Kenneth

“ Poor Kenneth! This was too much.
It is no fun to find one’s self a human pincushion. He began to cry, and even then he heard the voices of the flowers sounding faintly, and they were laughing still. He glanced toward them angrily, then tucked his hands into his pockets and resolved not to let them see him cry. He marched away up the avenue without a glance into the Christmas trees, although they dangled the most interesting [35] bundles before his face and seemed trying to tempt him to pluck their magic fruit. ”

“ And then Kenneth was so frank and manly, so amiable and winning, that I believe, had he solemnly assured us he was a cannibal, and avowed his voracious appetite for human flesh, not a soul would have felt disturbed in the company of so good-looking and well-bred a monster. ”

“ Kenneth is the penniless orphan of a dowerless bride, and a poor younger son. In this world he possesses nothing; I am a lesser baron, with an estate here and another in Glencairn—my mother's inheritance. I can summon a hundred horsemen in time of need. The Lords of Badenoch, the Earls of Huntly and of Mar, have quartered their shields with mine; and in the storm which is at hand, when a sword may be in every Catholic hand, with its point at every Galvinist throat, you may find a worse protector than Halbert of the Tower; but nowhere in broad Scotland will ye find a better. ”

“ She watched Kenneth as he told her the developments of which he had thought, the details he had worked out. Each day, it seemed to her, Kenneth became more keenly alive each day saw a brighter sparkle in his eyes, a springiness in his step that had not been there before. There are many men who [168] could willingly have followed—and do follow—without revolt or much inward conflict a course of self-abnegation such as he had mapped out for himself. Not so, however, with Kenneth. ”

“ Kenneth Boyd, too, avoided being caught up by the boom. Beside the sardonic comment of Brainerd and the frank scepticism of the Colonel, the whole influence of his father was against his becoming in any way involved. Patrick Boyd saw too clearly that this must be only a flash in the pan; and he wished to avoid imbuing Kenneth with wrong habits of thought. Truth to tell little pressure was needed. Kenneth liked the life, with its open air, its open skies. He was intensely interested in what he was doing. ”

“ Kenneth and the people at Wavertree Hall knew about it. I had to let Kenneth into my secret so he could send his things aboard. Bridget packed your trunks while you were at luncheon and got them off without your knowing it and here we all are, as snug as possible, with Bridget and Peter Snooks to keep us in order.”
“Kenneth,” said Hester with brimming eyes but in the old bantering tone which always made them laugh, “how dare you have secrets from your wife? How dare you! It’s a perfectly scandalous beginning!” ”

“ Our Kenneth is a gentleman, He will not scratch nor bite; He never speaks to any child, A word that is not right. Our Kenneth never slams the doors Nor stamps along the halls; He goes away when he is told, And comes when mamma calls. Our Kenneth, everybody loves, Because he's so polite, Our darling little black-eyed boy, Our Kenney Stone so bright.
{287}
TO MY TEN-YEARS-OLD.
On thy cheek the roses lie ”

“ Kenneth was the only one of the small circle who was not perfectly at ease. He who used to be one of the most happy and careless of mortals, with no higher ambition than to be a good sportsman, now became dissatisfied with himself and discontented with his lot in life. When out on the hills alone he would fall into moods of abstraction, building castles in the air, wishing he were a soldier—ah! ”

“ Kenneth was a star, by the way. He was always willing to be pulled about like a rag-doll, and really seemed to enjoy it. They would roll him up for a caterpillar, and stand him up straight for a post, and sprawl him out for a spider. ”

“ Kenneth’s merry laugh came up out of the narrow rift, sounding muffled and strange, and the two lads looked down to where he was creeping along, some fifteen feet below them, in the half-darkness of the hollow, and holding on by the pendent roots which issued from the crevices, as he picked his way along the stones, with the water often washing against his feet.
“Come down, Max. Don’t be a coward,” he cried, as he looked up over his shoulder at the two anxious faces, while the hiss, rush, and roar of the water nearly covered with sound his half-heard voice. ”

“ Kenneth answered, with a glad lighting up of his grave, almost sad face, "and I sometimes wonder how it has come about."
"Love begets love, and so it is with disinterested kindness also," the major answered.
Mrs. Lamar, coming to meet them, caught the last words. "Quite true," she assented, holding out a hand to Kenneth, "and I know of no one else in whose case we see such an exemplification of that fact as in Dr. Clendenin's. Doctor, running away so suddenly and mysteriously, you left many an anxious heart behind you." ”

“ Kenneth was the very best brother that ever lived, and they had beautiful times playing together. But Kenneth was growing to be a big boy, and he liked a great many things that Rose did not enjoy,—fishing, for instance, which made her very ill. And there were things which Rose liked that Kenneth would not play with her. Rose thought if only she had a little sister they two would like just the same sort of things. They could play dolls together, and house, and tea-party, and have the most beautiful times when Kenneth was away doing something very different. ”

“ Kenneth bore her out of the room, and returned for Paul, who stood gazing at his dead infant as one stupefied.
“Go to your wife, Paul,” said he; “go to poor Kate; your love alone can soften this heavy blow;” and he remained to bend and kiss the now stiffening form of the lovely little creature. “I will send Blanche to you, Lisa; you must not perform the last sad task alone. Alas! poor Kate! ”

“ Do you not know you are only living on my estate on sufferance, and if you don’t render me proper respect as your chief, I will soon pack you and your son off again.’ Then perceiving Flora, and being struck with her exceeding loveliness, he involuntarily altered his tone, and continued in a more gentle voice, ‘Ah! I now see the cause; you have a stranger with you. Who is she, Kenneth?’
Now this was a very puzzling question for poor Kenneth to answer, as he did not know himself, and being fearful of saying anything that might injure Flora. ”

“ Roderick felt refreshed by the visit, and when Kenneth, promising to come again very shortly, at last withdrew, the burden of living appeared lighter to him, and he lay back armed with new fortitude to bear and wait.
Kenneth had been gone but a few minutes when Eppie Ness in her turn had a visitor--an old woman, toothless and bent, limping on a staff, and with a covered basket on her arm. A grizzled elf-lock or two had escaped from the white sowback mutch which was bound to her head by a winding of broad black ribbon, and hung down over the glittering beadlike eyes. ”

“ He wrote Kenneth that a sudden and pressing call of business had summoned him. The latter easily found out that the mortgages on the ranch were not due for some time yet. So matters did not press.
The lovers lived a tip-toe. Life was all a gorgeous secret. The most commonplace affairs took on significance. Suddenly all the ordinary things in the world had entered into a conspiracy with them of some splendid sort hidden from the rest of mankind; for whom, indeed, they wore their everyday aspects as a disguise. ”

“ The bed was draped in costly Oriental silk hangings, and beneath these, and propped up by so many pillows that he was sitting more than lying, Kenneth saw the Earl. Two nurses were in attendance, and a doctor was sitting beside him with his finger on his pulse.
The Earl looked up eagerly as the door was opened, and Kenneth went forward and stood by the bed.
"My lord, you sent for me," he said, gently.
Lord Derwentwater motioned to Sir Lawrence Taylor to come near him. Then Kenneth heard him say in an agitated whisper—
"I must be alone with him. Tell them all to go out." ”

“ He looked keenly at Kenneth as he spoke, thinking to read in his countenance how his errand had sped. He had never seen it half so bright and joyous.
"Ah, he has won," he said to himself with a pang of mingled disappointment and envy. "He has learned all, and it is in his favor. ”

“ He had a pretty good time as a boy, Kenneth thought, when he stayed in bed till breakfast was 161ready on cold winter mornings, while he, Kenneth, was up before light, helping his father with the fires and chores, and sometimes hanging out the Monday’s washing for his mother, when the wind was so sharp as to penetrate through her mittens and the thick hood upon her head. Kenneth was decidedly a mother’s boy, an unselfish, helpful boy, doing for every one whatever his hands found to do, and never dreaming that any necessary labor was beneath him. ”

“ Kitty said to her one day when she sat with the baby in her lap, “and he is the handsomest man you ever saw. Dr. Kenneth is grand and splendid, and makes you feel that there is a power there for great and noble things,—self-sacrifice, I mean, and all that. Harry is different. I love him dearly, but I don’t believe he would give up as much as Dr. Kenneth. He always gets his way, he is so persuasive, and his eyes and voice talk. ”

“ On being perfectly satisfied that Kenneth was as ignorant as himself regarding Flora’s antecedents, and being assured by her of Kenneth’s absolute innocence of any design against him, the chief allowed the young man to go free. ”

“ This appearance of courtesy, though mute, and expressed by gestures only, seemed to Sir Kenneth something entirely irreconcilable with his former wild and violent demeanour. The movements of the hermit were now become composed, and apparently it was only a sense of religious humiliation which prevented his features, emaciated as they were by his austere mode of life, from being majestic and noble. He trod his cell as one who seemed born to rule over men, but who had abdicated his empire to become the servant of Heaven. ”

“ There are few men, possibly, who are her peers. Don't condemn Kenneth because he isn't exactly like her. He's not perfect, I admit, any more than the rest of us. But he's a fine, manly fellow, with a good mind and noble traits of character. If the right woman gets hold of him, she'll make him a good man, and possibly a great one. ”

“ Kenneth found his practice growing. His days were filled with his work. One man viewed his growing practice with bitterness. It was Dr. Williams, resentful of the small figure he had cut in the episode in Kenneth’s office, which had become known all over Central City. Of a petty and vindictive nature, he bided his time until he could force atonement from the upstart who had so presumptuously insulted and belittled him, the Beau Brummel, the leading physician, the prominent coloured citizen. But Kenneth, if he knew of the hatred in the man’s heart, was supremely oblivious of it. ”

“ Kenneth liked books for the books’ sake, and unlike Harry, was always glad when school commenced and sorry when it ended. Some day he meant to go to the Academy in Millville, and perhaps to the dancing-school opened there every winter, and learn some 163of the manners which were natural to Harry; then, if he worked hard and saved a great deal, he might possibly go to college, and afterwards study medicine with Dr. Catherin, the famous physician at Rocky Point. It surely must be a grand thing to alleviate pain, only he could never bear to lose a patient and witness the grief of friends. ”

“ One cannot alter the past."
"He can make his future, though," said Kenneth with the hope of youth strong within him.
"He can in a great measure, if there's much future left him, though it does appear sometimes as if there must be such a thing as inexorable fate."
"It was a happy fate that sent us your way," said Kenneth affectionately. "I think I must adopt you, too, as Gwen has done. You stand for a good deal more than the pork-packer who has recently become my step-father."
They went into the house together. Miss Phosie was watching for them, and had a table spread. ”

“ Kenneth smacked his lips already at thought of the goodies he would have to eat, and his fingers wriggled eagerly, longing to clutch the wonder-toys which he knew were growing somewhere about for him, when he had time to look for them.
Now there was no one to meet him at the [30] station, and Kenneth thought this strange. For he had expected to find his usual guide, a pretty little gauze fairy in spangled white, with a wand and crown and all the dainty ornaments which fairies wear. ”

“ One can play those jokes all through the year. But it is too late for any of them to-night. You must go back home now, Kenneth.”
“I am quite ready to go,” said Kenneth wearily, for even a pleasant joke had no charms [55] for him now, he was so tired. The Fairy took him by the hand and led him back to the station. They passed the magic nut bushes, but Kenneth did not pause. They walked under the tempting Christmas trees, but he did not look up. They went between the rows of flowers, gently tittering on either side, but Kenneth did not so much as glance at them. ”

“ Kenneth, can’t we do something?”
“Ding-dong! Call out the fire-engine!” roared Kenneth, jumping up and galloping to the kitchen for a pail of water. Kenneth was always ready for a new game.
“Water will do no good. You cannot put out the fire without drowning them,” called Kenneth’s father. “I am afraid the poor ants are doomed, Rosie. It is like a crowded tenement house, isn’t it?” he said to Mama. “The poor little creatures crowd together like people in the upper-story windows, hoping for a ladder.”
“That is what they need—a fire-escape,” cried Rose. ”