Becky Thatcher

“ Thatcher," said Dorothy.
"Immediately, my lady," he announced; and as he hurried away down the platform Mrs. Caffyn regarded him as the Widow Twankay may have regarded the Genie of the Lamp.
"I've brought five hats with me," Mrs. Caffyn announced when the slow train was on its way and Mr. Thatcher was left standing upon the platform and apparently wondering if he could not give it a push from behind as a final compliment to her ladyship. "And now—oh dear, I must remember to call you Dorothy, mustn't I? ”

“ The captain then advanced towards the Sachem, and addressed him. "Opechancanough," said he, "I perceive you are plotting to murder me, but I fear you not. As yet neither your men nor mine have done much harm. Now therefore take your arms—as you see here are mine—my body shall be as naked as yours—the island in the river is a fit place for a combat, and the conqueror of us two, shall be master of all. If you have not men enough about you, take time to muster more—has many as you will—only let everyone bring his basket of corn, and against that I will stake the value in copper." ”

“ Livingston looked at him in silence for some time after the two boys had gone. Finally he spoke, and to Jeff it seemed as if his tone was a little more fatherly than it had been to Gould or Pell.
“Thatcher,” he said, “this is the most unpleasant task I have had in all my career with boys. I have laid awake most of the night thinking of just what this was going to mean to you but I can see no way out. Rules are rules, and you know it as well as I do. That holds not only in school but in life generally, and the quicker you find it out the better off you’ll be. ”

“ But when in the lull between serving students and clearing off the tables he stopped to realize that even Buck Hart, the captain of the team, and the other players as well had thought that he was guilty of the offense, he understood the rest of the fellows, some present as spectators and hearing the referee’s decision, and others getting the news by hearsay, could be of the same opinion.
This hurt Thatcher more than he believed was possible. Always he had taken great pride in the fact that no one could question his sportsmanship. ”

“ A Prince must be clean, if he would live in a palace; and Betsy, in her new zeal for soap and water, took him in charge herself, and continued to scrub him faithfully.
The rest of Thatcher’s efforts at training resulted in a series of failures. Thatcher was willing, but Van was not. He did not intend to be trained by his valet, and one, too, who had [55] betrayed him at the outset. Where confidence is lacking one cannot get great results in dealing with a wilful son of royalty. ”

“ His hands were cold and trembling. He pulled a blanket up over him. He lay listening to the steady beat of the rain and the hissing spatter of a gutter. Now and then a puff of wind blew a faint cool spray in his face. There still lingered in the room a frail cedarwood gruff smell of her heavycoiled hair, a silkiness of her body where she had crouched wrapped in the sheet hiding.
Ed Thatcher sat in his bay window among the Sunday papers. His hair was grizzled and there were deep folds in his cheeks. The upper buttons of his pongee trousers were undone to ease his sudden little potbelly. ”

“ You can be school reporter again when—er—I understand there’s a reason why you can’t handle the job this term.”
“There is,” said Jeff ruefully. “All special privileges have been denied me and I suppose I’ll have to sweat out my punishment when I go back. But I’ll take my medicine the same as I always have.”
“That’s the boy, Thatcher. And remember, if you ever want to come back into newspaper work and I’m still boss here, why just you come and knock on my office door. But go back to Pennington now by all means. I’m interested in that old school, too. ”

“ Thatcher, in a tone which quite mystified Tom.
“While you have been away, Tom, I, too, have had a proposal made to me.”
“A proposal, mother! Surely you will not marry again?”
“You are a foolish boy,” said his mother, smiling. “The proposal is of quite a different character.”
105
“What is it, mother?”
“You remember that Mr. Hiram Bacon lost his wife a year since,” said Mrs. Thatcher. “Since then his daughter has been keeping house for him. Now she is to be married, and will move out of town. He came here this afternoon to ask me to become his housekeeper.”
“But what is to become of Tillie?” ”

“ Thatcher was not sorry to be left alone. In the last half hour he had become convinced that his love for Carmen de Haro had been in some way most dreadfully abused. While HE was hard at work in California, she was being introduced in Washington society by parties with eligible brothers who bought her paintings. It is a relief to the truly jealous mind to indulge in plurals. Thatcher liked to think that she was already beset by hundreds of brothers. ”

“ The chubby man turned on him, delight bubbling through his thick voice. "Congradulade me, congradulade me; mein vife has giben birth to a poy."
Thatcher shook a fat little hand. "Mine's a girl," he admitted, sheepishly.
"It is fif years yet and every year a girl, and now dink of it, a poy."
"Yes," said Ed Thatcher as they stepped out on the pavement, "it's a great moment." ”

“ The relators of solid facts inside the shed perceived that they had no chance as long as that untrammelled person with the blubber-spade had the advantage of the last call every time, and so relapsed into taciturnity.
Uncle Thatcher did not somehow like the look of Silas's Boston friend, though he could not tell why, and felt relieved when Mr. Ketchum at length took his departure for the village. But when he went home at midnight to take a little much-needed rest, he was almost convinced that he saw the figure of the stranger near a clump of bushes a little distance from the doorway. ”

“ Nevertheless she painted a sketch of Thatcher,—which now adorns the Company's office in San Francisco,—in which the property is laid out in pleasing geometrical lines, and the rosy promise of the future instinct in every touch of the brush. Then, having earned her “wage,” as she believed, she became somewhat cold and shy to Thatcher. Whereat that gentleman redoubled his attentions, seeing only in her presence a certain meprise, which concerned her more than himself. The niece of his enemy meant nothing more to him than an interesting girl,—to be protected always,—to be feared, never. ”

“ Angus Egerton shook his head with a slow sad gesture.
'I am too poor to marry, Mrs. Thatcher,' he said. 'What could I offer a wife but a gloomy old house, and a perpetual struggle to make hundreds do the work of thousands? I am too proud to ask the woman I love to sacrifice her future to me.'
'Cumber Priory is good enough for any woman that ever lived,' answered Rebecca Thatcher. ”

“ Then, she's a single woman, and alone; and, although she affects to be an artist, and has Bohemian ways, don't you see she can't go into society without a chaperon or somebody to go with her? Nonsense.”
“But,” persisted Wiles, “she must have some power; there's Judge Mason and Senator Peabody, who are constantly talking about her; and Dinwiddie of Virginia escorted her through the Capitol the other day.”
Mistress Hopkinson laughed. “Mason and Peabody aspire to be thought literary and artistic, and Dinwiddie wanted to pique ME!”
“But Thatcher is no fool—”
“Is Thatcher a lady's man?” ”

“ Thatcher felt the same beauty and power in the droop of the head which had attracted him first in the old school-house, only enriched and in nobler colorings here.
They went sleighing together, with shouting and laughter, as if the Doctor were a girl, too. They went skating, and once in awhile to some entertainment at the church. They were not theatre-going people, and the lectures and socials of the town and college made up their outings. It was the Doctor's merry interest in their doings which made young men so unnecessary to Rose as well as to Josephine. ”

“ Women tourists turned to stare at him, and no wonder. A leading man on the London stage for many years, he had in his day set many feminine hearts to beating faster.
Thatcher appeared, his face more crimson than ever above his white shirt front, the eternal monocle in his eye. His luggage, too, came with him, and when he had paid his bill, he strolled over to Wayne. ”

“ Thatcher was by nature a defender and protector; weakness, and weakness alone, stirred the depths of his tenderness,—often, I fear, only through its half-humorous aspects,—and on this plane he was pleased to place women and children. I mention this fact for the benefit of the more youthful members of my species, and am satisfied that an unconditional surrender and the complete laying down at the feet of Beauty of all strong masculinity is a cheap Gallicism that is untranslatable to most women worthy the winning. ”

“ You can trapse after your lover, who'll be gone far enough by that time, no doubt. And what would Silas think of you if he knew of your conduct? Do you suppose my boy would ever look at a girl that get's herself talked about as you will? You shameless—"
"Shut up! There's been enough of this jaw and too much," suddenly interrupted Uncle Thatcher's rough voice, as he himself appeared in the door, looking in his night-dress of close-fitting shirt and drawers even bonier, longer, and more angular than ordinarily; like the silhouette of a skeleton almost. ”

“ Thatcher’s hopes of being a great song and dance performer received a severe jolt; Billy Emerson was the unconscious cause. Realizing that Emerson excelled him so far; Mr. Thatcher in his next engagement told gags between songs that he sang, and claims that then and there he originated the monologue.
Mr. Thatcher says his first important engagement was at Tony Pastor’s in New York in 1873. On November 10, that year, he made his first appearance with Simmons and Slocum’s Minstrels in Philadelphia, continuing with that organization and that of Simmons, Slocum and Sweatnam about four years. ”

“ Thatcher, astonished at the sudden turn of the incident, stood still under the basket for a moment while Hoffman, the Sophomore captain, swept down and gathered in the ball to take it to the other end of the court for the free shot to which the foul entitled him. Suddenly the Freshman forward snapped into angry action.
“Here! Wait! It’s a fake, Mr. Thomas. I didn’t trip him. He fell purposely to make it look like a foul. It was a trick, I tell you. I didn’t touch him.”
“He did. He lies. He tripped me!” yelled Gould, getting to his feet. ”

“ As he came within sound of the falling water, he heard voices, and pressing on, he was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt by recognizing the tones of Ralph Thatcher. What the young man was saying Tom did not catch, but the reply of Celia came to his ears with cutting distinctness.
“And does it seem to you honorable, Ralph,” she said, “to follow me here and talk to me in this way, when you know I am engaged to another man, and he your friend?”
“No man is my friend that takes you away from me!” Thatcher returned hotly. ”

“ DO THE DEAD LIVE? “I WISH you were going with me, Mr. Darke,” said Tom, as he sat in that gentleman’s room at the Astor House, making his farewell call.
He had made all arrangements, seen his mother and sister installed in the comfortable farm-house of Hiram Bacon, had procured a modest outfit, and was ready to start for the Pacific coast. He felt that it was a great undertaking for a boy of fifteen, and he longed for the championship of some one whom he knew, even but slightly.
Darius Darke shook his head.
“I have had enough of California!” he answered. ”

“ Thatcher had noticed this with the sensitiveness of an impoverished gentleman. But when, a few days after her lodger's sudden disappearance, a note came from him containing a draft in noble excess of all arrears and charges, the widow's heart was lifted, and the rock smitten with the golden wand gushed beneficence that shone in a new gown for the widow and a new suit for “Johnny,” her son, a new oil cloth in the hall, better service to the lodgers, and, let us be thankful, a kindlier consideration for the poor little black-eyed painter from Monterey, then dreadfully behind in her room rent. ”

“ Tom would have declined taking money for his expenses, but he could not do so without betraying his own secret. He therefore made no objection.
Mrs. Thatcher felt a little nervous about Tom’s going to the city alone. He was old enough to be trusted to make such a journey, but his mother had traveled so little that she felt timid.
“You must be very careful, Tom,” she urged. “I75 hear there are a great many wicked men in New York, who may lie in wait for you, and lead you astray.” ”

“ Thatcher led the way, and Fitzhugh rode by my side.
“Look there!” cried Fitzhugh in my ear. “There's some one running to the hotel!”
I looked, and thought I could see a form moving through the blackness. The hotel could just be distinguished two blocks away. It might well be a scout of the enemy hastening to give the alarm.
“Never mind,” I said. “We've got the start.”
Thatcher suddenly turned to the west, and in another minute we were on the open highway, with the steady beat of the horses' hoofs splashing a wild rhythm on the muddy road. ”

“ You and Edward Thatcher have been pretty thick and you've had a lot of fun out of politics. This row you've got into with him was bound to come. I know Edward better—just a little better than I know you. He's not a beautiful character, but he's not as bad as they make out. But you've given him a hard rub the wrong way and he's going to get even with you. He's mighty bitter—bitterer than it's healthy for one man to be against another. If it hadn't been for this newspaper fuss I shouldn't ever have said a word to you about it ”