Uncle Rufus, who was general factotum about the old Corner House and
even acted as butler on "date and state occasions," was a very brown man
with a shiny bald crown around three-quarters of the circumference of
which was a hedge of white wool. Aided by Neale O'Neil (who still
insisted on earning a part of his own support in spite of the fact that
Mr. Jim O'Neil, his father, expected in time to be an Alaskan
millionaire gold-miner), Uncle Rufus did all of the chores about the
place. And those chores were multitudinous.
Besides the lawns and the flower gardens to care for, there was a
good-sized vegetable garden to weed and to hoe. Uncle Rufus suffered
from what he called a "misery" in his back that made it difficult for
him to stoop to weed the small plants in the garden.
"I don't know, Missy Ruth," complained the old darkey to the eldest
Corner House girl, "how I's goin' to get that bed of winter beets
weeded--I dunno, noways. My misery suah won't let me stoop down to them
rows, and there's a big patch of 'em."
"Do they need weeding right now, Uncle Rufus?"
"Suah do, Missy. Dey is sufferin' fo' hit. I'd send wo'd for some o' mah
daughter Pechunia's young 'uns to come over yere, but I knows dat all o'
them that's big enough to work is reg'larly employed by de farmers out
dat a-way. Picking crops for de canneries is now at de top-notch, Missy;
and even Burnejones Whistler and Louise-Annette is big enough to pick
beans."
"Goodness me!" exclaimed Agnes, who overheard the old man's complaint.
"There ought to be kids enough around these corners to hire, without
sending to foreign lands for any. They are always under foot if you
_don't_ want them."
"Ain't it de truf?" chuckled the old man. "Usual' I can't look over de
hedge without spyin' dat Sammy Pinkney and a dozen of his crew. They's
jest as plenty as bugs under a chip. But now--"
"Well, why not get Sammy?" interrupted Ruth.
"He ought to be of some use, that is sure," added Agnes.
"Can yo' put yo' hand on dat boy?" demanded Uncle Rufus. "'Nless he's in
mischief I don't know where to look for him."
"I can find him all right," Agnes declared. "But I cannot guarantee that
he will take the job."
"Offer him fifty cents to weed those beet rows," Ruth said briskly. "The
bed I see is just a mat of weeds." They had walked down to the garden
while the discussion was going on. "If Sammy will do it I'll be glad to
pay the half dollar."
She bustled away about some other domestic matter; for despite the fact
that Mrs. McCall bore the greater burden of housekeeping affairs, Ruth
Kenway did not shirk certain responsibilities that fell to her lot both
outside and inside the Corner House.
After all was said and done, Sammy Pinkney looked upon Agnes as his
friend. She was more lenient with him than even Dot was. Ruth and Tess
looked upon most boys as merely "necessary evils." But Agnes had always
liked to play with boys and was willing to overlook their shortcomings.
"I got a lot to do," ventured Sammy, shying as usual at the idea of
work. "But if you really want me to, Aggie--"
"And if you want to make a whole half dollar," suggested Agnes, not much
impressed by the idea that Sammy would weed beets as a favor.
"All right," agreed the boy, and shooing Buster, his bulldog, out of the
Corner House premises, for Buster and Billy Bumps, the goat, were sworn
enemies, Sammy proceeded to the vegetable garden.
Now, both Uncle Rufus and Agnes particularly showed Sammy which were the
infant beets and which the weeds. It is a fact, however, that there are
few garden plants grown for human consumption that do not have their
counterpart among the noxious weeds.
The young beets, growing in scattered clumps in the row (for each
seed-burr contains a number of seeds), looked much like a certain weed
of the lambs'-quarters variety; and this reddish-green weed pretty well
covered the beet bed.
Tess and Dot had gone to a girls' party at Mrs. Adams', just along on
Willow Street, that afternoon, so they did not appear to disturb Sammy
at his task. In fact, the boy had it all his own way. Neither Uncle
Rufus nor any other older person came near him, and he certainly made a
thorough job of that beet bed.
Mrs. McCall "set great store," as she said, by beets--both pickled and
fresh--for winter consumption. When Neale O'Neil chanced to go into the
garden toward supper time to see what Sammy was doing there, it was too
late to save much of the crop.
"Well, of all the dunces!" ejaculated Neale, almost immediately seeing
what Sammy had been about. "Say! you didn't do that on purpose, did you?
Or don't you know any better?"
"Know any better'n _what_?" demanded the bone-weary Sammy, in no mood to
endure scolding in any case. "Ain't I done it all right? I bet you can't
find a weed in that whole bed, so now."
"Great grief, kid!" gasped the older boy, seeing that Sammy was quite in
earnest, "I don't believe you've left anything _but_ weeds in those
rows. It--it's a knock-out!"
"Aw--I never," gulped Sammy. "I guess I know beets."
"Huh! It looks as though you don't even know _beans_," chortled Neale,
unable to keep his gravity. "What a mess! Mrs. McCall will be as sore as
she can be."
"I don't care!" cried the tired boy wildly. "I saved just what Aggie
told me to, and threw away everything else. And see how the rows are."
"Why, Sammy, those aren't where the rows of beets were at all. See!
_These_ are beets. _Those_ are weeds. Oh, great grief!" and the older
boy went off into another gale of laughter.
"I--I do-o-on't care," wailed Sammy. "I did just what Aggie told me to.
And I want my half dollar."
"You want to be paid for wasting all Mrs. McCall's beets?"
"I don't care, I earned it."
Neale could not deny the statement. As far as the work went, Sammy
certainly had spent time and labor on the unfortunate task.
"Wait a minute," said Neale, as Sammy started away in anger. "Maybe all
those beet plants you pulled up aren't wilted. We can save some of them.
Beets grow very well when they are transplanted--especially if the ground
is wet enough and the sun isn't too hot. It looks like rain for
to-night, anyway."
"Aw--I--"
"Come on! We'll get some water and stick out what we can save. I'll help
you and the girls needn't know you were such a dummy."
"Dummy, yourself!" snarled the tired and over-wrought boy. "I'll never
weed another beet again--no, I won't!"
Sammy made a bee-line out of the garden and over the fence into Willow
Street, leaving Neale fairly shaking with laughter, yet fully realizing
how dreadfully cut-up Sammy must feel.
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune seem much greater to the
mind of a youngster like Sammy Pinkney than to an adult person. The
ridicule which he knew he must suffer because of his mistake about the
beet bed, seemed something that he really could not bear. Besides, he
had worked all the afternoon for nothing (as he presumed) and only the
satisfaction of having earned fifty cents would have counteracted the
ache in his muscles.
Harried by his disappointment, Sammy was met by his mother in a stern
mood, her first question being:
"Where have you been wasting your time ever since dinner, Sammy Pinkney?
I never did see such a lazy boy!"
It was true that he had wasted his time. But his sore muscles cried out
against the charge that he was lazy.
He could not explain, however, without revealing his shame. To be
ridiculed was the greatest punishment Sammy Pinkney knew.
"Aw, what do you want me to do, Maw? Work _all_ the time? Ain't this my
vacation?"
"But your father says you are to work enough in the summer to keep from
forgetting what work is. And look how grubby you are. Faugh!"
"What do you want me to do, Maw?"
"You might do a little weeding in our garden, you know, Sammy."
"Weeding!" groaned the boy, fairly horrified by the suggestion after
what he had been through that afternoon.
"You know very well that our onions and carrots need cleaning out. And I
don't believe you could even find our beets."
"Beets!" Sammy's voice rose to a shriek. He never was really a bad boy;
but this was too much. "Beets!" cried Sammy again. "I wouldn't weed a
beet if nobody ever ate another of 'em. No, I wouldn't."
He darted by his mother into the house and ran up to his room. Her
reiterated command that he return and explain his disgraceful speech and
violent conduct did not recall Sammy to the lower floor.
"Very well, young man. Don't you come down to supper, either. And we'll
see what your father has to say about your conduct when he comes home."
This threat boded ill for Sammy, lying sobbing and sore upon his bed. He
was too desperate to care much what his father did to him. But to face
the ridicule of the neighborhood--above all to face the prospect of
weeding another bed of beets!--was more than the boy could contemplate.
"I'll run away and be a pirate--that's just what I'll do," choked Sammy,
his old obsession enveloping his harassed thoughts. "I'll show 'em!
They'll be sorry they treated me so--all of 'em."
Just who "'em" were was rather vague in Sammy Pinkney's mind. But the
determination to get away from all these older people, whom he
considered had abused him, was not vague at all.