CHAPTER XVIII
IN THE NAME OF DISCIPLINE
BETTY opened her mouth to speak hotly, then closed it again. Argumentwas useless, and the distressed expression on Mrs. Peabody's facereminded the girl that it takes two to make a quarrel.
Dinner was finished in silence, and as soon as he had finished Mr.Peabody strode off to the barn.
A plan that had been forming in Betty's mind took concrete form, and asshe helped clear the table she did not carry all the food down cellarto the swinging shelf, but made several trips to one of the windowsills. Then, after the last dish was wiped and Mrs. Peabody had goneupstairs to lie down, for her strength was markedly slow in returning,Betty slipped out to the cellar window, reached in and got her plate,and, carefully assuring herself that Mr. Peabody was nowhere in sight,flew down the road to where she knew Bob was trimming underbrush.
"Gee, but you're a good little pal, Betty," said the boy gratefully,as she came up to him. "I'm about starved to death, that's a fact."
"There isn't much there--just bread and potatoes and some corn," saidBetty hurriedly. "Eat it quick, Bob. I didn't dare touch the meat,because it would be noticed at supper. Seems to me we have less to eatthan ever."
"Can't you see it's because Wapley and Lieson are gone?" demandedBob, his mouth full. "We're lucky to get anything at all to eat. Yourcupboard all bare?"
"Haven't a single can of anything, nor one box of crackers," Bettyannounced dolefully. "The worst of it is, I haven't a cent of money.What can be the reason Uncle Dick doesn't write?"
"Oh, you'll hear before very long. Jumping around the way he does, hecan't write a letter every day," returned Bob absently.
He handed back the plate to Betty and picked up his scythe.
"Don't let old Peabody catch you with that plate," he warned her. "He'sgot a fierce grouch on to-day, because the road commissioners notifiedhim to get this trimming done. He's so mean he hates to take any timeoff the farm to do road work."
Betty went happily back to the house, forgetting to be cautious inher satisfaction of getting food to Bob, and at the kitchen door shewalked plump into Mr. Peabody.
"So that's what you've been up to!" he remarked unpleasantly. "Sneakingfood out to that no-'count, lazy boy! I'll teach you to be so free withwhat isn't yours and to upset my discipline. Set that plate on thetable!"
Betty obeyed, rather frightened.
"Now you come along with me." And, grasping her arm by the elbow, Mr.Peabody marched her upstairs to her own room very much as though shewere a rebellious prisoner he had captured.
"Sit down in that chair, and don't let me hear a word out of you," saidthe farmer, pushing her none too gently into the single chair the roomcontained.
From his pocket he drew a handful of nails, and, using the door weightas a hammer, he proceeded deliberately to nail up the window thatopened on to the porch roof.
"Now there'll be no running away," he commented grimly, when he hadfinished. "Give kids what's coming to 'em, and they flare up and try towriggle out of it. You'll stay right here and do a little thinking tillI'm ready to tell you different. It's time you learned who's runningthis house."
He went out, and Betty heard him turn a key in the lock as he closedthe door.
"So he's carried a key all the time!" cried the girl furiously. "Ithought there wasn't any for that door! And the idea of speaking to meas he did--the miserable old curmudgeon!"
She supposed she would have to stay locked in till it suited Mr.Peabody to release her, and quite likely she would have nothing to eat.If he could punish Bob in that fashion, there was no reason to think heintended to be any more lenient with her.
"Even bread and water would be better than nothing at all," said Bettyaloud.
The sound of wheels attracted her attention, and she peered throughthe window to see Mr. Peabody in conversation with a stranger who haddriven in with a horse and buggy.
Mrs. Peabody was stirring, and presently Betty heard her go downstairs,and a few minutes later she came out into the yard ready to feed herchickens.
"Don't let the hens out in the morning," ordered Mr. Peabody, meetingher directly under Betty's open window. The girl knelt down to listen,angry and resentful. "Ryerson was just here, and I've sold the wholeyard to him. I want to try Wyandottes next. He'll be over about ten inthe morning, and it won't hurt to keep them in the henhouses till then."
"Oh, Joseph!" Mrs. Peabody's voice was reproachful. "I've just gotthose hens ready to be good layers this fall. You don't know how I'veworked over 'em, and culled the best and sprayed those dirty old housesand kept 'em clean and disinfected. I don't want to try a new breed. Iwant a little of the money these will earn this winter."
"Well, this happens to be my farm and my livestock," replied herhusband cruelly. "If I see a chance to improve the strain, I'm goingto take it. You just do as I say, and don't let the hens out to-morrowmorning."
His wife dragged herself out to the chicken yard, her brief insistencehaving completely collapsed. The girl listening wondered how any womancould give in so easily to such palpable injustice.
"I suppose she doesn't care," thought Betty, stumbling on the heart ofthe matter blindly. "If she did have her own way, that wouldn't changehim; he'd still be mean and small and not very honest and she'd have todespise him just as much as ever. Things wouldn't make up to her forthe kind of man her husband is."
Supper time came and went, and the odor of frying potatoes came up toBetty in delicious whiffs, though she had been known to turn up herlittle freckled nose when this dish was passed to her.
About eight o'clock Mr. Peabody unlocked the door and set inside aplate of very dry bread and a small pitcher of water, locking thedoor after him. Betty slid the bolt angrily and this gave her somesatisfaction. She ate her bread and water and listened for a while atthe window, hoping to hear Bob's whistle. But nothing disturbed thevelvety silence of the night, and by half-past nine Betty was undressedand in bed, asleep.
She woke early, as usual, dressed and unbolted her door, hungry enoughto be humble. But no bread and water arrived.
The rattle of milk pails and the sounds which indicated that breakfastwas in progress ceased after a while and the house seemed unusuallyquiet. Then, just as Betty decided to try tying the bedclothes into arope and lowering herself from the window, she heard Bob's familiarwhistle.
"Hello, Princess Golden Hair!" Bob grinned up at her from the oldshelter of the lilac bush. "Let down your hair, and I'll send you upsome breakfast."
This was an old joke with them, because Betty's hair was dark, andwhile thick and smooth was not especially long.
"I want you to help me get out of here!" hissed Betty furiously. "Iwon't stay locked in here like a naughty little child. Can't you get mea ladder or _something_, Bob, and not stand there like an idiot?"
"Gee, you are hungry," said Bob with commiseration. "Dangle me down astring, Princess, and I'll send you up some bread with butter on it. Ihelped myself to both. We can talk while you eat."
Betty managed to find a strong, long string, and she threw one end downto Bob, who tied the packet to it; then Betty hauled it up and fellupon the food ravenously.
"I got you into this pickle," said Bob regretfully. "Old Peabody lickedme for good measure last night, or I would have been round at thiswindow trying to talk to you. Awfully sorry, Betty. It must be hot,too, with that other window nailed up."
"Do you mean he whipped you?" gasped Betty, horrified. "Why? And whatdid you do yesterday?"
"Oh, yesterday I wouldn't back him up in a lie he tried to tell theroad commissioner," said Bob cheerfully. "And last night I sassed himwhen I heard what he'd done to you. So we had an old-fashioned sessionin the woodshed. But that's nothing for you to worry over."
"Where is he now?" asked Betty fearfully.
"Gone over to Kepplers to see about buying more chickens," answeredBob. "Mrs. Peabody has gone to salt the sheep, and I'm supposed to becleaning harness in the barn."
"Get
me a ladder--now's my time!" planned Betty swiftly. "I could bobmy hair and you might lend me a pair of overalls, Bob. For I simplywon't come back here. It's too far to jump to the ground, or I shouldhave tried it. Hurry up, and bring me a ladder."
"I'll get a ladder on one condition," announced Bob stubbornly. "Youmust promise to go to Doctor Guerin's. Not cutting your hair andwandering around the country in boy's clothes. Promise?"
Betty shook her head obstinately.
"All right, you stay where you are," decreed Bob. "I have to go toLaurel Grove, anyway, and I ought to be hitching up right now."
He turned away.
"All right, I promise," capitulated Betty, "Hurry with the ladderbefore Mr. Peabody comes back and catches us."
Bob ran to the barn and was back in a few minutes with a long ladder.
Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm; Or, The Mystery of a Nobody Page 18
