  A damper had been thrown upon Lena's satisfaction in the belief that Gladys Seabrooke would probably be the recipient of the gift of Mr. Ashton's trust, by the assurance of her brother Percy that Seabrooke would be high and mighty and oppose the acceptance of it. She did not reflect that, having a father and mother, it was not at all likely that her brother's fiat would decide the matter for Gladys either one way or the other. Her first thought and wish was to confide this doubt to Maggie and Bessie when she should next see them; but she presently felt that she could not well do this without in some measure, at least, betraying the heedless Percy. She did not dare to speak of his connection with Seabrooke, lest she should draw suspicion upon him after her confidences to Bessie. So she must needs keep this little fretting worry to herself, too. There was the question about Hannah, also: how the money was to be returned to her, in the uncertainty as to how much she knew, and how she had acquired any knowledge of Percy's predicament; for that she knew something of it Lena was convinced; and yet the child was equally sure that that letter had never been out of her own keeping. Percy had at once put into her hand the hundred-dollar note, telling her that she must find means of conveying it to the old nurse. Oh, what a puzzle and a tangle it all was! Poor little Lena! Truly she was having a hard time with all the perplexities and anxieties which Percy's worse than folly had brought upon her. But one source of worry, in fact two, were to be lifted before long. Colonel Rush, having waited for what he considered a sufficient length of time for Percy to make a confession had he been disposed to do so, resolved to bring him to it whether he would or no. That Percy had been in some serious difficulty, that he was in some way heavily involved, was very evident; likewise that Hannah knew of this and had sacrificed her much prized savings to rescue him. At present he—the colonel—stood in the relation of parent to Percy and master to Hannah; he therefore felt that it was both his right and his duty to make inquiries and put matters straight, so far as he could. On Saturday morning, therefore, he called the boy into his library and asked him if there were anything which he would like to tell him, and receive his counsel and perhaps help. He made no accusation; did not tell Percy that he knew he had been involved in some trouble which had brought about the necessity—real or fancied—for him to free himself by the payment of this—for a boy—large sum. He put his question and offer kindly and freely, but in a way which showed his nephew he was not to be trifled with. And, indeed, his uncle was the last man in the world with whom Percy would have chosen to trifle. Not his father, not Dr. Leacraft, had half the influence over him that this hero-uncle had, the brave, distinguished soldier whose very name was a synonym for all that was honorable and daring. There was no one in the world whose good opinion could have influenced him so much; no one whose scorn and disapprobation he so dreaded, or from whose reproof he would have shrunk. He had shown this when he had pleaded with Lena not to betray him to their uncle, of all people. He would really rather have borne some severe punishment at the hands of his parents or teacher than he would one contemptuous word or look from him who was regarded by all his young relations and friends as a chevalier sans peur et sans reproche. No prevarication, no shuffling would do here; if he said anything, if he answered at all, it must be the truth and nothing but the truth. He hesitated for a moment, not from any intention of refusing to give his uncle his confidence, or denying that he had been in trouble, but from a desire to frame his confession in the best manner possible; but nothing came to his aid other than the plain, unvarnished truth; nothing else, he felt, would serve his turn here with that steady, searching eye upon him; and in a moment he had taken his resolve, and the whole shameful tale was poured into Colonel Rush's ears. Bad as it was, it was not as bad as Colonel Rush had feared. Rebellion against lawful authority, rank disobedience and deception were to be laid at Percy's door, not to speak of the pitiable weakness which had suffered him to be led into this wrong, and the enormity of his at least passive acquiescence when Flagg had stolen Seabrooke's letter; still worse his own destruction of it, almost involuntary though it was. What he had apprehended the colonel would hardly have confessed even to himself; but the truth was that he had suspected Percy of nothing less than the appropriation of some sum which he was compelled to replace or to face open disgrace. And yet Colonel Rush was not a suspicious man or one ready to believe evil of others, but circumstances had looked very dark for Percy, and there had seemed but one interpretation to place upon them. And now, by Percy's confession, one part of the mystery was solved; but there still remained that of Hannah's presumed knowledge that he was in trouble and had been in sore need of money. Assuredly, Hannah, devoted as she was to the interests of her nurslings, especially Percy, would never have thought of making this sacrifice had she not felt that there was some pressing necessity; but how in the world had the old nurse acquired this knowledge. The nephew was as much puzzled as the uncle, and denied, with an indignation which seemed rather out of place in the light of past occurrences, any imputation that he had asked her to assist him. But now, Percy inquired, could the colonel have the hundred-dollar note exchanged for gold so that it might be restored to faithful Hannah in the form in which she had always kept it. It was easy enough to do this, the colonel said; but the trouble would be to make Hannah confess that she had sent it, still more so why she had sent it. Colonel Rush would not say so to the children, seeing that no such idea had occurred to them, but it was his own opinion that Hannah had in some way obtained unlawful possession of Percy's letter to Lena, had mastered its contents, and then taken steps for his relief which she believed could not be discovered. Of the kindly advice and admonition given to Percy by his uncle there is no need to speak further; but it resulted in making Percy feel that he would do anything rather than again run the risk of forfeiting the good opinion which he now valued more than ever. Meanwhile, during the time that Percy was closeted with his uncle in the library, that portion of the members of the "Cheeryble Sisters' Club" which constituted the choice band of "Inseparables," namely Maggie and Bessie Bradford, Belle Powers, Lily Norris, and Fanny Leroy, having joined forces on their way to Miss Ashton's, had called in to see Lena. This had been done at the suggestion of the ever considerate Maggie, who, although naturally heedless about the little everyday business of life, never forgot to do "nice things" for others. When she was much younger, extreme carelessness had been her besetting fault, and, as is the manner of this "little fox," had created much trouble for herself and for others; but having become convinced that it was her duty to cure herself of this, she had set to work to do it in such earnest that that which had been a burden and a care to her was fast becoming a settled habit, and it was but seldom now that any act or word of heedlessness could be laid to her charge, while her ever obliging disposition and loving heart prompted many a deed of kindness which she never failed to carry out if it were in her power to do so. "But we have to stop as we come back, to tell her that you have the prize," said Bessie. "We will stop again and tell her who has gained it as we come back," answered Maggie. "But I think she will like it if we stop now, so that she will know we are thinking about her and are so sorry that she cannot be with us. But, Bessie, I think you are quite mistaken in believing so surely that I will have the prize. I know quite well that there are two or three who have improved in composition more than I have." Bessie made no reply in words, but shook her head as if unconvinced. With Lena Neville and Gracie Howard out of the lists, she found it quite impossible to believe that any one but her own Maggie could be the successful competitor. But all agreed that it would be well to call in and see Lena for a moment and let her be sure that she was not forgotten. "And," said Maggie, "there is the doctor's carriage at the door. We will wait till he comes downstairs and ask him how soon Lena will be able to go about and have a little excitement, so that we can arrange about the fair. It is just a good chance for us. Then we will tell Lena what he says if he is encouraging." Maggie and Bessie were almost as much at home in Colonel Rush's house as they were in their own, and had they chosen to go in and out twenty times a day, they would always have been welcome; and the young friends who accompanied them were about as much at their ease, although not one among the quintette would ever have been obtrusive or troublesome. The doctor, who knew each one of them, being, as it happened, family physician to their respective households, was just about taking leave and was standing in the hall talking to Mrs. Rush. "Hallo!" he said, his kindly face beaming upon the smiling flock who trooped in when Starr opened the door for them. "Hallo! what a bevy of birdlings! But how comes it that you are not at Miss Ashton's? I have just left my Laura there, and she is in a state of frantic expectation over this composition prize the finest authoress among you is to gain this morning. Are none of you interested?" "Oh, yes, sir, all of us," answered Lily Norris, always ready to be spokeswoman; "we are going to Miss Ashton's in a few moments. But we are not to be there until twelve o'clock, and it is not that yet. And if the finest authoress is to have the prize, it will be Maggie's." "So Laura seems to think," said Dr. Middleton, and shy Maggie, not caring to put forth in his presence any further disclaimer to the still undecided honors which her sister and friends seemed determined to put upon her head, smiled doubtfully. "Doctor," she said, "would you mind telling me how soon you think The doctor looked grave. "My child," he said, "I fear Lena is under more excitement now than is good for her." Then turning to Mrs. Rush, he added, "There is little use in expecting her to make rapid progress while she is fretting herself, as she is evidently doing, over some real or imaginary evil. Do you think it possible," an idea occurring to him, "that she is troubled about losing the chance to win this prize?" "I scarcely think so," said Mrs. Rush. "She was even more than anxious for it at one time; but the principal object for which she wanted it is gained now, and she is not the child to fret herself over a disappointed ambition." "Well," said the doctor, "find out the trouble if you can. You cure the mental ill and I will answer for the physical. But what is this excitement you are speaking of, Maggie?" "We are going to have a fair, Doctor," answered Maggie. "We wanted to have it at Easter, but put it off because Lena is so lame and not strong enough, and we would like to know how soon she will be well enough." The doctor thought a moment. "Perhaps," he said, presently, "if she were interested in this fair it might do her good and take her mind from whatever is troubling her. Try it, Maggie; set the time for your fair at no distant date, and see what it will do for her. Good-morning, Mrs. Rush. Good-by, my Cheerybles." And the busy physician departed on his rounds. "I believe it is the prize," said Lily, as the whole flock, bidden to do so by Mrs. Rush, mounted the stairs to Lena's room. "I know that Lena was perfectly crazy to have that prize so she could spite her father and mother—and I would be, too, if I were she—and I am sure she feels very badly about it." "Why, Lily!" said Maggie. "Well," said Lily, "I'm sure it's perfectly natural if she does—such a father and mother—specially mother. She's the kind that always think they're right, and she turned up her nose at Miss Ashton, and then she had to find out what a splendid teacher she is, and Lena improved so much in composition and everything else before she was burned that I expect she could have taken the prize even before Maggie. She just wanted her mother to know that she couldn't do a better thing than to leave her with Miss Ashton to the end of her days. And if you mean, Maggie, that I am not respectful in my speaking of Mrs. Neville, I know I am not, and I don't mean to be. Such an unmothery mother don't deserve any respect, and I'm not going to give it to her." "Hush!" said Maggie, as they reached the door of Lena's room. Lily's strong impression that Lena was unhappy because of her inability to compete for the prize was strengthened when she saw her, and the other children were inclined to agree with her, for Lena seemed so little disposed to talk upon the subject that they were all convinced that it was a disagreeable one to her. The only voluntary allusion she made to it was when Maggie bade her good-by with the promise of a return after the matter had been decided; then she drew her down to her and whispered, "I hope you will have it, Maggie, I hope you will." Maggie smoothed her cheek, smiled, and said: "Thank you, dear; but I would rather have you well so that we may have our fair. The doctor says he thinks you will soon be well enough to come to it, and we are only waiting for that now." Then the little party left with a renewed promise to return and let her know how the day had turned, and took their way to Miss Ashton's. All the "Cheeryble Sisters," save Lena Neville and Gracie Howard, were present, each one full of eager expectancy, although there was scarcely a doubt in any mind who would be the winner. It had been impossible to induce Gracie to take any part or to show any interest in the competition, and she had resolutely refused to come with the rest of her classmates this morning, and there was no obligation upon her to do so, as it was now holiday time and this was something outside of the regular school duties. Mr. Ashton, fond as he was of giving prizes and of stimulating the emulation of his niece's pupils, was content to bring matters to a speedy conclusion when the time arrived, and never detained the little girls long or kept them in suspense by tiresome speeches. So now in a few words he praised them for their earnest and faithful efforts; said that he had been treated to a perusal of many of the compositions written during the last term in order that he might himself have an opportunity of judging whether Miss Ashton's verdict were just, and that he had been both surprised and gratified to observe the improvement made by almost every member of the class. "But," he said in conclusion, "in comparing the compositions written at the commencement of the term of trial and those last submitted to Miss Ashton, I had, from my own unbiassed judgment, and before I had learned the choice of your teacher, decided that the one best entitled to the prize and the bestowal of this art education is Miss Bessie Bradford." "Excuse me, sir; you mean Maggie Bradford," said Bessie, in her own quiet, demure little way, still unable to shake off her conviction that Maggie and no one but Maggie must be the winner, and believing that Mr. Ashton had merely mistaken the name of the sisters. "No," said Mr. Ashton, smiling at her, "while giving all due credit to your sister Maggie's compositions, which I have read with much pleasure, I still repeat that no little girl in the class has made such manifest improvement as yourself, and to you both your teacher and myself award the prize." "Thank you, sir," said Bessie, simply, but with a sparkle in her eye and a flush of pleased surprise rising to her cheek, "thank you very much. But, Miss Ashton"—turning to her teacher, "do you not think that if Lena had been able to try with the rest of us all the time, she would have been the one to gain this prize?" Miss Ashton smiled kindly at her. "Well, yes, Bessie," she said, with some seeming reluctance; "since you ask me so plainly, I must say that had Lena been able to continue in competition with the rest, I think she would have distanced every one. I never saw such rapid improvement as she was making; her whole heart seemed to be in it. My uncle was astonished at her progress in that short time." "Then," said Bessie, rising, "I think she ought to have the prize. Please excuse me, sir,"—quaintly—"for saying ought to you and Miss Ashton, but it was not Lena's fault that she could not go on trying with the rest of us, but only because she was so very brave and unselfish in the fire. And if she improved so much in that time, she would have improved a great deal more; and I think the prize ought to be given to her. I am very glad you liked my compositions, sir, but it would be a great deal more prize for me if Lena had it. Please let her, Mr. Ashton. She has a very good and excellent reason, too, for wanting it so much; it is so that her father and mother will think Miss Ashton the best teacher that ever was, and let her stay with her a very long time." In her earnestness to carry her point she had forgotten that she was saying so much; and she now stood looking from Mr. Ashton to his niece, quite unembarrassed, but evidently set in this purpose. Mr. Ashton looked at her, then turned to his niece; there was a moment's whispered conversation between them, and then the gentleman addressed himself to the class. "What do you all say?" he asked. "Do you all agree that since Lena Neville has been providentially prevented from continuing her efforts, and since she made so much improvement while she was able to enter the lists, that Bessie shall be permitted to resign this reward to her, and that she shall be the one to name the candidate for my trust?" "Yes, sir; yes, sir," came without one dissenting voice from the young group. "Then you shall have the pleasure of telling this to Lena, Bessie," said Mr. Ashton. "You have certainly fairly earned that right." "And," said Bessie, looking round upon her classmates, "if everybody will be so kind as not to tell Lena that she was not chosen first. It would be quite true, would it not, to say that she had done so well at the first that we all thought it fair for her to have it?" "It shall be as you say," said Mr. Ashton; then continued, "we all bind ourselves, do we not, to do as Bessie wishes and to keep this little transaction a secret among ourselves, making no mention to Lena Neville that the prize was not awarded to her in the first instance?" "Unless she asks any questions; but I do not think she will," said conscientious Bessie. Miss Ashton came over to her with her eyes very suspiciously shining, and stooping down kissed Bessie, saying, "You blessed child!" while Maggie, always readily moved to tears or smiles, as befitted the occasion, put her arms about Bessie's neck, and grasping her teacher's skirts with the other hand and laying her head against her, began to cry softly. But sentiment and Lily Norris could not long exist in the same atmosphere, and she now exclaimed: "How I wish we were all boys just for ten minutes, so we could give three cheers and a tiger for Bessie and three more for Lena. I suppose it wouldn't do, would it, Miss Ashton?" "Hardly for little girls," said Miss Ashton, although she herself looked very much as if she were ready to lead a round of applause. "Well, we can clap, anyway," said Lily, "that's girly enough," and she forthwith set the example, which was speedily followed by the rest, Mr. Ashton himself joining in from his post at his niece's desk. "I'd like to give thirty-three groans for Mrs. Neville," said Lily, in an undertone, "but I suppose we couldn't." There was little doubt that the whole class were even better pleased to have the decision given in favor of Lena than they had been for Bessie, favorite though she was, so strongly had their sympathies been aroused for the former. Imagine the surprise and delight of Lena when the news was brought to her by her jubilant little friends. She could hardly believe it, hardly believe that in spite of her enforced absence from school, in spite of her inability to hand in her compositions for so many weeks, she had been the one to receive this much coveted opportunity, and that she was not only free to bestow it upon her own little country-woman, but that her own credit would redound to that of Miss Ashton. Of how Gladys received the gift—for her parents set aside all Harley's objections to her doing so—of how she became warm friends with nearly all of our "Cheeryble Sisters," and of what came of that may be read later on in "Maggie Bradford's Fair." Produced by Branko Collin, Tonya Allen, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, even years after the official publication date. Most people start at our Web sites at: or http://promo.net/pg http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, as it appears in our Newsletters. We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): eBooks Year Month 1 1971 July We need your donations more than ever! As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones that have responded. As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. In answer to various questions we have received on this: We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to donate. International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are ways. Donations by check or money order may be sent to: Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment method other than by check or money order. We need your donations more than ever! You can get up to date donation information online at: /donation.html *** Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. We would prefer to send you information by email. **The Legal Small Print** (Three Pages) ***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that time to the person you received it from. If you received it on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement copy. If you received it electronically, such person may choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to receive it electronically. THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have other legal rights. [1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, including any form resulting from conversion by word processing or hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*: [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not* contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the eBook (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form). [2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement. If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: hart@pobox.com *END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* |
|
