Nelly's Silver Mine: A Story of Colorado Life

by Helen Hunt Jackson

  CHAPTER X

  ROB AND NELLY GO INTO BUSINESS

  They were indeed a long way from home; much farther than theydreamed. It was past four o'clock when they reached the house, andMrs. March had begun to be a little anxious about them. She was muchpleased when she saw the basket of trout.

  "Oh, what a nice supper we will have!" she exclaimed.

  Rob and Nelly looked at each other and at her.

  "Oh, mamma!" Nelly began, but checked herself at once, and lookedagain at Rob.

  "Why, what is the matter, children?" said Mrs. March.

  "Nothing. You can have them if you want them," said Rob, ratherforlornly.

  "Why, child, what else did you get them for?" exclaimed theirmother, who had forgotten all about Rob's plan of selling trout.

  "To sell," said Rob. "There's as many as four pounds there, I guess:that's most two dollars; but you can have them. I don't care. I'llgo get some more to-morrow, if my hand's well."

  "Oh!" said Mrs. March, "I had forgotten about it. So you mean to bea little fish-merchant, do you?"

  "Yes. Nelly's an egg-merchant, an egg and butter merchant; and I'mgoing to be a fish and fruit merchant; and we're going to take careof you and papa that way," said Rob, in an excited tone. "And I wasgoing to begin to-morrow; but I can begin next day, just as well:let's have these for supper; they're splendid; we've cooked twoalready."

  The tears came into Mrs. March's eyes.

  "We'll ask papa, and see what he says," she said. "If we're reallygoing to be merchants, we mustn't eat up all our goods: that'scertain. But what fruits do you propose to deal in, Mr. March?Fruits seem to me rather scarce in this valley."

  "Oh! strawberries, next month," said Rob; "and then raspberries, andthen wild currants, and then wild grapes. There are lots and lots ofthem on the creek, you know. And we can get carried up to Mr.Pine's, and pick berries up above his ranch. He said we might haveall we could pick."

  When they asked Mr. March about the trout, he laughed, and said:--

  "I think we must take a vote of all the partners. This family is apartnership now; the 'March firm' we must call ourselves; fourpartners, all working to make money for the firm: now let's vote.All that are in favor of eating the trout for supper, hold up theirright hand."

  Nobody's hand went up but Rob's.

  "Three against you, Rob," said his father: "you'll have to gowithout your trout this time. It is voted by a majority of the firmthat the trout be sold."

  "I didn't want"--Rob began, but checked himself, and looked at hismother. She nodded and smiled, but said nothing. A little whileafterward, when she found Rob alone, she put her arms around him,and kissed him, and said:--

  "I understood about the trout, Rob. You thought I wanted some for mysupper: didn't you?"

  "Yes, mamma," said Rob: "that was it. I didn't care so much aboutthem; but it seemed awful mean to keep you from having them. Nellyand I have each had one; they were splendid. Next time I'll justcatch one basketful to sell, and one to eat."

  The next day, Rob and Nelly set off together at six o'clock forRosita: Rob with his trout, and Nelly with eggs and butter. Theystopped a minute to speak to Lucinda and Billy, as they passed theirhouse. Billy was not there. He had gone to work for Mr. Pine,Lucinda said, and would not be at home for a week.

  "You like it: don't you, Nelly?" she said.

  "Yes, indeed!" said Nelly: "I think it's fun. And the people are allso kind: that Swede woman kissed me because I look so much like herlittle girl. I am going there again to-day. They keep boarders, youknow; and she wants eggs every time I come, she said. I thoughtperhaps they'd take Rob's trout too."

  "Oh, no! they won't," said Lucinda. "Trout is too dear eatin' forsuch boarders 's they keep. You take the trout right up to MissClapp's. She'll take 'em all, an' as many more 's you can ketch."

  By the middle of the afternoon, the children were at Lucinda's dooragain. They both ran in shouting:--

  "Lucinda! Lucinda! we've sold every thing; and we've got fivedollars and seventy-five cents! Now what do you say? Won't mamma beglad? Couldn't anybody get very rich this way, if they only kept on?Isn't it splendid?"

  "You dear little innocent lambs," said Lucinda: "it's much you knowabout gettin' rich, or bein' poor."

  "Why, we are poor now; very, very poor: papa said so," interruptedNelly. "That's the reason he lets us sell things."

  "Oh, well! your pa don't know nothin' about bein' real poor," saidLucinda: "and I don't suppose he ever will; but it's a good thingyou're a bringin' in somethin' this year. It's a dreadful year oneverybody."

  "Yes; papa said we were a real help," said Nelly: "he said so lastnight."

  "Luce," exclaimed Rob, "what do you think Jan is going to make forus? He's taken the measure of us to-day; he showed us a picture of aman and a woman with them on. They're real nice to carry thingswith: you don't feel the weight a bit, he says. In his country,everybody wears them on their shoulders,--everybody that has anything heavy to carry. They're something like our ox-yoke,--only witha straight piece, that comes out; and we can hang a basket on eachend, and run along just as if we weren't carrying any thing. They'rereal nice folks, Jan and his wife. They're the nicest folks inRosita."

  "Oh! not so nice as Mrs. Clapp, Rob," said Nelly.

  "Yes, they are too; lots nicer. They don't speak so fine andmincing: but I like them lots better; they're some fun. And Luce,"he continued, "they've got a picture-book full of pictures of theway people dress in their country; and they let us look at it. Itwas splendid. And Ulrica she keeps taking hold of Nelly's hair, andlifting up the braids and looking at them, and talking to Jan in herown language."

  "It makes her cry, though," said Nelly. "I wish she wouldn't."

  "But what is this Jan is going to make you?" asked Lucinda: "a realyoke, such as I've seen the men wear to bring up two water-bucketsto once? I don't believe your pa and ma'll let you wear it."

  "Why not?" said Nelly: "does it look awful on your shoulders?"

  "Well, you know how the ox-yoke looks on old Starbuckle and Jim,"said Rob. "It's a good deal like that: I saw one in thepicture-book."

  "But we're not going to be yoked together," said Nelly. "It can'tlook like that."

  "No, no," said Lucinda, "not a bit. They're real handy things. Lotso' the men have them, to carry water-buckets up the hill with inRosita. They just make 'em out of a bent sapling, with two hooks ateach end. You'll find them a heap o' help."

  "Then I shall wear it, no matter how it looks," said Nelly,resolutely.

  "We needn't wear them in the streets," said Rob: "we can take themoff just outside the town, and hide them among the trees."

  "Now, Rob," exclaimed Nelly, "I'd be ashamed to do that! That wouldlook as if we were too proud to be seen in them. I shall wear mineinto all the houses."

  "Wait till you see how it feels, Nelly," said Lucinda. "Perhaps youwon't like it so well's you think."

  When Nelly and Rob told their father and mother about theshoulder-yokes that the Swede Jan was going to make for them, bothMr. and Mrs. March laughed heartily.

  "Upon my word," said Mr. March, "you are going to look like littlemerchants in good earnest: aren't you?"

  "Don't you suppose they will hurt your shoulders?" asked Mrs. March.

  "Ulrica said they didn't," replied Nelly. "She said she had worn onea great deal. She puts a little cushion under the place where theycome on your neck. She says we can carry twice as much on those aswe can in our hands."

  It was arranged now that Rob and Nelly should, for the present, goup to Rosita twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Mr. Marchreckoned that they would be able to spare butter and eggs enough tobring them five or six dollars each week. The money from the troutthey did not allow themselves to count on, because it would beuncertain; but Rob made most magnificent calculations from it. "Fourdollars a week, at least," he said; "and that will be one way to payoff those old grasshoppers. I'll make a good many of them work forus: see if I don't!"

  The
next time Rob and Nelly went to Rosita, when they bade theirmother good-by, they said:--

  "Be on the lookout for us, mamma, this afternoon. You'll see uscoming down the road with our yokes on."

  So Mrs. March began to watch, about three o'clock; and, sure enough,about four, there she saw them coming down the lane which led fromthe main road to their house. They were coming very fast, at a sortof hop-skip-and-jump pace, but keeping step with each other exactly.A sort of slender pole seemed to be growing out of each shoulder;from this hung slender rods, and on the end of each rod was fasteneda basket or a pail, Rob's yoke had two pails; Nelly's had twobaskets. As the children ran, they took hold of the rods with theirhands, just above the baskets and pails. This steadied them, andalso seemed to be a sort of support in walking. As soon as thechildren saw their mother, they quickened their steps, and came intothe yard breathless.

  "Oh, they are splendid!"

  "Why, they're just as light as any thing!"

  "They don't hurt your neck a bit!"

  "See the nice baskets Ulrica gave us! Jan made them himself out ofwillows," shouted they, both talking at once, and each out ofbreath. Then Nelly slipped off her yoke, and, before her mother knewwhat she was about, had tried to put it on her shoulders; but hermother was too tall: Nelly could not reach up.

  "Oh! do try it on, mamma," she said: "just to see how nice it is."

  Mrs. March tried; but the yoke had been carefully adjusted toNelly's slender little figure, and Mrs. March could not put it on.

  "Well, if you only could, mamma, you'd see how easy it is," saidNelly, slipping it on her shoulders again, and racing down to thegate to meet her father, who was just coming in.

  Mr. March stopped short, and stared at Nelly for a minute.

  "Why, Nell," he said, "I did not know what you were. I thought youwere some new kind of animal, with horns growing out lengthwise fromyour shoulders."

  "So we are! so we are!" shouted Rob, running up so fast that thepails on the rods of his yoke swung back and forth high up in theair. "We are the four-armed boy and girl of Rosita. They'll want usfor a show. Four arms on a boy are as wonderful as two heads on acalf."

  How Mr. March did laugh! The children's fun was contagious. Heseized Rob's yoke, and tried to put it on his own shoulders; but itwas as much too small for him as Nelly's had been for her mother.Then he sat down on the fence, and examined the yokes carefully.They were beautifully made out of very slender young aspen-trees,which could be easily bent into place. The wood was almost white,and shone like satin: Jan had rubbed it so long.

  "He says when the white gets dirty he will paint them for us," saidNelly: "all bright colors, as they have them in Sweden. But whilethey keep clean they are prettier white."

  Ulrica had put a soft cushion of red cloth at the place where theyoke rested on the neck behind; also, on each rod just where thehands grasped them. Mrs. March examined them carefully.

  "This is beautiful cloth," she said: "I wonder where the woman gotit."

  "Oh! she has a big roll of it in a chest," said Nelly. "I saw it;and a big piece of beautiful blue, too. It was made in Sweden, shesays; and she has a queer gown, which was her little girl's that isdead, all made of this red and blue cloth, with--oh!--millions oflittle silver buttons sewed on it, all down the front. She wanted meto try it on; but I did not like to. It was too small, too: not tooshort; I think it would have come down to my feet. Do little girlsin Sweden wear long gowns, like grown-up ladies, mamma?"

  "I don't know, dear," said Mrs. March.

  "She has some of the little girl's hair in the same chest; and shetook it out and held it close to mine."

  "Yes," said Rob: "I didn't want her to. How did we know she wasclean?"

  "Oh, for shame, Rob!" cried Nelly: "they're all as clean as pins;you know they are. But I didn't like her to do it, because it madeher cry."

  After supper they had a great time deciding where to keep the yokes.Rob wanted them hung up on the wall.

  "They look just as pretty as the antlers old Mr. Pine has upon thewall in his house," said Rob; "and we can't ever have any antlers,unless we shoot a deer ourselves. Mr. Pine said a man offered himfifty dollars for them; but he wouldn't take it. I think our yokeslook just about as pretty."

  "Oh, Rob!" exclaimed Nelly, "how can you talk so? They are notpretty a bit; and you know it!"

  "I don't either!" said Rob: "I do think they're pretty; honest, Ido."

  While they spoke, Mrs. March was hanging one of the yokes on thewall, by a bit of bright red tape, tied in the middle. She hung itquite low, between the door and the south window. Then she hungNelly's sun-bonnet on the nail above it, and Nelly's little redshawl over one end of the yoke.

  "There," she said, "you are right, Rob. It makes quite a prettyhat-rack."

  "So it does," said Mr. March. "Now we'll put the other one up theother side the door; and that shall be Rob's, to hang his coat andjacket on."

  "My jacket isn't pretty, though, like Nell's shawl," said Rob,wistfully. "Why don't men wear red jackets in this country? In thatbook of Jan's ever so many of the men have red jackets on, withsilver buttons; and they're splendid. Jan has one too in the chest;but he doesn't wear it here, because it would make the folks laugh,he says: it is so different from other clothes here. He put it onfor us while Ulrica was showing Nelly the little girl's gown. It didlook queer; it came down most to his knees, and had great flaps onthe side, and big silver buttons on the front, as big as dollars.But it was splendid: a great deal handsomer than the uniform theMayfield guards wore."

  When Billy came home from Mr. Pike's, Lucinda told him about theyokes which Jan had made for the children to wear, to carry theirbaskets and pails on. Billy listened with a disturbed face.

  "Miss March'll never let 'em wear 'em: will she?"

  "I donno," said Lucinda: "Miss March's got heaps of sense; an' thechildren was jest tickled to death with them. They come racin' downthe hill with 'em on, 's proud as militia-men on trainin'-day. Buthow 'twill be about wearin' 'em round town I donno."

  "It'll never do in the world," said Billy. "The boys 'll all follow'em, and hoot and halloo; and Rob 'll be fightin' right an' left,the fust thing you know. It's a bad business, bad business. I donnowhat put it into that pesky Swede's head, anyhow."

  "Oh! jest to help the children," said Lucinda. "From what thechildren say, Jan an' his wife both seem to have kind o' adopted'em. You know how she takes on over Nelly, 'cause she looks so likeher own little gal."

  "I know it," said Billy. "Blamed if I don't wish I hadn't taken 'emthere. You'll see they can't wear the things in Rosita."

  This time Billy was right. He had been mistaken in thinking that theminers would treat Nelly roughly; but he was right now about theboys. The next time Nelly and Rob went up to Rosita, they enteredthe town a little before nine o'clock: it was just the time when allthe children were on their way to school. As soon as Rob and Nellyappeared with their little yokes on their shoulders, and a basketand pail swinging from each rod, the boys on the street set up aloud shout, and all rushed towards them.

  "Hullo, bub! what kind o' harness 've you got on?"

  "Did your pa cut down his ox-yoke to fit ye?"

  "Oh, my! look at the gal wearin' one too," they cried; and some ofthe rudest of the boys pressed up close, and tried to take off thecovers of the baskets and pails. In less than a second, Rob hadslipped his yoke off his shoulders, and thrown it on the ground,baskets and all; and sprung in front of Nelly, doubling up hisfists, and pushing the boys back, crying:--

  "You let us alone, now: you'd better!"

  "Hush! hush! Rob," said Nelly, who was quite white with terror."Come right into this store: the gentleman that keeps the storewon't let them touch us."

  And Nelly slipped into the store, and as quick as lightning took offher yoke and put it on the floor; and, saying to the astonishedstorekeeper, "Please let my things stay there a minute; the boysare tormenting my brother," she ran back into the centre of thecrowd, snatched up both R
ob's baskets of trout, and, pushing Robbefore her, came back into the store. The crowd of boys followed on,and were coming up the store steps; but the storekeeper ordered themback.

  "Go away!" he said: "you ought to be ashamed of yourselves,tormenting these children so. I'd like to thrash every one of you!Go away!"

  The boys shrank away, ashamed; and the storekeeper went up to Nelly,who was sitting down on a nail-keg, trembling with excitement.

  "What is this thing, anyhow?" said he, taking up the yoke. "Oh, Isee,--to carry your pails on."

  "Yes, sir," said Nelly; "and it's a great help. We have to walk sofar the baskets feel real heavy before we get here. Jan, the Swedeman, made them for us. It is too bad the boys won't let us wearthem."

  "Are you Mr. March's little girl?" said the shopkeeper.

  "Yes," said Nelly; "and that's my brother," pointing to Rob, who wasstill standing on the steps, shaking his fists at the retreatingboys and calling after them.

  "He'd better let 'em alone," said the shopkeeper. "The more noticeye take of 'em, the more they'll pester ye. But I reckon ye can'twear the yokes any more; I wouldn't if I was you. You tell yourfather that Mr. Martin told ye to leave 'em off. Ye can leave 'emhere, if ye're a mind to. Some time when your father's a drivin' inhe can stop and get 'em."

  "Yes," said Nelly: "I hadn't any thought of wearing them again. AllI wanted was to get in here and be safe, so they shouldn't break myeggs: I've got four dozen eggs in one pail. I think it is real cruelin the boys to plague us so." And Nelly began to cry.

  "There, there, don't ye cry about it; 'tain't any use. Here's astick of candy for ye," said the kind-hearted Mr. Martin. "TheRosita boys are a terrible rough set."

  "We might take care not to get into town till after they're inschool," said Nelly, taking the candy and breaking it in two, andhanding half of it to Rob. "Thank you for the candy, sir. I'm sorryI cried: I guess it was because I was so frightened. Oh! there'sUlrica now!" And she ran to the door, and called, "Ulrica! Ulrica!"

  Ulrica came running as fast as possible, soon as she heard Nelly'svoice. She looked surprised enough when she saw the two yokes lyingon the floor, and Nelly's face all wet with tears, and Rob'sdeep-red with anger. When Nelly told her what the matter was, shesaid some very loud words in Swedish, which I am much afraid wereoaths. Then she turned to Mr. Martin, and said:--

  "Now, is not that shame--that two children like this will not be tobe let alone in these the streets? I carry the yokes myself. Come tomine house."

  So saying, Ulrica lifted both the yokes up on her strong shoulders,and, taking Nelly's biggest pail in one hand, strode away with longsteps.

  "Come on mit me," she said; "come straight. I like to see the boythat shall dare you touch." And as she passed the boys, who hadgathered sullenly in a little knot on the sidewalk, she shook herhead at them, and began to say something to them in her brokenEnglish; but, finding the English come too slow, she broke intoSwedish, and talked louder and faster. But the boys only laughed ather, and cried:--

  "Go it, old Swedy!"

  "Oh, Ulrica, don't let's speak to them," whispered Nelly. "Be quiet,Rob!" And she dragged Rob along with a firm hand.

  "Now I goes mit you to the houses mineself," said Ulrica. "It shallbe no more that the good-for-nothings have room that to you they oneword speak."

  So Ulrica put on her best gown, and a clean white handkerchief overher head, and her Sunday shoes, which had soles almost two inchesthick; then she took one of the baskets and one of the pails, and,giving the others to Nelly and Rob, she set off with them to walk upto Mrs. Clapp's, where the butter and trout were to be left. Mrs.Clapp was astonished to see Ulrica with the children. Ulrica triedto tell her the story of the yokes; but Mrs. Clapp could notunderstand Ulrica's English, and Nelly had to finish the story.

  "It was too bad," said Mrs. Clapp: "but my advice to you is, to giveup the yokes. It would never be quite safe for you to wear themhere: the boys in this town are a pretty lawless set."

  "Oh, no, ma'am!" replied Nelly, "I haven't the least idea of wearingthem again. It would be very silly. But it is a dreadful pity: theydid help so much, and Jan took so much trouble to make them for us."

  Rob hardly spoke. He was boiling over with rage and mortification.

  "I say, Nell," he began, as soon as they got outside Mrs. Clapp'sgate: "you might have let me thrash that boy that spoke last, theone that called out at you. I'll die if I don't do something to him.And I'm going to wear my yoke: so there! They may's well get used toit. I'll never give up this way!"

  "You'll have to, Rob," answered Nelly. "I hate it as much as you do;but there's no use going against boys,--that is, such boys as these.The Mayfield boys 'd never do so. They'd run and stare, perhaps: Iexpected any boys would stare at our yokes; but they'd never hootand halloo, and scare you so. We'll have to give the yokes up, Rob."

  "I won't," said Rob. "I'm going to wear mine home, and ask papa. Iknow he'll say not to give up."

  "No, he won't, Rob," persisted Nelly. "I shall tell him what thekind shopkeeper said, and Mrs. Clapp too. You might know betteryourself than to go against them all. They know better than we do."

  "I don't care," said Rob. "It's none of their business. I shall wearmy yoke if I've a mind to. At any rate, I'll wear it once more, justto show them."

  "Papa won't let you," said Nelly, quietly, with a tone so earnestand full of certainty that it made Rob afraid she might be right.

  When Mrs. March saw the children coming home without their yokes,she wondered what could have happened. But almost before she hadopened her lips to ask, Rob and Nelly both began to tell the storyof their adventures.

  "Gently! gently! one at a time," cried Mrs. March; but it wasimpossible for the children to obey her, they were both so excited.At last Mrs. March said:--

  "Rob, let Nelly speak first: ladies before gentlemen, always." Andthe impatient Rob reluctantly kept silent while Nelly told the tale.

  Mrs. March's face grew sad as the story went on. It was a terriblething to her to think of her little daughter attacked in the streetin that way by rude boys.

  "Now, oughtn't I to have thrashed them, mamma?" cried Rob,encouraged by the indignation in his mother's face: "oughtn't I to?But Nell she just pulled me into the store by main force; and I feltso mean. I felt as if I looked just like Trotter when he puts histail between his legs and runs away from a big dog. I don't care:I'll thrash that ugly black-eyed boy yet,--the one that spoke toNelly; sha'n't I, mamma? Wouldn't you? I know you would! And mayn'tI wear the yoke again, just to show them I ain't afraid?"

  "Keep cool, Rob," said Mrs. March; "keep cool!"

  "I can't keep cool, mamma," said Rob, almost crying; "and youcouldn't, either,--you know you couldn't!"

  "Perhaps not, dear; but I'd try," replied his mother. "Nothing elsedoes any good ever."

  "Well, mayn't I wear the yoke, anyhow?" said Rob. "I won't go intoRosita ever again unless I can!"

  "Rob," said his mother, earnestly, "if you were going across a fieldwhere there was a bull, you wouldn't wear a red cloak: would you? Itwould be very silly, wouldn't it?"

  "Yes," said Rob, slowly and very reluctantly. He saw what his mothermeant.

  "That's just what I said," interrupted Nelly: "I said it would bevery silly to wear them any more. The boys would never let us aloneif we did."

  "Nelly is right," said Mrs. March: "it would be just as silly tocarry a piece of red cloth and flourish it in the eyes of the bull,when you know that the sight of red cloth always makes bulls angry."

  "I don't care if it does make them all set on me," said Rob: "afterI've thrashed them once, they'll let me alone. Anyhow, I won't gounless I can wear it; I know that much: I'd feel like a sneak."

  "Of course you'll do as you like about that, my dear boy," repliedMrs. March: "you never need go up to Rosita, if you would rathernot. You know it was all your own plan, yours and Nelly's, going upthere to sell things. Your papa and I would never have thought ofit."

  "Well," said R
ob, half crying, "but there's all the money I make:we'd lose all that, if I don't go. Nell couldn't carry the troutbesides all the butter and eggs."

  "I know it," replied his mother; "but that isn't any reason for yourdoing what you feel would make you seem like a sneak. We wouldn'thave you feel like that for any thing."

  Poor Rob was very unhappy. He didn't see any way out of his dilemma.He wished he hadn't said he would not go up into Rosita without hisyoke.

  "Anyhow, I'll ask papa," he said.

  "Yes," replied his mother, "of course you will talk it all over withhim; and perhaps you'll feel differently about it after that. Let itall go now, and try to forget it."

  "I'm not going to think any more about it," said Nelly. "I don'tcare for those boys: they're too rude for any thing. I sha'n't everlook at one of them; but you wouldn't catch me wearing that yokeagain, I tell you!"

  "That's because you're a girl," said Rob. "If you were a boy, you'dfeel just exactly as I do. Oh, goodness! don't I wish you had been aboy, Nell? If you had, we two together could thrash that whole crowdquicker'n wink!"

  "I shouldn't fight, if I were a boy," said Nelly: "I think it isbeneath a boy to fight. It's just like dogs and cats: they fightwith their teeth and claws; and boys fight with their fists."

  "Teeth, too," said Rob, grimly.

  "Do they?" cried Nelly, in a tone of horror. "Do they really? Oh,Rob! did you ever bite a boy?"

  "Not many times," said Rob; "but sometimes you have to."

  "Well, I'm glad I'm not a boy," said Nelly: "that's all I've got tosay. The idea of biting!"

  To Mrs. March's great surprise, she found, when she talked theaffair over with her husband, that he was inclined to sympathizewith Rob's feeling.

  "I don't like to have the boy give it up," said Mr. March. "Youdon't know boys as well as I do, Sarah. They'll taunt him every timehe goes through the street. I half wish Nelly hadn't hindered himfrom giving one of them a good, sound thrashing. He could do it."

  "Why, Robert!" exclaimed Mrs. March-"you don't mean to tell me thatyou would be willing to have your son engage in a street fight?"

  "Well, no," laughed Mr. March: "not exactly that; but there might becircumstances under which I should knock a man down: if he insultedyou, for instance; and there might come times in a boy's life when Ishould think it praiseworthy in him to give another boy a thrashing,and I think this was one of them."

  "Well, for mercy's sake, don't tell Rob so," said Mrs. March: "he'shot-headed enough now; and, if he had a free permission beforehandfrom you to knock boys down, I don't know where he'd stop."

  While Mr. and Mrs. March were talking, Billy came in. He had heardthe story of the morning's adventures from a teamster who had beenon the street when it happened; and Billy had walked all the way infrom Pine's ranch, to--as he said in his clumsy, affectionateway--"see ef I couldn't talk the youngsters out of their notionabout them yokes."

  "'Tain't no use," he said: "an' ye won't find a man on the streetbut'll tell ye the same thing. 'Tain't no use flyin' in the face o'natur' with boys; and the Rosita boys, I will say for 'em, is theworst I ever did see. Their fathers is away from hum all the time,and wimmen hain't much hold on boys after they get to be long fromtwelve an' up'ards; an' the schools in Rosita ain't no great things,either. 'S soon's I heard about them yokes, I told Luce thechildren couldn't never wear 'em: the boys 'n the street'd plaguetheir lives out on 'em. I don't know as I blame 'em so much,either,--though they might be decent enough to let a little galalone; but them yokes is awful cur'us-lookin' things. I never see aman a haulin' water with 'em, without laughin': they make a man looklike a doubled-up kind o' critter, with more arms 'n he's any rightto. You can't deny yourself, sir, thet they're queer-lookin'. Why,I've seen horses scare at 'em lots o' times."

  Billy's conversation produced a strong impression on Mr. March'smind. Almost as reluctantly as Rob himself, he admitted that it wasthe part of wisdom to give up the yokes.

  "It's no giving up for Nelly," said Mrs. March: "she said herselfthat nothing would induce her to wear it in again."

  "And I think Rob would better not go in for a little while, till theboys have forgotten it," said Mrs. March.

  "And not at all, unless he himself proposes it," added Mr. March. "Ihave never wholly liked the plan, much as we have been helped by themoney."

  "I've got an idee in my head," said Billy, "thet I think'll help 'emmore 'n the yokes,--a sight more. I mean to make 'em a little lightwagon. Don't tell 'em any thing about it, because it'll take me somelittle time yet. I've got to stay up to Pine's a week longer; an' Ican't work on't there. But I'll have it ready in two weeks or threeto the farthest."

  "Thank you, Billy," said Mr. March: "that is very kind of you. And awagon will be much better than the yokes were: it will save themfatigue almost as much, and not attract any attention at all. Youwere very good to think of it."

  "Nothin' good about me," said Billy, gruffly: "never was. But I dothink a heap o' your youngsters, specially Nelly, Mr. March. Itseems to me the Lord don't often send just sech a gal's Nelly is."

  "I think so too, Billy," replied Mr. March. "I have never seen achild like Nelly. I'm afraid sometimes we shall spoil her."

  "No danger! no danger!" said Billy: "she ain't the kind thatspoils."

  "Now, you be sure an' not let on about the wagon: won't you, sir,"he added, looking back over his shoulder, as he walked away fast onhis great long legs, which looked almost like stilts, they were solong.

  "Oh, yes! you may trust me, Billy," called Mr. March. "I won't tell.Good-by!"