better sense than to throw away dollars?" but his mother gave Joshua a
look, and said: "Don't you shet him off the track until he's through. I
knew he wasn't working in his mind like he's done lately for nothing."
When he told of chopping up the tea-pot, his father chuckled, but his
mother shivered and broke in with, "How could you ever set an axe in it?
It seems to me 'bout as bad as cuttin' up poor Aunt Jimmy for sausages!"
When he came to the end, and pulling out his handkerchief, spread the
contents before his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lane stood grasping the table
edge and staring white and wide eyed, until Joshua broke the silence
with "Jehosophat! Nancy Hanks! but I'm kneesprung dumbfounded!"
"And you'd better be!" snapped Lauretta Ann, as nearly as she _could_
snap at her husband; "after all you've said against the memory of
sainted Aunt Jimmy, and sneered and snipped at her will and meanings!
Don't you see now how she fixed things so's I'd get the farm by biddin'
it in fair without bein' hashed over in public for gettin' more'n my
equal share? _She_ trusted me to fetch that pot home and, by usin' it
daily, find it wouldn't pour out, as I would have did and diskiver the
money. Oh, Joshua, Joshua, let this be a lesson to you an' all husbands
not to browbeat their trustin' wives, as women's allers the furthest
seein' sect."
"Fur seein', shucks!" snorted Joshua, who had enjoyed his recent
authority too well to part with it; "between you and Aunt Jimmy yer'd
made a fine mess o' it, and it took a male, though not a full-grown one,
to pull yer out of it, for yer allowed yer'd only stick up the pot for
a moniment an' not use it on account o' its taste tainting the tea. It
sartinly took us men folks to dig yer out o' it; didn't it, Lammy?
"Now as we know Aunt Jimmy's intentions was that this be kept close,
close it'll be kept, and we'd better pack up them bills until we can
bank 'em Monday, in case Mis'is Slocum should be drawd to look in the
winder to see if we are havin' a hot or cold supper, and real or crust
coffee."
"But mother," said Lammy, as soon as he could be heard, "when shall we
get Bird back? Need we wait until the auction?"
"Sakes alive, child, I'll write as soon as I get my head, but there's
two letters unanswered now, and I'm afeared they've moved again.
Somehow, with all we've got to face just now, I think 'twould be better
waitin' until everything's settled up certain and we've got the place
safe and sound. Then pa and me and you could kind er celebrate, and
take a trip to N'York and get her. I ain't never been there but onct
in my life, an' that was to a funeral when it wasn't seemin' fer me to
look about to see things, and it rained and I spoiled my best bunnit.
I reckon, now we can afford it, 'twould set us all up to go on a good
lively errand o' mercy, and maybe see a circus too if there's any there,
and eat a dinner bought ready made. Seems to me I should relish some
vittles I hadn't cooked, and to step off without washing the dishes."
"Say, Lauretta Ann," drawled Joshua, presently, when Lammy, hugging
Twinkle and telling him the news, had gone upstairs to look at Bird's
paint-box, and sit in the dark and think of the bliss of going to New
York and surprising her his very self, "who do you calkerlate owns them
_six thousand dollars_?" rolling the words about in his mouth like a
dainty morsel.
"Why, me,--that is we, of course!" she gasped. "You don't think there's
anything wrong in takin' it? Ah, Joshua, you _don't_ think there's any
wrong in takin' it?"
"Yes and no, not that egzactly; but as the Squire gave Lammy the law
about things that's been throwed out, it 'pears to me the find is hisn."
"Well, if it is, I'm glad, and it's the Lord's doin' anyway. We can put
the deed in Lammy's name, and earn him good schoolin' out o' it along o'
little Bird, for nobody knows how I've missed that youngster a runnin'
in and out these last months and feeling her head on my shoulder times
when she was lonesome, and I mothered her in the rocker before the fire.
What with the high school, and the painting school, and the female
college over at Northboro, there's all the eddication she'll need for
years close handy, and it's no wrong to the others, for there's this
place for them to divide, and they're strong and likely."
"Remember the auction ain't took place yet, Lauretta Ann, and don't set
too sure."
"Joshua, the Lord has planned this out; it can't go astray now."
"Amen," said Joshua; "but how about Old Lucky's spell? and supposin' Mr.
Clarke takes a fancy to bid on the fruit farm. I hear he's been for land
hereabout."
"Father, I'm _shocked_ at you, and you nephew-in-law to a deacon!"
Mrs. Lane went upstairs to look for Lammy and found him lying across
his bed in an uneasy sleep, with Twinkle keeping guard by him, while
his fatigue and the soaked boots in the corner told the cause for the
illness that was creeping over him.
"Pa," called Mrs. Lane down the backstairs, in a husky whisper, "do you
go for Dr. Jedd without waiting for the boys to come in. Lammy's chilled
and fevered and sweatin' all to onct, and I can't read nothing out of
such crossway sinktoms. Dear me suz, it does never rain but it pours!
Say, Joshua, you'd best fetch that money up here to be put in the iron
maple-sugar pot afore you go."
By the time Dr. Jedd arrived Lammy was in a heavy sleep, from which he
roused at the physician's firm touch on his pulse, and began to talk
wildly.
At first he seemed to think that Dr. Jedd was Old Lucky, for he cried,
"I gave you the silver dollar and I made the bullets, but when I went
to shoot them, they turned into polliwogs and went downstream." Then
raising himself, he shook his pillow violently, saying, "You were a bad
man to tell me lies. How could I shoot the shadow of a Christmas tree on
a dark night? Cause when it's dark there are'nt any shadows."
Next he seemed to imagine that he was tramping over the hills with the
surveyors, and he had an argument with himself, as to whether feet made
rods or rods feet, and then mumbled something about _a_ + _b_ that they
could not understand for they did not know that one of his new friends
had started him in Algebra.
"He is tired out," said Dr. Jedd, presently, "and in his mind more
than his body. The professor over at the camp told me that he had a
great head for mathematics, and was always asking questions and working
out sums and things on every scrap of paper he came across, and that
when paper gave out he'd smooth a place in the dirt and scratch away
on that with a nail. Said that it was a pity that he couldn't go to
the Institute at Northboro and be fitted for the School of Mines in
New York. Told me if he ever did, he could put him in the way of free
tuition at least."
"The pewter tea-pot! Take Bird out of the pewter tea-pot; she's stuck in
the spout, and when you chop it off, it will kill her!" shrieked Lammy,
jumping out of bed.
Dr. Jedd gave him some quieting medicine, and he soon sank back among
the pillows, with a burning red spot of fever on each cheek.
"Is it typhoid?" asked Mrs. Lane, her face white and drawn; "Janey died
of that."
"It is a fever, but I cannot be quite sure of exactly which one," said
the doctor, opening a little case he carried and taking out a fine
needlelike instrument and a bottle of alcohol. "If I wait to know until
it develops, we shall be losing time; if I prick his finger and send
a drop of blood to Dr. Devlin in Northboro, who makes a study of such
things, he will look at it through his microscope and tell me in the
morning exactly where we stand." So after washing a spot clean with
alcohol he took the little red drop that tells so much to the really
wise physician and prevents all the mistakes of guess-work, and then
began to prepare some medicines and write his directions for the night.
"Is there any one you would like me to send up to stay with you, Mrs.
Lane?" the doctor asked as he prepared to leave. "This may be a tedious
illness, and it won't do for you to wear yourself out in the beginning."
"Byme-by, perhaps," Mrs. Lane replied "but not jest now while he talks
so wild. You know, doctor, how the best of folks will repeat and spy.
Joshua ain't overbusy, and he'll help me out."
"What is that thing hanging round Lammy's neck by a string under his
shirt that he has such a tight hold of?"
"It's the key of the lower one of his chest of drawers; he keeps odds
and ends in it that he sets store by, and I guess he's lost it so many
times that he's took to hanging it on safe by a string."
The next afternoon when Dr. Jedd came, the smile on his face reassured
Mrs. Lane even before he said: "No, it isn't typhoid--merely plain
malaria, and his worrying so much about Bird has made him light-headed.
What has become of the child? Tired as she was in the spring, I would
not answer for her little wild-wood ladyship after a hot summer in the
city."
Then Mrs. Lane told sadly of the frequent invitations and the unanswered
letters.
"I'm going to town for a little vacation after the holidays, and I will
look her up myself," said the doctor, cheerily.
* * * * *
It was many weeks after the night that Lammy chopped up the pewter
tea-pot and made his wonderful discovery before the fever left him,
and then he felt so limp and weak that after sitting up a few minutes
he was glad to crawl into bed again. His mind had only wandered during
the first two or three days, but frequently he would wake up with a
start from troubled sleep and ask his mother anxiously if it was really
true about the tea-pot or only a dream. He was bitterly disappointed
when the night before the auction came and the doctor told him that he
must not go, even though his big brother Nellis had offered to put the
great arm-chair in the cart and take him down in that way, all wrapped
in comfortables. For the doctor said the excitement of thinking of the
matter was enough without being there.
On his way out, Dr. Jedd spent a few moments before he went home,
chatting to Joshua in the kitchen.
"To-morrow the tug of war is coming, Joshua," said the doctor; "all of
your neighbours wish you well and set great store by your wife, and we
hate to think of seeing strangers in the fruit farm. If you can think up
any way that we could accommodate or help you out to buy it, why, just
speak out. If the two thousand dollars Miss Jemima left my wife would
make any difference to you, she bid me say that, as she knows your dread
of mortgages, she would loan it on your note of hand," at the same time
holding out his own toward Joshua as if it already held the proffered
money.
Joshua's honest face flushed with pleasure at the implied trust, yet
he could hardly keep the smile from his lips and a mysterious twinkle
from his eyes as he shook the doctor's hand heartily and answered:
"We're much obleeged, and we'll never forget that you and Mis'is Jedd
held us well enough in esteem to make the offer, but I reckon the only
way we could come to own the fruit farm would be by buying it out fair
and square. I don't say but I'd be downhearted to see it go by me,
especially to 'Biram Slocum, for they've been days, doc, when I've even
kind o' pictured out the two farms, ourn and it, joined fast by your
sellin' me that wood bluff that runs in between from the highway. But
you know the sayin', doc, 'Man proposes, woman disposes,' and all that."
This time the doctor caught the wink that Joshua's near eye gave
in spite of itself, but thought that it referred to Aunt Jimmy's
peculiarities.
"Well," said the doctor, deliberately, a genial smile spreading over his
features, "one thing I'll do to help out your picturing, as you call
it. If luck should turn so that you buy the fruit farm, I'll sell you
the wood knoll for what I gave for it, and that's the first time I ever
considered parting with it, though I've had no end of good offers."
"Here's the boys jest come home in time to witness that there remark o'
yourn. Ain't yer gettin' kind er rash 'n' hasty, doc?"
"No, Joshua, the more witnesses, the better," and the two men went out
the door, toward the fence where the doctor's chaise was tied, laughing
heartily.
As to the boys, they were completely bewildered, for not a word did they
know, or would until after the auction, and they had not the remotest
idea that their father even dreamed of bidding on the fruit farm.
XII
THE TUG OF WAR
The strain that Lammy had been under ever since the reading of Aunt
Jimmy's will had told on him in a way that only his mother understood,
and after the stubborn malarial fever itself was routed, he felt, as he
said, "like the bones in my legs is willer whistles," so Dinah Lucky was
engaged to stay with him on the morning of the long talked of auction
sale. He would have preferred some one else, for Dinah was a great
talker, and his head still felt tired, but she was the only trustworthy
person in the entire neighbourhood who for either friendship or money
would consent to miss the auction.
According to the terms of the notice that had appeared in the local
papers and been posted in a ten-mile circuit from Milltown to Northboro,
the sale conducted by Joel Hill, auctioneer, was to be held on the fruit
farm itself at ten o'clock on the morning of Thursday, December the
ninth, "by order of Joshua Lane, Executor."
When the day came, it was bitterly cold, though clear; a two-days old
snow-storm followed by sleet had crusted well, and the walking and
sleighing were both good, yet Joshua Lane was surprised when he went
down to the fruit farm at nine o'clock in the morning to sweep off the
porch and light a fire in the kitchen stove, which still remained on the
premises for cooking chickens' food, to see many teams already hitched
to the fence, the horses well muffled in blankets. People afoot were
also going toward the barn, where a Hungarian, who was retained to tend
the stock and act as watchman, had a room and fire which, together with
what information they could extract from him, was what they sought.
As the man said, "Yah! ha!" equally loud to every question, Joshua
thought no harm could come from that quarter, and proceeded to open the
blinds of the kitchen windows and make such preparations as he could for
protecting the audience from the cold.
By half-past nine the kitchen, sitting room, north parlours, all bare of
furniture, and the stairs were packed with standing people, and when,
at a few minutes before ten, the auctioneer and the Northboro lawyer,
Mr. Cole, who had made Aunt Jimmy's will, appeared together, they had to
push their way into the house.
Mrs. Slocum had been on hand early, of course,--she always was,--and
kept dropping mysterious remarks and pursing up her lips. She began by
cheapening the entire place, saying the house was not in as good repair
as she had been led to think, that the wall papers were frights, and
that everything needed paint, that four thousand dollars would be a high
price for the property, and she didn't know who'd buy it anyway. Then
the next minute she was requesting those about her not to crowd up the
stairs, as they might bend the hand rail, which would be just so much
out of the pocket of whoever bought the house, adding that red Brussels
carpet was her choice for the north room.
To the surprise of all, the two out-of-town Lane brothers, Jason and
Henry, were not there. The "all in due time" policy that had always, and
would always, keep Henry poor, caused them to start for the auction so
late that the delay on the road caused by a broken trace detained them
until nearly eleven, when they turned about and went home again so as
not to be late for dinner.
After reading the description of the property and the cash terms of
the sale, Joel Hill stood up on a soap-box that he might overlook the
assembly and called out, "What am I bid, to start?"
There was complete silence for a few moments. Then the door opened, and
Mr. Brotherton, one of Mr. Clarke's agents from Northboro, entered,
causing a flutter of speculation as to what his presence might mean
and making Mrs. Lane's heart thump painfully. Dr. Jedd and his wife,
the minister and his lady, together with Mrs. Lane, who were occupying
a bench that had been brought from the barn, and were the only people
seated, looked at the stove in front of them, so that those who expected
a bid from that quarter were disappointed.
Joshua Lane, hands behind him, leaned against the chimney front and
gazed steadily at a wire that held the stove-pipe in place.
"What am I bid, to start?" repeated the auctioneer. Abiram Slocum,
scanning the various groups with his ferret eyes, moved uneasily,
moistened his lips, and, as his wife gave him a prod with her umbrella
that exactly hit the "funny bone" of his elbow, jerked out, "Five
hundred dollars."
"One thousand," said a clear, distinct, but unfamiliar, voice at the
back of the room. There was a unanimous turning of heads and twisting
of bodies toward the bidder, who proved to be Mr. Cole the lawyer from
Northboro, who made a very impressive appearance, clad as he was in a
handsome fur-lined overcoat and a shiny silk hat. As he was also often
employed by Mr. Clarke, the mystery deepened.
Abiram Slocum gasped as if some one had poured a pail of water over
him at this unexpected competitor, and then called, "One thousand two
hundred and fifty."
"Two thousand," from the lawyer.
"Two thousand and fifty," shrieked Abiram.
"Why waste time with small change a cold morning like this?" called the
auctioneer.
"Three thousand," said the lawyer.
"Three thousand three hundred," snapped Abiram, vainly endeavouring to
get out of range of the faces and gestures his wife was making at him.
"Four thousand five hundred," jumped the lawyer, beginning to button his
coat and draw on his gloves, as if the end were well in sight.
Abiram Slocum seemed bewildered, and glancing at his wife, failed to
read her signal aright, and resorted to a hoarse whispering in the
middle of which she shook him off and shouted with an air of triumph,
"Five thousand dollars!"
Mrs. Lane was seen to moisten her lips nervously, and the colour in her
cheeks deepened, but then by this time the wood-stove was sending forth
red-hot air as only a sheet-iron stove working full blast knows how.
"Five thousand two hundred and fifty," bid the lawyer. Then followed
an altercation between Mr. and Mrs. Slocum. Vainly the auctioneer
rapped; they paid no attention, and upon the lawyer saying that any
further delay would cause a withdrawal of his bid, the final "Going,
going, gone, at five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars" was
called, and it was not until fully twenty seconds after the final bang
of the hammer that the Slocums came to, and Abiram fairly yelled,
"Six--thousand--dollars!"
Of course it was too late, and the fault was nobody's but his own.
He tried to protest and was actually hissed down, Laurelville folk
preferring to see the property go anywhere so long as Mrs. Slocum was
not mistress of the fruit farm.
"Name of buyer?" asked the auctioneer; "self or client?"
"Client," said the lawyer, slowly adjusting his eyeglasses and glancing
at a slip of paper, while dead silence again prevailed, and the Slocums
glared forked lightning at each other and the world in general.
"The purchase is made by Lauretta Ann Lane, as guardian for her son,
Samuel Lane, and she is prepared to deposit the price in cash, pending
searching of the title and transfer of deed."
There was a shuffle as the people, released from the strain, shifted
from one numb foot to the other, and then cheers broke out, for above
curiosity and all other feeling was one of joy that their kind,
hard-working neighbour had in some mysterious way received what they
firmly believed to be her due.
When the applause had subsided and the general handshaking ceased,
Lauretta Ann Lane pulled a large new wallet from some mysterious place
in her dress, and counting out eleven clean five-hundred-dollar bills
held them toward the auctioneer, saying, "I'll trouble you for the
change, please," adding in a low yet perfectly distinct voice to an
irate figure who was elbowing her way out, and meeting many obstacles in
so doing, "That change 'll come in right handy for new papers, paint,
and furnishings that you said was needful, and I think a red Brussels
carpet _would_ liven up that north room wonderful. That same was your
choice, waren't it, Mis'is Slocum?"
How it all came about the village never discovered; for whatever the
lawyer knew or _thought_, he kept it to himself and said the opposite,
which is, of course, what lawyers are for.
Dr. Jedd was the only one who suspected in the right direction; for
soon after the Lanes had moved into their new home, and curiosity had
subsided, he was looking on the parlour mantel-shelf for the matches,
and discovered the chopped remains of the pewter tea-pot reposing in
a handsome china jar that was bought in New York. But Dr. Jedd only
chuckled as the whole thing flashed across him, and he said to himself,
"Surely enough, man proposes and woman disposes, and there's a various
lot of human nature in woman, especially Aunt Jimmy, who was a blessed,
good, spunky, old fool."
One final sensation was given the neighbourhood when it was found that,
after the payment of the legacies and other charges against the estate,
there was enough surplus to give the three Lane brothers over three
thousand dollars each, legal allotment.
XIII
TELLTALE TROUSERS
As Mrs. Lane was hurrying home from the auction, that Lammy need not be
kept in suspense a moment longer than was necessary, she bumped into
Abiram Slocum, who was trudging moodily along the road. His wife had
left the house first, and in her anger appropriated the cutter and gone
home, leaving him to walk.
Mrs. Lane intended to go by without speaking, and merely gave a civil
nod, but he would not allow it; his ugly mood must find vent in words,
and as she passed he squared about, saying:--
"You've no cause to feel so hoity toity if yer _hev_ got the fruit
farm; _there's underhand business been goin' on here in Laurelville,
if the light o' truth was let in_. Moreover, it's time that husband o'
yourn as Minstrator of that Irish O'More's debts should pay me the rent
due; the fact of the furniture being burned don't release him a copper
cent's worth, as he well knows. Tell him from me he'd best come down
and settle up; ter-morrow I reckon to be at the tax office all forenoon,
or"--with an evil sneer--"mebbe, as you seem to hold the purse, you'd
like to pay the debt out of charity to the girl you bragged o' being
fond of, to save her the name of pauper."
Mrs. Lane grew hot and cold by turns, and a torrent of words rose to
her lips, but the thought of Lammy waiting so patiently checked her in
time, and she merely said, "Yes, Abiram Slocum, you'll hear from us
to-morrer."
As she reached the home gate, she saw Dinah Lucky, who was stationed at
the window to give the first word of her return, and at the same time a
wild-looking tawny head and a pair of big questioning gray eyes appeared
above her fat shoulder, as Lammy steadied himself by the window-frame.
Quick as a flash she pulled off her red knitted shawl and waved it
joyfully, so that Lammy knew at least two minutes before she could have
reached his room to tell him.
Once upstairs, she was obliged to begin at the beginning and tell him
the story of the morning in every detail, holding his hand the while as
if to convince him that she was real and what she told the plain truth.
Presently Dinah slipped downstairs, saying she would get the dinner and
bring them both some upstairs, for she was sure "Missy Lane" must be
clear tuckered out.
And so she was, though she had not realized it until that moment and
sinking back in the homemade arm-chair, she closed her eyes in a state
of perfect peace, and must have dozed, for she awoke with a start to
hear Lammy say, "This sort of makes up for the Thanksgiving dinner I
missed," and there upon the various chairs and the bedstand Dinah had
spread a dinner tempting as only a coloured "born cook" knows how to
make it, while the clashing of knives and forks below told her that
Joshua and the boys were provided for (they had all staid at home from
the shop to attend the auction) and that this afternoon at least was her
own.