brother Reuben was a scientific man, and he used the skeleton. That is, he studied all sorts of things, though he never did anything worth notice. I took a look round the garret," she continued, "and I tell you, sir, that if you care anything for family relics and records, you have them to your heart"s content. I expect there are things up there that have not been touched for fifty years."
"I should suppose," said Ralph, "that the servants of the house would have had some curiosity about such objects, if no one else had."
Miss Panney laughed.
"There hasn"t been a servant in that garret for many a long year," said she. "You evidently don"t know that this house is considered haunted, particularly the garret; and I suppose that box of bones had a good deal to do with the notion."
"Well," said Ralph, "no doubt the ghosts have been a great protection to our family treasures."
"And to your whole house," said the old lady; "watch-dogs would be nothing to them."
Miss Panney and Ralph ate dinner together. The old lady would not leave until the doctor had come; and the conversation was an education to young Haverley in regard to the b.u.t.terwood family and the Thorbury neighborhood. At the conclusion of the meal, Phoebe came into the room.
"I went upstairs to see how she was gettin" on, sir," she said; "an" she was awake, an" she made me get a pencil an" paper out of her bag, an" she sent you this note."
On a half-sheet of note-paper, he read the following: "Dear Ralph, I went upstairs and looked at the third floor and a good deal of the garret, without you being with me. I really want to be perfectly fair, and so you must not stop altogether from looking at things until I am able to go with you. I think good things to look at by yourself would be stables and barnyards, and the lower part of barns. Please do not go into haylofts, nor into the chicken-yard, if there is one. You might keep your eyes on the ground until you get to these places and then look up. If there are horses and cows, don"t tell me anything about them when you see me.
Don"t tell me anything. I think I shall be well to-morrow, perhaps to-night. Miriam."
Ralph laughed heartily, and read the note aloud.
"I should say," said Miss Panney, "that that girl has a good deal more conscience than fever. She ought to have slept longer, but as she is awake I will go up and take a look at her; while you can blindfold yourself, if you like, and go out to the barns."
The doctor did not arrive until late in the afternoon, and it was nearly half an hour after he had gone up to his patient before he reported to Ralph.
"She is all right," said he, "but I am not."
The young man looked puzzled.
"By which I mean," continued the other, "that Miss Panney"s concoction and the girl"s vigorous young nature have thrown off the effects of her nap in the haunted garret, and that I am an allopathist, whereas I ought to be a homeopathist. The young lady and I have had a long conversation on that subject and others. I find that she is a Nonconformist."
"What?" asked Ralph.
"I use the word in its political and social, as well as its religious meaning. That is a sister worth taking care of, sir. Lock her up in her room, if she inclines to any more midnight wanderings."
"And now, having finished with the young patient," said Miss Panney, who was waiting with her bonnet and shawl on, "you can take up an old one, and I will get you to drive me home on your way back to Thorbury."
The doctor had been very much interested in Miriam, and talked about her to Miss Panney as he drove her to the Witton house, which, by the way, was a mile and a half out of his direct road. The old lady listened with interest, but did not wish to listen very much; she wished to talk of Ralph.
"I like him," she said; "he has pluck. I have had a good deal of talk with him, and he told me frankly that he could not afford to put money into the place and farm it as it ought to be farmed. But he was born a country man, and he has the heart of a country man; and he is going to see if he can make a living out of it for himself and his sister."
"Which may result," said the doctor, "in his becoming a mere farm laborer and putting an end to his sister"s education."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the old lady. "Young fellows--college men--go out on ranches in the West and do that sort of thing, and it lowers them in n.o.body"s estimation. Let young Haverley call his farm a ranch and rough it. It would be the same thing. I"ve backed him up strongly. It"s a manly choice of a manly life. As for his sister, she has been so long at school that it will do her more good to stop than to go on."
"It will be hard scratching," said the doctor, "to get a living out of Cobhurst, and I hope these young people will not come to grief while they are making the experiment."
Miss Panney smiled without looking at her companion.
"Don"t be afraid of that," she said presently; "I have pretty good reason to think that he will get on well enough."
That evening Miriam sat up in bed with a shawl about her shoulders and discoursed to her brother.
"Now, Ralph," said she, "you must have seen a lot of things about our place, because, when I came to think of it, it was plain enough that you couldn"t help it. I am crazy to see what you saw, but you mustn"t tell me anything except what I ask you. Please be particular about that."
"Go on," said Ralph. "You shall not have a word more or less than you want."
"Well, then, is your bed comfortable?"
"Perfectly," he answered.
"And have you pillows enough?"
"More than I want," said Ralph.
"And are the doors and windows all fastened and locked downstairs?"
He laughed. "You needn"t bother yourself about that sort of thing. I will attend to the locking up."
She slightly knitted her brows in reflection. "Now then, Ralph," said she, "I am coming to it, and mind, not a word more than I ask for. Have we any horses?"
"We have," he replied.
"How many?"
"Four."
Miriam clasped her hands and looked at her brother with sparkling eyes.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "four horses!"
"Two of them," he began, but she stopped him in an instant.
"Don"t tell me another thing," she cried; "I don"t want to know what color they are, or anything about them. To-morrow I shall see them for myself. Oh, Ralph, isn"t it perfectly wonderful that we should have four horses? I can"t stand anything more just now, so please kiss me good-night."
About an hour afterwards Ralph was awakened by a knock at his door.
"Who is there?" he cried.
The door opened a very little way.
"Ralph," said Miriam, through the crack, "is there one of our horses which can be ridden by a lady?"
Ralph"s first impulse was to throw a pillow at the door, but he remembered that sisters were different from fellows at school.
"Can"t say anything about that until we try," said he; "and now, Miriam, please go to bed and to sleep."
Miriam shut the door and went away, but in her dreams she rode a prancing charger into Miss Stone"s schoolyard, and afterwards drove all the girls in a tally-ho.