NEW NEIGHBORS, AND GETTING SETTLED.
The week which followed the wedding-day was an important one.
The improvements on the Morris house were pushed along in a way that
astonished everybody. Every day that passed, and with every dollar's
worth of work that was done, the good points of the long-neglected old
mansion came out stronger and stronger.
The plans of Mrs. Kinzer had been a good while in getting ready, and she
knew exactly what was best to be done at every hole and corner.
Within a few days after Ford's trip of investigation, he and his father
came over from the city; and Mr. Foster speedily came to a perfect
understanding with Dabney's mother.
"A very business-like, common-sense sort of a woman," the lawyer
remarked to his son. "But what a great, dangling, overgrown piece of a
boy that is! Still, he seems intelligent, and you may find him good
company."
"No doubt of it," said Ford. "I may be useful to him too. He looks as if
he could learn if he only had a fair chance."
"I should say so," responded Mr. Foster. "We must not expect too much of
fellows brought up away out here, as he has been."
Ford gravely assented, and they went back to report their success to
Mrs. Foster and Annie.
There was a great surprise in store, consequently, for the people of the
village. Early in the following week it was rumored from house to
house,--
"The Kinzers are all a-movin' over to Ham Morris's."
And then, before the public mind had become sufficiently settled to
inquire into the matter, the rumor changed itself into a piece of
positive news:--
"The widder Kinzer's moved over into Ham's house, bag and baggage."
So it was; although the carpenters and painters and glaziers were still
at work, and the piles of Kinzer furniture had to be stored around as
best could be. Some part of them had even to be locked up over night in
one of the barns.
The Kinzers, for generations, had been a trifle weak about furniture;
and that was one of the reasons why there had been so little room for
human beings in their house. The little parlor, indeed, had been filled
until it put one in mind of a small furniture-store, with not room
enough to show the stock on hand; and some of the other parts of the
house required knowledge and care to walk about in them. It was bad for
a small house, truly, but not so much so when the same articles were
given a fair chance to spread themselves.
It was a treat to Dab to watch while the new carpets were put down, and
see how much more at home and comfortable all that furniture looked,
after it was moved into its new quarters. He remarked to Keziah,--
"It won't be of any use for anybody to try to sit on that sofa and play
the piano. They'll have to get up and come over."
Mrs. Kinzer took good care that the house she left should speak well of
her to the eyes of Mrs. Foster, when that lady came to superintend the
arrival of her own household goods.
The character of these, by the way, at once convinced the village
gossips that "lawyer Foster must be a good deal forehanded in money
matters." And so he was, even more so than his furniture indicated.
Ford had a wonderful deal to do with the settlement of his family in
their new home; and it was not until nearly the close of the week that
he found time for more than an occasional glance over the north fence,
although he and Dab had several times exchanged a word or two when they
met each other on the road.
"Take the two farms together," his father had said to him, "and they
make a really fine estate. I learn, too, that the Kinzers have other
property. Your young acquaintance is likely to have a very good start in
the world."
Ford had found out very nearly as much as that on his own account; but
he had long since learned the uselessness of trying to teach his father
any thing, however well he might succeed with ordinary people, and so he
said nothing.
"Dabney," said Mrs. Kinzer, that Friday evening, "you've been a great
help all the week. Suppose you take the ponies to-morrow morning, and
ask young Foster out for a drive."
"Mother," exclaimed Samantha, "I shall want the ponies myself. I've some
calls to make, and some shopping. Dabney will have to drive."
"No, Sam," said Dabney: "if you go out with the ponies to-morrow, you'll
have my old clothes to drive you. I'll go and speak to them about it."
"What do you mean?" asked Samantha.
"I mean, with Dick Lee in them."
"That would be just as well," said Mrs. Kinzer. "The ponies are gentle
enough, and Dick drives well. He'll be glad enough to go."
"Dick Lee, indeed!" began Samantha.
"A fine boy," interrupted Dab. "And he's beginning to dress well. His
new clothes fit him beautifully. All he really needs is a shirt, and
I'll give him one. Mine are getting too small."
Samantha's fingers fidgeted a little with the tidy they were holding;
but Mrs. Kinzer said composedly,--
"Well, Dabney, I've been thinking about it. You ought not to be tied
down all the while. Suppose you take next week pretty much to yourself:
Samantha won't want the ponies every day. The other horses have all got
to work, or I'd let you have one of them."
Dabney got up, for want of a better answer, and walked over to where his
mother was sitting, and gave the thoughtful matron a good sounding kiss.
At the same time he could not help thinking,--
"This comes of Ham Morris and my new rig."
"There, Dabney, that'll do," said his mother; "but how'll you spend
Saturday?"
"Guess I'll take Ford Foster out in the bay, a-crabbing, if he'll go,"
replied Dabney. "I'll run over and ask him."
It was not too late, and he was out of the house before there was any
chance for further remarks from the girls.
"Now," he muttered, as he walked along, "I'll have to see old lawyer
Foster, and Mrs. Foster, and I don't know who all besides. I don't like
that."
Just as he came to the north fence, however, he was hailed by a clear,
wide-awake voice,--
"Dab Kinzer, is that you?"
"Guess so," said Dab: "is that you, Ford?"
"I was just going over to your house," said Ford.
"Well, so was I just coming over to see you. I've been too busy all the
week, but they've let up on me at last."
"I've got our family nearly settled," replied Ford; "and I thought I'd
ask if you wouldn't like to go out on the bay with me to-morrow. Teach
you to catch crabs."
Dabney drew a long, astonished sort of whistle; but he finished it
with,--
"That's about what I was thinking of. There's plenty of crabs, and I've
got a tip-top boat. We won't want a heavy one for just us two."
"All right, then. We'll begin on crabs, but some other day we'll go for
bigger fish. What are you going to do next week?"
"Got it all to myself," said Dab. "We can have all sorts of a good time.
We can have the ponies, too, when we want them."
"That's about as good as it knows how to be," responded the young
gentleman from the city. "I'd like to explore the country. You're going
to have a nice place of it, over there, before you get through. Only, if
I'd had the planning of that house, I'd have set it back farther. Too
much room all round it. Not enough trees either."
Dab came stoutly to the defence of not only that house, but of
Long-Island architecture generally, and was fairly overwhelmed, for the
first time in his life, by a flood of big words from a boy of his own
age.
He could have eaten up Ford Foster, if properly cooked. He felt sure of
that. But he was no match for him on the building question. On his way
back to his new home, however, after the discussion had lasted long
enough, he found himself inquiring,--
"That's all very nice, but what can he teach me about crabs? We'll see
about that to-morrow."
Beyond a doubt, the crab question was of special importance; but one of
far greater consequence to Dab Kinzer's future was undergoing
discussion, at that very hour, hundreds of miles away.
Quite a little knot of people there was, in a hotel parlor; and while
the blooming Miranda, now Mrs. Morris, was taking her share of talk very
well with the ladies, Ham was every bit as busy with a couple of elderly
gentlemen.
"It's just as I say, Mr. Morris," said one of the latter, with a
superfluous show of energy: "there's no better institution of its kind
in the country than Grantley Academy. I send my own boys there; and I've
just written about it to my brother-in-law, Foster, the New-York lawyer.
He'll have his boy there this fall. No better place in the country,
sir."
"But how about the expenses, Mr. Hart?" asked Ham.
"Fees are just what I told you, sir, a mere nothing. As for board, all I
pay for my boys is three dollars a week. All they want to eat, sir, and
good accommodations. Happy as larks, sir, all the time. Cheap, sir,
cheap."
If Ham Morris had the slightest idea of going to school at a New-England
academy, Miranda's place in the improved house was likely to wait for
her; for he had a look on his face of being very nearly convinced.
She did not seem at all disturbed, however; and probably she knew that
her husband was not taking up the school question on his own account.
Nevertheless, that was the reason why it might have been interesting for
Dab Kinzer, and even for his knowing neighbor, to have added themselves
to the company Ham and Miranda had fallen in with on their wedding-tour.
Both of the boys had a different kind of thinking on hand; and that
night Dab dreamed that a gigantic crab was trying to pull Ford Foster
out of the boat, while the latter calmly remarked to him,--
"There, my young friend, did you ever see anything just like that
before?"