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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1922)
1 HAPPY HOUSE 11 ^ By Jane D. Abbott I COPYRIGHT, 1520, RY J. B. I.IPP1NCOTT COMPANY larr—- -- Alone in her own room a storm of anger shook her. ‘‘1 hate her!'1 she cried out to the ugly walls. “1 hate her! She’s—just —stone!” “I’m glad I’m not a real Leav itt I We were so happy!” Then, really frightened, Nancy listened intently to catch some word from the other room. I CHAPTER VII. Aunt Milly’s Story. When Nancy could stand the Interval of quiet no longer, she went back to Miss Milly’s door. .She did not ev(m knock. So sure was she of finding a crushed and heartbroken Aunt Milly within that she stood dumfounded be fore the little creature who sat bolt upright upon the couch. “Come in, my dear—and close tho door’l” Everything about Miss Milly seemed to say that “the worm has turned.” There was n glow on her face different from that it had worn out in the orchard; it seemed to come from some fire within. “Open every blind in Hie room, Nancy,” she commanded in a tone (hat was new for Aunt Milly. “I,might as well get what light I can in here. Now come andjiit beside me.” C 4 moment Aunt Milly pat ted Nancy’s hand and said noth ing. Then she gave a little sigh, i “I can’t tell you, Nancy, I can’t even begin to tell you, what you’ve done for me—tak ing.me out there! If 1 never go again, I’ve had it once. And it’s sort of stiffened something in side of me!” She fell silent again. Nancy was wishing that she could have heard what had passed between Aunt'Sabrina and Miss Milly that had left. Miss Milly so defiant! Aunt Milly seemed to read her thought. “She was dreadfully angry and it was partly because she was frightened—really fright lirina thinks things must, always go just so and that, it’s almost wicked to try—different things. She says—I’ve made my bed!” “What does she mean, Aunt Milly t” “It’s a long story dear.” “I’d like to hear it, Aunt Milly.” I < I -___-1. L 1 ~ I_ * VIOV J Vll I tv *» t*v »» —someone else may tell you, old Webb or B’lindy, or even Sa brina, though she’d rather die first! 1 think I used to bn some thing like you, Nancy, or 1 would have been,If it hadn’t been for— the trouble!” “Will it make you unhappy to tell it, Aunt Millyt’’ “No, child. I used to lie here by t he hour and think tilings over and 'Over, but after awhile 1 got so things sort of blured—I sup pose I grow resigned and all the fight inside of ine died. There never was much. You see Sa brina brought me up and she was as stern then as she is now. Our father was like that, too. My mother died when l was a baby.” “When father died Sabrina bad the care of me. I suppose she tried to bring me up well; she was very strict nud—never seemed to understand ! And when I was quite young I began to dream of getting away from the islands. I wanted to go away to school somewhere Imd learn to do something—I did not much care what—that would keep me out in the world. Finally I decided that I wanted Ito study music and then, sometime, teach it. It wasn’t much to want, was it, dear? But goodness me, when I went to Sa brina with my plan she was ter ribly angry. You might have thought I had suggested some thing wicked! She simply couldn’t understand! There was enough money for us both to live on and she said I was selfish and inconsiderate to want to go away. She talkedxa great deni about the Leavitt position and being a lady and learning contentment, and the more she talked the more restless and discontented 1 grew! And the more I dreamed of what waited out in the world beyond those little islands. ’ “After along while, Nancy, I made up my mind to go, anyway! It was not easy to do, because 1 ’m not very brave, and the trouble we’d had sort of made me hate to take any step that might make $ break between Sabrina and me. But I had to do it. 1 simply couldn’t seem to face a life here. That’s hard for you to believe, 1 isn't it, dear? But I was a dif ferent creature, then. Well, one night 1 packed some clothes and slipped away. I walked to North Hero and caught the train for Burlington. I was going from there to—to New York. Breathlessly, Nancy whispered, “What happened then?” “The train was wrecked out side of Burlington 1” “Oh—Auid lUjlly!” ‘ ‘ I was 'terribly hurt. I lay for weeks in a hospital in Burlington and they didn’t know whether I’d live or die! I wish-” she stopped short. “No, I don’t! I’m glad I didn't die. Then they brought me home—like this!” “Poor, poor little Aunt Milly!” “I3ut, listen, child—that isn’t half all. It seems that on the same train was a young man from North Hero whom I had al ways known—and liked. But Aunt Sabrina had never ap proved of him, and long before she had forbidden his coming here. I did see him sometimes, though—I loved company and he was entertaining. There had never been more than a pleasant friendship between us, and I had not dreamed that he was going to Burlington on that train. IIo was killed. And when I came back from the hospital the story was on every tongue that I had been running away with Charlie Prince!” Oh, I was hurt in every part I of me—my body and my soul and my mind! My precious dreams had crumbled forever and ever. And I had to face that dreadful scandal! Not that I ever saw a soul—Sabrina took care of that! She kept mo shut up as though I had the plague. But through her reproachful eyes I mas made to see the accusations of every man, woman and child on the Hero Isl ands. And I couldn’t make her believe it wasn’t so! She simply wouldn’t talk about it. She went around with that dreadful look, day after day, aiul when she’d sny anything at all, it was how I had brought shame fo the Leavitt name. And after awhile I began to feel ns though I had done something—more than just run away to study music. She made me understand that the only way I could atone for it all was by burying myself within these four walls." ‘'Then that’s what she means by ‘making your bed.’ ’’ “Yes, dear, I was so crushed that l came to believe she was right. God knew that all I had wanted when I went away was a right to my own way of living, hut His ways are inscrutable and His will has to bo done; Sabrina called it the sword of wrath and th? justice of the Almighty, and it didn’t make much difference to me what it. was called- -I was here. That’s my story, dear, that’s the way I’ve lived until— today. But you’ve changed it. Something inside of me that I I thought was dead—isn't dead at | all! Do you know what I told ! Sabrina! I told her I didn’t-care what she thought, that I guessed when a woman was 40 years old and over she could decide things for herself and if just going out there in the orchard was wicked, then I’d go on being wickeder! j That’s what 1 told her. Dear, ' dear, you should have seen her j face!" I “Hurrah, hurrah, Aunt Mil ly!” “Poor Sabrina, I never spoke like that in iny life to her! I’ve always been so—afraid, until to day! I don’t know what she’ll do now. You must not blame her too much, Nancy dear, it’s the Leavitt trouble that has made her wlmt she is—it shadowed all our lives! ’ ’ “Aunt Milly, wha was the i Leavitt trouble?” “Aunt Milly, what was the “Then you don’t know? I shouldn’t have spoken of it! I promised Sabrina I wouldn’t speak to you—about it.” “But, Aunt Milly, I have a— | a right to know, haven’t 1? Even Webb hinted about it, and it makes me feel as though I was —well, on the outside of things, to be kept in ignorance.” Miss Milly regarded her for a moment. “I told Sabrina that you wouldn’t know! But may be you ought to. Somehow, telling things, too, makes them seem not so dreadful! I believe we Leav itts lock troubles away too much —don’t air them enough, maybe. Sabrina things it’s as dreadful now as it was the da} ft hap pened- It was about our broth er. He was a year older than Sabrina. He wasn’t at all like her, though, nor like my father. He was a gay and handsome, and high spirited and dreadfully ex travagant. When 1 was very small I used to be frightened at the quarrels between him and my father—and they were* always over money. “One night—he had come home just before supper after be ing away for a week, no one knew where, and my father wa3 very angry about that—they had a quarrel that seemed more bit ter than any other. Besides, there was a thunder storm that made it seem y'qrse, I h|d been sent to bed, but the lightning fiad /rightened nje, juid I had crejat doWnstairs to the sitting room. I opened the door. They were all there—for Sabrina always sid ed with my father—talking so loudly they did not hear me. My father’s face frightened me more than the lightning and my broth er’s had turned dead white. I think my father had just offered him some money, for his wallet was in his hand and on the floor lay a bill, as though my brother had thrown it back. I began to cry and ran back to my room, more frightened by them than by the storm. And I lay there in my bed for hours, waiting for something to happen!” ADout mianignt one areatul bolt of lightning struck the house. It shattered the chimney all to pieces on the outside and inside, filled the sitting room with dust and pieces of mortar, cracked the mantel and moved it an inch and a half from the wall. But no one thought much of all that, because something far more dreadful had happened 1 My brother was gone and my fath er’s wallet, the one I had seen in his hand, was missing. He re membered laying it on the man tel and my brother and Sabrina had seen him do it. It had con tained over $1,000 in bank notes. The next day my father found out that my brother had taken the early |trai» out of North Hero. I was too youug to un derstand much about it, but I used to pray, first, that my broth er would come back and tell them he didn’t take the wallet and then I’d pray that he’d never, never come back, so that they couldn't put him in prison.” “That must have been Anne’s grandfather,” Nancy was think ing. “He did come back, three weeks later,” Miss Milly went on, ‘ ‘ and there was a scene much .vorse than the night of the storm. They forgot I was in the room. My father accused my brother of stealing the wallet and re fused to let him say a word. ‘I want no lies added to your other sins,’ was what he said—I can hear him now. And my brother looked as though something had struck him. Then my father told him that if he’d take himself off and never darken the doors of Happy House again, nor com municate with his family in any way, the matter would be dropped forever—for the sake of the Leavitt name. My brother stood there for a moment; I re member, I wanted to run to him I Oh, I’ve wished I had—so often! But I was afraid of Sabrina— and my father. And then my brother turned and walked out of the room—and out of the door —and—down the path—and—” Poor Miss Milly, worn out by^ the excitement of the day, began Nancy had to jerk herself to break the spell of the story. Her face winkled in a frown. “It —is—dreadful, isn’t it, Aunt Milly? I don’t mean his spend ing money and running debts and things, I mean—your—your fath er’s horrid—mercilessness! Why, the •ourts don’t treat the worst criminals like that! And they call it Leavitt pride—and honor! I call it injustice. I wish you had just run up and kissed him, then. It might have made every thing so different!” “So that’s why I can’t speak of Anne’s father or grandfath er,” Nancy was thinking back of her frown. “And that’s why Anne knew so little about her aunts!” Then aloud: “I’m glad you told me, Aunt Milly. It’ll help us—be pals. We’ll have oth er afternoons—like today—out in the sunshine. But now you must rest. And I’ll get ready to face Aunt Sabrina!” “She’ll be dreadfully cross,” sighed Miss Milly, with the glow all gone from her face. “I’m not a bit afraid,” and Nancy meant it, for within her breast smouldered such righte ous indignation at Miss Sabrina and her precious ancestors that she welcomed the challenge. Dressing hurriedly for supper Nancy’s eye caugnt the letter to Claire lying on her bureau. It seemed to her as though hours and hours had passed since she had so flippantly bade Claire “pray for me!” She wanted to open the letter and dash off another page to tell Claire of all that had happened and how the “mystery” was a mystery no longer. Then, with the envelope in her hand, she remembered that it concerned Aunt’s grandfather and that, perhaps, she had no right to tell I But she did open the sheet and scribble across the top: “All sorts of things have happened since I wrote this, and I may be back with you any moment. 1 C8n’t tell you yet ail about, it, but I can ka? this that I hate Happy House and Fra glad as can be that I’m only a pretend Real Lea vitt I Everybody isn’t horrid, though, that nice old Webb built the cosiest seat up in my tree and surprised me.” In exactly 20 minutes, by the hands of her small watch, she must meet Miss Sabrina! Any way, she could tell her just what she thought about the whole thing, for, without any doubt she’d be sent away! But there was Aunt Milly—she had prom ised Aunt Milly that there would be more afternoons in the orch ard. Somehow she must fix that. “1 know,” she waved her brush in mid air, “I’ll bet Be linda!” CHAPTER VIII, B’lindy’s Triumph. No great general of war ever mapped out a plan of attack more carefully than Nancy laid liersl First she begged B’lindy to let her pick over the raspberries for supper. While doing this in the chummiest sort ,of way, it was very easy to tell B’iindy that she had eaten lots of raised biscuits but never any raised biscuits like she’d had at Happy House! The last raspberry in the glass dish, Nancy in departing, whis pered with a little laugh; Wern’t you dreadfully fright j ened this afternoon when you i saw Aunt Sabrina ? O! of course ,you wern’t—Webb told me you | were the only one who could j really make Aunt Sabrina do anything, but goodness, I was!” j Which was balm to B’lindy’s in jured pride; as the afternoon wore on B’lindy had been grow ing more and more indignant be cause she had not “stood on her two feet and spoke up to Sa briny Leavitt” instead of “turn ing tail like old Jonathan!” Throughout the supper, by eat ing very fast, Nancy managed to conceal her nervousness and expectancy. Aunt Sabrina sat stiffly and looked very old and, somehow, by a twist of her lips managed to make Nancy under stand that she, Nancy, was in deep disgrace and that in due time sentence of punishment would be passed. Between B’lindy and her mistress not a word was exchanged; B’lindy’s head was tossed high and there was an air of “sniffing” about her that, if it had not all been so tragic, would have made the entire situation funny. “Oh, what a place—what fun ny people!” cried Nancy to the stars as she leaned that night far out of her window, “llow can I stand it! And why does not something happen quickly? It’s just like Aunt Sabrina not to say a word and to keep me on pins and needles! That’s the same way she treated Aunt Milly and that poor boy—years ago!” Thereupon Nancy let her fancy wander back to the “gay spirit ed, extravagant” brother and his story-—Anne’s grandfather. Had he cared, she wondered, had ho died longing to see again the old Island home, or had it been a blessing—casting him out in the wide world. He must have met fortune somewhere, for Anne’s father had been wealthy. Dear Anne—Nancy picked out the star that was farthest in the east and addressed it reverently. * ‘ If you can see Anne and she can see you will you tell her that she mustn’t feel cross at the mess I’ve made of tilings. I tried to be careful but I’m me and, anyway, all the ignorance of her blessed peas ants isn’t any worse than the pride and narrowness of her own relatives! Good night, dearest Anne, for the last time I go to sleep in my prison walls—tomor row I die!”___ (Continued next week.) A Wilkes-Barre, Fa., man spent $417 on a trousseau for his fiance, then she became the wife of another man. H* caused her arrest and charged her with receiving money under false pretenses. "Ay yoost want a yob." said a big husky sailor applying at an employment agency in San Francisco. "Ladles take man's yob, so 1 take ladies' yob.” Then he explained his specialty would be tak ing care of bablgs and doing upstairs work. 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