Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
[The Boonville Series]
THE FAIRCHILDS;
OR,
"DO WHAT YOU CAN"
BY
LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY,
AUTHOR OF "IRISH AMY," "COMFORT ALLISON," "THE TATTLER,"
"NELLY; OR THE BEST INHERITANCE," "TWIN ROSES," ETC.
PHILADELPHIA:
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
1122 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by the
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
WESTCOTT & THOMSON, HENRY B. ASHMEAD,
Stereotypers, Philada. Printer, Philada.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. EBEN MAKES UP HIS MIND
CHAPTER II. EBEN FINDS SOMETHING TO DO
CHAPTER III. EBEN AND FLORA TAKE A DRIVE
CHAPTER IV. EBEN DISPLAYS HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
CHAPTER V. MRS. FAIRCHILD FINDS HER MISSION
CHAPTER VI. EBEN CATCHES A RIDE AND SOMETHING ELSE
CHAPTER VII. EBEN MAKES A NEW FRIEND AND MEETS AN OLD ONE
CHAPTER VIII. EBEN TRIES TO SERVE TWO MASTERS
CHAPTER IX. THE OLD GENTLEMAN
CHAPTER X. EBEN GETS AN ADVANCE
CHAPTER XI. MR. ANTIS FORGETS THE BELL-ROPE
CHAPTER XII. JEDUTHUN IS GROSSLY CARELESS
CHAPTER XIII. EBEN GETS A NEW PLACE
THE FAIRCHILDS.
CHAPTER I.
EBEN MAKES UP HIS MIND.
"THE long and the short of it is, mother, I must just go to work and
earn my living the best way I can," said Eben Fairchild, straightening
himself up so as to make the most of his not many feet in height; "and
if I can't do what I want to do, why, I must just do what I can."
"It does seem a very hard case," said Mrs. Fairchild, sighing. "Your
father's plans for you were so very different."
"He wanted you to have an education, you know," said Flora Fairchild,
Eben's sister. "He said to Mrs. Willson, that very last day he was
here, that ever since you came to us he had quite set his heart on your
going to college."
"I know it," returned Eben, "but there is no use in talking about that
now. I cannot afford to go to school, and I am not going to live upon
mother so long as I have strength and sense to help myself."
"If your father had only not signed those notes, it would have been all
right," said Mrs. Fairchild, wiping her eyes. "He was not under the
least obligation to Mr. Furness, either, but that was Mr. Fairchild's
only fault. He never knew how to say 'No.'"
Eben patted his foot on the floor rather impatiently.
"We know pa did it for the best," said Flora, "and, anyhow, it is done,
and can't be undone."
"I know that as well as you do," returned Mrs. Fairchild, with a kind
of mild impatience, "and I'm sure I don't want to find any fault with
Mr. Fairchild, especially now that he is dead and gone, but I can't
help wishing that it was different. Mr. Fairchild always looked upon
your brother Eben as just as much our own child as yourself, and so
have I, I am sure; and I can't help feeling disappointed that he can't
have an education, as we always meant he should;" and Mrs. Fairchild
took out her handkerchief and indulged in a "weep," while Eben looked
steadfastly out of the window, and Flora ran her sewing machine at such
a furious rate that she broke her needle, and had to stop to put in a
new one. Mrs. Fairchild had a wonderful talent for "misunderstanding,"
and her children knew by long experience that any attempt to set her
right only made matters ten times worse.
"And even supposing that you do give up going to college, and go to
work, what will you find to do?" asked Mrs. Fairchild, presently.
"That is just what I must go to work and find out," replied Eben. "If
I can't do one thing, I must just do another; it won't do to be too
particular, so long as the work is honest and profitable enough to
support me. I shall go down to the mill and talk to Mr. Antis, and to
Jeduthun Cooke, and see what they can do for me. That is the first
step. If I can get a place in the mill, I shall be fixed right away; I
couldn't wish for anything better than that."
"You wouldn't want to go to work under that coloured man!" exclaimed
Mrs. Fairchild.
"I should have been pretty badly off now if it hadn't been for that
coloured man," returned Eben, with more impatience than he had showed
hitherto. "What would have become of me if Jeduthun hadn't come in and
taken my part as he did?"
"I wish you wouldn't be always going back to that time, Eben
Fairchild," said his mother. "I don't see, for my part, what pleasure
you find in it. I am sure Mr. Fairchild and I have always treated you
exactly as if you were our own, and tried to have you feel so, and yet
you are always bringing up the time when you lived with your uncle. I
don't see how you can."
"Oh dear!" said Flora, under her breath.
"I am sure I never forget what you and pa have done for me," replied
Eben, recovering his good humour, "but you know you would never have
known anything about me, only for Jeduthun."
"That's true," said Mrs. Fairchild, "and you always have been a great
comfort to us, Eben, I will say that, and Mr. Fairchild said the
same, the very day he died, to Mr. Willson. 'Eben has always been a
comfort to us from the day we took him in,' says he, 'and he is an
uncommonly persevering boy,' says he, 'and the most faithful boy to
do what he undertakes. I have always meant that Eben should have a
good education.' Those were your dear pa's very words, and I know he
wouldn't like you to go to work in the mill under Jeduthun Cooke,
though I don't deny that he thought a great deal of Jeduthun, and so do
I, a great deal, but, after all, it doesn't seem just the thing for you
to be working under him."
"But, ma, just look here," said Eben, sitting down to the table; "don't
you see how it is? To go to college I must go to school at least two
years longer, and have all my time to study. Then, I couldn't get
through college for less than two hundred and fifty dollars a year, at
the least calculation. Four times that is one thousand dollars. Pa left
us, after the farm and stock were disposed of, just this little house
and garden, and a thousand dollars. That is the amount of our property.
Now, how is a college education to come out of that?"
"Well, Flora has got her sewing machine. To be sure, it isn't all paid
for, but then it will be pretty soon, and then all she makes will be
clear gain, and there is the cow!"
"Flora wants all she can earn for herself and you," said Eben. "I
shouldn't feel right to be living on her."
"Oh, well, manage it your own way," said Mrs. Fairchild. "I dare say
you children think you know best, though Mr. Fairchild always said I
had a good mind. Oh, if he had only taken my advice as to signing those
notes! But he never said one word to me about it, till the last minute.
You must manage it your own way; only I am sorry, when your father's
head was so set on your having an education, and I am sure it might be
managed somehow."
"There is Mrs. Brown coming in, mother," said Eben. "Hadn't you better
take her into the front room? It is warm there, and the machine makes
such a noise."
The moment her mother left the room, Flora stopped her machine, laid
her head down on her arms, and cried, not mildly, like Mrs. Fairchild,
but passionately and with a kind of fierceness. Flora had a great deal
of force about her, and it came out in all she said and did.
"Don't, Flossy," said Eben, in a hoarse and altered tone; "I can't bear
it! You must help to cheer me up."
"Well, I won't," said Flora, raising her head and wiping her eyes, "but
oh, Eben, how can she go on so?" and in spite of herself, as it seemed,
her head went down again.
"Ma isn't herself lately," said Eben. "I never saw anybody so changed.
Sometimes I think she would be better if she had more to do. But never
mind, Flossy. We must just think how good she is, and not mind her
little ways. Come, Flossy, don't sew any more now. Come down to the
bottom of the garden with me, and let us have a nice quiet talk while
ma is busy with Mrs. Brown. You will break more needles than your work
is worth if you go on sewing as you feel now."
"I believe you are right," said Flora, "and yet I ought not to lose any
time."
"Resting is not losing time," persisted her brother, "and if you lame
your back at the first start, you won't be able to do any more. Don't
you know the lady in the sewing machine store cautioned you against
that very thing?—against working too steadily just at first? I know you
will sew all the better for resting a little while."
Flora suffered herself to be persuaded. She covered her machine, laid
aside her work, and followed Eben down the path to the end of the
garden, where he had found time to make a pretty seat. The garden of
Mrs. Fairchild's new home extended down to the bank of the little river
which ran through the village of Boonville. It was a pretty, rippling,
prattling stream, turning mill wheels all along its course, but never
seeming to have its nature troubled or its spirit affected by its work.
A large willow hung over the water, and under this, Eben had placed his
seat, though Mrs. Fairchild declared that she should never dare to sit
there, because she remembered just such a tree at her grandfather's
which always had red-headed caterpillars in it in July, and she should
always think they were crawling over her.
Undeterred in June by the visions of the red-headed caterpillars
of past Julys, Eben laid an old shawl on the seat for his sister's
accommodation, and placing himself at her feet on a convenient stone,
he sat some few minutes in silence, apparently watching the minnows in
the water.
"Well?" said he, at last, seeing that Flora did not speak.
"Well?" said Flora, rousing herself from what seemed a reverie. "Have
you quite made up your mind, Eben?"
"There don't seem to be any special need of making up my mind in this
case," said Eben, still looking at the water. "It seems to be made up
for me. It is perfectly plain—to me at least—that it is my duty to go
to work and earn my own living, and when you see your duty, do it. That
is my notion. The more you go squirming about trying to get rid of it,
the harder it will come at last."
"I know it, and yet, oh, Eben, I can't bear it!" exclaimed Flora,
passionately. "I did so want to have you go to college, and it all
seemed so plain, and now—Can't we manage it somehow? Or don't you
really care, after all? Sometimes I think you don't, you are so cool
about it."
"Flossy!" said Eben.
"Well, there! I am a wretch, I know," said Flora, penitently. "I know
you do care, and you are giving it all up for us."
"I would give—no, not my right hand, but sometimes I think I would give
my right foot to follow out father's plan and go to college," said
Eben. "Ever since I first came here, when I was a little fellow seven
years old, I have heard father talk about my having a good education,
and I made up my mind three years ago just what I wanted to do. I meant
to be a doctor, like Doctor Henry over at the Springs. But now, Flossy,
just let us look the thing squarely in the face."
"Well, if you like, though I don't know what good it will do. I have
looked at it till I am sick."
"It isn't as bad as it might be," said Eben. "We have a roof over our
heads, a good garden, and a cow, besides our little capital in money.
Then you have your machine, which you have learned to run nicely, and
you seem likely to have plenty of work, so that when your machine is
once paid for, all you make will be clear gain. All that is very nice,
and then we all have our health, which is better still. But then there
is the other side. We cannot three of us live on the interest of a
thousand dollars, and what comes out of the garden and your machine.
We can't live on it, let alone any notion of saving money for college
expenses."
"You would not have to go to college for two or three years," argued
Flora. "Your schooling would not cost much, and matters might come
round in three years."
"They might, but they wouldn't," said Eben, shrewdly. "Things don't
come round, as I see. You have got to move them, and shake them about,
and rub off the corners, and make them round. Besides, how should I
look or feel—a great stout boy fifteen years old—going to school and
living on you and mother? I should be ashamed to look any one in the
face. No, no, Flossy, I have got to do my duty, as I said. If I am to
have an education, if He sees it's right that I should have one," he
added, reverently, "he will bring it about. I have asked him to guide
me, and make me decide rightly, and I believe he has done so—I believe
I see my way clear."
Flora was silent. Her brother had got on ground where she could not
follow him. Presently, however, she said, "You talk just like Alice
Brown. I would give anything to feel so, but I can't. However, I do
believe you are right, and as you say, if you have made up your mind,
the sooner you set about it the better. I know very well, when I think
it over, that it will be all I can do to keep myself and mother. She
cannot understand any reason why she should not have all she ever had.
If only she would not talk so about pa! It makes me feel as if I should
go crazy sometimes."
"You must try and have patience, Flossy," said her brother, tenderly.
"I know it is trying, but remember she has always been a good, kind
mother to us, and I am sure she loved my father dearly and respects
his memory. But I am going up to the mill now, and I will take my
fishing-tackle along. Perhaps I can get a pickerel for supper. Don't
go into the house just yet. Sit here and read, and let the old machine
slide for the rest of the afternoon."