HUGH
An unexpected turn in Hugh's affairs made it no longer necessary for him
to remain in the sultry climate of New Orleans, and just one week from
his mother's departure from Spring Bank he reached it, expressing
unbounded surprise when he heard from Aunt Eunice where his mother had
gone, and how she had gone.
"Fool and his money soon parted," Hugh said. "I can fancy just the dash
Ad is making. But who sent the money?"
"A Mrs. Johnson, an old friend of your mother's," Aunt Eunice replied,
while Hugh looked up quickly, wondering why the Johnsons should be so
continually thrust upon him, when the only Johnson for whom he cared was
dead years ago.
"And the young lady--what about her?" he asked, while Aunt Eunice told
him the little she knew, which was that Mrs. Johnson wished her daughter
to come to Spring Bank, but she did not know what they had concluded
upon.
"That she should not come, of course," Hugh said. "They had no right to
give her a home without my consent, and I've plenty of young ladies at
Spring Bank now. Oh, it was such a relief when I was gone to know that
in all New Orleans there was not a single hoop annoyed on my account. I
had a glorious time doing as I pleased."
"And yet you've improved, seems to me," Aunt Eunice said.
"Oh, I'll turn out a polished dandy by and by, who knows?" Hugh
answered, laughingly; then helping his aunt to mount the horse which had
brought her to Spring Bank, he returned to the house, which seemed
rather lonely, notwithstanding that he had so often wished he could once
more be alone, just as he was before his mother came.
On the whole, however, he enjoyed his freedom from restraint, and very
rapidly fell back into his old loose way of living, bringing his dogs
even into the parlor, and making it a repository for both his hunting
and fishing apparatus.
"It's splendid to do as I'm mind to," he said, one hot August morning,
nearly three weeks after his mother's departure.
"Hello, Mug, what do you want?" he asked, as a very bright-looking
little mulatto girl appeared in the door.
"Claib done buyed you this yer," and the child handed him the letter
from his mother.
The first of it was full of affection for her boy, and Hugh felt his
heart growing very tender as he read, but when he reached the point
where poor, timid Mrs. Worthington tried to explain about Alice, making
a wretched bungle, and showing plainly how much she was swayed by 'Lina,
it began to harden at once.
"What the plague!" he exclaimed as he read on. "Suppose I remember
having heard her speak of her old school friend, Alice Morton? I don't
remember any such thing. Her daughter's name's Alice--Alice Johnson,"
and Hugh for an instant turned white, so powerfully that name always
affected him.
"She is going to Colonel Tiffton's first, though they've all got the
typhoid fever, I hear, and that's no place for her. That fever is
terrible on Northerners--terrible on anybody. I'm afraid of it myself,
and I wish this horrid throbbing I've felt for a few days would leave my
head. It has a fever feel that I don't like," and the young man pressed
his hand against his temples, trying to beat back the pain which so much
annoyed him.
Just then Collonel Tiffton was announced, his face wearing an anxious
look, and his voice trembling as he told how sick his Nell was, how sick
they all were, and then spoke of Alice Johnson.
"She's the same girl I told you about the day I bought Rocket; some
little kin to me, and that makes it queer why her mother should leave
her to you. I knew she would not be happy at Saratoga, and so we wrote
for her to visit us. She is on the road now, will be here day after
to-morrow, and something must be done. She can't come to us without
great inconvenience to ourselves and serious danger to her. Hugh, my
boy, there's no other way--she must come to Spring Bank," and the old
colonel laid his hand on that of Hugh, who looked at him aghast, but
made no immediate reply.
"A pretty state of things, and a pretty place to bring a lady," he
muttered, glancing ruefully around the room and enumerating the
different articles he knew were out of place. "Fish worms, fishhooks,
fishlines, bootjack, boot-blacking, and rifle, to say nothing of the
dogs--and me!"
The last was said in a tone as if the "me" were the most objectionable
part of the whole, as, indeed, Hugh thought it was.
"I wonder how I do look to persons wholly unprejudiced!" Hugh said, and
turning to Muggins he asked what she thought of him.
"I thinks you berry nice. I likes you berry much," the child replied,
and Hugh continued:
"Yes; but how do I look, I mean? What do I look like, a dandy or a
scarecrow?"
Muggins regarded him for a moment curiously, and then replied:
"I'se dunno what kind of thing that dandy is, but I 'members dat yer
scarecrow what Claib make out of mas'r's trouse's and coat, an' put up
in de cherry tree. I thinks da look like Mas'r Hugh--yes, very much
like!"
Hugh laughed long and loud, pinching Mug's dusky cheek, and bidding her
run away.
"Pretty good," he exclaimed, when he was left alone, "That's Mug's
opinion. Look like a scarecrow. I mean to see for myself," and going
into the sitting-room, where the largest mirror was hung, he scanned
curiously the figure which met his view, even taking a smaller glass,
and holding it so as to get a sight of his back. "Tall,
broad-shouldered, straight, well-built. My form is well enough," he
said. "It's the clothes that bother. I mean to get some new ones. Then,
as to my face," and Hugh turned himself around, "I never thought of it
before; but my features are certainly regular, teeth can't be beaten,
good brown skin, such as a man should have, eyes to match, and a heap of
curly hair. I'll be hanged if I don't think I'm rather good-looking!"
and with his spirits proportionately raised, Hugh whistled merrily as he
went in quest of Aunt Chloe, to whom he imparted the startling
information that on the next day but one, a young lady was coming to
Spring Bank, and that, in the meantime, the house must be cleaned from
garret to cellar, and everything put in order for the expected guest.
With growing years, Aunt Chloe had become rather cross and less inclined
to work than formerly, frequently sighing for the days when "Mas'r John
didn't want no clarin' up, but kep' things lyin' handy." With her hands
on her fat hips she stood, coolly regarding Hugh, who was evidently too
much in earnest to be opposed. Alice was coming, and the house must be
put in order.
The cleaning and arranging was finished at last, and everything within
the house was as neat and orderly as Aunt Eunice and Adah could make
it, even Aunt Chloe acknowledging that "things was tiptop," but said,
"it was no use settin' 'em to rights when Mas'r Hugh done onsot 'em so
quick;" but Hugh promised to do better. He would turn over a new leaf,
so by way of commencement, on the morning of Alice's expected arrival he
deliberately rolled up his towel and placed it under his pillow instead
of his nightshirt, which he hung conspicuously over the washstand. His
boots were put behind the fire-board, his every day hat jammed into the
bandbox where 'Lina kept her winter bonnet, and then, satisfied that so
far as his room was concerned, everything was in order, he descended the
stairs and went into the garden to gather fresh flowers with which still
further to adorn Alice's room. Hugh was fond of flowers, and two most
beautiful bouquets were soon arranged and placed in the vases brought
from the parlor mantel, while Muggins, who trotted beside him, watching
his movements and sometimes making suggestions, was told to see that
they were freshly watered, and not allowed to stand where the sun could
shine on them, as they might fade before Miss Johnson came.
During the excitement of preparing for Alice, the pain in his head had
in a measure been forgotten, but it had come back this morning with
redoubled force, and the veins upon his forehead looked almost like
bursting with their pressure of feverish blood. Hugh had never been sick
in his life, and he did not think it possible for him to be so now, so
he tried hard to forget the giddy, half blinding pain warning him of
danger, and after forcing himself to sip a little coffee in which he
would indulge this morning, he ordered Claib to bring out the covered
buggy, as he was going up to Lexington.