Jr. Horatio Alger

“ Rachel swept out of the room with something more than her customary melancholy.
“I wish Rachel war'n't quite so contrary,” said the cooper. “She turns upon a body so sudden, it's hard to know how to take her. How's the little girl, Mary?”
“She's been asleep ever since six o'clock.”
“I hope you don't find her very much trouble. That all comes upon you, while we have the benefit of the money.”
“I don't think of that, Timothy. She is a sweet child, and I love her almost as much as if she were my own. As for Jack, he perfectly idolizes her.” ”

“ Ida sank down on the floor of the closet into which she had been thrust. Utter darkness was around her, and a darkness as black seemed to hang over all her prospects of future happiness. She had been snatched in a moment from parents, or those whom she regarded as such, and from a comfortable and happy though humble home, to this dismal place. In place of the kindness and indulgence to which she had been accustomed, she was now treated with harshness and cruelty. ”

“ This more amazed Rachel than even Mrs. Crump's merriment.
“Even you, Timothy, join in ridiculing your sister!” she exclaimed, in an 'Et tu Brute,' tone.
“We don't mean to ridicule you, Rachel,” gasped Mrs. Crump, with difficulty, “but we can't help laughing——”
“At the prospect of my death,” uttered Rachel. “Well, I'm a poor forlorn creetur, I know; I haven't got a friend in the world. Even my nearest relations make sport of me, and when I speak of dying they shout their joy to my face.”
“Yes,” gasped Jack, “that's it exactly. It isn't your death we're laughing at, but your face.” ”

“ A grim smile passed over the nurse's face.
“Follow me, then,” she said. “I have no doubt Ida will be delighted to see you.”
“Dear Ida!” said Jack. “Is she well, Mrs. Hardwick?”
“Perfectly well,” answered Peg. “She has never been in better health than since she has been in Philadelphia.”
“I suppose,” said Jack, with a pang, “that she is so taken up with her new friends that she has nearly forgotten her old friends in New York.”
“If she did,” said Peg, sustaining her part with admirable self-possession, “she would not deserve to have friends at all. ”

“ Crump was in the kitchen, busy in preparations for dinner, when a loud knock was heard at the door.
“Who can it be?” ejaculated Mrs. Crump. “Aunt Rachel, there's somebody at the door; won't you be kind enough to see who it is?”
“People have no business to call at such an hour in the morning,” grumbled Aunt Rachel, as she laid down her knitting reluctantly, and rose from her seat. “Nobody seems to have any consideration for anybody else. But that's the way of the world.” ”

“ It would not seem natural to be called by another.”
“Very well,” said Mrs. Clifton, with a smile which went to Jack's heart at once, and made him think her, if anything, more beautiful than Ida; “as Ida is your adopted sister, that makes us connected in some way, doesn't it? I won't call you Mr. Crump, for that would seem too formal. I will call you Jack.”
To be called Jack by such a beautiful lady, who every day of her life was accustomed to live in a state which he thought could not be exceeded, even by royal state, almost upset our hero. ”

“ Ida, with difficulty, suppressed a laugh.
“I see,” said Aunt Rachel, with severe resignation, “that you've taken to ridiculing your poor aunt again. But it's what I expect. I don't never expect any consideration in this house. I was born to be a martyr, and I expect I shall fulfil my destiny. If my own relations laugh at me, of course I can't expect anything better from other folks. But I sha'n't be long in the way. I've had a cough for some time past, and I expect I'm in a consumption.”
“You make too much of a little thing, Rachel,” said the cooper. “I don't think Jack meant anything.” ”

“ This remark was so characteristic of Rachel, that Mrs. Crump did not attach any special importance to it. Rachel, of course, had no grounds for the opinion she so confidently expressed. It was consistent, however, with her general estimate of human nature.
“What object could she have in inventing such a story?”
“What object? Hundreds of 'em,” said Rachel, rather indefinitely. “Mark my words, if you let her carry off Ida, it'll be the last you'll ever see of her.”
“Try to look on the bright side, Rachel. Nothing is more natural than that her mother should want to see her.” ”

“ You were brought to our house when you were an infant, and we have always taken care of you; but this lady is your real mother.”
Ida hardly knew whether to feel glad or sorry.
“And you are not my brother?”
“You shall still consider him your brother, Ida,” said Mrs. Clifton. “Heaven forbid that I should wean your heart from the friends who have cared so kindly for you! You shall keep all your old friends, and love them as dearly as ever. You will only have one friend the more.” ”

“ Astounded and indignant at this unexpected behavior of her sister-in-law, Rachel burst into a fresh fit of weeping, and again had recourse to the handkerchief.
“I've stayed here long enough, if even my sister-in-law, as well as my own nephew, from whom I expect nothing better, makes me her laughing-stock. Brother Timothy, I can no longer remain in your dwelling to be laughed at; I will go to the poor-house, and end my life as a pauper. If I only receive Christian burial, when I leave the world, it will be all I hope or expect from my relatives, who will be glad enough to get rid of me.” ”

“ Mrs. Crump returned with the nurse. “Mrs. Hardwick,” said she, “this is my sister, Miss Rachel Crump.”
“I am glad to make your acquaintance, ma'am,” said the nurse.
“Aunt Rachel, I will leave you to entertain Mrs. Hardwick,” said Mrs. Crump. “I am obliged to be in the kitchen.”
Rachel and the nurse eyed each other with mutual dislike.
“I hope you don't expect me to entertain you,” said Rachel. “I never expect to entertain anybody again. This is a world of trial and tribulation, and I've had my share. So you've come after Ida, I hear?” with a sudden change of subject. ”

“ God didn't send us into the world to be melancholy. He wants us to enjoy ourselves. Now I have no idea that Jack has jumped into the river. Then again, if he has, he can swim.”
“I suppose,” said Rachel, “you expect him to come home in a coach and four, bringing Ida with him.”
“Well,” said the cooper, good-humoredly, “I don't know but that is as probable as your anticipations.”
Rachel shook her head dismally.
“Bless me!” said Mrs. Crump, in a tone of excitement; “there's a carriage just stopped at our door, and—yes, it is Jack, and Ida too!” ”

“ We shall have to get along as economically as we can; cut our coat according to our cloth.”
“Oh, you'll be able to earn something, and we can live very plain,” said Mrs. Crump, affecting a cheerfulness greater than she felt.
“Pity you hadn't done it sooner,” was the comforting suggestion of Rachel.
“Mustn't cry over spilt milk,” said the cooper, good-humoredly. “Perhaps we might have lived a leetle more economically, but I don't think we've been extravagant.”
“Besides, I can earn something, father,” said Jack, hopefully. “You know I did this afternoon.” ”

“ The driver dismounted, and opened the door. Jack assisted Mrs. Clifton to alight.
Bashfully, he followed the lady up the steps, and, at her bidding, seated himself in an elegant apartment, furnished with a splendor which excited his wonder. He had little time to look about him, for Mrs. Clifton, without pausing to take off her street-attire, hastened down stairs with an open daguerreotype in her hand.
“Can you remember Ida when she was brought to your house?” she asked. “Did she look like this?”
“It is her image,” said Jack, decidedly. “I should know it anywhere.” ”

“ CHAPTER XXIV. “THE FLOWER-GIRL.”
“BY gracious, if that isn't Ida!” exclaimed Jack, in profound surprise.
He had been sauntering along Chestnut Street, listlessly, troubled by the thought that though he had given Mrs. Hardwick into custody, he was apparently no nearer the discovery of his foster-sister than before. What steps should he take to find her? He could not decide. In his perplexity he came suddenly upon the print of the “Flower-Girl.”
“Yes,” said he, “that is Ida, plain enough. Perhaps they will know in the store where she is to be found.” ”

“ Ida is no less a favorite with Jack than with the other members of the household. Rough as he is sometimes, Jack is always gentle with Ida. When she was just learning to walk, and in her helplessness needed the constant care of others, he used, from choice, to relieve his mother of much of the task of amusing the child. He had never had a little sister, and the care of a child as young as Ida was a novelty to him. ”

“ Ida was such a frequent visitor, that it was hard to tell which she considered her home—her mother's elegant dwelling, or Mrs. Cooper's comfortable home.
For Jack, a situation was found in a merchant's counting-room, and he became a thriving young merchant, being eventually taken into partnership. Ida grew lovelier as she grew older, and her rare beauty caused her to be sought after. If she does not marry well and happily, it will not be for want of an opportunity.
Dear reader, you who deem that all stories should end with a marriage, shall not be disappointed. ”

“ You will understand a mother's desire to see, face to face, the child who belongs, of right, to her. With this view, I have come to this neighborhood. I will not say where, for concealment is necessary to me. I send this note by a trustworthy attendant,—Mrs. Hardwick, my little Ida's nurse in her infancy,—who will conduct Ida to me, and return her again to you. Ida is not to know whom she is visiting. No doubt she believes you her mother, and it is well. Tell her only, that it is a lady who takes an interest in her, and that will satisfy her childish curiosity. ”

“ Crump to hear another speak of Ida in this way.
“I have tried to do my duty by her,” she said, simply; “I love her so much.”
“Yes,” said the cooper, clearing his throat, and speaking a little huskily, “we all love her as if she was our own. She has been so long with us that we have come to think of her as our own, and—and it won't be easy at first to give her up.”
“My friend,” said Mrs. Clifton, “think not that I shall ever ask you to make that sacrifice. I shall always think of Ida as only a little less yours than mine.”
“But you live in Philadelphia. We shall lose sight of her.” ”

“ Crump, brightly.
“There ain't horses to hold every day,” said Rachel, apparently fearing that the family might become too cheerful, when, like herself, it was their duty to become profoundly gloomy.
“You're always trying' to discourage people,” said Jack, discontentedly.
Rachel took instant umbrage at these words.
“I'm sure,” said she; mournfully, “I don't want to make you unhappy. If you can find anything to be cheerful about when you're on the verge of starvation, I hope you'll enjoy yourselves, and not mind me. I'm a poor dependent creetur, and I feel to know I'm a burden.” ”

“ Hardwick say?”
“Why no,” said Mrs. Crump, “she didn't say, but I guess she will be along in the course of the afternoon.”
“If we only knew where she had gone,” said Jack, “we could tell better.”
“But as we don't know,” said his father, “we must wait patiently till she comes.”
“I guess,” said Mrs. Crump, in the spirit of a notable housewife, “I'll make up some apple-turnovers for supper to-night. There's nothing Ida likes so well.”
“That's where Ida is right,” said Jack, “apple-turnovers are splendid.”
“They're very unwholesome,” remarked Aunt Rachel. ”

“ In the mean time, let us see how Jack enjoyed himself. We will look in upon him after he has been confined four days. To a youth as active as himself, nothing could be more wearisome. It did not add to his cheerfulness to reflect that Ida was in the power of the one who had brought upon him his imprisonment, while he was absolutely unable to help her. He did not lack for food. This was brought him three times a day. His meals, in fact, were all he had to look forward to, to break the monotony of his confinement. ”

“ Mr. Crump was exceedingly surprised at his wife's account.
“Really,” he said, “I had no suspicion of this. Can it be possible that such a beautiful child could be guilty of such a crime?”
“Perhaps not,” said his wife. “She may be as innocent in the matter as Ellen or myself.”
“I hope so,” said the baker; “it would be a pity that such a child should be given to wickedness. However, I shall find out before long.”
“How?”
“She will undoubtedly come again some time, and if she offers me one of the same coins I shall know what to think.”
Mr. Crump watched daily for the coming of Ida. ”