CHAPTER X
JACK'S MISCHIEF
One of the first results of the new prosperity which had dawned upon theHardings, was Jack's removal from the street to the school. While hisfather was out of employment, his earnings seemed necessary; but nowthey could be dispensed with.
To Jack, the change was not altogether agreeable. Few boys of theimmature age of eleven are devoted to study, and Jack was not one ofthese few. The freedom which he had enjoyed suited him, and he tried toimpress it upon his father that there was no immediate need of hisreturning to school.
"Do you want to grow up a dunce, Jack?" said his father.
"I can read and write already," said Jack.
"Are you willing to enter upon life with that scanty supply ofknowledge?"
"Oh, I guess I can get along as well as the average."
"I don't know about that. Besides, I want you to do better than theaverage. I am ambitious for you, if you are not ambitious for yourself."
"I don't see what good it does a feller to study so hard," mutteredJack.
"You won't study hard enough to do you any harm," said Aunt Rachel, whomight be excused for a little sarcasm at the expense of her mischievousnephew.
"It makes my head ache to study," said Jack.
"Perhaps your head is weak, Jack," suggested his father, slyly.
"More than likely," said Rachel, approvingly.
So it was decided that Jack should go to school.
"I'll get even with Aunt Rachel," thought he. "She's always talkingagainst me, and hectorin' me. See if I don't."
An opportunity for getting even with his aunt did not immediately occur.At length a plan suggested itself to our hero. He shrewdly suspectedthat his aunt's single blessedness, and her occasional denunciationsof the married state, proceeded from disappointment.
"I'll bet she'd get married if she had a chance," he thought. "I meanto try her, anyway."
Accordingly, with considerable effort, aided by a school-fellow, heconcocted the following letter, which was duly copied and forwardedto his aunt's address:
"DEAR GIRL: Excuse the liberty I have taken in writing to you; but I have seen you often, though you don't know me; and you are the only girl I want to marry. I am not young--I am about your age, thirty-five--and I have a good trade. I have always wanted to be married, but you are the only one I know of to suit me. If you think you can love me, will you meet me in Washington Park, next Tuesday, at four o'clock? Wear a blue ribbon round your neck, if you want to encourage me. I will have a red rose pinned to my coat.
"Don't say anything to your brother's family about this. They may not like me, and they may try to keep us apart. Now be sure and come. DANIEL."
This letter reached Miss Rachel just before Jack went to school onemorning. She read it through, first in surprise, then with an appearanceof pleasure.
"Who's your letter from, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack, innocently.
"Children shouldn't ask questions about what don't concern 'em," saidhis aunt.
"I thought maybe it was a love letter," said he.
"Don't make fun of your aunt," said his father, reprovingly.
"Jack's question is only a natural one," said Rachel, to her brother'sunbounded astonishment. "I suppose I ain't so old but I might be marriedif I wanted to."
"I thought you had put all such thoughts out of your head long ago,Rachel."
"If I have, it's because the race of men are so shiftless," said hissister. "They ain't worth marrying."
"Is that meant for me?" asked the cooper, good-naturedly.
"You're all alike," said Rachel, tossing her head.
She put the letter carefully into her pocket, without deigning anyexplanation.
"I suppose it's from some of her old acquaintances," thought herbrother, and he dismissed the subject.
As soon as she could, Rachel took refuge in her room. She carefullylocked the door, and read the letter again.
"Who can he be?" thought the agitated spinster. "Do I know anybody ofthe name of Daniel? It must be some stranger that has fallen in lovewith me unbeknown. What shall I do?"
She sat in meditation for a short time. Then she read the letter again.
"He will be very unhappy if I frown upon him," she said to herself,complacently. "It's a great responsibility to make a fellow beingunhappy. It's a sacrifice, I know, but it's our duty to deny ourselves.I don't know but I ought to go and meet him."
This was Rachel's conclusion.
The time was close at hand. The appointment was for that very afternoon.
"I wouldn't have my brother or Martha know it for the world," murmuredRachel to herself, "nor that troublesome Jack. Martha's got some blueribbon, but I don't dare to ask her for it, for fear she'll suspectsomething. No, I must go out and buy some."
"I'm goin' to walk, Martha," she said, as she came downstairs.
"Going to walk in the forenoon! Isn't that something unusual?"
"I've got a little headache. I guess it'll do me good," said Rachel.
"I hope it will," said her sister-in-law, sympathetically.
Rachel went to the nearest dry-goods store, and bought a yard of blueribbon.
"Only a yard?" inquired the clerk, in some surprise.
"That will do," said Rachel, nervously, coloring a little, as though theuse which she designed for it might be suspected.
She paid for the ribbon, and presently returned.
"Does your head feel any better, Rachel?" asked Mrs. Harding.
"A little," answered Rachel.
"You've been sewing too steady lately, perhaps?" suggested Martha.
"Perhaps I have," assented Rachel.
"You ought to spare yourself. You can't stand work as well as when youwere younger," said Martha, innocently.
"A body'd think I was a hundred by the way you talk," said Rachel,sharply.
"I didn't mean to offend you, Rachel. I thought you might feel as I do.I get tired easier than I used to."
"I guess I'll go upstairs," said Rachel, in the same tone. "There isn'tanybody there to tell me how old I am gettin'."
"It's hard to make Rachel out," thought Mrs. Harding. "She takes offenseat the most innocent remark. She can't look upon herself as young, I amsure."
Upstairs Rachel took out the letter again, and read it through oncemore. "I wonder what sort of a man Daniel is," she said to herself. "Iwonder if I have ever noticed him. How little we know what others thinkof us! If he's a likely man, maybe it's my duty to marry him. I feel I'ma burden to Timothy. His income is small, and it'll make a difference ofone mouth. It may be a sacrifice, but it's my duty."
In this way Rachel tried to deceive herself as to the real reason whichled her to regard with favoring eyes the suit of this supposed loverwhom she had never seen, and about whom she knew absolutely nothing.
Jack came home from school at half-past two o'clock. He looked roguishlyat his aunt as he entered. She sat knitting in her usual corner.
"Will she go?" thought Jack. "If she doesn't there won't be any fun."
But Jack, whose trick I am far from defending, was not to bedisappointed.
At three o'clock Rachel rolled up her knitting, and went upstairs.Fifteen minutes later she came down dressed for a walk.
"Where are you going, Aunt Rachel?" asked Jack.
"Out for a walk," she answered, shortly.
"May I go with you?" he asked, mischievously.
"No; I prefer to go alone," she said, curtly.
"Your aunt has taken a fancy to walking," said Mrs. Harding, when hersister-in-law had left the house. "She was out this forenoon. I don'tknow what has come over her."
"I do," said Jack to himself.
Five minutes later he put on his hat and bent his steps also toWashington Park.