Hillcrest

“ She doesn’t work hard and doesn’t need much forage except what she can glean at this time of year for herself.”
183“Well, then, perhaps it can be arranged,” said Lyddy. “Will you come in and see what our accommodations are?”
And so that is how another boarder came to Hillcrest Farm. Mr. Somers chose one of the smaller rooms upstairs, and agreed to pay for his own entertainment and pasturage for his horse–six dollars and a half a week. It was a little more than he had been paying at Larribee’s, he said–but then, Mr. Somers wanted to come to Hillcrest. ”

“ We cannot leave him while he is sick, nor can we take him out there to Hillcrest if he gets on his feet again―”
“Oh, Lyddy! don’t talk that way. He is going to be all right after a few days’ rest.”
“I do not think he will ever be well if he goes back to work in that hat factory. If we could only get him to Hillcrest.”
“And there we’d all starve to death in a hurry,” 28 grumbled ’Phemie, punching the hard, little boarding-house pillow. “Oh, dear! what’s the use of talking? There is no way out!”
“There’s always a way out–if we think hard enough,” returned her sister. ”

“ But almost at once she recalled another night–their first one at Hillcrest–when she had gone rambling about the lower floor of the old house.
But she thought of the incubator and leaped out of bed. The lamp might have flared up and cooked all those eggs. Or it might have expired and left them to freeze out there in the washhouse. ”

“ But the younger Bray girl decided to say nothing about the supposed ghostly occupants of Hillcrest to her sister–for the present, at least.
There was still half a mile of road to climb to Hillcrest, for the way was more winding than it had been below; and as the girls viewed the summit of the ridge behind Aunt Jane’s old farm they saw that the heaped-up rocks were far more rugged than romantic, after all.
“There’s two hundred acres of it,” Lucas observed, chirruping to the ponies. “But more’n a hundred is little more’n rocks. And even the timber growin’ among ’em ain’t wuth the cuttin’. ”

“ I understand that you can’t get blood from a turnip. We want to put Hillcrest in better shape–both in and out of the house–and then there’ll be a better chance to sell it.”
Cyrus Pritchett’s eyes suddenly twinkled with a shrewd light.
“Does Jane Hammon’ really want to sell the farm?” he queried.
“If she gets a good offer,” replied Lyddy. “That’s what we hope to do while we’re at Hillcrest–make the place more valuable and more attractive to the possible buyer.”
“Ha!” grunted Cyrus, sneeringly. “She’ll get a fancy price for Hillcrest–not!” ”

“ Angé to keep up a partial show of friendliness, but bitterly did it resent the interference ofvii Hillcrest justice during that season immediately following the enforced sobriety and isolation of the lumber camp.
Were men not to have some compensation for the hardships of the backwoods?
And just at that point in the argument Beacon Hill received its name and significance. From its top a watcher could view the road leading to Hillcrest, and by a well-directed signal give warning to any chance wrongdoer on the St. Angé side. ”

“ There was considerable excitement throughout Hillcrest when it was learned that the famous Anna Royanna had come to the Anchorage to stay for several weeks. It caused the greatest stir among the people from the city, especially the ones of the fashionable set. They could not understand why such a woman should wish to take up her abode at the Anchorage, of all places. To them, the Britts were very inferior people. They knew the captain by sight and reputation, but his wife they had never met. ”

“ Somers in her sister’s stead.
And Lyddy Bray was glad to be left alone. No one could honestly call Hillcrest Farm a lonesome place these days!
“I’m not sure that I wouldn’t be glad to be alone here again, with just ’Phemie and father,” the young girl told herself. “There is one drawback to keeping a boarding house–one has no privacy. In trying to make it homelike for the 203 boarders, we lose all our own home life. Ah, dear, well! at least we are earning our support.” ”

“ It’s jest as good beddin’ for humans as it is for cattle, I declare.”
“All right,” sighed ’Phemie. “We’ll bed down like the cows for a while. I don’t see anything better to do.”
But really, by sunset, they were nearly to rights and the prospect for a comfortable first night at Hillcrest was good.
Lucas’s huge fire warmed both the kitchen and the bedroom, despite the fact that the evening promised to be chilly, with the wind mourning about the old house and rattling the shutters. The girls closed the blinds, made all cozy, and bade young Pritchett good-night. ”

“ You, Atherton, meet me at Hillcrest Station to-morrow night at eight, and we'll do a little detective work. And you, Tubby, get up at five thirty to-morrow morning and go over to the Pernambuco with a list of questions that we'll make out now. While everything is going our way, we'll lose no time."
For an hour or more they worked, and finally disbanded, Mills going to his room to set his alarm clock and then, his brain on fire with excitement, to toss restlessly about for the balance of the night, with a hundred wild dreams and visions disturbing his rest. ”

“ At Hillcrest there was, however, almost always a breeze. Seldom did the huge piles of rocks at the back of the farm shut the house off from the cooling winds. The people who came to enjoy the simple comforts of the farmhouse were loud in their praises of the spot.
“If we can get along till July–or even the last of June,” quoth Lyddy to her sister, “I feel sure that we will get the house well filled, the garden will help to support us, and we shall be on the way to making a good living―”
“If we aren’t dead,” sighed ’Phemie. “I do get so tired sometimes. ”

“ Lyddy had something–and a very important something, she thought–on her mind. It had risen naturally out of the talk the girls had had when they first went to bed the evening before. ’Phemie had wished for a houseful of company to make Hillcrest less lonely; the older sister had seized upon the idea as a practical suggestion.
Why not fill the big house–if they could? Why not enter the lists in the land-wide struggle for summer boarders? ”

“ Pritchett’s Dutch oven that Lucas had told her about.
But since the first Sunday neither Mrs. Pritchett or Sairy had been near Hillcrest. Now that Mr. Somers had established himself here, the Bray girls did not expect to ever be forgiven by “Maw” Pritchett and her daughter.
“It’s too bad people are so foolish,” said Lyddy, wearily. “I haven’t done anything to Sairy.”
“But she and her mother think you have. By your wiles you have inveigled Mr. Somers away from Sairy,” giggled ’Phemie.
“’Phemie!” gasped her sister. “If you say such a thing again, I’ll send Mr. Somers packing!” ”

“ Lyddy heard her and said quickly, her expression very decided indeed:
“We’re not going–yet. Let us stay until the finish.”
“Yes, by jove!” muttered Harris. “I’d just like to see what these Rubes would dare do!”
But girls are not like boys–at least, some girls are not. They won’t fight fair.
The Hillcrest party need not have expected an attack in any way that could be openly answered–no, indeed. ”

“ This very self-possessed young man took a pleasant interest in everything that went on about the house and farm. Lyddy was still inclined to snub him–only, he wouldn’t be snubbed. He did not force his attentions upon her; but while he was at Hillcrest it seemed to Lyddy as though he was right at her elbow all the time.
“He pervades the whole place,” she complained to ’Phemie. “Why–he’s under foot, like a kitten!”
“Huh!” exclaimed the younger sister. “He’s hanging about you no more than the school teacher–and Mr. Somers has the best chance, too.” ”

“ There were no more shots at the Hillcrest folk after that–at least, if there were, the Bray girls did not hear them. The “Chronicles” came to 232 an end at last. Somehow the sisters got away from the hateful place with their escorts.
“But don’t ever ask me to go to that schoolhouse again,” said Lyddy, who was infrequently angry and so, when she displayed wrath, was the more impressive. “I think, Lucas, the people around here are the most ill-mannered and brutal folk who ever lived. They are in the stone age. ”

“ They received Aunt Jane’s letter in reply to their own, on Saturday.
“You two girls go ahead and do what you please inside or outside Hillcrest,” she wrote, “only don’t disturb the old doctor’s stuff in the lower rooms of the east ell. As long as you don’t burn the house down I don’t see that you can do any harm. And if you really think you can find folks foolish enough to want to live up there on the ridge, six miles from a lemon, why go ahead and do it. But I tell you frankly, girls, I’d want to be paid for doing it, and paid high!” ”

“ And that’s what they say we’re made of. I like to study human bein’s, I do; so I’d ruther have my view in town.”
“But it’s so pretty―”
“Fudge!” snapped Aunt Jane. “I’ve seen the time, when I was a growin’ gal, and the old doctor was off to see patients, that I’ve stood on that same porch at Hillcrest and just cried for the sight of somethin’ movin’ on the face of Natur’ besides a cow.
“View, indeed!” she pursued, hotly. “If I’ve got to look at views, I want plenty of ‘life’ in ’em; and I want the human figgers to be right up close in the foreground, too!”
’Phemie laughed. ”

“ However, Harris went off at noon, walking to town to take the afternoon train to the city; and as the professor did not show up again until nightfall there was no friction that day at Hillcrest–nor for the rest of the week.
Mrs. Harrison came and got into the work “two-fisted,” as she said herself. She was a strong old woman, and had been brought up to work. Lyddy and ’Phemie were at once relieved of many hard jobs–and none too quickly, for the girls were growing thin under the burden they had assumed. ”

“ It will do them as much good as it will father.”
“You’d make a regular sanitarium of Hillcrest,” cried ’Phemie.
“Well, why not?” retorted Lyddy. “I guess the neighbors wouldn’t object.”
’Phemie giggled. “Advertise to take folks back to old-fashioned times and old-fashioned cooking.”
124“Why not?”
“Sleeping on feather beds; cooking in a brick oven like our great-great-grandmothers used to do! Open fireplaces. Great!”
“Plain, wholesome food. They won’t have to eat out of cans. No extras or luxuries. We could afford to take them cheap,” concluded Lyddy, earnestly. ”

“ Lemuel Judson Spink, M.D., proprietor of Stonehedge Bitters, and Diamond Grits, the breakfast of the million,” the professor explained, bowing low before Mrs. Rufus Castle.
“And these two smart girls I have adopted as grandchildren, too,” declared the older Mrs. Castle, drawing Lyddy and ’Phemie forward. “These are the hard-working, cheerful, kind-hearted girls who make this delightful home at Hillcrest for us all.”
“Oh, Mrs. Castle makes too much of what we do,” said Lyddy, softly. “You see, ’Phemie and I are only too glad to have a grandmother; we do not remember ours.” ”

“ But when Lyddy told her of what the doctor at the hospital had said about Mr. Bray, and how they really seemed forced into taking up with the offer of Hillcrest, the old lady looked and spoke more seriously.
“You’re just as welcome to the use of the old house, and all you can make out of the farm-crop, as you can be. I stick to what I told you last night. But I dunno whether you can really be comfortable there.”
“We’ll find out; we’ll try it,” returned Lyddy, bravely. “Nothing like trying, Aunt Jane.”
“Humph! there’s a good many things better 40 than trying, sometimes. ”

“ City folks is funny. But come in–do! Mis’ Hammon’s nieces, d’ye say? Then you must be John Horrocks Bray’s gals–ain’t ye?”
“We are,” said Lyddy, who had quickly climbed out over the wheel and now eased down the clumsy bundle which was her sister. “Can you stand, ’Phemie?”
“Ye-es,” chattered her sister.
“I hope you can take us in for a little while, Mrs. Pritchett,” went on the older girl. “We are going up to Hillcrest to live.”
“Take ye in? Sure! An’ ’twon’t be the first city folks we’ve harbored,” declared the lady, chuckling comfortably. ”

“ Wetherby’s? Why, you can’t go quicker than follow the road through the village, sir; that takes you straight there. It’s about a mile an’ a half from here, or maybe a trifle more.”
“Mr. Wetherby’s; yes. Let me see, that’s——?”
“Hillcrest Farm, sir. A very nice gentleman he is, too. Him an’ Mr. Stanworth was getting quite friendly before—before——”
“Yes,” said Roger hurriedly. “Well, thank you very much. I’m so sorry to have kept you all this time.”
“You’re welcome, sir, I’m sure,” rejoined Mrs. William smilingly. “Good-afternoon, sir.”
“Good-afternoon.” ”

“ Bray, thoughtfully scanning his hand, and evidently giving little attention to Mr. Colesworth’s mystery, “why, I’m sure I don’t know what would attract anybody up in that part of the farm.”
“Saving a man interested in breaking open rocks to see what’s in them,” chuckled Mr. Colesworth. “But this fellow is no geologist.”
’Phemie, however, decided that she knew who it was. Silas Trent had mentioned seeing the man, Spink, up that way; and, on more than one occasion, ’Phemie was sure the owner of the Diamond Grits breakfast food had been lurking about Hillcrest. ”

“ Then, after a moment’s thought: “If you like Phil, and think so [162] badly of Genevieve,” she argued, “why should you wish to see them marry? I refuse to be the cat.”
“The Hadbury game!” cried Mr. Hammond. “Sue, we want to win that game!”
“Well,” she said, “if Phil really loves Genevieve, and if Genevieve loves Phil, I’ll try my best to—to—but I make you no promise. I shall think only of their happiness, of course.”
The three filed to the door. There they turned. “Point out to Genevieve,” suggested Mr. St. Ives, “that Hillcrest is an ideal place for entertaining.” ”