Mrs. James sent word to the storekeeper at the Corners, directing him to
hire help and send them to Green Hill Farm to clean up the house
thoroughly. Also to see that a man mowed the lawns and cleaned up the
barns and yards.
Then came the work of selecting the things Natalie wished to keep, and
packing them ready to ship to Green Hill. The other furnishings in the
apartment would not be sold until after the girl was out. Mr. Marvin
said there was no need to cause her any unnecessary heartache.
The second week in June, Mr. Marvin sent word to Mrs. James that the
house was ready for occupancy whenever she wished to move out there. Not
only was the old furniture placed in the respective rooms, but the
pieces that had been shipped from the apartment in New York were also
arranged for the time being. The only things to be moved were the trunks
and the cases containing the dishes and bric-à-brac which Natalie would
keep.
Mrs. James read the letter to Natalie at the breakfast table and said:
"The sooner we can get away from here, dear, the better for all. Mr.
Marvin can then save a whole month's rent for you, as the owner agreed
to cancel the lease when Mr. Marvin explained the circumstances. If we
remain to the end of this month, it will take an extra week to dispose
of what remains here, and that will necessitate another month's rent if
it goes over the first of July."
"Oh, I'll be only too glad to get away from the home where every room
and object speaks of dear Daddy!" cried Natalie. "Green Hill is so
lovely at this time of the year that I feel as if I could look forward
there to meeting Daddy and mother again without feeling any grief at the
parting now."
"Then let us say we will start in a day or two!" exclaimed Mrs. James
eagerly.
"But what about school, Jimmy? Exams will not come off until the third
week, and I don't want to miss any."
"Natalie, maybe we can arrange some way with Miss Mason by which you can
take yours without being in school," said Mrs. James.
"I'll see her to-morrow, Jimmy, and if she says I may do it that way,
I'll go with you at once."
"If she can't make such an exception in your case, Natalie, we may be
able to arrange so you can commute to the city for the few last weeks of
school."
The next noon Natalie hurried home with the good news that the Principal
had been interviewed and had granted Natalie permission to take her
examinations all at one time during the next few days of school, as her
average for the year had been so splendid. The fact that she maintained
a high standard all year through in her classes showed that she would
not fail now in her yearly examinations.
"Oh, but this is good news, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. James joyously.
"Yes, isn't it? If it wasn't for Miss Mason taking the time and interest
in me that she does, the Principal would never have listened to my
request. It seems rather wonderful to have a teacher who is a real
friend, too!"
"We're grateful, no matter through what channel the good came; but I,
too, think Miss Mason a good friend to have," remarked Mrs. James.
"She said something to me, as I left this noon, about your telling me of
her Scout camp. She laughed and said I would be surprised
and--perhaps--annoyed. If it was the latter feeling, I was to consider
she owed me a debt that she would try to pay as soon as possible. It
sounded so amusing, coming from her to me, who owes her all obligations
for what she has done for me, that I am keen to hear what you have to
explain."
Mrs. James smiled. "I am sure you will be pleased, Natalie. Miss Mason
rented a section of the woodland that runs along the river bank at Green
Hill for a camp for her Girl Scout Patrol she told us of. They all
expect to go there on the first of July."
"Oh, goody! Isn't that just scrumptious!" cried Natalie delightedly.
"I thought you would like it, but Miss Mason was not so sure that you
would welcome her Scouts. The girls are all good girls, but they have
not had the money or social advantages that you and your friends have. I
told Miss Mason that the sooner all such fol-de-rol was dispelled in a
girl's mind the better. And these eight sensible young girls will help
dispel the nonsense."
"That's right, Jimmy! Since I find myself thrown on the mercy of the
world, I begin to see how unfounded is one's faith in money or position.
One day it is yours and the next it is gone!"
"Rather precocious views for so young a maid, Natalie," said Mrs. James,
smiling indulgently at her protégée.
Natalie sighed. "Is it not true?"
"True, of course, but you have not proven it to be so yet. You speak
from hearsay and from book knowledge. You have not had to make the sorry
experience your own yet."
"Why, Jimmy! Don't you call my losses the test?" said Natalie, offended
that Mrs. James should consider her limited condition anything less than
a calamity.
The lady laughed. "Child, you have a lovely home and land free and clear
of debt. It is worth at _least_ ten thousand dollars right now. With
judicious handling it will be worth four times that sum in a few years.
You have Rachel and me to live with you and love and cherish you--as
well as protect you. You have Mr. Marvin to take all charge of your
business interests, and last, but not least--you have four loyal young
friends who stick to you whether you have money or not. This is far from
being thrown on the cold mercy of the world!"
Natalie thought deeply over this but she said nothing.
"Well, let's get busy packing, Jimmy! I want to get away this week, if
we can."
"Are you not going back for the afternoon session of school?" asked Mrs.
James, surprised.
"Didn't I tell you I was free now? I do not have to return except for
exams. The classes are only reviewing the last term's work now, so I do
not have to report for that."
"Oh, how nice! Then we will get to work at once."
By afternoon of Wednesday, all baggage was out of the apartment, and the
three occupants were prepared to leave early in the morning. Mr. Marvin
had been notified and he said the key for Green Hill house was at the
general store. Mrs. Tompkins would give it to them. Mr. Tompkins had
followed his wife's advice and stocked up the kitchen and pantry with
whatever groceries Rachel would need to begin with.
"Isn't that thoughtful of the Tompkins, Natalie?" said Mrs. James
gratefully.
"Yes, I feel that we will be good friends--the Tompkins and us."
Natalie had informed her schoolmates that she was to go on the nine
o'clock local in the morning, and so wished them all good-by that night.
"It isn't really 'good-by,' Nat, because we will all see you again so
soon," giggled Norma.
Belle sent Norma a warning glance and explained hastily: "Yes, it is
only a few weeks before we will be up on the farm with you."
"Try to fix it, girls, so you can all join me on the farm as soon as
school closes," said Natalie.
"That will be fine!" declared a chorus of voices.
So repeated good-bys were said and Natalie wondered why the girls
thought it all so funny! The next morning as Mrs. James and Natalie
stood in line at Grand Central Station to buy their tickets, four
laughing girls pounced upon Natalie, and as many girlish voices said:
"Didn't you suspect? How could you believe we would let you go away
without sending you off in a royal manner?"
Natalie laughed joyously. "But it isn't to the North Pole, girls! And it
is only a few weeks before you will be there."
"Never mind! If it is only for a few days, we would see that the
railroad company was duly impressed with your importance because of your
friends who escort you to the train," laughed Janet.
Mrs. James had purchased the tickets by this time, and they all started
to find Rachel, who was waiting with the baggage. Then they hunted up
the particular gate that gave way to the platform of the train they
wanted, and passed through in a grand procession.
Rachel was last to pass, and as she tried to force the unwieldy bags
through without allowing for the narrow brass rails, she got them stuck.
A porter sprang forward to assist her, but she scorned him.
"Whad foh yoh try t' show off _now_? Ef yoh had any sence in yoh haid,
yoh'd seen I cud have used help befoh dis! Clar out, now, and don' show
yoh kinky monkey-face heah ag'in!"
As she puffed out the angry words, Rachel struggled with the baggage,
and finally shot through with the release of the knobby portmanteau that
held her precious property. The gate-keeper laughed quietly at the
discomfiture of the porter who was inordinately proud of his new uniform
and brass-corded cap. To be termed a "monkey-face" by an old mammy was
past endurance!
The incident caused a merry laugh with the group of girls, and Natalie
said: "There, Rachel! I told you to let us carry one or two of your
bags,--you were too laden for anything!"
"Da's all right, Honey! I ain't lettin' yoh lug yohse'f to pieces fer
me; but dat pickaninny what's dressed up like a hand organ monkey makes
his livin' by fetchin' an' carryin'; so he oughta know his bis'nis, er
someone's got to teach him it."
As Natalie reached the platform of the train, she stood still to bid her
chums good-by again. Suddenly she remembered what had occurred the night
before.
"Oh, is that why you laughed when I said it need not be a long good-by?"
"Surely! we had it all planned to come and see you off, and give you
consolation in some tangible form because you would be deprived of our
gracious company for two weeks," giggled Belle, holding out a
ribbon-bowed box.
"What's that for?" demanded Natalie, trying to act impatient because the
girls spent their money on her. But her acting was very poorly done.
"And I thought you would need some farming implements at Green Hill, so
I managed to secure these for you," added Janet laughingly.
She held out a long package that defied guessing as to its contents, so
Natalie took it and laughed merrily with the others.
"And I brought your favorite nourishment, Nat. One of mother's
'chocklate' layercakes," said Norma.
"Oh, my goodness! How shall I carry it without mashing the icing?"
exclaimed Natalie, managing, however, to place the square box upon her
arm where it was carefully balanced.
"And I, Nat," said Frances, "feared you would lack fruit on the farm,
and so I tried to start you with a supply from the New York orchards."
It takes little to make a merry heart laugh, and at each silly
schoolgirl speech made with the gift Natalie laughed so heartily that it
was contagious.
"All aboard!" called the conductor, consulting his timepiece and waving
Mrs. James into the coach.
"Good-by! Good-by!" shouted five girls, and Natalie was bundled into the
train and found herself watching the girls as the train receded from the
station.
After she was seated and had tested the box of candies Belle had given
her, Natalie saw Mrs. James deeply interested in a paper-covered book.
"What's the name of it?" asked she, handing the candy-box across the
aisle to Rachel.
"Looks like candy," replied Rachel, thinking the girl was speaking to
her.
Natalie laughed. "I meant the book, Rachie," explained she.
Mrs. James looked up with a half absentminded manner. "What did you say
about the book, dear?"
"I asked you what it was. Who wrote it?"
"Oh, it is the new book 'Scouting for Girls,' that Miss Mason gave me
last night. It is certainly very interesting, Natalie."
"Is that the Scout Girls' Manual?" said Natalie, surprised at the
thickness of it.
"Yes, and ever so good! It is filled, from cover to cover, with
wonderful information. I never dreamed so much could be found in Nature
that is so absorbing to read about or study."
"I wonder why Miss Mason did not give me a copy?" was Natalie's
rejoinder.
"She spoke of it. She said she would send it by one of the girls this
morning. Didn't you get it?" asked Mrs. James.
"I wonder if it is in that box?"
As she spoke, Natalie began undoing the cord that wrapped the long box,
and having removed the paper and then the box-cover, she found not only
the Manual inside, but a hand-trowel and a weeder.
"Of all things!" laughed she, as she held out the box to show Mrs.
James. "A shovel and a rake for my garden."
Then it was Mrs. James' turn to laugh. "That is not a shovel, nor is the
other a rake, Natalie."
"Oh, isn't it? What is it, then?"
"The trowel is used when you wish to dig shallow holes, or loose-earth
trenches. The so-called rake is a weeder that you can use about delicate
roots, or in forcing deep roots to let go and come up. Both are very
necessary for a farmer to use about his house-garden."
"Well, if I ever have occasion to use them, I shall remember Janet."
"Then you will be remembering her every day this summer, I think,"
laughed Mrs. James. "Weeds are the pest of a farmer's existence."
Natalie was soon absorbed in her Scout book also, and Rachel was the
only one of the trio who could tell about the scenery they passed as the
train sped on to the nearest station to the secluded little village near
the farm.
As the three travellers left the train and stood on the old platform of
the country station, Natalie gazed about.
"My goodness! What a desert for isolation. Not a human being in sight,
and no sign of a house or barn. Nothing but glaring sign-boards telling
us where to stop in New York for a dollar per night--private bath
extra!" exclaimed she.
Mrs. James laughed. It was true, but it sounded funny the way Natalie
spoke.
"We ain't got to walk, has we, Mis' James?" asked Rachel plaintively.
"I don't see anything else to do, Rachel. Do you?"
"Not yet, but mebbe someone'll come along. I'd jes' as soon ride behin'
a mule es not. Th' misery in my spine is _that_ bad sence I've be'n
packin' and movin' so hard all week."
"A mule would be welcomed, but there is none," laughed Natalie.
"Isn't the landscape beautiful?" said Mrs. James, gazing about with
admiring eyes.
"As long as it is all that is beautiful to look at at this station, I
must agree with you, Jimmy," teased Natalie.
But both of them now saw Rachel staring down at the dusty road that ran
past the platform, and when she dropped her bags and started along the
road, acting in a strange manner, Mrs. James whispered nervously to
Natalie.
"What can be the matter, Natalie? Can anything have made her brain
turn?"
Rachel kept on going, however, bending over and staring at the dust in
the middle of the road. Natalie was dumbfounded at such queer behavior,
and was about to call to the colored mammy, when Rachel suddenly
stopped, straightened up and shouted at something hidden from the eyes
of the two who were waiting with the bags.
"Heigh dere! Come back foh us, yoh hackman!" was the echo that was
wafted back to the station and the patient waiters.
Both of them laughed heartily. And Natalie said: "That was what she was
doing! Obeying Scout instructions the first thing, and 'tracking a
horse' in the wilds of this land."
[Illustration: "Maybe that is the cab Mr. Marvin ordered to meet us."]
"Maybe that is the cab Mr. Marvin ordered to meet us. He said we must
not be discouraged if it turned out to be a 'one-horse chaise' instead
of a taxi," remarked Mrs. James, highly amused at the experience.
Natalie made a vicious slap at a green bottle-fly that had annoyed her
ever since she alighted from the train. Now she laughed and said: "Not a
one-horse chaise, Jimmy, but 'one horse-fly' is here to meet us."
It was such an opportune play on words that they both laughed merrily.
Rachel was now found to be arguing with a man seated in an antique
vehicle. He seemed to enjoy the conversation immensely, for he was
comfortably stretched out with his feet up over the dashboard and his
arms resting along the top of the back of his seat.
"Let's go over and add our persuasions to Rachel's," said Natalie,
picking up her luggage and starting away.
When they drew near enough to hear the conversation between Rachel and
the man, the former was saying: "Yuh don't know what I kin do to yoh! Do
yuh want to see my pow'ful arm?"
The driver sat up at that and looked at the doubled up thickness of that
member of Rachel's anatomy. Then he said: "But I always gits that much a
head fer such a long trip."
"What's the matter here?" demanded Natalie, coming up to join in the
argument.
"Chile, dis highway robber wants to take fifty cents a haid fer takin'
us acrost to Green Hill Fahm. Why, it ain't no furder'n f'om heah t'
dere, an' I tells him it is stealin'. In Noo York sech profiteers gits
what's comin' t' 'em."
Mrs. James interpolated at this. "Fifty cents each is not too much,
Rachel. But he must take the luggage as well."
The colored woman retreated at that, and cabby chuckled. "How much
baggage?"
"Three suit-cases and these bags and hat-boxes."
"I don't see no suit-cases," mumbled he.
"You would, if you had been at the station where you belong. The
station-man took the checks and turned the bags over to us before going
away to enjoy himself until the next train comes in," retorted Natalie,
impatiently.
"All right; I'll wait fer yuh 'til yuh git back," agreed the driver,
preparing to take things easy again.
"See here," said Mrs. James, sternly. "Are you Amity Ketchum?"
"Yes'um,--at your service."
"Then you're the man our lawyer engaged to meet the train and drive us
to Green Hill. Now stop your arguing and get those suit-cases, then take
us to our home."
Mrs. James' erstwhile good-nature turned like the proverbial worm and
she became very imperious. So much so, that lazy Amity chirruped to his
horse and went back for the baggage. When he returned and stopped beside
the ladies, Mrs. James got in and sat on the back seat that was
adjustable to meet demands. Natalie got in and sat beside her, and
Rachel laboriously climbed up and dropped into the vacant seat beside
the driver. The entire vehicle cracked when her ponderous weight fell
upon the old bench, and Amity scowled threateningly at her black, shiny
face.
"I gotta stop at Tompkins' fer some groceries," grumbled Amity, with
scant ceremony in his tones.
There was silence for the time it took to reach the "Emporium" at the
Corners, but when the proprietor hurried out to welcome the city people,
the latter smiled and felt better for his friendliness. Amity had gone
inside to get his order filled, and then came out with arms laden with
packages.
Mrs. Tompkins followed her customer out to the steps, and was introduced
by her husband to the three strangers. She was very pleasant and told
Mrs. James to call upon her for anything she needed or wanted done.
After thanking the gracious woman, Mrs. James was about to ask her
advice on an important matter, but the hackman gave his horse a cut with
the hickory stick, and almost dislocated his passengers' necks with the
lurch given the vehicle.
The two storekeepers were left standing on the steps watching the
buckboard pass out of sight. Mrs. James was angry, but said nothing
more. She knew how Rachel's temper was instantly kindled when anyone
dared to offend a member of her revered family, and she understood just
what Amity would get if he was not more considerate towards them.
Having driven little less than a mile along the good highway, Amity
suddenly turned off into a rough, badly-kept country road. Mrs. James
looked anxiously back, and on each side, then said: "Mr. Ketchum, this
is not the road to Green Hill Farm. You should have kept right on that
other road."
"I know it!" retorted Amity. "I'm going this way so's to leave these
vittles at my house fer dinner."
"Is your house far out on this road?" queried Mrs. James, after an
unusually hard bump of the vehicle over a deep rut.
"Not so fer. I'll turn down th' next lane, and then to the right, and
there's my place. There's a back road what runs from my farm to your
woodland. I kin go that way and drive you up to your barn by a
wood-cutter's road," explained Amity.
"Well, I hope you won't find any worse roads than this is, when we turn
into that lane," was Mrs. James' reply. But the words were disconnected
because of the incessant bouncing of the buckboard along the dried mud
and over large stones imbedded in it.
Rachel had to cling with both hands to the small iron handle at the side
of the board seat, but she fared better than the two in the back seat,
as she was too heavy to be easily moved; and the driver's seat was
stationary, whereas the second seat slid dangerously up and down the
shallow grooves into which its side-feet fitted loosely. The side on
which Rachel sat sagged at least ten inches lower than on Mrs. James'
side, and the latter found it necessary to balance herself on her left
hip to retain any sort of seat whatever.
They had travelled a mile of this sort of roadway when Cherub, the
horse, of his own accord, turned in at a gap in the old rail fence and
approached a carelessly-kept farm and dilapidated house. This private
road was far worse than the one they just left, but Mrs. James and her
companions expressed no impatience over it.
Then they came to what might have been a very picturesque stream, had
the banks on both sides been kept in order. The only visible bridge over
this water was composed of enough loose planks to give passageway for
wagons or cattle. These old planks were not secured in any way, and
moved threateningly when anything came in contact with them.
On both sides of this crude bridge the rains had washed out the dirt
from under the planks, so that deep ruts formed. And just before
reaching this rut, on the side of approach by the vehicle, was a huge
boulder that thrust up its jagged head from the very middle of the rough
roadway.
Amity had known of this obstruction in the road for a long time, but he
was too lazy to remove this menace. He had always managed to guide the
horse so that the wheels just managed to clear the rock. Sometimes, with
a heavy load on the buckboard, the flooring would scrape along the top
of the stone, but a little nerve-racking thing like that never phased
Amity.
This time, however, Cherub was in a great hurry to get his feed, which
he was sure would be awaiting him in the barn, so he failed to respond
to the usual hard yank on the reins. The consequence was, one fore-wheel
struck sharply in the middle of the boulder, and brought the buckboard
to an unexpected stop. The awful strain on the old rotten harness when
Cherub pulled and the vehicle was held up, caused the frayed rope
mendings to part and the eager horse hurried forward, leaving his
unwelcome drag behind.
Of course, the violent halt sent the occupants of the buckboard suddenly
forward, so that Mrs. James unceremoniously struck Amity in the back and
caused him to lose his breath. Had he not had his feet braced against
the foot-rail in front, he would have fallen forward. Rachel, not having
used the foot-rail and not expecting any catapulting, went headlong over
the old dashboard. As the board was meant for a screen from water and
mud and not as a support for such a heavy body as Rachel's, it
splintered and let her sag down between the empty shafts, her head
resting on the whiffle-tree and her heels wildly kicking close to
Natalie's head.
The two other passengers were too frightened to notice that Rachel had
on her hand-knitted, gayly striped stockings, brought years ago from
"Norf Car'liny" and only worn on rare occasions; and Amity was too
anxious to coax Cherub back and save himself any effort by going for
him, to think of assisting Rachel to extricate herself from the
broken-in dashboard.
Natalie and Mrs. James jumped out and, after heroically lifting and
pulling, managed to bring Rachel right-side-up once more. The moment she
learned what had happened, and saw the driver waiting for Cherub to
return, she shook a doughty fist at him and scolded well.
So impressive were her speech and actions that Amity considered
"discretion to be the better part of valor" this time, and jumped out to
catch Cherub and bring him back to his job. While the hackman was away,
Rachel turned to Mrs. James and spoke.
"Ef yoh-all pays dat good-fer-nuttin' one cent affer my mishap, den I
goes straight back t' Noo York an' gits d' law on him to mek him pay me
fer playin' such tricks on defenseless women."
"He didn't do it on purpose, Rachel. It was an accident," explained Mrs.
James, hoping to placate Rachel before Amity came back with the horse.
"Ah don' care--akserdent er no akserdent, I ain't goin' foh to have no
fool-man like him dumpin' me down between dem shaffs what is fit onny
fer a mule! Now yoh heah me? Don' yoh go foh to pay him nuttin' fer dis
trip!" retorted Rachel with ire.
Natalie laughed unrestrainedly at the funny scene, but the driver was
again crossing the bridge, leading the balky Cherub, so she managed to
cover her face to hide her amusement. While Amity tried to tie up the
damaged portions of the harness so that the trip might be completed,
Rachel came over and glared down at him.
"Say, yoh pore mis'able chunk of cotton-haid! Don' yoh know I kin
kerleck damages f'om yoh foh whad happened t' me on dis premises of
yourn?"
Amity looked up and returned her glare. "Say, you old black mammy, don't
you know I kin make you pay handsome fer smashin' my buckboard? Even the
harness would have held if you hadn't been so heavy as to make Cherub
break away from the load."
That was too much for Rachel. She straightened up with family pride and
planted her hands on her ample hips as she declared: "See heah, ig'nant
clod-hoppeh! Don' yoh go an' fool yohse'f wid t'inkin' I'se as
easy-goin' as dat harness ob yourn--'cus I ain't! I'm an out-an'-out Noo
Yorker, I am, an' yoh kin ast Mis' James! I made one on dem fresh
condoctors in Noo York pay me fohty dollahs onct, when he started his
trolley an' dumped me down flat in th' road an' druv away a-laffin at
me. An' I wasn't damaged half as much dat time, as you done."
Amity had finished tying up the harness and was backing Cherub into the
shafts as he listened to this warning. He now half-closed his squinty
eyes and switched the quid of chewing tobacco from one cheek to the
other before he replied to Rachel. Then he drawled out tantalizingly:
"You big blackberry, you! Puttin' on such airs about what you did to
car-conductors! But I ain't no easy mark like 'em,--see?"
Rachel gasped at his insolence and turned to Mrs. James for succor.
Words failed her.
"Amity Ketchum," commanded Mrs. James sternly, "drive us to our
destination without further delay, or any more words!"
This gave Rachel courage to add: "Da's whad I say, too! Whad'he wanta
bring us all outen our way, anyway, when we hired him to drive us t'
Green Hill Fahm, an' da's all!"
"Ef someone here don't make her shet up sassin' me so I'll dump all your
baggidge out an' you kin all walk to Green Hill, es far es I care!"
threatened Amity, standing up defiantly and refusing to get into the
buckboard and start on the way.
Natalie turned to see how far the main road might be, and Mrs. James
glanced fearfully at the number of heavy suit-cases and bags to be
delivered at the farmhouse, but Rachel was the one to call his dare.
"Ef yoh hain't in dat seat an' drivin' dat bony nag along in jus' two
secunts,--den yoh go haid-fust down in dat water--unnerstan' me?" She
rolled up her loose sleeves and showed a pair of powerful arms that
looked like business.
Amity was a thin little man, and this Amazon apparently meant what she
said, for she came for him with dire purpose expressed in her face. So
he jumped into the buckboard and started the horse across the bridge
without waiting for Rachel to get in.
Mrs. James rapped him on the shoulder to stop, and Natalie called to
Rachel to hurry and get in, but Amity seemed unable to make Cherub halt
and Rachel tossed her head and scorned to ask the man to let her ride.
To Natalie's coaxings, she shouted back: "Don' worry, Honey! Rachel
ain't goin' t' contamerate herse'f by sittin' nex' to sech white trash."
But the road was bad and walking was irksome for Rachel who was
accustomed to stone walks and trolleys in the city when she felt tired.
She had to jump mud-puddles that reached across the road, or plough
through the sandy deep when the way ran alongside a sand-pit and sand
lay heavy on the road.
Finally Amity drove up the hill that ascended from the river, and
stopped beside the piazza steps. The driver felt that he had finished a
hard day's work, and now sat back resting, allowing the ladies to get
down as best they could.
Mrs. James took her purse from the hand-bag to pay for the trip, when
Rachel puffed up beside them. She saw the luggage still in the vehicle,
and turned to order Amity.
"Carry dat baggidge t' th' doah, yoh lazy-bones!"
"I was hired to drive three passengers to Green Hill. I done it, an'
that's all I have to do!" retorted he.
"Mis' James, don' yoh dare pay him a cent till he min's what I tell
him," commanded Rachel, stern because she was on her own soil at last.
Amity remembered he had not been paid, so he grumblingly transferred the
bags from the buckboard to the steps, then held out his hand for his
payment. "Dollar an' a half," said he.
"Mis' James, don't you go an' pay him no moh den one dollah, I tells
yoh! He cain't make me pay nottin' cuz he made me walk half th' way. Dat
don't stan' in any United States Co'ht, no-how!" shrilled Rachel,
furiously.
Mrs. James had opened her purse and hesitated between two fires--"to
pay, or not to pay" the full price asked.
"Don't fergit my dashboard is smashed, an' I ain't sayin' a word 'bout
payin' fer dat!" snapped Amity. "An' don' yoh fergit my se'f respeck an'
modesty what was smashed when yoh made me stan' on m' haid in dose
shaffs! I shore will git Mr. Marwin to sue yoh, ef yoh don't go 'long
'bout yoh bis'nis!" exclaimed Rachel.
Mrs. James placed a dollar bill on the front seat, and turned to Natalie
and said: "Open the side-door, dear, so we can go in."
Amity got up in the buckboard, took the dollar and drove away without
saying another word. Rachel waited and watched him drive to the front
gate, where he turned to call back to her: "When you want a job in a
circus as a giant huckleberry, come to me fer references. 'I'll tell th'
worl'' what a fighter you are!"
And Rachel shouted back at him: "Yoh got th' fust an' last cent outen
dis fam'ly foh joy-ridin'! I'm goin' to start a hack-line an' put yoh
outen bis'nis, ef I has t' take all m' life-insuhance money to do it, I
am. I got a nephew what'll be glad t' he'p me do a good turn to th'
country, as puttin' yoh back whar yoh b'long!" Then she turned to her
companions for their approval.