lamp the man went to work on the locked desk. +It was of heavy wood--no flimsy thing like that one which he had burst +open so easily the day of the Widow Harrison's vendue. + +The man inserted the sharp end of the jimmy between the lid and the upper +shelf of the desk. 'Phemie heard the woodwork crack, and this time she +did _not_ suppress a gasp. + +Why! this fellow was actually breaking open the old doctor's desk. Aunt +Jane had not even sent _them_ the keys of the desk and bookcases in this +suite of rooms. + +Then 'Phemie had a sudden thought. She was really afraid of the big man. +She did not know what he might do to her if he found her here spying on +his actions. And--she didn't want the lock of the old desk smashed. + +She reached up softly and turned with shaking fingers the old-fashioned +wooden button that held shut the door of the case beside which she +crouched. + +She remembered very clearly that it had snapped open before when she was +investigating--and with a little click. The door of this case acted almost +as though the hinges had springs coiled in them. + +At once, when she released the door, it swung open--and in yawning it +_did_ make a suspicious sound. + +Professor Spink started--he had been about to bear down on the bar again. +He flashed a look back over his shoulder. But the corner was shrouded in +darkness. + +'Phemie sighed--this time with intent. She remembered how she had been +frightened so herself at her former visit to this office--and she believed +the marauder now before her had been partially the cause of her fright. + +The jimmy dropped from Spink's hand and clattered on the floor. He wheeled +and shot the white spot of his lamp into the corner. + +By great good fortune the ray of the lantern missed the girl; but it +struck into the yawning case and intensified the horrid appearance of +the skeleton. + +For half a minute Spink stood as if frozen in his tracks. If he had known +the old doctor had such a possession as the skeleton, he had forgotten +it. Nor did he see any part of the case that held it, but just the +dangling, grinning Thing itself, revealed by the brilliance of his +spotlight, but with a mass of deep shadow surrounding it. + +Professor Spink had perhaps had many perilous experiences in his varied +life; but never anything just like _this_. + +He might not have been afraid of a man--or a dozen men; no +emergency--which he could talk out of--would have feazed him; but a +man doesn't feel like trying to talk down a skeleton! + +He didn't even stop to pick up the jimmy. He shut off the spotlight; and +he stumbled over his own feet in getting to the door. + +_He was running away!_ + +'Phemie was up immediately and after him. She did not propose for him to +get away with that key. + +"Stop! stop!" she shouted. + +Perhaps Professor Spink verily believed that the skeleton in the box +called after him--that it was, indeed, in actual pursuit. + +He didn't stop. He didn't reply. He went across the small anteroom and out +of the open green door. + +But he had made a lot of noise. A big man with the fear of the +supernatural chilling his very soul does not tread lightly. + +A frightened ox in the place could have made no more noise. He tumbled +over two chairs and finally went full length over an old hassock. He +brought up with an awful crash against the big davenport in the corridor, +where 'Phemie had tried to keep watch. + +And there, when he tried to scramble up, he got entangled in 'Phemie's +quilt and went to the floor again just as a great light flashed into the +corridor. + +The Colesworths' door stood open. Out dashed Harris in his pajamas and +a robe. He fell upon the big body of Spink as though he were making a +"tackle" in a football game. + +"Hold him! hold him!" gasped 'Phemie. + +"I've got him," declared Harris. "What's the matter, Miss 'Phemie?" + +"He's got the key," explained 'Phemie. "Make him give it up." + +"Sure!" said Harris, and dexterously twitched the entangled Spink over +on his back. + +"By jove!" gasped the young man, standing up. "It's the professor!" + +"But he's got the key!" the girl reiterated. + +"What key?" + +"The one to the green door." + +"The door of the east wing?" demanded Harris, turning to stare at the open +door, on the threshold of which 'Phemie stood. + +"Yes. I lost it. He found it. He's got it somewhere. I found him trying to +break into grandfather's desk." + +"Bad, bad," muttered Harris, stepping back and allowing the professor room +to sit up. "Your interest in old desks seems to be phenomenal, Professor. +Did you expect to find Confederate notes in _this_ one?" + +"Confound you--both!" snarled Spink, slowly rising. + +"I don't mind it," said Harris, quietly. "But don't include Miss Bray in +your emphatic remarks. _Give me that key._" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THEY LOSE A BOARDER + + +Harris had something beside a square and determined jaw. He had muscular +arms and he looked just then as though he were ready to use them. Spink +gave him no provocation. + +He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a key. + +"Is this the one, Miss 'Phemie?" asked the young fellow. + +The girl stepped forward, and in the lamplight from the bedroom doorway +identified the key of the green door--with its tag attached. + +"All right, then. Go to your room, Professor," said Harris. "Unless you +want him for something further, Miss 'Phemie?" + +"My goodness me! No!" cried 'Phemie. "I never want to see him again." + +The professor was already aiming for the stairs, and he quickly +disappeared. Harris turned to the still shaking girl. + +"What's it all about, Miss 'Phemie?" he asked. + +"That's what I'd really like to know myself," she replied, eagerly. "He is +after something----" + +"So my father says," interposed Harris. "Father says Spink has something +hidden--or has made some discovery--up there in the rocks." + +"I don't know whether he really has found what he has been looking for----" + +"And that is?" suggested Harris. + +"I wish we knew!" cried 'Phemie. "But we don't. At least, _I_ don't--nor +does Lyddy. But he tried to buy the farm of Aunt Jane once--only he +offered a very small price. + +"He has been hanging around here for months trying to find something. He +got into the old offices to-night, and tried to break into grandfather's +desk----" + +Harris nodded thoughtfully. + +"We want to look into this," he said. "I hope you and your sister will +not refuse my aid. This Spink may be more of a knave than a fool. Now, go +back to bed and--and assure Miss Lyddy that I will be only too glad to +help 'thwart the villain'--if he really has some plan to better himself at +your expense." + +'Phemie picked up her quilt, locked the green door, and returned to her +room. Throughout all the excitement Lyddy had slept; but 'Phemie's coming +to bed aroused her. + +The younger girl was too shaken by what had transpired to hide her +excitement, and Lyddy quickly was broad awake listening to 'Phemie's +story. The latter told all that had happened, including her experiences +on the night they had come to Hillcrest. There was no sleep for the +two girls just then--not, at least, until they had discussed Professor +Spink and the secret of the rocks at the back of the farm, from every +possible angle. + +"I shall tell him that his absence will be better appreciated than his +company--at once!" declared Lyddy, finally. + +"But sending him away isn't going to explain the mystery," wailed 'Phemie. + +In the morning, before many of the other boarders were astir, the two +girls caught the oily professor just starting off with a handbag. + +"You'd better get the remainder of your baggage ready to go too, sir," +said Lyddy, sharply, "for we don't want you here." + +"It's packed, young lady," returned Professor Spink, with a sneer. "I +shall send a man for it from the hotel in town." + +"Well, _that's_ all right," quoth the girl, warmly. "You've paid your +board in advance, and I cannot complain. But I would like to have you +explain what your actions last night mean?" + +"I don't know what you are talking about. I heard people moving about the +house and--naturally--I went to see----" + +"Oh, you story-teller!" gasped 'Phemie. + +"Ha! I can see that you have both made up your minds not to believe me," +said the odd boarder, haughtily. "Good-morning!" + +"I honestly believe we ought to get a warrant out and have him arrested," +observed the older girl, thoughtfully. + +"What for? I don't believe he took anything," said 'Phemie. + +"Well! he was trying to break into grandfather's desk, just the same," +said Lyddy, and then Harris Colesworth joined them. + +Now, Lyddy believed that this young man was altogether too prone to +meddle with other people's affairs; yet ever since the Widow Harrison's +vendue she had been more friendly with Harris. + +And now when he began to talk about the professor and his strange actions +over night, she could only thank the young chemist for his assistance. + +"Of course, we have no idea that that man took anything," she concluded. + +"But you know that he is after _something_. There is a mystery about his +actions--both here at the house and up there in the rocks," said Harris. + +"Well--ye-es." + +"I have been talking to father about it. Father has seen him wandering +about there so much. His anxiety not to be seen has piqued father's +curiosity, too. To tell the truth, that is what has kept father so much +interested in getting specimens up yonder," and the young man laughed. + +"He tells me that he is sure there can be no great mineral wealth on the +farm; yet Spink has found, or is trying to find, some deposit of value +here----" + +"Do tell him about the bottles, Lyd!" cried 'Phemie. + +"Oh, well, that may be nothing----" + +"What bottles?" demanded Harris, quickly. "Come on, girls, why not take me +fully into your confidence? I might be of some use, you know." + +"But they were nothing but bottles of water," objected Lyddy. + +"Bottles of water?" repeated the young chemist, slowly. "Who had them?" + +"Spink," replied 'Phemie. + +"What was he doing with them?" + +She told him how they had watched the professor with his inexplicable +water bottles. + +"Foolish; isn't it?" asked Lyddy. + +"Sure--until we get the clue to it. Foolish to us, but mighty important +to Professor Spink. Therefore we ought to look into it. Father doesn't +know anything about this bottle business." + +"Well, it's Sunday," sighed 'Phemie. "We can't do anything about the +mystery to-day." + +But her sister was fully roused, and when Lyddy determined on a thing, +something usually came of it. + +After breakfast, and after she had seen Lucas and his mother and Sairy +drive past on their way to chapel, she put on her sunbonnet and started +boldly for the neighboring farm, determined to have an interview with +Cyrus Pritchett. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE SECRET REVEALED + + +Lyddy did not have to go all the way to the Pritchett farm to speak with +its proprietor. The farmer was wandering up Hillcrest way, looking at +the growing corn, and she met him at the corner where the two farms came +together. + +"Mr. Pritchett," she said, abruptly, "I want to ask you a serious +question." + +He looked at her in his surly way--from under his heavy brows--and said +nothing. + +"You knew Mr. Spink when you were both boys; didn't you?" + +The old man's look sharpened, but he only nodded. Cyrus was very chary +of words. + +"Mr. Spink left Hillcrest this morning. Last night my sister caught him +in the east wing, trying to break open grandfather's desk with a burglar's +jimmy. I am not at all sure that I shan't have him arrested, anyway," said +Lyddy, with rising wrath, as she thought of the false professor's actions. + +"Ha!" grunted Mr. Pritchett. + +"Now, sir, you know _why_ Spink came to Hillcrest, _why_ he has been +searching up there among the rocks, and _why_ he wanted to get at +grandfather's papers." + +"No, I don't," returned the farmer, flatly. + +"You and Spink were up at Hillcrest the first night we girls slept there. +And you frightened my sister half to death." + +The old man blinked at her, but never said a word. + +"And you were there with Spink the evening Lucas took 'Phemie and me down +to the Temperance Club--the first time," said Lyddy, with surety. "You +slipped out of sight when we drove into the yard. But it was you." + +"Oh, it was; eh?" growled Mr. Pritchett. + +"Yes, sir. And I want to know what it means. What is Spink's intention? +What does he want up here?" + +"I couldn't tell ye," responded Pritchett. + +"You mean you won't tell me?" + +"No. I say what I mean," growled Pritchett. "Jud Spink never told me what +he wanted. I was up to the house with him--yep. I let him go into the +cellar that night you say your sister was scart. But I didn't leave him +alone there." + +"But _why_?" gasped Lyddy. + +"I can easy tell you my side of it," said the farmer. "Jud and me was +something like chums when we was boys. When he come back here a spell +ago he heard I was storing something in the cellar under the east wing of +the house. He told me he wanted to get into that cellar for something. + +"So I met him up there that night. I opened the cellar door and we went +down. I kept a lantern there. Then I found out he wanted to go farther. +There's a hatch there in the floor of the old doctor's workshop----" + +"A trap door?" + +"Yes." + +"And you let him up there?" + +"Naw, I didn't. He wouldn't tell me what he wanted in the old doctor's +offices. I stayed there a while with him--us argyfyin' all the time. Then +we come away." + +"And the other time?" + +"On Saturday night? I caught him trying to break in at the cellar door. +I warned him not to try no more tricks, and I told him if he did I'd +make it public. We ain't been right good friends since," declared Mr. +Pritchett, chewing reflectively on a stalk of grass. + +"And you don't know what it's all about?" demanded Lyddy, disappointedly. + +"No more'n you do," declared Mr. Pritchett; "or as much." + +"Oh, dear me!" cried Lyddy. "Then I'm just where I was when I started!" + +"You wanter watch Jud Spink," grumbled Mr. Pritchett, rising from the +fence-rail on which he had been squatting. "Does he want to buy the farm?" + +"Why--I guess not. He only made Aunt Jane a small offer for it." + +"He'll make a bigger," said Pritchett, clamping his jaws down tight on +that word, and turned on his heel. + +She knew there was no use in trying to get more out of him then. Cyrus +Pritchett had "said his say." + +When Lyddy got back to the house again she found that Grandma Castle's +folks had come to see her in their big automobile, and she and 'Phemie +had to hustle about with Mother Harrison to re-set the enlarged dining +table and make other extra preparations for the unexpected visitors. + +So busy were they that the girls did not miss Harris Colesworth and +his father. They appeared just before the late dinner, rather warm and +hungry-looking for the Sabbath, Harris bearing something in his arms +carefully wrapped about in newspapers. + +"Oh, what have you got?" 'Phemie gasped, having just a minute to speak to +the young man. + +"Samples of the water Spink has bottled up there," returned Harris. + +"What is it?" + +"I don't know. But we'll find out. Father has an idea, and if it's +_so_----" + +"Oh, what?" cried 'Phemie. + +"You just wait!" returned Harris, hurrying away. + +"Mean thing!" 'Phemie called after him. "You oughtn't to have any dinner." + +But there was little chance for Harris to talk with the girls that day. +Before the dinner dishes were cleared away, a thunder cloud suddenly +topped the ridge, and soon a furious shower fell, with the thunder +reverberating from hill to hill, and the lightning flashing dazzlingly. + +Behind this shower came a wind-storm that threatened, for a couple of +hours, to do much damage. Everybody was kept indoors, and as the night +fell dark and threatening the Castles had to be put up until morning. + +The wind quieted down at last; so did the nervous members of the party +inside Hillcrest. When Lyddy and 'Phemie thought almost everybody else was +abed but themselves, and they were about to lock up the house and retire, +a candle appeared in the long corridor, and behind the candle was Harris +Colesworth, fully dressed. + +"Sunday is about over, girls," he said, "and I can't possibly sleep. I +must do something. Didn't you tell me, Miss 'Phemie, there were retorts +and test-tubes, and the like, in your grandfather's rooms?" + +"In the east wing?" cried Lyddy. + +"Yes." + +"Why, the back room was his laboratory. All the things are there," said +the younger girl. + +"Let me go in there, then," said Harris, eagerly. "I want to test these +samples of water father and I brought down from the rocks to-day." + +"My mercy me!" gasped 'Phemie. "You don't suppose there's gold--or +silver--held in solution in that water----" + +Lyddy laughed. "How ridiculous!" she said. + +"Perhaps not exactly ridiculous," returned Harris, shaking his head, and +smiling. + +"Why, Harris Colesworth! who ever heard of such a thing?" cried Lyddy. +"I'm no chemist, but I know _that_ would be impossible." + +"Will you let me have the key of the green door?" he demanded. + +"Yes!" cried 'Phemie, who had continued to carry it tied around her neck. +"But we'll go with you and see you perform your nefarious rites, Mr. +Magician!" + +Lyddy went for a lamp and brought it, lighted. "A candle won't do you much +good in there," she said to Harris. + +"Verily, it is so!" admitted the young man, with an humble bow. + +"Now, let me go first!" cried 'Phemie. "You'd both be scared stiff by my +friend, Mr. Boneypart." + +"Your friend _who_?" cried Lyddy. + +Harris began to laugh. "So you claim Napoleon as your friend; do you, Miss +'Phemie? What do you suppose old Spink thinks about him?" + +'Phemie giggled as she ran ahead with the young man's candle and closed +the door of the skeleton case in the inner office. + +"For the simple tests I have to make," said Harris, as Lyddy's lamp threw +a mellow light into the room, "I see no reason why those old tubes won't +do. Yes! there's about what I want on that bench." + +"But, oh! the dust!" sighed Lyddy, trying to find a clean place on which +to set the lamp. + +"Your grandfather must have been something of a chemist as well as a +medical sharp," observed Harris, gazing about. "I'm curious to look this +place over." + +"We ought to ask Aunt Jane," said Lyddy, doubtfully. "We really haven't +any business in here." + +"She's never told us we shouldn't come," 'Phemie returned, quickly. + +"Now you young ladies sit down and keep still," commanded Harris, +authoritatively, removing his coat and tying an apron around his +waist--the apron being produced from his own pocket. + +"Now if you had your straw cuffs you'd look just as you used to----" + +"At the shop, eh?" finished Harris, when Lyddy caught herself up quick +in the middle of this audible comment. + +"Ye-es." + +"So you _did_ notice me a bit when you were working around the little +kitchen of that flat?" chuckled the young man. + +"Well!" gasped Lyddy. "I couldn't very well help remembering how you +looked the night of the fire when you came sliding across to our window on +that plank. _That_ was so ridiculous!" + +"Just so," responded Harris, calmly. "Now, please be still, young ladies +and--watch the professor!" + +And for an hour the girls did actually manage to keep as still as mice. +Their friend certainly was absorbed in the work before him. He tested +one sample of water after another, and finally went back and did the work +all over upon one particular bottle that he had brought down from Spink's +hiding place among the rocks. + +"Just as I thought," he declared, with a satisfied smile. "And just as +father suspected. Prepared to be surprised--pleasantly. Your Aunt Jane +must be warned not to sell Hillcrest at _any_ price--just yet." + +"Oh, why not?" cried 'Phemie. + +"Because I believe there is a valuable mineral spring on it. This is a +sample of it here. Mineral waters with such medicinal properties as this +contains can be put on the market at an enormous profit for the owner of +the spring. + +"I won't go into the scientific jargon of it now," he concluded. "But the +spring is here--up there among the rocks. Spink knows where it is. That +is his secret. _We_ must learn where the water flows from, and likewise, +see to it that your Aunt Jane makes no sale of the place until the matter +is well thrashed out and the value of the water privilege discovered." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AN AUTOMOBILE RACE + + +Lyddy was to write to Aunt Jane the next day. That was the decision when +Harris started for town after breakfast, too. No time was to be lost in +acquainting Aunt Jane with the fact that the old doctor spoke truly when +he had said that "there were curative waters on Hillcrest." + +In Dr. Polly Phelps's day a mineral spring would have been of small +value compared to what it would be worth now. Jud Spink, of course, had +known something about the old doctor's using in his practise the water +from somewhere among the rocks. On the lookout for every chance to make +money in these days, the owner of "Stonehedge Bitters" and "Diamond +Grits--the Breakfast of the Million" had determined to get hold of +Hillcrest and put the mineral water on the market--if so be the spring +was to be discovered. + +Too penurious to take any risk, however, Spink had wished to be sure that +the mineral spring was there, and of its value, before he risked his good +money in the purchase of the property. + +The question now was: Had he satisfied himself as to these facts? Had he +found the mineral spring quite by chance, and was he not still in doubt +as to the wisdom of buying Hillcrest? + +It would seem, by his trying to get at the old doctor's papers, that Spink +wished to assure himself further before he went ahead with his scheme. + +"We'll put a spoke in his wheel--that's sure," said Harris, as he bade +the two girls good-bye that Monday morning, while Lucas and the restive +ponies waited for him. + +In two hours he was back at the farmhouse. The ponies stopped at the door +all of a lather, and both Harris and Lucas looked desperately excited. +Tom Castle, as well as the Bray girls, ran out to see what was the matter. + +"He's off!" shouted Lucas Pritchett. "He's goin' to beat ye to it!" + +"What _are_ you talking about, Lucas?" demanded 'Phemie. + +"Where does your aunt live, Miss Lyddy?" asked the young chemist. "Not at +Easthampton?" + +"No. At Hambleton. She is at home now----" + +"And that Spink just bought a ticket for Hambleton, and has taken the +train for that particular burg," declared Harris, with emphasis. "If I'd +only been sure of your Aunt Jane's address I would have gone with him." + +"Do you really think he's gone to try to buy the farm of her?" questioned +Lyddy. + +"I most certainly do. He couldn't have made connections easily had he +started yesterday after you drove him away from Hillcrest. But he's after +the farm." + +"And she'll sell it! she'll sell it!" wailed 'Phemie. + +"Perhaps not," ventured Lyddy, but her lips were white. + +"He can get an option. That's enough," urged Harris. "We've got to head +him off." + +"How?" cried the older girl, clasping her hands. + +"Jumping horse chestnuts!" ejaculated Tom Castle. "It's a cinch! It's +easy. You can beat that fellow to Hambleton by way of Adams----" + +"But there's no other train that connects at the junction till afternoon," +objected Lucas. + +"Aw, poof!" exclaimed Tom. "Haven't we got the old buzz-wagon right here? +I'll run and see father. He'll let me take it. We'll go over the hill and +down to Adams, and take the east road to Hambleton. Why, say! that Spink +man won't beat us much." + +"It's a great scheme, Tommy!" shouted Harris Colesworth "Go ahead. Tell +your father I can run the car, if you can't." + +In twenty minutes the big car was rolled out of the barn, and Mr. Castle +came out to see the quartette off,--the two girls in the tonneau and +Harris and Tom Castle on the front seat. + +"You see that he doesn't play hob with that machine, Mr. Colesworth," +called Mr. Castle, as they started. "It cost me seven thousand dollars." + +"What's seven thousand dollars," demanded Master Tom, recklessly, "to +putting the Indian sign on that Professor Spink?" + +They were not at all sure, however, that they were going to be able to do +this. Professor Spink might easily beat them to Aunt Jane's residence in +Hambleton. + +But at the speed Tom took the descent of the ridge on the other side, one +might have thought that the professor was due to board a flying machine if +he wished to travel faster. 'Phemie declared she lost her breath at the +top of the hill and that it didn't overtake her again until they stopped +at the public garage in Adams to get a supply of gasoline. + +The boys behind the wind-break, and the girls crouching in the tonneau, +saw little of the landscape through which the car rushed. + +They rolled into Hambleton without mishap, and before noon. A word from +Lyddy put Master Tom on the right track of Aunt Jane's house, for he had +been in the town before. + +"We're here quicker than we could have had a telegram delivered," declared +Harris, as he helped the girls out of the car. "I'm going in with you, +Miss Lyddy--if you don't mind?" + +"Why, of course you shall come!" returned Lyddy, really allowing her +gratitude to "spill over" for the moment. + +"Me--oh, my!" whispered 'Phemie, walking demurely behind them. "The end of +the world has now _came_. Lyd is showing that poor young man some favor." + +But 'Phemie, as well as the other two, grew serious when the girl who +opened the door told them Mrs. Hammond had company in the parlor. + +"Two gentlemen, Miss--on business," said the maid. + +Just then they heard Professor Spink's booming voice. + +"Oh, oh! he's here ahead of us!" cried 'Phemie, and she flung open the +door and ran into the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE HILLCREST COMPANY, LIMITED + + +"Don't sign it!" shrieked 'Phemie, seeing Aunt Jane, her bonnet on as +usual, with a pen in her hand. + +"For the good land's sake, child! how you scart me," complained the old +lady. + +"Don't sign anything, Aunt!" urged 'Phemie. "That man is trying to cheat +you," and she pointed a scornful finger at Professor Spink. + +"What do you mean, girl?" demanded the other man present, who was sitting +next to Mrs. Hammond. He looked like what he was--a shyster lawyer. + +"This girl is crazy," snarled Spink, glaring at the party of young people. + +"So are we all, then," Harris Colesworth responded. "I assure you, Mrs. +Hammond, that these men are trying to trick you." + +"I dunno you, young man; but I _do_ know my own mind. This man, Spink, has +finally made me a good offer for Hillcrest Farm." + +"And if you don't sign that paper at once, ma'am," suggested the lawyer, +softly, "the deal is off." + +"That's right," declared Spink, rising. "I've made my last offer--take +it or leave it." + +"How much do they offer you for the farm, Mrs. Hammond--if that's not a +rude question?" demanded Harris. + +"Never _you_ mind!" blustered Spink. + +But Aunt Jane stated the amount frankly. + +"It's worth more," said Harris, sharply. + +"I expect it is; but it ain't worth no more to me," replied the old lady, +calmly. + +"I'll raise their offer a hundred dollars," said Harris, quickly. "My +name's Colesworth. My father and I are well known here and in Easthampton. +We are amply able to pay you cash for the place." + +"Well, now," observed Aunt Jane, with satisfaction, while the girls +stared at the young fellow in wonder, "you are talking business. A hundred +dollars more is not to be sneezed at----" + +"We'll raise the young man's bid another hundred, Mrs. Hammond," +interposed the lawyer, eagerly. "But you must sign the agreement----" + +"Raise you another hundred," said Harris. + +The lawyer looked at his client for instructions. Professor Spink's face +was of an apoplectic hue and his eyes fairly snapped. + +"No, no!" he shouted, pounding one fat fist into his other hand. "I know +this smooth swindler. He did me once before just this way. He sha'n't do +it now. He's got some inside information about that farm. It's all off! +I wouldn't buy the old place now at any price!" + +He grabbed his hat and rushed for the door. The little lawyer followed, +seized his coattails, and tried to drag him back; but Professor Spink was +the heavier, and he steamed out into the hall, towing the lawyer, opened +the door, and finally dashed down the steps. He and his legal adviser +disappeared from sight. + +"Well, young man," said Mrs. Hammond, calmly, "I expect you know what you +have done? You've spoiled that sale for me; I may hold you to your offer." + +"If you want to, I shall not worry," laughed Harris, sitting down. "But +let us tell you all about it, Mrs. Hammond, and then I believe you will +think twice before you sell Hillcrest at _any_ price." + + * * * * * + +Right in that boarding-house parlor was laid the foundation of the now +very wealthy mineral water concern known as "The Hillcrest Company, +Limited." But, of course, it was months before the concern was launched +and the wonderfully curative waters of Hillcrest Spring were put upon +the market. + +For once the fact was established that the mineral spring was there among +the rocks at the back of the farm, it was only a matter of searching for +it. + +The spring was finally located in the very wildest part of the farm--in a +deep thicket, where the cattle, or other animals, never went to drink. +So the spring was thickly overgrown. + +"And by cracky! you can't blame a cow for not wanting to drink _that_ +stuff," declared Lucas Pritchett when he first tasted the water. + +Medicinally, however, it was a valuable discovery. Bottled and put on +sale, it was soon being recommended by men high in the medical world. + +"The old doctor knew a thing or two, even if he _did_ live back here on +the lonesomest hill in the State," said Aunt Jane. "No! I won't stay, +children. You've treated me fust-rate; but give me the town. I want life. +I don't see how Mrs. Castle can stand it. I'd vegetate here in a week and +take sech deep root that you couldn't pull me out with a stump-puller. + +"Besides, I'm going to have money enough now to live jest like I want to +in town. And I'm going to have one of these automobile cars--yes, sir! +I'll begin to really and truly _live_, I will. You jest watch me." + +But in her joy of suddenly acquired wealth she did not forget her +nieces--the girls who had really made her good fortune possible. Both +Lyddy and 'Phemie owned stock in the mineral water company; and then +Aunt Jane assured them that when she died they should own the farm +jointly. She had only sold the spring rights to the company. + +The rest of the corporation consisted of Harris Colesworth and his +father, Rufus Castle, his mother, Grandma Castle, Lucas Pritchett +and--last but not least--Mother Harrison. The widow had asked the +privilege of investing in the stock of the company the fifty dollars +that Professor Spink had paid her for her husband's old desk. + +And as that stock is becoming more and more valuable as time goes on, it +was not an unwise investment on the widow's part. As for Lucas, it was +by 'Phemie's advice that the young farmer put _his_ money into the stock +of the mineral water concern, instead of into a red-wheeled buggy. + +"Wait a while, Lucas," said 'Phemie, "and you'll make money enough to own +a motor car instead of a buggy." + +"And you'll take the first ride in it with me?" demanded Lucas, shrewdly. + +"Yes! I'll verily risk my life in your buzz-wagon," laughed the girl. "But +now! that's a long way ahead yet, Lucas." + +The summer had passed ere all these things were done and said. Nor +had the Bray girls lost a single opportunity of making their original +venture--that of keeping boarders at Hillcrest--a success. + +Lyddy had bought her cooking stove, her chickens had turned out a nice +little flock for the next year, the garden had done splendidly, and when +the corn was harvested the girls banked a hundred dollars over and above +the cost of raising the crop. + +Best of all, their father's state of health had so much improved, during +these last few weeks, that the girls could look forward with confidence +to his complete restoration, in time, to a really robust condition. + +Hillcrest had been his salvation. The sun and air of the mountainside home +had finally brought him well on the road to recovery; and the joy his two +daughters felt because of this fact can scarcely be expressed in words. + +Grandma Castle and the Chadwicks wanted to remain until New Year's, so +the girls got no real vacation. Several automobile parties had now found +their way to the house on the hill, and the old-fashioned viands, the +huge rooms, open fires, and all the "queer" furniture induced them to +return from time to time. + +So Lyddy and 'Phemie decided to be prepared for such parties, or for other +people who wished to board for a week or so at a time, all winter. + +Mr. Bray had grown so much stronger by now that sometimes he expressed +his belief that he ought to go back to the shop and earn money, too. + +"Wait till next season, Father," Lydia urged him, softly. "We can all pull +together here, and if we have only a measure of good fortune, we shall +be independent indeed by _next_ fall." + +The prospect was surely bright--as bright as that which lay before Lyddy +and Harris Colesworth one Indian summer day as they strolled down the lane +to the highroad. + +"I don't see how Aunt Jane can find this place lonely," sighed Lyddy, +leaning just a little on the young man's arm, but with her gaze sweeping +all the fair mountainside. + +"_You_ couldn't leave it, Lyddy?" he asked, with sudden wistfulness. + +"No, indeed! Not for long. No other place would seem like _home_ to me +after our experience here. It's more like home than the house I was born +in at Easthampton. + +"You see, we have struggled, and worked, and accomplished something +here--'Phemie and I. And Aunt Jane says it shall some day be ours--all of +Hillcrest. I love it all." + +"Well--I don't blame you!" exclaimed Harris, suddenly swinging about and +seizing her hands. "But, say, Lyddy! don't be stingy about it." + +"Stingy--about what?" she asked him, rather frightened, but looking up +into his sparkling eyes. + +"Don't be stingy with Hillcrest. If you are determined to stay here--all +your life long--you know---- Don't you suppose you could find it in your +heart to let _me_ come here and--and stay, too?" + +Nobody heard Lyddy Bray make an audible reply to this--not even the +curious squirrel chattering in the big beech over their heads. But Harris +seemed to see just the reply he craved in the girl's eyes, for he cried, +suddenly: + +"You _dear_, you!" + +Then they walked on together, side by side, over the carpet of +flame-colored leaves. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRLS OF HILLCREST FARM*** + + +******* This file should be named 32401.txt or 32401.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/4/0/32401 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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