The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks

by Amy Bell Marlowe

  CHAPTER XXIV

  PROFESSOR SPINK'S BOTTLES

  But Professor Lemuel Judson Spink did not look happy--not at all!

  While the neighbors were crowding around, emitting "ohs" and "ahs" overhis find in the broken old desk, the proprietor of "the breakfast for themillion" began to look pretty sick.

  "Five thousand dollars! My mercy!" gasped the Widow Harrison. "Then Bob_didn't_ lie about bringing home that fortune when he came from the army."

  "It's a shame, Widder!" cried one man. "That five thousand ought to belongto you."

  "Dad got it right; didn't he?" said Lucas, shaking his head sadly. "Heallus said Harrison was trying to tell him where it was hid when he hadhis last stroke."

  Harris Colesworth spoke for the first time since the packages of noteswere discovered:

  "Mr. Harrison told Cyrus Pritchett that he had hid away 'that that wouldbe wuth five thousand.' It's plain what he had in his mind--and a wholelot of other foolish people had it in their minds just after the CivilWar."

  "What do you mean, Mr. Colesworth?" cried Lyddy, who was clinging to thewidow's hand and patting it soothingly.

  "Why," chuckled Harris, "there were folks who believed--and they believedit for years after the Civil War--that some day the Federal Government wasgoing to redeem all the paper money printed by the Confederate States----"

  "_What?_" bawled Lucas, fairly springing off the ground.

  "Confederate money?" repeated the crowd in chorus.

  No wonder Professor Spink looked sick. He broke through the group,flinging the neat packages of bills behind him as he strode away.

  "How about the desk, Professor?" shouted Harris; "don't you want it?"

  "Give it to the old woman--you swindler!" snarled Spink.

  And then the crowd roared! The humor of the thing struck them and it washalf an hour before the auctioneer could go on with the sale.

  "No; I did not know the bills were there," Harris avowed. "But I thoughtthe professor was so avaricious that he could be made to bid up the olddesk. Had he bid on it when it was put up by the auctioneer, however, Mrs.Harrison would not have benefited. You see, the best the auctioneer cando, what he gets from the sale will not entirely satisfy Spink's claim.But the money-grabber can't touch that fifty dollars in good money he paidover to Mrs. Harrison with his own hands."

  "Oh, it was splendid, Harris!" gasped Lyddy, seizing both his hands. Thenshe retired suddenly to Mrs. Harrison's side and never said another wordto the young man.

  "Gee, cracky!" said Lucas, with a sigh. "I was scairt stiff when I seenthem bills fall out of the old desk. I thought sure they were good."

  "I confess I knew what they were immediately--and so did Spink," repliedHarris.

  The young folks had got enough of the vendue now, and so had Mrs.Pritchett. Lucas agreed to come up with the farm wagon for the pieces offurniture with which Harris had presented the Widow Harrison--includingthe broken desk--and transport them and the widow herself to Hillcrestbefore night.

  Mrs. Pritchett was enthusiastic over the girls taking Mrs. Harrison tothe farm, and she could not say enough in praise of it. So Lyddy was gladto get out of the buckboard with Harris Colesworth at the bottom of thelane.

  "You all talk too much about it, Mrs. Pritchett!" she cried, when biddingthe farmer's wife good-bye. "But I'd be glad to have you come up here asoften as you can--and talk on any other subject!" and she ran laughinginto the house.

  Lyddy feared that Professor Spink would make trouble. At least, he andHarris Colesworth must be at swords' point. And she was sorry now thatshe had so impulsively given the young chemist her commendation for whathe had done for the Widow Harrison.

  However, Harris went off at noon, walking to town to take the afternoontrain to the city; and as the professor did not show up again untilnightfall there was no friction that day at Hillcrest--nor for the rest ofthe week.

  Mrs. Harrison came and got into the work "two-fisted," as she saidherself. 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 tooquickly, for the girls were growing thin under the burden they had assumed.

  That very week their advertisements brought them a gentleman and his wifewith a little crippled daughter. It was getting warm enough now so thatpeople were not afraid to come to board in a house that had no heatingarrangements but open fireplaces.

  As the numbers of the boarders increased, however, Lyddy did not findthat the profit increased proportionately. She was now handling fifty-onedollars and a half each week; but the demands for vegetables and fresheggs made a big item; and as yet there had been no returns from thegarden, although everything was growing splendidly.

  The chickens had hatched--seventy-two of them. Mr. Bray had taken up thestudy of the poultry papers and catalogs, and he declared himself wellenough to take entire charge of the fluffy little fellows as soon as theycame from the shell. He really did appear to be getting on a little; butthe girls watched him closely and could scarcely believe that he made anymaterial gain in health.

  With Harris Colesworth's help one Saturday, he had knocked together acouple of home-made brooders and movable runs, and soon the flock, dividedin half, were chirping gladly in the spring sunshine on the side lawn.

  They fed them scientifically, and with care. Mr. Bray was at the pensevery two hours all day--or oftener. At night, two jugs of hot water wentinto the brooders, and the little biddies never seemed to miss having areal mother.

  Luckily Lyddy had chosen a hardy strain of fowl and during the firstfortnight they lost only two of the fluffy little fellows. Lyddy saw thebeginning of a profitable chicken business ahead of her; but, of course,it was only an expense as yet.

  She could not see her way clear to buying the kitchen range that was somuch needed; and the days were growing warmer. May promised to be theforerunner of an exceedingly hot summer.

  At Hillcrest there was, however, almost always a breeze. Seldom did thehuge piles of rocks at the back of the farm shut the house off from thecooling winds. The people who came to enjoy the simple comforts of thefarmhouse were loud in their praises of the spot.

  "If we can get along till July--or even the last of June," quoth Lyddyto her sister, "I feel sure that we will get the house well filled, thegarden will help to support us, and we shall be on the way to making agood living----"

  "If we aren't dead," sighed 'Phemie. "I _do_ get so tired sometimes. It'sa blessing we got Mother Harrison," for so they had come to call the widow.

  "We knew we'd have to work if we took boarders," said Lyddy.

  "Goodness me! we didn't know we had to work our fingers to the bone--mineare coming through the flesh--the bones, I mean."

  "What nonsense!"

  "And I know I have lost ten pounds. I'm only a skeleton. You could hang meup in that closet in the old doctor's office in place of that skeleton----"

  "What's _that_, 'Phemie Bray?" demanded the older sister, in wonder.

  'Phemie realized that she had almost let _that_ secret out of the bag, andshe jumped up with a sudden cry:

  "Mercy! do you know the time, Lyd? If we're going to pick those wildstrawberries for tea, we'd better be off at once. It's almost threeo'clock."

  And so she escaped telling Lyddy all she knew about what was behind themysteriously locked green door at the end of the long corridor of thefarmhouse.

  Harris Colesworth, on his early Sunday morning jaunts to the swimming-holein Pounder's Brook, had discovered a patch of wild strawberries, andhad told the girls. Up to this time Lyddy and 'Phemie had found littletime in which to walk over the farm. As for traversing the rocky partof it, as old Mr. Colesworth and Professor Spink did, that was out of thequestion.

  But fruit was high, and the chance to pick a dish for supper--enough forall the boarders--was a great temptation to the frugal Lyddy.

  She caught up her sunbonnet and pail and followed her sister. 'Phemie'sbonnet was blue and Lyddy's was pink. As they crossed the co
rnfield, theirbright tin pails flashing in the afternoon sunlight, Grandma Castle sawthem from the shady porch.

  "What do you think about those two girls, Mrs. Chadwick?" she demanded ofthe little lame girl's mother.

  "I have been here so short a time I scarcely know how to answer thatquestion, Mrs. Castle," responded the other lady.

  "I'll tell you: They're wonderful!" declared Grandma Castle. "If mygranddaughters had half the get-up-and-get to 'em that Lydia and Euphemiahave, I'd be as proud as Mrs. Lucifer! So I would."

  Meanwhile the girls of Hillcrest Farm had passed through the youngcorn--acres and acres of it, running clear down to Mr. Pritchett'sline--and climbed the stone fence into the upper pasture.

  Here a path, winding among the huge boulders, brought them within sound ofPounder's Brook. 'Phemie laughed now at the remembrance of her intimateacquaintance with that brook the day they had first come to Hillcrest.

  It broadened here in a deep brown pool under an overhanging boulder. Abig beech tree, too, shaded it. It certainly was a most attractive place.

  "Wish I was a boy!" gasped 'Phemie, in delight. "I certainly would geta bathing suit and come up here like Harris Colesworth. And Lucas comeshere and plunges in after his day's work--he told me so."

  "Dear me! I hope nobody will come here for a bath just now," observedLyddy. "It would be rather awkward."

  "And I reckon the water's cold, too," agreed her sister, with a giggle."This stream is fed by a dozen different springs around among the rockshere, so Lucas says. And I expect one spring is just a little colder thananother!"

  "Oh, look!" exclaimed Lyddy. "There are the strawberries."

  The girls were down upon their knees immediately, picking into theirtins--and their mouths. They could not resist the luscious berries--"tame"strawberries never can be as sweet as the wild kind.

  And this patch near the swimming hole afforded a splendid crop. The girlssaw that they might come here again and again to pick berries for theirtable--and every free boon of Nature like this helped in the management ofthe boarding house!

  But suddenly--when their kettles were near full--'Phemie jumped up with ashrill whisper:

  "What's that?"

  "Hush, 'Phemie!" exclaimed her sister. "How you scared me."

  "Hush yourself! don't you hear it?"

  Lyddy did. Surely that was a strange clinking noise to be heard up herein the woods. It sounded like a milkman going along the street carryinga bunch of empty bottles.

  "It's no wild animal--unless he's got glass teeth and is gnashing 'em,"giggled 'Phemie. "Come on! I want to know what it means."

  "I wouldn't, 'Phemie----"

  "Well, _I_ would, Lyddy. Come on! Who's afraid of bottles?"

  "But _is_ it bottles we hear?"

  "We'll find out in a jiff," declared her younger sister, leading the waydeeper into the woods.

  The sound was from up stream. They followed the noisy brook for somehundreds of yards. Then they came suddenly upon a little hollow, wherewater dripped over a huge boulder into another still pool--but smallerthan the swimming hole.

  Behind the drip of the water was a ledge, and on this ledge stood a row ofvariously assorted bottles. A man was just setting several other bottleson the same ledge.

  These were the bottles the girls had heard striking together as the manwalked through the woods. And the man himself was Professor Spink.