CHAPTER VI.
"LORD BETTERSON"S."
On a sort of headland jutting out from the high timber region into the low prairie of the river bottom, stood a house, known far and near as "Lord Betterson"s," or, as it was sometimes derisively called, "Lord Betterson"s Castle," the house being about as much a castle as the owner was a lord.
The main road of the settlement ran between it and the woods; while on the side of the river the land swept down in a lovely slope to the valley, which flowed away in a wider and more magnificent stream of living green. It was really a fine site, shaded by five or six young oaks left standing in the s.p.a.cious door-yard.
The trouble was, that the house had been projected on somewhat too grand a scale for the time and country and, what was worse, for the owner"s resources. He had never been able to finish it; and now its weather-browned clapboards, unpainted front pillars, and general shabby, ill-kept appearance, set off the style of architecture in a way to make beholders smile.
"Lord Betterson took a bigger mouthful than he could swaller, when he sot out to build his castle here," said his neighbor, Peakslow.
The proprietor"s name--it may as well be explained--was Elisha Lord Betterson. It was thus he always wrote it, in a large round hand, with a bold flourish. Now the common people never will submit to call a man _Elisha_. The furthest they can possibly go will be _"Lisha_, or _"Lishy_; and, ten to one, the tendency to monosyllables will result in _"Lishe_. There had been a feeble attempt among the vulgar to familiarize the public mind with _"Lishe Betterson_; but the name would not stick to a person of so much dignity of character. It was useless to argue that his dignity was mere pomposity; or that a man who, in building a fine house, broke down before he got the priming on, was unworthy of respect; still no one could look at him, or call up his image, and say, conscientiously, ""Lishe Betterson." He who, in this unsettled state of things, taking a hint from the middle name, p.r.o.nounced boldly aloud, "LORD BETTERSON," was a public benefactor.
"Lord Betterson" and "Lord Betterson"s Castle" had been popular ever since.
The house, with its door-posts of unpainted pine darkly soiled by the contact of unwashed childish hands, and its unfinished rooms, some of them lathed, but unplastered (showing just the point at which the owner"s resources failed), looked even more shabby within than without.
This may have been partly because the house-keeper was sick. She must have been sick, if that was she, the pale, drooping figure, sitting wrapped in an old red shawl, that summer afternoon. She looked not only sick, but exceedingly discouraged. And no wonder.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "LORD BETTERSON."]
At her right hand was an empty cradle; and she held a puny infant in her arms, trying to still its cries. At her left was a lounge, on which lay the helpless form of an invalid child, a girl about eleven years old.
The room was comfortless. An old, high-colored piece of carpeting half covered the rough floor; its originally gaudy pattern, out of which all but the red had faded, bearing witness to some past stage of family gentility, and serving to set off the surrounding wretchedness.
Tipped back in a chair against the rough and broken laths, his knees as high as his chin, was a big slovenly boy of about seventeen, looking lazily out from under an old ragged hat-rim, pushed over his eyes.
Another big, slovenly boy, a year or two younger, sat on the doorstep, whittling quite as much for his own amus.e.m.e.nt as for that of a little five-year-old ragam.u.f.fin outside.
Not much comfort for the poor woman and the sick girl shone from these two indifferent faces. Indeed, the only ray of good cheer visible in that disorderly room gleamed from the bright eyes of a little girl not more than nine or ten years old,--so small, in truth, that she had to stand on a stool by the table, where she was washing a pan of dishes.
"O boys!" said the woman in a feeble, complaining tone, "do, one of you, go to the spring and bring some fresh water for your poor, sick sister."
"It"s Rufe"s turn to go for water," said the boy on the doorstep.
""T ain"t my turn, either," muttered the boy tipped back against the laths. "Besides, I"ve got to milk the cow soon as Link brings the cattle home. Hear the bell yet, Wad?"
"Never mind, Cecie!" cried the little dish-washer, cheerily. "I"ll bring you some water as soon as I have done these dishes." And, holding her wet hands behind her, she ran to give the young invalid a kiss in the mean while.
Cecie returned a warm smile of love and thanks, and said she was in no hurry. Then the child, stopping only to give a bright look and a pleasant word to the baby, ran back to her dishes.
"I should think you would be ashamed, you two great boys!" said the woman, "to sit round the house and let that child Lilian wait upon you, get your suppers, wash your dishes, and then go to the spring for water for your poor suffering sister!"
"I"m going to pet.i.tion the Legislature," said Wad, "to have that spring moved up into our back yard; it"s too far to go for water. There come the cattle, Rufe."
"Tell Chokie to go and head "em into the barnyard," yawned Rufe, from his chair. "I wonder n.o.body ever invented a milking-machine. Wish I had one. Just turn a crank, you know."
"You"ll be wanting a machine to breathe with, next," said the little dish-washer.
"Y-a-as," drawled Rufe. "I think a breathing machine would be popular in this family. Children cry for it. Get me the milk-pail, Lill; that"s a nice girl!"
"Do get it yourself, Rufus," said the mother. "You"ll want your little sister to milk for you, soon."
"I think it belongs to girls to milk," said Rufe. "There"s Sal Wiggett,--ain"t she smart at it, though? She can milk your head off! Is that a wagon coming, Wad?"
"Yes!" cried Wad, jumping to his feet with unusual alacrity. "A wagon without a horse, a fellow pulling in the shafts, and Link pushing behind; coming right into the front yard!"
Rufe also started up at this announcement, and went to the door.
"Hallo!" he said, "had a break-down? What"s that in the hind part of your wagon? Deer! a deer and a fawn! Where did you shoot "em? Where"s your horse?"
"Look out, Rufe!" screamed the small boy from behind, rushing forward.
"Touch one of these deer, and the dog"ll have ye! We"ve got two deer, but we"ve lost our horse,--scamp rode him away,--and we want--"
"We do, do we?" interrupted Wad, mockingly. "How many deer did _you_ shoot, Link?"
"Well, I helped get the buggy over, anyway! And that"s the savagest dog ever was! And--say! will mother let us take the old mare to drive over to North Mills this evening?"
CHAPTER VII.
JACK AT THE "CASTLE."
For an answer to this question, the person most interested in it, who had as yet said least, was shown into the house. Rufe and Wad and Link and little Chokie came crowding in after him, all eager to hear him talk of the adventure.
"And, O ma!" cried Link, after Jack had briefly told his story, "he says he will give us the fawn, and pay me besides, if I will go with him to-night, and bring back the old mare in the morning."
"I don"t know," said the woman, wrapping her red shawl more closely about her, to conceal from the stranger her untidy attire. "I suppose, if Mr. Betterson was at home, he would let you take the mare. But you know, Lincoln,"--turning with a reproachful look to the small boy,--"you have never been brought up to take money for little services. Such things are not becoming in a family like ours."
And in the midst of her distress she put on a complacent smirk, straightened her emaciated form, and sat there, looking like the very ghost of pride, wrapped in an old red shawl.
"Did you speak of Mr. Betterson?" Jack inquired, interested.
"That is my husband"s name."
"Elisha L. Betterson?"
"Certainly. You know my husband? He belongs to the Philadelphia Bettersons,--a very wealthy and influential family," said the woman with a simper. "Very wealthy and influential."
"I have heard of your husband," said Jack. "If I am not mistaken, you are Mrs. Caroline Betterson,--a sister of Vinnie Dalton, sometimes called Vinnie Presbit."
"You know my sister Lavinia!" exclaimed Mrs. Betterson, surprised, but not overjoyed. "And you know Mr. Presbit"s people?"
"I have never seen them," replied Jack, "but I almost feel as if I had, I have heard so much about them. I was with Vinnie"s foster-brother, George Greenwood, in New York, last summer, when he was sick, and she went down to take care of him."