Lucy Ellen Guernsey

“ I like to study better than to do any kind of work, but if I had my living to get by it, I should grow tired of it a great many times, I know."
"You may preach till you are gray, Eben Fairchild, and you won't make me like milling a bit better, or think things are pleasant when they are not," said Tom. "How nice you have made those beds look!" he added, struck with sudden admiration at the result of Eben's labour. "There is some fun in work like that."
"It is hard work, though," returned Eben, straightening himself up, "harder work than hoeing corn, though it pays when it is done. ”

“ A greater contrast could hardly be imagined than that between Flora Fairchild and her little adopted brother. Flora was as stout, bouncing, and healthy as Eben was the reverse: a well-grown girl, with black eyes, and somewhat scowling black brows above them, a dark but clear and healthy complexion, and abundant black hair. Flora was generous, truthful, and kind-hearted, but she had "a temper of her own," as the girls said, and was very much governed by her impulses, which, to do her justice, were usually good. Eben was small of his age, thin and pale, with light hair and wide, grave blue eyes. ”

“ Eben's tears came fast as he patted and caressed her.
"Poor Beauty! You are looking for your master, but he will never take care of you any more. He was always a good master to you, wasn't he, Beauty?"
"Well, Eben, here you are at last," said Jeduthun as Eben entered the mill to report himself before going home. "I've been looking for you all day. The old lady was real worried, when we first heard that somebody was killed over at the Springs, for fear it was you, but I told her I guessed there was no occasion. What has kept you so long?" ”

“ Jeduthun did not exactly know, only he had a notion that Tom Wilbur hadn't "any snap" to him. "I wouldn't be afraid to bet something, if I ever did bet, that the old man left Tom to fasten up that horse. But come, we won't give it up yet. Come in and see the boss. Maybe he can find something else for you to do, and if he does, you wouldn't want to work for a better man."
Mr. Antis was very sorry as well as Jeduthun, for he knew and liked Eben.
"You are just the kind of boy I want," said he, "so I should think from what I have heard of you—but a promise is a promise, you know, Eben." ”

“ And as for sister Fletcher, why, as you say, Eben, we are not bound to mind her. If your father had been governed by her, we never should have adopted you at all, for she was very much opposed to it. And you always have been a comfort, Eben—always. I will say that for you, and your dear father said the same. And I dare say you will get an education yet, somehow or other. Things often do come round, you know, when we least expect them. ”

“ I got real mad myself and ordered him out of the garden, which I suppose I had no business to do," said Eben, in a tone of apology, "but he riled me so I couldn't stand it."
"I am glad you did," said Mr. Antis. "Yes, there's just where it is. 'Not very pleasant' will always be reason enough for Tom, no matter how necessary or desirable the business may be. No, I won't take him back," added he. "My mind is quite made up to that. He'll never be good for anything. ”

“ You see, Eben, the thing is, I want somebody that I can trust—somebody that I can send over to Hobartown to the bank, or to the city, if necessary—somebody that I can trust with the team, or to collect accounts of the farmers when I cannot go myself. Jeduthun is just as honest and good as gold, but he can't be spared from the mill, and does not understand figures, and besides—I don't know why—he hates to have anything to do with money. ”

“ The room itself was as bright and cheerful as possible, but he did not quite like to think that it was the only inhabited corner in the great rambling old building, where ever so many people might hide and never be found out.
"But this will never do!" said Eben, rousing himself from the mood that was stealing over him. "I shall be seeing robbers next. I am just as well off here as if I were at home, and I am not going to be afraid, now that I have undertaken the job. So come down here, old Carpenter, and let's have a grind at you before bed-time, if you have no objection." ”

“ Very right! Always a very good sign to see a young man attentive to his mother and sisters. But I thought you had only one sister?"
"Mary Clarke boards at our house this winter," said Eben, blushing a little, he hardly knew why.
"Oh ho!" said the old gentleman, smiling. "So she's 'the girls,' is she? And I suppose she's a very nice girl—all the same as your sister, eh? Very good! I am pleased with you, Fairchild. You seem to be doing well in every respect, and I am much pleased with you. ”

“ I would rather do it than go in a store, for instance."
"Would you, really?"
"Yes, because I like the work—taking care of the horses and working in the garden, and so on—better than standing behind a counter all day. It never did seem to me like a man's work to be selling yards of ribbon and calico, and papers of pins, and so on."
"There is something in that. But people have a great deal more respect for clerks in stores than they have for hired men."
"That depends on who the people are, I fancy," said Eben, shrewdly. ”

“ I want a young man in the office, not as bookkeeper—Mr. Liston attends to all that—but some one to take care of the mails, and attend to the library, and ring the bells, and help the people out of the stage, and carry their things to their rooms, and, in short, do a hundred and one odd jobs which I can't think of now. I want a trusty, well-mannered person—trusty, because he must occasionally take a good deal of responsibility, and well-mannered, because he must meet with ladies and gentlemen. They say I am sometimes a bit of a bear myself," added the doctor, smiling. ”

“ After that I kind of thought that I would like to keep it up, so I bought a French Bible and some other books, and studied it a little."
"How glad I am!" said Eben. "Now you can help us, and I do want to learn to speak so much!"
"Well, if you want to learn to speak, you must speak, that's all," said Jeduthun. "Practice makes perfect, you know. Now, I'm going to talk to you in French, and you must answer me. That's the only way anybody learns to any purpose. See how quickly the Germans learn English—just because they are obliged to." ”

“ Antis is a fellow-creature too, ain't he?" asked Jeduthun.
"To be sure!" replied Mr. Francis, recovering himself a little. "I don't mean to blame you, Jeduthun. You did right, of course, but, then, human life is so sacred."
"Some human lives is sacreder than others, seems to me," argued Jeduthun, "and the boss's is a heap more sacred to ma than a fellow's like that. I suppose I feel different from you, Mr. Francis. That's only natural. I've been in battle, you see. Of course I wouldn't take no man's life without reason, but I can't think so much of what I did last night as you would. ”

“ She's about all the friend I've got now, Eben," said Jem, with sudden emphasis and decision. "I want to give you a piece of advice. I'm a poor shoat, I know, but you may as well learn by my experience. Don't you never be coaxed or bullied into drinking the first drop of liquor or making the first bet—not the very first one. If you once begin, you never can know where you will stop." ”

“ Antis was standing by the office door. Mr. Antis whispered:
"Just run round to the house and tell Mrs. Antis, the old gentleman is here, and she must be sure to have a good dinner; and if you would get your mother to go up and help her—"
"I guess she can," answered Eben. "Ma is at Mrs. Badger's, close by. I'll run and tell her."
"Do; but come back as soon as you can." Eben's errands necessarily took a little time. He found Mrs. Antis terribly alarmed at the prospect of having to get dinner for the great man, especially as Mary had burnt her hands and could be of little use. ”

“ How did you come to do that?"
"Well, I went up to the college to carry a letter from Dr. Henry to Dr. Porter, and Dr. Porter showed me the museum, and then asked me to dinner with him. He lent me these books, too. I think he is a nice old gentleman."
"Nice! I should think he was. There is not a person in Hobartown more thought of—no, not the president himself. Well, to be sure, the luck that some people have! But did he really ask you to dinner, or are you fooling, now? You are just trying to make me believe a big one, I bet."
"Believe or not, as you like," said Eben, indignantly. ”

“ Francis," said Mr. Antis. "He is always in a hurry to get everything settled."
Mrs. Fairchild demurred a little at first, and thought she could not have Eben run such a risk. Eben, however, made light of the danger, and assured her that he should be as safe as if he were at home in his own room.
"It will save me a deal of work in winter," said he, "because I shall be on hand to make the fires and ring the bell in the morning. I can do all that before I come home to breakfast; of course I shall spend my evenings at home the same as ever. ”

“ Jeduthun was flint and adamant in the matter of speaking French, and Eben found it necessary, in self-defence, to be fluent and ready. Jeduthun advised the young people not to spend all their time on the grammar, but to begin translating directly.
"Same as if you wanted to learn to be a miller, why, you must go to milling," said he. "A man might spend half his life in reading books about milling and about the different kinds of flour and feed, and yet be as helpless as a baby the first time you put him in a grist mill. That's the way a great many folks do things. ”

“ I guess I'll go to dinner, as you say, and when I come back I'll find out all about it. The old gentleman will feel better when he has had a real good dinner—kind of oils his works, don't you see?—and I guess we'll make it all right yet."
"You are real clever, not to say 'I told you so,'" said Eben.
"Well, that ain't my kind," returned Jeduthun. "It don't make a man feel much better when he has just broken a leg to stick a pin into him. ”

“ Jem was, however, as I said, quite straight this morning, and very willing to oblige Eben by catching the train.
"Get on first-rate with Antis, don't you?" asked Jem.
"Oh yes," replied Eben. "He's a very easy man to get on with."
"I expect he is," said Jem. "Antis and I were schoolmates. He was always a clever fellow, though not extra bright; but he has got on well, and everybody respects him. He's Mr. Antis, he is. I'm nobody but Jem Carter. That calls me so."
"Jeduthun didn't mean any harm," said Eben.
"Oh, I know it! He's a good fellow, too;" and Jem touched up the mare a little. ”

“ He was looking at a beautiful picture in the window of a bookstore, when some one slapped him on the shoulder, and looking round, he saw Tom Wilbur. Tom was no special favourite of Eben's, but he was in the mood to be cordial to everybody.
"Why, Eben, is this you? How came you over here?"
"I came on an errand for Mr. Antis," replied Eben, shaking hands.
"Seems to me I'd have dressed up a little," said Tom, with his usual politeness. "The folks here ain't like the folks in Boonville. They don't think much of a fellow, unless he looks nice." ”

“ All that is very nice, and then we all have our health, which is better still. But then there is the other side. We cannot three of us live on the interest of a thousand dollars, and what comes out of the garden and your machine. We can't live on it, let alone any notion of saving money for college expenses."
"You would not have to go to college for two or three years," argued Flora. "Your schooling would not cost much, and matters might come round in three years."
"They might, but they wouldn't," said Eben, shrewdly. "Things don't come round, as I see. ”