DAB'S OLD CLOTHES GET A NEW BOY TO FIT.
Hamilton Morris was a very promising young man, of some thirty summers.
He had been an "orphan" for a dozen years; and the wonder was that he
should so long have lived alone in the big, square-built house his
father left him. At all events, Miranda Kinzer was just the wife for
him.
Miranda's mother had seen that at a glance, the moment her mind was
settled about the house. As to that and his great, spreading,
half-cultivated farm, all either of them needed was ready money and
management.
These were blessings Ham was now made reasonably sure of, on his return
from his wedding-trip, and he was likely to appreciate them.
As for Dabney Kinzer, he was in no respect overcome by the novelty and
excitement of the wedding-day. All the rest of it, after the departure
of Ham Morris and the bride, he devoted himself to such duties as were
assigned him, with a new and grand idea steadily taking shape in his
mind. He felt as if his brains too, like his body, were growing. Some of
his mother's older and more intimate friends remained with her all day,
probably to comfort her for the loss of Miranda; and two or three of
them, Dab knew, would stay to tea, so that his services would be in
demand to see them safely home.
All day long, moreover, Samantha and Keziah and Pamela seemed to find
themselves wonderfully busy, one way and another, so that they paid even
less attention than usual to any of the ins and outs of their brother.
Dabney was therefore able, with little difficulty, to take for himself
whatever of odd time he might require for putting his new idea into
execution.
Mrs. Kinzer herself noticed the rare good sense with which her son
hurried through with his dinner, and slipped away, leaving her in
undisturbed possession of the table and her lady guests, and neither she
nor either of the girls had a thought of following him.
If they had done so, they might have seen him draw a good-sized bundle
out from under the lilac-thicket in the back yard, and hurry down
through the garden.
A few moments more, and Dabney had appeared on the fence of the old
cross-road leading down to the shore. There he sat, eying one passer-by
after another, till he suddenly sprang from his perch, exclaiming,--
"That's just the chap! Why, they'll fit him, and that's more'n they ever
did for me."
Dab would probably have had to search along the coast for miles before
he could have found a human being better suited to his present
charitable purposes than the boy who now came so lazily down the road.
There was no doubt about his color, or that he was all over of about the
same shade of black. His old tow trowsers and calico shirt revealed the
shining fact in too many places to leave room for a question, and shoes
he had none.
"Dick," said Dabney, "was you ever married?"
"Married!" exclaimed Dick, with a peal of very musical laughter, "is I
married? No. Is you?"
"No," replied Dabney; "but I was very near it, this morning."
"Dat so?" asked Dick, with another show of his white teeth. "Done ye
good, den; nebber seen ye I look so nice afore."
"You'd look nicer'n I do if you were only dressed up," said Dab. "Just
you put on these."
"Golly!" exclaimed the black boy. But he seized the bundle Dab threw
him, and he had it open in a twinkling.
"Any t'ing in de pockets?" he asked.
"Guess not," said Dab; "but there's lots of room."
"Say dar was," exclaimed Dick. "But won't dese t'ings be warm?"
It was quite likely; for the day was not a cool one, and Dick never
seemed to think of getting off what he had on, before getting into his
unexpected present. Coat, vest, and trousers, they were all pulled on
with more quickness than Dab had ever seen the young African display
before.
"I's much obleeged to ye, Mr. Kinzer," said Dick very proudly, as he
strutted across the road. "On'y I dasn't go back fru de village."
"What'll you do, then?" asked Dab.
"S'pose I'd better go a-fishin'," said Dick. "Will de fish bite?"
"Oh! the clothes won't make any odds to them," said Dabney. "I must go
back to the house."
And so he did: while Dick, on whom the cast-off garments of his white
friend were really a pretty good fit, marched on down the road, feeling
grander than he ever had before in all his life.
"That'll be a good thing to tell Ham Morris, when he and Miranda get
home again," muttered Dab, as he re-entered the house.
Late that evening, when Dabney returned from his final duties as escort
to his mother's guests, she rewarded him with more than he could
remember ever receiving of motherly commendation.
"I've been really quite proud of you, Dabney," she said, as she laid her
plump hand on the collar of his new coat, and kissed him. "You've
behaved like a perfect little gentleman."
"Only, mother," exclaimed Keziah, "he spent too much of his time with
that sharp-tongued little Jenny Walters."
"Never mind, Kezi," said Dab: "she didn't know who I was till I told
her. I'm going to wear a label with my name on it when I go over to the
village to-morrow."
"And then you'll put on your other suit in the morning," said Mrs.
Kinzer. "You must keep this for Sundays and great occasions."
"Any more weddings coming, right away?" said Dab, with a sharp glance
around upon what remained of the family; but the girls were all very
busy just then, with their books and their sewing, and he did not get
any direct reply. Even his mother walked away after something she had
left in the dining-room.
When the next morning came, Dabney Kinzer was a more than usually early
riser, for he felt that he had waked up to a very important day.
"Dabney," exclaimed his mother, when he came in to breakfast, "did I not
tell you to put on your other suit?"
"So I have, mother," replied Dab: this is my other suit."
"That?" exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer.
"So it is!" cried Keziah.
"So it isn't," added Samantha. "Mother, that is not what he had on
yesterday."
"He's been trading again," mildly suggested Pamela.
"Dabney," said Mrs. Kinzer, "what does this mean?"
"Mean!" replied Dabney. "Why, these are the clothes you told me to buy.
The lot I wore yesterday were a present from Ham Morris. He's a splendid
fellow. I'm glad he got the best of the girls."
That was a bad thing for Dabney to say just then, for it was vigorously
resented by the remaining three. As soon as quiet was restored, however,
Mrs. Kinzer remarked,--
"I think Hamilton should have consulted me about it, but it's too late
now. Anyhow, you may go and put on your other clothes."
"My wedding suit?" asked Dab.
"No, indeed! I mean your old ones,--those you took off night before
last."
"Dunno where they are," slowly responded Dab.
"Don't know where they are?" responded a chorus of four voices.
"No," said Dab. "Bill Lee's black boy had em on all yesterday afternoon,
and I reckon he's gone a-fishing again to-day. They fit him a good sight
better 'n they ever did me."
If Dabney had expected a storm to come from his mother's end of the
table, he was pleasantly mistaken; and his sisters had it all to
themselves for a moment. Then, with an admiring glance at her son, the
thoughtful matron remarked,--
"Just like his father, for all the world! It's no use, girls: Dabney's a
growing boy in more ways than one. Dabney, I shall want you to go over
to the Morris house with me after breakfast. Then you may hitch up the
ponies, and we'll do some errands around the village."
Dab Kinzer's sisters looked at one another in blank astonishment, and
Samantha would have left the table if she had only finished her
breakfast.
Pamela, as being nearest to Dab in age and sympathy, gave a very
admiring look at her brother's second "good fit," and said nothing.
Even Keziah finally admitted, in her own mind, that such a change in
Dabney's appearance might have its advantages. But Samantha inwardly
declared war.
The young hero himself was hardly used to that second suit, as yet, and
felt any thing but easy in it.
"I wonder," he said to himself, "what Jenny Walters would say to me now.
Wonder if she'd know me."
Not a doubt of it. But after he had finished his breakfast, and gone
out, his mother remarked,--
"It's really all right, girls. I almost fear I have been neglecting
Dabney. He isn't a little boy any more."
"He isn't a man yet," exclaimed Samantha. "And he talks slang
dreadfully."
"But then, he does grow so!" remarked Keziah.
"Mother," said Pamela, "couldn't you get Dab to give Dick Lee the slang,
along with the old clothes?"
"We'll see about it," replied Mrs. Kinzer.
It was very clear that Dabney's mother had begun to take in a new idea
about her son.
It was not the least bit in the world unpleasant to find out that he was
"growing in more ways than one," and it was quite likely that she had
indeed kept him too long in roundabouts.
At all events, his great idea had been worked out into a triumphant
success; and, before the evening was over, Pamela replied to a remark of
Samantha's,--
"I don't care. He's taller than I am, and I'd ever so much rather have a
frock-coat walk beside me to meeting."