VINNIE'S NEW BROOM.
Returning from his interview with Mr. Peakslow, Jack drove up on the
roadside before the "castle," asked Rufe to hold the horse a minute, and
ran to the door to bid Vinnie good by.
"Here, Link!" Rufe called, "stand by this horse!"
"I can't," answered Link from the wood-pile, "I've got to get some wood,
to make a fire, to heat some water, to dip the chickens, to loosen their
feathers, and then to cook 'em for dinner."
"Never mind the wood and the chickens and feathers! Come along!"
"I guess I _will_ mind, and I guess I _won't_ come along, for you, or
anybody, for _she_ asked me to."
"She? Who?"
"Aunt Vinnie; and, I tell you, she's real slick." And Link slashed away
at the wood with an axe; for that was the Betterson style,--to saw and
split the sticks only as the immediate necessities of the house
required.
Rufe might have hitched the horse, but he was not a fellow to give
himself any trouble that could well be avoided; and just then he saw Wad
coming out of the yard with two pails.
Wad, being cordially invited to stay and hold the horse, also declined,
except on condition that Rufe should himself go at once to the spring
for water.
"Seems to me you're in a terrible pucker for water!" said Rufe. "Two
pails? what's the row, Wad?" For it was the time-honored custom of the
boys to put off going for water as long as human patience could endure
without it, and never, except in great emergencies, to take two pails.
"_She_ asked me to, and of course I'd go for _her_," said Wad. "She has
gone into that old kitchen, and, I tell you, she'll make things buzz!"
Meanwhile Jack had gone straight to the said kitchen,--much to Mrs.
Betterson's dismay,--and found Vinnie in a neat brown dress, with apron
on and sleeves pinned up. He thought he had never seen her look so
bright and beautiful.
"At work so soon!" he exclaimed.
"The sooner the better," she replied. "Don't look around you; my sister
is sick, you know."
"I won't hinder you a minute," Jack said. "I just ran in to tell you the
good news about my horse,--though I suppose you've heard that from the
boys,--and to say good by,--and one word more!" lowering his voice. "If
anything happens,--if it isn't pleasant for you to be here, you
know,--there is a home at Mrs. Lanman's; it will be always waiting for
you."
"I thank you and Mrs. Lanman very much!" said Vinnie, with a trembling
lip. "But I mean to _make_ things pleasant here," a smile breaking
through the momentary trouble of her face.
Jack declined an urgent invitation to stay and see what sort of a dinner
she could get.
"By the way," he whispered, as she followed him to the door, "who
carried in that trunk?" When she told him, he was hugely delighted. "You
will get along! Here comes Rufe. Rufus, this is your Aunt Vinnie."
Rufus (who had finally got Chokie to hold the horse's halter) blushed to
the roots of his hair at meeting his relative, and finding her so very
youthful (I think it has already been said that the aunt was younger
than the nephew), and altogether so fresh and charming in her apron and
pinned-up sleeves.
She smilingly gave him her hand, which he took rather awkwardly, and
said,--
"How d' 'e do, Aunt Lavinia. I suppose I must call you _aunt_."
"Call me just Vinnie; the idea of my being _aunt_ to young men like
you!"
There was a little constraint on both sides, which Link relieved by
pushing between them with a big armful of wood.
"Well, good by," said Jack. "She will need a little looking after,
Rufus; see that she doesn't work too hard."
"_You_ are not going to work hard for _us_!" said Rufus, with some
feeling, after Jack was gone.
"That depends," Vinnie replied. "_You_ can make things easy for me, as I
am sure you will."
"Of course; just let me know if they don't go right. Call on Link or Wad
for anything; make 'em stand round."
Vinnie smiled at Rufe's willingness to have his brothers brought into
the line of discipline.
"They are both helping me now. But I find there are no potatoes in the
house, and I've been wondering who would get them. Lill says they are to
be dug in the field, and that she digs them sometimes; but that seems
too bad!"
"That's when Wad and Link--there's no need of _her_--I don't believe in
girls digging potatoes!" Rufe stammered.
"O, but you know," cried Lill, "sometimes we shouldn't have any potatoes
for dinner if I didn't go and dig them! I don't care, only it's such
hard work!"
Vinnie looked admiringly at the bright, brave little girl. Rufe colored
redder than ever, and said,--
"Don't _you_, now, do such a thing! Only let me know in season what's
wanted; I'll be after those boys with a sharp stick!"
Vinnie couldn't help laughing.
"So, when we're going to want a handful of wood, a pail of water, or a
basket of potatoes, I am to go for you, and you will go for the boys,
and drive them up with your sharp stick! I don't think I shall like
that. Wouldn't it be better for you to see that there are always
potatoes in the bin, and wood in the box, and other things on hand that
you know will be needed?"
It was perhaps quite as much her winning way as the good sense of this
appeal which made it irresistible.
"Of course it would be better! I'll get you a basket of potatoes now,
and some green corn, and I'll look out for the water and wood."
"O, thank you!" said Vinnie. "That will make things so much easier and
pleasanter for all of us!"
The potatoes and corn were got with a cheerful alacrity which quite
astonished Rufe's mother and sisters.
The inertia of a large body being thus overcome, that well-known
property of matter tended to keep Rufus still in motion; and while
Vinnie, with Lill's help, was getting the dinner ready, he might have
been seen approaching the wood-pile with an eye to business.
"See here, Wad! This wood is pretty dry now; don't you think it had
better be cut up and got in before there comes a rain?"
"Yes, s'pose 't would be a good idea."
"We ought to be ashamed," Rufe went on, "to have _her_ calling for a
handful of wood every time it's wanted, or going out to hack a little
for herself, if we're not around; for she'll do it."
"I s'pose so," Wad assented. "Why don't you go to work and cut it up?
I'll sit down on a log and whittle, and keep you company."
"Pshaw! don't talk that way. I'll go to work at it if you will. Come!
Will you saw, or split?"
Wad laughed, and said he would split,--perhaps because the sawing must
be done first.
"This saw is in a frightful condition!" Rufe said, stopping to breathe
after sawing a few sticks.
"So is this axe; look at the edge! It's too dull even to split with,"
said Wad. "A small boy might ride to mill on it without suffering any
very great inconvenience."
"If father would only file and set this saw, I'd help you grind the
axe," said Rufe.
The paternal Betterson was just then returning from a little walk about
his estate. As he approached, hat in hand, wiping his noble forehead,
under the shade of the oaks, Rufe addressed him.
"We've got to have wood in the house; now _she_'s come, it won't do to
get it by little driblets, and have her waiting for it and worrying
about it. I'll saw it, if you'll only set the saw; you know how, and I
don't; we'll do the hard work if you'll furnish a little of your skill."
Rufe knew how to appeal to the paternal vanity. The idea of furnishing,
not labor, but skill, flattered my lord.
"Ah! let me look at the saw. And bring me the file. And set out the
shave-horse. I'll show you how the thing is done."
When Link, who in the mean while had been dressing the prairie chickens
behind the house, came round and saw his pompous papa sitting under an
oak-tree, astride the "shave-horse," filing away at the saw held in its
clumsy jaws, and Wad turning the grindstone close by, while Rufe held on
the axe, he ran into the house laughing.
"Mother! just look out there! Father and Rufe and Wad all at work at
once! Guess the world's coming to an end!"
"I hope some of our troubles are coming to an end," sighed poor Mrs.
Betterson, who sat nursing her babe with a bottle. "It's all owing to
_her_. A new broom sweeps clean. She brings a very good influence; but I
can't hope it will last."
"O mother!" said Cecie, from her lounge, "don't say that. I am sure it
will last; she is so good! You'll do all you can for her, won't you,
Link?"
"I bet!" was Link's laconic response. "If _they_ only will, too, for
there ain't much fun in doing chores while father and Rufe and Wad are
just loafing round."
He hastened to Vinnie with his chickens.
"Just look out there once! All at it! Ain't it fun?"
It was fun to Vinnie, indeed.