A boy ought always to stand up for his sister, and protect her from
everybody, and do everything to make her happy, for she can only be his
sister once, and he would be so awfully sorry if she died and then he
remembered that his conduct towards her had sometimes been such.
Mr. Withers doesn't come to our house any more. One night Sue saw him
coming up the garden-walk, and father said, "There's the other one
coming, Susan; isn't this Travers's evening?" and then Sue said, "I do
wish somebody would protect me from him he is that stupid don't I wish I
need never lay eyes on him again."
I made up my mind that nobody should bother my sister while she had a
brother to protect her. So the next time I saw Mr. Withers I spoke to
him kindly and firmly--that's the way grown-up people speak when they
say something dreadfully unpleasant--and told him what Sue had said
about him, and that he ought not to bother her any more. Mr. Withers
didn't thank me and say that he knew I was trying to do him good, which
was what he ought to have said, but he looked as if he wanted to hurt
somebody, and walked off without saying a word to me, and I don't think
he was polite about it.
He has never been at our house since. When I told Sue how I had
protected her she was so overcome with gratitude that she couldn't
speak, and just motioned me with a book to go out of her room and leave
her to feel thankful about it by herself. The book very nearly hit me on
the head, but it wouldn't have hurt much if it had.
Mr. Travers was delighted about it, and told me that I had acted like a
man, and that he shouldn't forget it. The next day he brought me a
beautiful book all about traps. It told how to make mornahundred
different kinds of traps that would catch everything, and it was one of
the best books I ever saw.
Our next-door neighbor, Mr. Schofield, keeps pigs, only he don't keep
them enough, for they run all around. They come into our garden and eat
up everything, and father said he would give almost anything to get rid
of them.
Now one of the traps that my book told about was just the thing to catch
pigs with. It was made out of a young tree and a rope. You bend the tree
down and fasten the rope to it so as to make a slippernoose, and when
the pig walks into the slippernoose the tree flies up and jerks him into
the air.
I thought that I couldn't please father better than to make some traps
and catch some pigs; so I got a rope, and got two Irishmen that were
fixing the front walk to bend down two trees for me and hold them while
I made the traps. This was just before supper, and I expected that the
pigs would come early the next morning and get caught.
It was bright moonlight that evening, and Mr. Travers and Sue said the
house was so dreadfully hot that they would go and take a walk. They
hadn't been out of the house but a few minutes when we heard an awful
shriek from Sue, and we all rushed out to see what was the matter.
Mr. Travers had walked into a trap, and was swinging by one leg, with
his head about six feet from the ground. Nobody knew him at first except
me, for when a person is upside down he doesn't look natural; but I knew
what was the matter, and told father that it would take two men to bend
down the tree and get Mr. Travers loose. So they told me to run and get
Mr. Schofield to come and help, and they got the step-ladder so that Sue
could sit on the top of it and hold Mr. Travers's head.
I was so excited that I forgot all about the other trap, and, besides,
Sue had said things to me that hurt my feelings, and that prevented me
from thinking to tell Mr. Schofield not to get himself caught. He ran
ahead of me, because he was so anxious to help, and the first thing I
knew there came an awful yell from him, and up he went into the air,
and hung there by both legs, which I suppose was easier than the way Mr.
Travers hung.
Then everybody went at me in the most dreadful way, except Sue, who was
holding Mr. Travers's head. They said the most unkind things to me, and
sent me into the house. I heard afterwards that father got Mr.
Schofield's boy to climb up and cut Mr. Travers and Mr. Schofield loose,
and they fell on the gravel, but it didn't hurt them much, only Mr.
Schofield broke some of his teeth, and says he is going to bring a
lawsuit against father. Mr. Travers was just as good as he could be. He
only laughed the next time he saw me, and he begged them not to punish
me, because it was his fault that I ever came to know about that kind of
trap.
Mr. Travers is the nicest man that ever lived, except father, and when
he marries Sue I shall go and live with him, though I haven't told him
yet, for I want to keep it as a pleasant surprise for him.