LOOKING FOR A BOARDING PLACE.
When Quincy awoke in his room at the hotel on the morning after the
accident he found to his great surprise that it was nine o'clock. He
arose and dressed quickly, and after a light breakfast started off
towards Uncle Ike's. Reaching the house he was astonished at the sight
that met his gaze. Everything was out of place. The bed was down and the
bedding tied up in bundles; the books had been taken from the bookcase
and had been piled up on the table. There was no fire in the stove, and
the funnel was laid upon the top of it. Quincy had remembered that he
had seen a pile of soot on the ground near the steps as he came up them.
All of Uncle Ike's cooking utensils were packed in a soap box which
stood near the stove.
"What's the matter, Mr. Pettengill, are you going to move?" asked
Quincy.
"For a time at least," replied Uncle Ike. "'Zeke Pettengill's sister has
been struck blind and he is going to bring her down home this afternoon
and I am going to live with them and be company for her. I always
thought as much of Alice as if she was my own daughter, and now she is
in trouble, her old uncle isn't going back on her. It isn't Ike
Pettengill's way."
"Have you seen 'Zekiel Pettengill this morning?" asked Quincy.
"No, nor I didn't expect to," replied Uncle Ike. "I suppose he went to
Boston on the nine o'clock train and will be back on the three o'clock
express."
"Mr. Pettengill," said Quincy, "can you give me fifteen minutes' time
for a talk?"
"Well," said Uncle Ike, looking at his watch, "it will be half an hour
before Cobb's twins will be down here with the team, and I might as well
listen to you as sit around and do nothing. They are coming down again
by and by to get the chickens. I have a good mind to set the house on
fire and burn it up. If I don't, I suppose some tramp will, and if I
need another house like it, thank the Lord I've got money enough to
build it."
"No, don't burn it up, Mr. Pettengill," said Quincy. "Let it to me. I am
around looking for a boarding place myself."
"Why, what's the matter, what made you leave Deacon Mason's?"
"That's what I want to tell you," said Quincy. "Time is limited and I'll
make my story short, but you are a friend of my father's, and I want you
to understand the whole business."
"Why, what have you been up to?" asked Uncle Ike, opening his eyes.
"Nothing," said Quincy, "and that's the trouble. When I went to Deacon
Mason's nobody told me that his daughter was engaged to Ezekiel
Pettengill."
"And she isn't," interjected Uncle Ike.
"Well," said Quincy, "they have been keeping company together, but I
didn't know it. Miss Mason is a pretty girl and a very pleasant one.
Time hung heavily on my hands and I naturally paid her some attentions;
gave her flowers and candy, and took her out to ride, but I never
thought of falling in love with her, and I am not conceited enough to
think she is in love with me."
"Well, I don't know," said Uncle Ike reflectively. "Perhaps she has
heard your father was worth a million dollars."
"No, I don't believe that," said Quincy. "Miss Mason is too true and
honest a girl to marry a man simply for his money."
"Well, I think you are right there," remarked Uncle Ike.
"New Year's night," said Quincy, "at the concert in the Town Hall,
Strout, the singing teacher, got down on me because Miss Putnam and I
received so much applause for singing a duet together. Then I broke his
heart by whistling a tune for the girls and boys, and then again he
doesn't like me because I am from the city! he hired a fellow to whip
me, but the fellow didn't know how to box and I knocked him out very
quickly. Now that Strout can't hurt me any other way he has gone to work
making up lies, and the village is full of gossip about Miss Mason and
me. Deacon Mason was going to talk to me about it, but I told him
yesterday morning that I was going to get another boarding place, and I
should have done so yesterday but for a very unfortunate accident."
"Accident?" said Uncle Ike; "why, you seem to be all right."
"I wish I had been the victim," said Quincy, "instead of Miss Mason. I
took her out riding yesterday and the buggy got tipped over right in
front of Deacon Mason's house, and Miss Mason had her left arm broken
above the elbow. I have done all I could to atone for my carelessness,
but I am afraid 'Zeke Pettengill will never forgive me. I wish, Mr.
Pettengill, you would make him understand my position in the matter. I
would like to be good friends with him, for I have nothing against him.
He is the most gentlemanly young man that I have seen in the town. I
value his good opinion and I want him to understand that I haven't
intentionally done anything to wrong or injure him."
Uncle Ike covered his eyes with his hands and mused for a few minutes;
then he finally said, "Mr. Sawyer, I have got an idea. That fellow,
Strout, thinks he runs this town, and it would tickle him to death if
he thought he made things uncomfortable for you. Then, again, I happen
to know that he is sweet on Huldy Mason himself, and he would do all he
could to widen the breach between 'Zeke and her. You see, he isn't but
forty himself, and he wouldn't mind the difference in ages at all. Now,
my plan is this." Uncle Ike looked out the window and said, "Here comes
Cobb's twins with the team. Now we will take, my things up to the house,
then you take the team and go up to Deacon Mason's and get your trunk
and bring it down to Pettengill's house. You will be my guest for
to-night, anyway, and if I don't make things right with 'Zeke so you can
stay there, I'll fix it anyway so you can stay till you get a place to
suit you. Now don't say no, Mr. Sawyer. Your father and I are old
friends and he will sort o' hold me responsible for your good treatment.
I won't take no for an answer. If you have no objections, Mr. Sawyer, I
wish you would keep your eye on those books when they are put into the
team, for those Cobb boys handle everything as though it was a rock or a
tree stump." And Uncle Ike, taking his kerosene lamp in one hand and his
looking glass in the other, cried, "Come in," as one of the Cobb boys
knocked on the door.