MR. DODGE’S MYSTERIOUS JOURNEY.
Andy soon found that his position was by no means an easy one. Though
Mr. Brackett was a lazy man himself, he had no notion of allowing his
hired boy to imitate his example. Even if he had been inclined to be
indulgent, Mrs. Brackett would have taken care that Andy had enough to
do. She had taken a dislike to our hero, dating from the first supper
when Andy firmly resisted little Tommy’s attempt to use him as a
cushion.
“I don’t know what you think, Mr. Brackett,” said his wife, one day,
about a week after Andy’s term of service began, “but I consider that
new boy of yours an impudent, good-for-nothing upstart!”
“He is a good worker, Lucindy,” said Mr. Brackett. “He does more work
than any boy I ever had.”
“Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t, but that ain’t the point.”
“It is the point with me, my dear. Between ourselves, we get him very
cheap. I don’t believe I could get another boy that would do so much
work for fifty cents a week.”
“Fifty cents a week seems to me very good wages,” answered Mrs.
Brackett, whose ideas of compensation were not very liberal.
“I think it’s enough myself for an ordinary boy; but Henry is uncommonly
smart.”
“He feels uncommonly smart, I can tell you that,” retorted the lady.
“Why, Brackett, he seems to consider himself of as much importance as
you or I.”
This was quite true. Andy had gauged Mr. and Mrs. Brackett pretty
accurately, and felt a decided contempt for them both. Both were mean,
one lazy and the other ill-tempered, while neither was up to the average
in refinement or education. So he was disposed to rate himself
considerably higher than either; and who of my young readers will deny
that he has a right to do so?
“Well, Lucindy,” continued Brackett, in a pacific tone, “it doesn’t make
any difference to us what the boy thinks of himself. If he chooses to
make himself ridiculous by his airs, why let him, for all I care.”
“But there’s something more, Mr. Brackett,” said his wife.
“What more?”
“The way he treats Tommy. You haven’t forgotten how he treated him at
supper the very first night?”
“Tommy was trying to prick him with a pin. You couldn’t expect him to
stand that?”
“He could have mentioned it to you or me, then. Instead of that, what
does he do? Why, he seizes the poor child’s hand and pulls the pin away
from him. You ought to have flogged him for it.”
“You didn’t seem to like it yourself when Tommy attacked you with a
pin,” said Mr. Brackett, laughing. “You didn’t stand on any ceremony,
but hauled the boy out of the room,” and Mr. Brackett unguardedly
laughed at the recollection.
His wife reddened and inquired, sharply:
“So you choose to compare me to your hired boy, do you, Mr. Brackett?”
“Not that I know of, Lucindy.”
“You seem to think it makes no difference whether Tommy pricks him or
me--his ma and your wife,” said Mrs. Brackett, severely.
“Really, Lucindy, you twist my words so I don’t know hardly what I do
mean.”
“I want you to stand by your own flesh and blood, Mr. Brackett. I don’t
want you to allow them to be imposed on and ill-treated by a young tramp
whom you have hired to do chores.”
“I don’t mean to. What do you expect me to do, anyway?”
“I expect you to teach that boy his place.”
“If I don’t treat him well he won’t stay. He’ll leave me all of a
sudden, as Peter did.”
“Then you can get another boy.”
“That isn’t so easily done as you may suppose. I can’t get any of the
boys round here to work for me--I’m sure I don’t know why--and new ones
don’t come along every day. I don’t fancy being left without one to do
the chores myself.”
“If you did them all, you wouldn’t work as hard as I do,” said his wife,
contemptuously, and not altogether without a basis of truth.
“You can’t expect a woman to know anything about a man’s work,” said Mr.
Brackett, in a complacent tone of superiority.
“I know I could do all your work, and get done in half the day,” said
his wife.
Mr. Brackett shrugged his shoulders, and was about to saunter off, when
his father-in-law made his appearance.
“Mr. Brackett,” said he, “if you can spare Henry and your horse and
team, I would like to have him drive me over to Jefferson this
afternoon.”
“Really, father,” said Brackett, who did not like the proposal, for it
would throw upon his shoulders some of Andy’s work, “I’d like to oblige
you, but it would be very inconvenient. You see, Henry’s got his work to
do, and----”
“I didn’t ask it as a favor,” said Mr. Dodge. “I mean to pay you for the
boy’s services, and also for the horse and team.”
Now, money was the god of both Mr. and Mrs. Brackett, and this put quite
a different face on the matter.
“Let father have the boy and team,” said Mrs. Brackett. “You can spare
them.”
“It would be worth as much as two dollars,” said Brackett.
“I will pay you two dollars,” said Simon Dodge promptly.
Here a new and brilliant idea struck Mr. Brackett, and he said, briskly:
“I’ll tell you what, father; I’ll drive you over myself, instead of
Henry, and I won’t charge you a cent more, even if my time is more
valuable than his.”
He reflected that it would be easier driving round the country than
staying at home and doing the boy’s work.
“Thank you for your kind offer,” said the old man, quietly, “but I can’t
accept it.”
“You mean you’d rather have the boy drive you?” asked Mr. Brackett, in
amazement.
“I would,” answered his father-in-law, candidly.
“Really that doesn’t seem friendly,” said Mr. Brackett.
“I generally like to have my own way, Jeremiah,” said Mr. Dodge,
quietly. “I don’t mind allowing you two dollars and a half, which is
more than I should need to pay at the stable. Is it yes or no?”
“Oh, of course, I agree,” said Brackett, rather disappointed. “Do you
want to go now?”
“Yes.”
“What in the world is he going to do?” thought Mr. and Mrs. Brackett;
for this was a request out of the ordinary course. “It must be something
he doesn’t want us to know.”
Doubtful as to how much information they could extract from Andy, a
sharp plan suggested itself to Mrs. Brackett.
“Father,” said she, “have you any objection to taking Tommy along with
you? The dear boy loves to be with his grandpa, and he can sit between
you and Henry. He doesn’t take up much room.”
“I won’t take him this afternoon, Lucinda,” said Mr. Dodge, mildly.
“The poor child would enjoy it so much to ride with his grandpa,”
pleaded Mrs. Brackett.
“Tommy must wait till another time,” said “grandpa,” firmly.
Mrs. Brackett was displeased, and, though she did not venture to say
anything more, she showed by her manner that she considered her poor boy
was slighted.
The team was soon ready, and the old man rode off with our hero.
Mr. and Mrs. Brackett looked after them, with a look of baffled
curiosity.
“What does this mean, Jeremiah?” asked his wife, at last.
“That’s more than I can tell, Lucindy,” returned her husband.
“Seems mighty mysterious to me.”
“So it does.”
“If he’d only have taken Tommy, the dear child would have told us just
where he went and what he did.”
“So he would. Maybe that was what he was afraid of.”
“I’ve been thinkin’----”
“Well, what have you been thinkin’, Jeremiah?” asked his wife, impatient
at her husband’s pause.
“I’ve been thinkin’ that perhaps father is going to make his will this
afternoon.”
“Why shouldn’t he let us know?”
“Oh, perhaps he wants to surprise us.”
“Jeremiah, do you think there is any fear of his leaving his property to
them relations of his in the East?”
“I can’t say, but I guess not. He never hears from them. Like as not, he
doesn’t know where they live.”
“We must find out, some way, whether he makes a will, and what’s in it,”
said Mrs. Brackett, nodding vigorously. “When they get home, try to get
it out of the boy what the old man did, and where he went.”
“I will, Lucindy.”