Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm; Or, The Mystery of a Nobody
Page 17
CHAPTER XVII
AN OMINOUS QUARREL
MRS. O'HARA went back to Glenside at the end of ten days, leaving Mrs.Peabody well enough to be about, though the doctor had cautioned herrepeatedly not to overdo. Doctor Guerin came for Mrs. O'Hara in hiscar, and it was to be his last visit unless he was sent for again.Bob's finger had healed, and he was hard at work at his carving inspare moments.
"Norma hopes you will come over to see her soon," said Doctor Guerinto Betty, as he was leaving. "She and Alice have their heads full ofboarding school. By the way, Betty, what do you intend to do aboutschool?"
"Well, I keep hoping Uncle Dick will write. It's been three weeks sinceI've had any kind of letter," answered Betty. She had long ago toldthe doctor about her uncle and the reasons that led to her coming toBramble Farm. "When he wrote he was in a town where there were only sixhouses and no hotel. He must come East soon, and then he will receivemy letters and send for me. I'm sure I could go to school and keephouse for him, too."
The car with the doctor and his convincing personality and Mrs. O'Haraand her quick tongue and heavy hand were hardly out of sight, beforeMr. Peabody assumed command of his household. He had been chafing underthe rule of that "red-haired female," as he designated the capableIrish-woman, and now he was bound to make the most of his restoredpower.
"Gee, he sure is a driver," whispered the perspiring Bob, as Betty camedown to the field where the boy was cultivating corn. Betty had broughta pail of water and a dipper, and Bob drank gratefully.
"No, don't give the horse any," he interposed, as Betty seemed aboutto hold the pail out to the sorrel who looked around with patient,pleading eyes. "He'll have to wait till noon. 'Tisn't good to watera horse when he's working, anyway. Put the pail under that tree andit'll keep cool. Lieson and Wapley go over to the spring when they'rethirsty, but Peabody said he'd whale me if he caught me leaving thecultivator."
"The mean old thing!" Betty could hardly find a word to express herindignation.
"Oh, it's all in the day's work," returned Bob philosophically. "Whatare you doing?"
"Hanging out clothes for Mrs. Peabody. She's getting another basketfulready now. She would wash, and that's as much as she'll let me do tohelp her, though of course when she irons I can be useful. I don'tthink she ought to get up and go to washing, but you can't stop her."
"Having a woman come to wash about killed the old man," chuckled Bob,starting the horse as he saw Mr. Peabody climbing stiffly over thefence. "Thanks for the water, Betty."
Betty had no wish to meet her host, for whom another check had comethat morning from her uncle's lawyer. Betty herself was out of money,Uncle Dick having sent no letter for three weeks and apparently havingmade no provision to bridge the gap.
She hung out clothes till dinner time, and then helped put the boileddinner on the table in the hot, steamy kitchen. Wapley and Lieson atein silence, and Bob found a chance to whisper to Betty that he thoughtthere was "something doing" between them and their employer.
Whatever this something was, there were no further developments tillafter supper. Peabody got up from the table and lurched out to thekitchen porch to sit on the top step, as was his invariable custom.He was too mean, his men said, to smoke a pipe, though he did chewtobacco. Bob had already taken the milk pails and gone to the barn.
As Mrs. Peabody and Betty finished the dishes, Wapley and Lieson camedownstairs, dressed in their good clothes, and went out on the porchwhere Mr. Peabody sat silently.
"Can you let me have a couple of dollars to-night?" asked Liesoncivilly. "Jim and me's going over to town for a few hours."
"You'll get no money from me," was the surly answer. "Fooling away yourtime and money Saturday night ought to be enough, without using themiddle of the week for such extravagance. Anyway, you know well enoughI never pay out in advance."
There was an angry murmur from Wapley.
"Who's asking you for money in advance?" he snarled. "Lieson and me'sboth got money coming to us, and you know it. You pay us right up tothe jot to-night or we quit!"
Peabody was quite unmoved. He stood up, leaning against a porch post,his hands in his pockets.
"You can quit, and good riddance to you," he drawled. "But you won'tget a cent out of me. You overdrew, both of you, last Saturday, andthere's nothing coming to you till a week from this Saturday."
The men were a little confused, neither accustomed to reckoning withoutthe aid of pencil and paper, but Wapley held doggedly to his argument.
"We quit anyway," he announced with more dignity than Betty thoughthe possessed. She and Mrs. Peabody were listening nervously at thewindow, both afraid of what the quarrel might lead to. "You go pack oursuitcases, Lieson, and I will figure up what he owes us. Never again dowe work for a man who cheats."
Peabody leaned up against his post and chewed tobacco reflectively,while Wapley, tongue in cheek, struggled with a stub of pencil and abit of brown wrapping paper.
"There's twenty-five dollars coming to us," he announced. "Twelve and ahalf apiece. Pay us, and we go."
"I don't know about the going, but I know there won't be any payingdone," sneered Peabody, just as Lieson with the two heavy suitcasesstaggered through the door and Bob with his two foaming pails of milkcame up the steps.
Bob put down the milk pails to listen, and Wapley took a step towardMr. Peabody, his face working convulsively.
"You cheater!" he gasped. "You miserable sneak! You've held back moneyall season, just to keep us working through harvest. If I had a gun I'dshoot you!"
The man was in a terrible rage, and Betty wondered how Mr. Peabodycould face him so calmly. Suddenly she saw something glitter in hishand.
"I've got my pistol right here," he said, raising his hand to wavethe blunt-nosed revolver toward Wapley. "I'll give you two just threeminutes to get off this place. Go on--I said go!"
Wapley whirled about and saw the milk pails. He seized one in eitherhand, raised them high above his head and dashed the contents furiouslyover Bob, Mr. Peabody, the steps and the porch impartially, sprinklinghimself and Lieson liberally, too.
"I never knew how much milk those cows gave," Bob said later. "Seemslike there must have been a regular ocean let loose."
Mr. Peabody was furious and very likely would have fired, but Bob putout his foot and tripped him, though he managed to pass the matter offas an accident. Wapley and Lieson trudged slowly up the lane, carryingthe heavy cheap leather suitcases. Betty watched them as far as shecould see them, feeling inexpressibly sorry for the two who had workedthrough the long hot summer and were now leaving an unpleasant placewith what she feared was only a too well-founded grievance.
"Some of you women," Peabody included Betty in the magnificent gesture,"get to work out there and clean up the milk. There's several pounds ofbutter lost, thanks to those no-'count fools. I'm going after my gun."
"Gun?" faltered Mrs. Peabody.
"Yes, gun," snapped her husband. "I don't suppose it occurs to youthose idiots may take it into their heads to come back and burn thebarns? Bob and me will sit up all night and try to save the cattle, atleast."
Bob was furious at the idea of playing lookout all night, and he wasin the frame of mind by early morning where he probably would havecheerfully supplied any arson-plotters with the necessary match. Butnothing happened, and very cross and sleepy, he and Mr. Peabody came into breakfast as usual.
Betty, too, had not slept well, having wakened and pattered to thewindow many times to see if the barns were blazing. Indeed, if Liesonand Wapley had deliberately planned to upset the Peabody family, theycould not have succeeded better.
Bob made up his lost sleep the next night, but his appetite came in forMr. Peabody's criticism.
"You seem to be aiming to eat me out of house and home," he observed atdinner a day or two later. "You don't have to eat everything in sight,you know. There'll be another meal later."
Bob blushed violently, not because of the reproof, for he was usedto that, but because o
f the public disgrace. Betty, the cause ofhis distress, was as uncomfortable as he, and she experienced anun-Christianlike impulse to throw the dish of beans at the head of herhost.
The following day Bob did not come in to dinner, and Betty, thinkingperhaps that he had not heard Mrs. Peabody call, rose from the tablewith the intention of calling him a second time.
"Where are you going?" demanded Mr. Peabody suspiciously.
"To call Bob to dinner," said Betty. "I'm afraid he didn't hear Mrs.Peabody. The meat will be all cold."
"You sit down, and don't take things on yourself that are none of yourconcern," commanded Mr. Peabody shortly. "Bob isn't here for dinner,because I told him not to come. He's getting too big to thrash, and theonly way to bring him to terms is to cut down his food. Living too highmakes him difficult to handle. This morning he flatly disobeyed me, butI guess he'll learn not to do that again. Well, Miss, don't swallowyour impudence. Out with it!"