OLD FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS OF HIS COME TO VISIT DABNEY.
"Boys," remarked Dab Kinzer, when they gathered in their own room after
supper, "I can't say we've learned a great deal this first week; but
we've found a tiptop fishing-ground, and we've settled the Hart boys."
"Shouldn't wonder if Mrs. Myers feels a good deal more settled than she
did too," said Ford. "But I'm thinking what Frank Harley's going to do
with his fingers, when we can give him a chance. We've loads of fun
ahead, or I'm mistaken."
"I won't try it on very often," said Frank. "Fun's fun, that's a fact;
but I came here to learn something."
"My dear young friend," said Ford, with a sudden imitation of Mr.
Fallow, "think of how much you've learned in seven days. Dab's beginning
to know so much, he can't talk."
"I'm not just comfortable about Dick," said Dabney.
"Oh! he'll come out all right: the corn's mostly shelled, and the
woodpile can't last forever. He doesn't know how to run a
sewing-machine. She tried making him read aloud to her and Almira, last
night; but Dick thinks she won't ask him to do it again. Don't be
troubled about Richard: his future is safe."
Part of it undoubtedly; and the boys had "settled" more things for
themselves and him than those they mentioned.
They had settled their own position among the boys of the academy and
the village, old and young; for every soul of them had heard about "the
big fight on the green" before he went to bed that night. They had
secured Dick Lee's position for him: not that they had given him a false
one, but that he would be safe to enjoy, almost unmolested, whatever
position his own conduct might earn for him. That was all any boy ought
to have, black or white.
They had done much, as Ford said, to settle their own position at their
boarding-house; but that was nothing of importance compared to the
impression they had made upon the large heart and brain of the stately
academy principal. They had made a firm friend of him, and of others
whose friendship was worth having.
All that was a great deal to have accomplished in one short week, but
there was much more that would require their immediate attention.
Books, fishing, lectures, base-ball, French, pigeon-shooting, elocution,
kites, composition, nutting, and the academy debating society; and the
list of the future demands upon their time grew as they talked, until
Ford exclaimed,--
"Hold on, boys: my brains won't stand any more till after I've eaten a
supply of fish."
They ought all to have been able to think harder, after the next day's
breakfast and dinner; but the "corned beef" came on Monday, and with it,
as usual, came corn in other forms. "The farm" had done well that year,
with that particular crop; but so had all the other farms, east and
west, and Mrs. Myers found her best market for her maize harvest at her
own table. It would take a good while to dispose of what Dick had
already shelled, and all she could do was to be liberal as to quantity.
There was no fault to be found with her on that score, but Dabney did
not ask for any more recipes to send home to his mother.
The second week was much longer than the first. Saturday came around
very nearly in its own turn this time; but it brought with it such a
storm of wind and rain as not only shut Green Pond out of all possible
calculations, but kept the village green as well, clear of all boys.
It was a good time to write letters in, and those written were long
ones; but they did not contain a solitary complaint of any thing the
boys had yet discovered in or about Grantley.
"Hamilton," said Mrs. Kinzer, after pondering a little over her letter
when it came, "Dabney seems to be well satisfied."
"Mrs. Foster says Ford and Frank are."
"But I notice he doesn't say any thing about his appetite. I do hope he
isn't losing it. He seems to be studying hard."
"Dabney? Lose his appetite in less than two weeks? No, mother Kinzer, it
would take him longer than that."
It was just one week later that he showed her a part of a curious
epistle he had himself received from Dab. It had evidently been written
in a moment of what is called "confidence."
"I tell you what, Ham," he wrote, "mother doesn't know what can be done
with corn. Mrs. Myers does. She raised a heap of it, this year; and the
things she turns it into would drive a cook-book crazy. I've been giving
them Latin names; and Frank, he turns them into Hindustanee. It's real
fun sometimes, but I sha'n't be the boy I was. I'm getting corned. My
hair is silkier, and my voice is husky. My ears are growing. I'd like a
few clams and some fish, once in a while, just for a change. A crab
would taste wonderfully good. So would some oysters, and they don't have
any up here. We've had one good day's fishing, since we came; but we had
to go miles and miles after it. Now, don't you tell mother we don't get
enough to eat. There's plenty of it, and you ought to see Mrs. Myers
smile when she passes the johnnycake. We're all trying to learn that
heavenly smile. Ford does it best. I think Dick Lee is getting a little
pale. Perhaps corn doesn't agree with him. He's learning fast, though,
and so am I; but we have to work harder than Ford and Frank. I guess the
Hart boys know more than they did when they got here; and they didn't
learn it all out of their books, either. We keep up our French and our
boxing; but oh, wouldn't I like to go for some blue-fish just now! Has
mother made any mince-pies yet? I've almost forgotten how they taste. I
was going by a house, the other day, and I smelt some ham cooking. I was
real glad I hadn't forgotten. I knew what it was, right away. Don't you
be afraid about my studying; for I'm at it all the while, except when
we're playing ball or eating corn. They say they have sleighing here
earlier than we do, and more of it, and plenty of skating. Well, now,
don't say any thing to mother about the corn; but won't I eat when I get
home! Yours all the while,
DABNEY KINZER."
"Why, the poor fellow!" exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer. "It's enough to stop his
growth."
It was not many days after that, before Dabney received a couple of
boxes by express. The "marks" told where they came from; and he and the
other boys carried them right up stairs, in the face of a kind
suggestion from Mrs. Myers that "they might take them right out into the
kitchen, and open them there."
She had almost ceased from putting her wishes in any more dictatorial
form; but she and Almira wondered exceedingly what might be the contents
of those boxes.
Dab was only a minute or so in finding out what was in one of them.
"Boiled ham! A whole one! Out with it, Frank. All that brown
paper,--why, it's a pair of chickens, all ready to roast."
"Something more's down under those slats," said Ford, in a tone of great
excitement.
"Mince-pies! And they're not much mashed, either. It's wonderful how
they did pack them."
"Slats and shingles and paper," said Ford. "What can there be in that
other box?"
"Shall we eat first, or open it?"
"Open it! Open it! Maybe they've sent you some corn."
Opened it was, with a desperate display of energy.
"Ice!" said Frank Harley.
"Sawdust!" shouted Ford.
"Fish!" said Dabney. "Clams, oysters, crabs, lobsters."
Dick Lee had gazed in absolute silence up to that very moment; and all
he could say now was,--
"Ah-h-h! O-h-h-h! Jes' ain't dey fine!"
"Boys," said Dab, with a sort of loving look at the contents of that
box, "do you suppose we can eat those fellows?"
"Eat 'em!" exclaimed Ford. "Why, after they're cooked!"
"Well, I s'pose we can; but I feel more like shaking hands with 'em all
around, just now. They're old friends and neighbors of mine, you know."
"Yes; but I guess we'd better eat them."
"Cap'n Dab," said Dick, "dey jes' knock all de correck pronounciation
out ob me, dey does."
"Ford, Frank, I'll ask Mrs. Myers and Almira up here right away. Those
oysters and clams have got to be eaten this very evening."
They did not need twice asking; and there was a thoughtful expression on
the face of Mrs. Myers when she looked from one box into the other. It
was fairly on her tongue's end to suggest what share of those luxuries
should be taken at once to Deacon Short's or Mrs. Sunderland's; but she
stopped in time, for that thought was followed by another,--
"What could the boys have been writing home about her cooking and her
table?"
There might be something serious in it; for boarders were people who
came and went, boys or no boys, and Dab and his friends were just the
kind of boys to "come and go." At all events, she could not object to
their having such a supply as that sent them; and she took up the
responsibility of all the cookery required, at once.
It was a feast while it lasted, and the effects of it upon the character
of Mrs. Myers's table were permanent.
There was no further danger that Dab's growth would be checked in any
such manner as his mother had feared.
Nor was there any great doubt remaining as to the steadiness of his
growth in other ways, during his school days at Grantley; for he and his
friends were now "settled;" and they had made that most important
success in life,--a Good Beginning.
THE END.