HE LITTLE RED SHOP l-'rontU. run IKV THE LITTLE RED SHOP BY MARGARET SIDNEY Author of Five Little Peppers and How they Grew The Pettibone Name Hester What the Seven Did St. George and the Dragon Dilly and the Captain ILLUSTRATED BOSTON LOTHROP COMPANY WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIRLD COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY D. LOTHROP COMPANY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PASI. I. 7 II. HOW SHE BECAME "COMPANY" 15 III. IS IT RIGHT ? . 22 IV. A NEW FORCE .... 29 V. A NEW TURN OF AFFAIRS 88 . VI. A LIFT INTO SUCCESS 47 VII. FAIRLY UNDER WAY 66 VIII. AN ENCOURAGING ASPECT 68 IX. TIME FOR ACTION 70 X. A GOOD DAY .... 79 XI. NEW DEVELOPMENTS 87 XII. A SUCCESS .... 98 XIII. A FAMILY PARTY 108 XIV. A NEW PLAN .... 119 XV. " OUR ENTERPRISE" 133 XVI. LOSING SELF-CONTROL 145 XVII. CALLED AS HELPERS 150 XVIII. 164 XIX. A MIXTURE .... 172 XX. AN ALARM .... 182 XXI. LIGHT-HEARTED AGAIN 189 XXII. STANCH FRIENDS INDEED 197 XXIII. THE SECRET .... 204 XXIV. THE SECRET is OUT . 210 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. CHAPTER I. PLANNING. rriHE old house on Cherryfield high road, "" back of the row of stiff poplars, with its queer little gnarled apple-trees at the back, looked for all the world just as it did one hun- dred years ago. It had no more paint on it now than when the children's grandfather took home his young bride who thought it the most beautiful place in all the world to begin house- keeping in. Then it was a dingy yellow, with faded green blinds ; and now the same forlorn attempt at coloring greeted all passers-by. To be sure it had been painted many times in the interim, but always the same hue was chosen, so that to the oldest inhabitant it was the best known landmark for miles around. The "Brimmer Place" was known too, for something else than its antiquity. It was the 7 8 THE LITTLE RED SUOP. cheeriest, horae-iest old house that ever stood on any road, overflowing with good-will to every- body, especially to sick people and to little chil- dren. If anybody were in trouble and could reach her, Mrs. Brimmer always found just the right word of cheer to speak, while she tried to help in many other ways and what she didn't do, why, there were Jack, and Cornelius, and Rosalie, to say nothing of Primrose, the baby four little comforters who made everybody just happy to look at them. And yet every one who lived in the big, hundred-year-old house was poor. " It's most dreadful to be poor," said Rosalie one morning, in a burst of confidence to the boys, out in the woodshed. Cornelius stopped hacking at an old log to flash her a convincing " no " out of his black eyes. "And it's so very unagreeable," continued Rosalie, smoothing down her apron while she seated herself on one end of the bench. " .Disagreeable, you mean," corrected Jack, picking up sticks over in the corner. " There, Corny, you let that old fellow alone; I'll tackle him soon. He's too tough for you." Corny, resenting the implication, let the hatchet fly on the back of the old log to show how strong PLANNING. 9 he was, in such a masterful style that the chips flew in every direction, and Rosalie shook them from her apron, before she said, " No ; I'm sure it is unagreeable I saw it in the dictionary." " Well, then, you didn't see right," said Jack. " It's d-i-s ; awful big letters too. Means hate- ful, and not nice." " Well, it's not nice to be poor," said Rosalie wisely waiving all further discussion as to the word ; " that you must say anyway, Jack." But Jack's lips were tight. Presently he straightened himself up, and gave his head a shake. "Well, what shall we do about it?" "Do?" said Rosalie, in surprise, "why, I don't know what you mean, Jack ? " " When things are not nice, there is no use in talking about them if you don't do something to make them better," said Jack philosophically. " Now I want to know what we are going to do to make ourselves rich." " To make ourselves rich O Jack ! " cried Rosalie and Cornelius together. " If we can earn some money, I suppose we shall be rich sometime," observed Jack ; " every- body was poor once, but they worked and got money. Now, how can we ? " 10 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. The children were so possessed with the idea of their ever being rich, that no words came to their aid ; and Jack went on without interrup- tion. "I've been thinking over something that, if we can do it, will be perfectly splendid, and help mammy take care of baby. Poor, dear Mam- sier He turned away for a moment, and then showed his face again, the same old Jack with the laughing eyes, and pleasant, honest mouth. "Tell on," said Cornelius, who had dropped his hatchet, and drawn near. "Be quick and tell us," he added breathlessly. "Well, there is the tool-house," said Jack. "Funny old hole, but just the thing for us. Now what's to hinder our setting up a shop in it, and selling things?" "Real true-as-you-live things," cried Rosalie, " with counters, string, and brown paper bags?" "And five cent pieces, and cents and quar- ters?" screamed Cornelius on his highest key. " Whickets ! why didn't we think of it before ? But where'd we get the things to sell, with? Phoh ! your news isn't anything, after all ; only just an old dried-up joke." He was so disgusted, PLANNING. 11 that he went back, picked up his hatchet, and fell to slowly hacking again. Jack flung himself up to Rosalie's side on the bench. " Now sec here, both of you. The thing can be done, if we will all club together, and work hard; It's not to be a success in a day, mind you, but we've got to pull hard, and at it all the time. Are you willing to do it for Mamsie's sake?" "Can't we have any time for play?" asked Rosalie with a long face. " Perhaps ; but there won't be much," said Jack, " if we make a good thing of this." " Well, I s'pose you and I are the men of this family," said Cornelius, over his log, "and so if you'll just say how the money's coming to begin with, why, I'll give you my word, I'll keep at it." "We want Rosalie," said Jack, kindly; "we can't do anything without her." " Why, she's nothing but a girl," said Corne- lius, still pummeling; "it takes men to keep store and make money." "But there are ever so many things that a girl can do to help us," said Jack, " so we must take her into partnership." " O Jack ! how very line and exquisite," cried 12 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. Rosalie, grasping his arm with excited little fin- gers. " I'll wait on customers, and make change all alone, and help fix up things and look nice." " She uses such terribly big words," said Cor- nelius, in disfavor at the scheme, " and puts on airs, just like all the other girls. Jack, we can't let her in ; it's no use to try." "Now, Corny," cried Rosalie, slipping from her bench and standing quite tall. " I'm very big nearly ten ; and I know a great many things, and Jack says I may so there." " Yes, she really ought," said Jack, with a nod over at the smaller boy, "because you see it's a family concern. We must make it Brimmer Brothers and Company." " Am I Company ? " asked Rosalie, in subdued excitement. "Yes," said Jack. " Well, now I'll tell you how we can make the money to buy the things that we are to sell. To begin with, Rosalie ? " "I?" cried the Company, with widened eyes. "Yes," Jack nodded at her very decidedly. " You can take care of Mrs. Prouty's baby." "O Jack!" It was a tone of horror that came from the girl of the family, " you don't ever mean that?" PLANNING. 13 " If we are really going to earn money to help Mamsie with, we must expect to do some disa- greeable work," said Jack gravely. Rosalie hid her ashamed little face a moment, then said, "Very well, I'll do it. But how do you know she wants me?" " I heard her tell the cook when I carried the lettuce there this morning that she'd give fifty cents to any girl who would take care of the baby a week just come in every day. Her cousin is going there to-morrow to visit, and she wants her time to herself. Just think, Rosalie, fifty bright new cents ! " The Company fairly clapped her hands. " Per- haps she'll let me bring the baby over home, then I sha'n't be away from Primrose." " She'd be only too glad to get him out of the way, I'll be bound," said Jack ; " I sh'd be, if I owned that baby." " And Primrose is so sweet that any other baby would smile and be good, even if it was a great fat, big, crying red-faced one like Mrs. Prouty's," said Rosalie, seeing some alleviation to her task of earning fifty cents. " Now what is Corny going to do ? " she demanded, trying not to hope that his work was disagreeable also. 14 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. " Corny and I have to work together," said Jack, with a little grimace he couldn't help. " It's to clean up Widow Brown's pig-pen." " I sha'n't clean up that old woman's pig-pen, nor anybody's pig-pen," shouted Corny, with a vicious hack at the log ; " no, sir!" "Very well, sir," cried Jack back again, then I'll do it alone." He didn't say, " I would if I were you," or anything of the persuasive sort, knowing that by no such ways could he manage Cornelius. He simply let him alone, as he always did, to begin his own duty. The consequence was, the chubby youug wood-chopper presently turned around, and said complacently, " When I get this log chipped up for Mamsie, I'll join you." " If you don't come till that log is done, I'll have Widow Brown's pig-pen in apple pie order," cried Jack, in high good-humor CHAPTER H. HOW SHE BECAME "COMPANY. , Baby, be good, do," begged Rosalie in a tone of despair, essaying to smooth the small tow head with a kind, motherly hand. "I 'ON'T!" declared Baby Prouty, lifting both feet to bring the heels smartly to the floor, and turning a vicious little face to her nurse. O dear ! " sighed Rosalie, a tired little flush mounting to the brown waves of hair, " you are the oh ! what am I saying. You are a baby and ought to be cuddled and made to be good," and she tried to gather her up in her warm little arms. " I 'on't I 'on't " screamed Baby Prouty, kicking and struggling to be free. In the fuss, Rosalie was bitten quite sharply on the thumb, when what little patience she possessed, took to itself wings, leaving an ugly little temper to fly into its place. 15 16 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " If anybody could be good to you, it would be an angel with ever and ever so many wings," she cried, nursing her aching thumb hi her mouth, and glaring over it at the baby, who, now that she had succeeded in stirring up an unpleasant state of things, crowed sweetly and showed all her teeth in an expansive smile. "You're a bad, bad child," she exclaimed de- cidedly, " if ever there was one." " I guess I don't want you to take care of my baby," declared Mrs. Prouty, hurrying in. "I'd rather never visit with my cousin who has come way from Illinois a-purpose to see me, and we hain't seen each other in ten years, and was lot- tin' on this chance; but I ain't going to have Arabella told to her face that she's a bad child. So you needn't come again, Rosalie Brimmer," and she gathered her cherub up into her ample lap, and began petting her violently. " She bit my thumb," said Rosalie, displaying it, the warm color not going down in her cheek, and the flash in the brown eyes yet remaining. Mrs. Prouty got up, tucked Arabella under one arm, and, bending over the injured member, examined it carefully. " It was an awful little bite," she said, going SHE BECAME "COMPANY." 17 back again, and sitting down. " There, there, Arry dear, mamma's got you again, so she has." "It hurt," said Rosalie; "she took just the very teeny end in her mouth, and her teeth are sharp." " Well, it isn't anything to make such a fuss over," observed Mrs. Prouty, " I'm sure. You needn't come again, anyway; then she won't bite your thumbs." Rosalie stood quite still. Why had she thrown away the only chance she could possibly have possessed of earning some money to put into the new business. The boys were working away at their hateful task, brave as lions in fighting their prejudices, and persistent as beavers in good, honest toil. She wasn't worthy to be the " Company," deserting at the first show of the disagreeable, and running off with but a thought of her own selfish comfort. Every bit of color deserted her face, and she turned quite pale as she came up to Mrs. Prouty's chair, saying : " Please try me again ; I was naughty to be vexed." Mrs. Prouty looked up, her fat face gathering a surprised expression along its lines and curves, 1 to mingle with the annoyance that had taken first possession of the broad expanse. 18 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "You are sure you won't fight her?" she said, looking the sorry little face over keenly. " Yes," said Rosalie. "Do try me once more, Mrs. Prouty." " Well, then, I will," said Arabella's mother, with a sigh of relief, "for 'twas pretty tough for me to have my cousin find me all tied up, and she coming way from Illinois, and we hain't seen each other in ten years. Now, then, Arry, you play pretty, and I'll run back to the kitchen and bake that plum cake Belinda was so fond of," and she set the baby down in a heap in the middle of the floor, twitched her dress straight, and was off. How thankful was Rosalie to be " Company " once more, with a chance to earn honorable money, and step into the firm with a happy pride. Somehow the thumb stopped aching, and she actually found herself laughing at Baby, and forgetting that she was homely and cross, and the sun seemed to shine brighter than ever, and outside a little bird twittered and called, and Arabella capped the climax by putting up her chubby face to be kissed, and said " Stay," and held her gown when it was time for the small nurse to go home. HOW SUE BECAME " COMPANY." 19 "Mamsie," cried Rosalie, rushing into the old house and tossing her bonnet into a corner, " I've had a mixed day, but it was better at the top. Has Primrose got home ? " " No ; aunt Jane begged to keep her until four o'clock, and I hadn't the heart to refuse." "Then she'll have to go to bed in an hour. O Mamsie ! " cried Rosalie in dismay. " I know it's been hard for you to be without her all day," said Mother Brimmer, with a glance at the tired little face, "but only think of poor aunt Jane." " 1 know it," said Rosalie, swallowing bravely the lump in her throat, "and that old yellow cat all her company. I ought to be glad to give Primrose to her for one day. Where are the boys ? " she asked suddenly. " They came in from their work," said Mother Brimmer, " about half an hour ago ; Jack went to the store for molasses, and Cornelius is " "Here," said that individual, sauntering in. " Ha, Rosy ! " He gave his sister a comprehen- sive glance that informed him of her mental and moral tone, " Come out in the woodshed, will you?" Rosalie ran after him, and Mother Brimmer 20 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. looked up from her sewing to send a smile with them, by way of cheerful accompaniment to whatever of fun might be in store. Cornelius carefully closed the door leading into the kitchen, and drew a long breath when they found themselves safe on its other side. "I tell you what, Rosalie," he said deliber- ately, "making pig-pens is bad enough; but making a pig-pen for Widow Brown is the mean- est piece of work there is on this earth. There ! " "Did you bring me out here away from Mam- sie, just to tell me that?" cried Rosalie indig- nantly, and getting down from her tiptoes to which she had raised herself eagerly, the better to compass her brother's wonderful news. "Oh, oh! I thought you had something perfectly splendid to tell me." " I didn't say I had," said Cornelius. " But you looked so," cried Rosalie, in a dud- geon, "just as plain as could be. Your face said, ' I know something that I'll tell you if you'll come.' So, there now, Cornelius Brimmer." "You needn't have come," declared Cornelius coolly. " I didn't say so," he repeated. "You are just as mean as anything," cried Rosalie ; " as mean as your pig-pen is, every bit, HOW SHE BECAME "COMPANY." 21 and I sha'n't stay here to talk with you, because you haven't anything really to tell me," and she began to move with dignity to the door. " Stay, Rosalie," cried Cornelius, his manner changing suddenly. " I was going to say that although pig-pens are hateful things to clean and set up, and Widow Brown's is the meanest pig-pen of the whole lot, still there are some things that make it pleasant to work amongst them. Do you want to hear what I found this afternoon in the middle of a dirt-pile as large as your head ? A five dollar gold piece ! " CHAPTER III. IS IT EIGHT? "OUT, Corny," cried Rosalie, with bated *r* breath, "it is not your very own five dol- lars." Still she could not keep her eyes off from the bright bit in the centre of the brown palm held out before her. " Hoh ! hoh ! just like a girl ; knows nothing of business. If a man picks up a thing in the road, and don't know who dropped it, what's he to do, pray tell ? Don't be a goose, Rosy," he cried, affectionately, and clapping his fingers tight over his treasure. "I tell you, this will set us up in trade, though ! " " But you didn't pick it up in the road," per- sisted Rosalie, " and " " Perhaps the pigs dropped it," cried Cornelius, bursting into a loud laugh ; "let's ask them." "Does Jack know?" asked Rosalie, not heed- ing the laugh. IS IT RIGHT f 23 "I hadn't the shadow of a chance to tell him," declared Cornelius, and spinning around first on one set of toes, then on the other. "He left the Widow Brown's early, to try to get that job at Miss Gimp's. I tell you, Jack is a master hand at drumming up work." At any other time Rosalie would have been led into a laudable curiosity as to the little dressmaker's contemplated improvements of house or barn, but to-night Cornelius's well-di- rected efforts in that line failed utterly. "Jack ought to know," she exclaimed, decid- edly, "every single bit about that five dollars, now, Cornelius Brimmer." "Jack won't know," cried Cornelius, flatly; "he'd be such a silly as to say 'Take it right back and put it where you found it,' for aught I know. I believe he'd rather the pigs swal- lowed it. I asked the "Widow Brown, and she said she never knew what it was to have a five dollar gold piece to lose, so now I'm going to be let alone to enjoy it in peace;" and he crammed it into his jacket pocket and began to walk up and down the woodshed with the manners of a millionnaire. Down the stairs it pealed quite 24 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. distinctly. There was no use to evade it. Mother Brimmer wanted something of her "lit- tle right-hand man," as she called her ten-year- old daughter, and the girl, generally glad to go at her bidding, walked slowly backward to the door, still keeping her eyes on the man of affairs. "You ought to give it back," she said with slow distinctness. " But I don't know whose it is," cried Corny, turning at the end of his walk to face her obsti- nately. "There, mother's calling you. You ought to hurry up. You are slower than stock still." The moment that he heard the door close at the head of the steps, what did Corny do but throw his cap on his head, rush out of the wood- shed and off at a tearing pace to the parsonage, a good quarter of a mile distant. " It's one of them Brimmer boys," said Han- nah, throwing wide the study door. "Let him come in," said the parson, taking his gaze off from the cheerful pages of the com- mentary, and pushing his spectacles above his tired eyes. Corny was close behind Hannah's ample fig- ure, and now disclosed his round countenance, IS IT EIGHT ? 25 over which a shade of perplexity quite foreign to him was rapidly settling. "Well, my boy," began Parson Higginson, keeping his thumb in the book to mark the place, and bringing his spectacles to bear upon his caller, " what is it? " "If you had found a five dollar gold piece in a pig-pen," cried Corny, breathlessly, "what would you do with it ? " "Found a jive dollar gold piece in a pig-pen ?" repeated the parson, in astonishment. "Why, I should return it," he declared morally. "To the pigs?" asked Corny, with the de- lightful freedom of one perfectly conversant with the ways of the parsonage. "To the owner of the pig-pen, Cornelius," said- Parson Higginson. "I should at once carry it to him. He probably dropped it when performing his duties in caring for his animals." "It isn't him, it's her. It's the Widow Brown," said Corny, " and she hasn't performed any duties caring for her animals, for it's as dirty there as the pigs," he brought up, adding, "and besides, she says she never had a five dollar gold piece to lose. Now what would you do?" The minister leaned back in his well-worn 26 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. study chair and pondered a bit, Corny watching every line of his face with intense anxiety. At last Parson Higginson broke out, "Why didn't you go to your mother with this difficulty?" "I couldn't," said the boy, "because I should have let out why I want to keep it, and she's not to know a word about the little red shop till we're sure it can be started." " Tell me," said the parson with great interest, and bringing down his gaze to the round face, " all about this little red shop matter." So Corny launched forth on the brilliant scheme that Jack, who was always a royal fellow at a plan, besides being the man of the house in everything else, had hit upon, by which the children of the family were to earn money to take care of Mother Brimmer and the baby. "Rosy's coming into the plan too," said Corny, winding up ; " she's only a girl," in a shamefaced way, "and of course don't know anything about business, but Jack said, 'Let her in,' so she's got to come." "Of course," said Parson Higginson, "and very proper it is, too, that she should be ad- mitted into the partnership. You might make her the Company." 75 IT EIGHT? 27 "Why, that's just what we have done," ex- claimed Corny in delight, that the minister had guessed so quickly, and beginning to think that if the parson approved of the girl of the family entering the business, it must be the correct thing. " Jack would have her be the Company." "Now, you say that your mother has given you that old red tool-house on your place for your own especial use ? I want to understand it thoroughly, before I give any advice in this matter." The minister folded his hands and listened with as much respectful attention as if his deacons were conferring with him on some important church matters. Corny was im- mensely set up by his manner, but he tried not to show it. " Yes, sir ! " he declared emphatically ; " she's told us many a time we might do anything with it we chose pull down the old thing if we wanted to." " That's good." Parson Higginson nodded his satisfaction. " Now, then, I advise that you fix your new quarters to your liking, stock up, and get your trade just as soon as possible." Corny's sturdy brown hand twitched at his pocket. "That's what this would have done," 28 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. and he pulled out the five dollar gold piece and laid it suddenly between the parson's long, folded fingers. The minister let the shining coin lay just where the boy had dropped it, and went on. " Now I have a little money by me that I am not going to use. I would like to put it into a new firm called Brimmer & Company, who shall invest it in a stock that they shall sell, and when the profits are counted up, they shall pay me back what I put in. I shall be a sort of a silent partner, you know ; at least till the business gets fairly started and in good paying condition. Do you see, my boy ? " Corny did see, and his breath came quickly, and the color mounted his round cheek. " And the first thing that the new firm is to do in the little red shop," continued the parson, "will be to put up a notice in one of the win- dows FOUND. A five dollar gold piece. In- quire within, of Brimmer & Co." CHAPTER IV. A NEW FORCE. rriHE little old tool-house on the Brimmer grounds was the scene of the liveliest in- terest about these times, and Jack and Cornelius had all they could do to answer questions, while even Rosalie was not allowed to accomplish an errand without many interruptions. Finally it got to be so bad that she sat down on the back doorsteps, one day, in despair. "I'm so tired of saying 'You will all know what we are doing with our tool-house at the proper time.' It's excessive-ous-ly unpleasant to be asked it all the while, over and over." Corny dropped his saw and threw himself to the ground, where he rolled, laughing convul- sively, "O dear, Rosy! you will kill me ex- cess " then he went off again. " I wouldn't, Rosy," said Jack, " use big words when smaller ones would do." 30 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. "Girls always do," said Corny, as he rolled, "and she's worse than any of them, excess Odear!" "Girls always talk much nicer than boys," said Rosalie, drawing herself up with so much dignity that she nearly tumbled backwards off the steps. "Miss Smith said that very word last Sunday, and I'm sure she's perfectly elegant." "Miss Smith would be pleased to hear the new rendering of her fine word," observed Corny faintly. " Well, I wouldn't, Rosy," said Jack kindly, and hurrying on with his work, "say a single word that was bigger than was necessary. Now, old fellow, stop grinning like a Cheshire cat and shake yourself. You'd look better handling that saw." He gave Corny a poke with his foot by no means gentle. " Can't you see she feels badly?" he managed to say in a whisper as he passed him, pretending it was all on account of his work. " She's so ridiculous," whispered Corny back again, "and that's the way she will talk in the new shop. Something must be done to stop her." But Jack was off, measuring the boards for the new shelves, so he didn't hear, and Rosalie, A NEW FORCE. 31 feeling that her dignity called for the sacrifice, got up from her step and took herself and her injured feelings into the house. " I'm in a pretty mess," declared Corny, find- ing his feet, and gazing at the vacant steps, " it makes a fellow feel mean as dirt to be where I am. This old saw won't cut a stroke till I make my peace with her." He turned off with a grimace from the work-bench, and hopping over the steps overtook Rosalie in a corner of the back hall. "See here, Rosy, you know I didn't mean that." He gave her arm a loving pinch of the brotherly sort, and turned her squarely around so that he could see her face. Rosy twisted off again. It wasn't best to accept too sudden overtures ; and Corny peni- tent and suing for favor, was a very different person from the every-day brother, so she only said carefully, " It's very hard not to be appre- ciated when one wants to talk nicely." "I know it," said Cornelius, swallowing his dislike of the long word, " and I'll try awfully hard not to act like such a donkey again. Make up, Rosy, and let's be friends, do." Rosalie, thinking this the best concession she 32 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. could get, turned back, and allowed another brotherly pinch, which was the nearest to a caress that Cornelius ever indulged in. After this, the make-up was perfect ; and the two ran out to the fascinating scene of their labors, where Corny picked up his saw, and Rosalie seated herself once more on her step in high satisfaction at being again in the midst of things, with dignity that no one could question. "I shall make some of those cunning little draw curtains, that slide back and forth so nicely," she cried. " Mother Brimmer said she would give me some of that red calico in her bag. Then you can keep lots and lots of things just as clean on the shelves. Oh! you can't think, Corny." "That will be fine," said Jack, nodding ap- proval at the Company, as he merrily drove his nails. "And I tell you another thing, too, you might do," said Corny, " something that will help ever so much. You might line some boxes with clean white paper. Don't you know that lot that Parson Higginson gave me ? Well, you can make some paste, and the boxes are in the wood- shed. You can do that splendidly." A NEW FORCE. 33 " I shall go right to work and do them now," cried Rosy in great excitement, and flying from her steps. "Mother Brimmer will let me make the paste, I know." "And you'll find the paper in my drawer," shouted Corny after her, much to Jack's and her own amazement. When had he ever allowed her unattended, to see the interior of the drawer holding his treasures? Jack looked quickly over and gave him a flash of approval from his dark eyes. Corny fell to work again, and pre- tended not to see it, but he felt it to the tips of his toes, and through every fibre of his being. When Rosalie came back, she was dragging after her several boxes of different sizes, and hugging tightly with one arm a cup of paste in which was sticking up the brush like a pennon- less flag-staff. The roll of paper was in one of the boxes. "There, I've got all the things," she an- nounced, " and I'll have a splendid table on this upper step," and she set the paste-cup down carefully. " O Jack ! you can't think who's in the house," she cried, as she lifted the boxes up to their place and flung herself down beside them. 34 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "Who?" asked Jack carelessly; "there, this is the last shelf, Corny; it's well it is, for our lumber has given out." "Miss Peaseley," said Rosy, dabbing her brush up and down in the cup. " O dear ! Pin afraid this is too thin." " Miss Peaseley ! " repeated Jack in astonish- ment, while Corny gave a low whistle. " What- ever has she come for?" added Jack. " I didn't wait to see," said Rosalie ; " I just ran. I left a splendid box too, back of the tub in the woodshed, but I thought I'd better go be- fore she wanted me." "Wise girl," said Corny, coming out of his whistle. " Hem there she comes ! " None too soon was the warning given. Steps along the gravel walk running around from the front door, gave notice that some heavy body was nearly in sight ; and presently around a clump of lilacs came, with head erect, and tall square figure bearing down upon them like a man-of- war, Miss Clorinda Peaseley. " Well, Jack, I should say," she began, taking them all in with a comprehensive glance, " that I really should have thought you'd have told me before you began such a business as this. A NEW FORCE. 35 To think of taking a tool-house one hundred and fifty years old, that's been on this place ever since any one can remember, and turning it into a shop ! What in the world are you go- ing to sell in it, pray tell ? " she finally brought up in a direct question. Rosy bent her head over a box, and very care- fully began to paste the paper on one side, pat- ting out the wrinkles in an absorbed way as if life had no other attraction for her eyes and ears. Corny sawed fast and hard. Jack said concisely, " Potatoes, beans, apples, and a few other . things at first. When we get fairly started, we hope to keep what people will be likely to call for." "The idea! " cried Miss Peaseley, lifting her black gloves in impressive disapproval, and leav- ing them mid-air ; " potatoes, beans and apples. Well, I should not think your mother would allow such carryings on. But since you are fairly in it How soon do you calculate to get your business under way, and open your shop? " she demanded, breaking off suddenly. "I don't know," said Jack. "It takes longer to finish a job than one would think. There are these shelves to make and put in, and * 36 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. ." You ought to have the old thing painted all over," cried Miss Peaseley, interrupting; "it's as dingy as the dogs, and looks like Kedar." "Who is Kedar? "asked Rosalie, unable to keep still, and stopping her work suddenly. " Never mind, child," said Miss Peaseley has- tily. "Well, I don't approve of this new scheme of yours. Remember, I don't approve at all; but since you are in, why, I want you to have things ship-shape. Now, I'll tell you what I'll do, Jack and when I say Jack, I mean all the firm, Company included. I'll make you, every week, four pounds of my very best butter," here Miss Peaseley's neck unconsciously stiff- ened itself worse than ever, " and half a dozen doughnuts ; none of your little snipper-snapper things the two-bites-of-a-cherry kind but sensible ones that make you feel that you are eating something ; and you won't have any diffi- culty in trading them off, I think," she finished complacently. " Oh ! we couldn't ever pay you for them," cried Jack in consternation ; " don't you see we haven't any money scarcely to begin on, and we must commence very carefully." " Do you suppose I imagine you are million- A NEW FORCE. 37 naires?" cried Miss Peaseley with a snort. " I'm going to make terms easy for you; in fact, I want you to take these things off my hands, and I shall consider that I get my pay if you look after that mother of yours and that baby." And as quickly as she had come, she disap- peared behind the lilac bushes. CHAPTER V. A NEW TURN OF AFFAIBS. JACK dropped his hammer and stared at the other members of the firm. "Whew!" cried Corny. "O Jack!" exclaimed Rosalie, flying away from her paste-pot and brush to his work-bench, " what shall we do ? Now she'll want to be the silent partner." " If she'd be that, no one would care," cried Cornelius, "but she'll own us, little red shop and all, and keep us going her way, and mind- ing her tongue, just because she gives us butter and doughnuts." Jack's brown face flushed. "We shall not accept them," he said gravely. " No one shall give us things the Brimmers aren't beggars," he added proudly. " The butter is prime," said Cornelius slowly. "You know how good it tastes when we go 38 A NEW TURN OF AFFAIRS. 39 there to supper, and the doughnuts" He smacked his lips, unable to find words. " Well, they'd sell," he added decidedly. " They won't sell from our shop," cried the senior member, in decision to match, "not if they've got to be given to us first. We don't want any one to be saying he or she has made our fortune. There isn't the man in Cherryfield I'd take favors from like that." Jack brought his hand down so suddenly on the bench that Rosy skipped away a step or two; his brown eyes flashed as they had never seen them, and altogether the rest of the firm found him a new picture to look upon. "Oh! well, give 'em up, of course," said Corny, after another study of him ; " who wants the old things, anyway ? " he exclaimed, veering round. " I didn't say we ought to give them up," said Jack, cooling down; "why can't we trade just as other" men, he was going to say, then looked at Rosy " business houses do ; pay her so much for her butter and doughnuts, and then sell for what we can get, or she pay us so much a pound for selling all we can handle." "O, Jack! I shouldn't wish to touch it; Mamsie 40 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. will lend us spoons and knives," cried Rosy, quite horrified, "I know she will." " You didn't suppose I meant touch the butter with our fingers, did you?" exclaimed Jack, with as great horror. " It's a business term, Rosy, you don't understand." " I told you she wouldn't understand things," broke in Cornelius, not able to keep from looking in disfavor at the girl of the family. Then he remembered his promise, and stopped short. " We might make a dictionary of business talk and hang it up in the shop ; then Rosy would know what we meant," he suggested. "I think we shall find it necessary," said Jack shortly. He couldn't quite get over the thought that any one could suppose him capable of any but the nicest manners. "You said handle," observed Rosalie, to clear herself from all unpleasant imputation, " and if you had meant anything else you should have said so," she added convincingly. "I suppose I should," said Jack. "Well, never mind, I'll begin again. Now, come to think it alt over, I believe the best way is to sell Miss Peaseley's butter and doughnuts for her, and charge her so much a pound and so much A NEW TURN OF AFFAIRS. 41 a dozen for the selling. Then, you see, there won't be any trouble, and we will be commission merchants as far as she is concerned, and we can keep our accounts all straight." "Commission merchants does sound so very nice," observed Rosy, clasping her hands in satisfaction. "O, Jack! I should fix it that way." "All right," said Corny; "I'm glad we can have the things, and not be under her thumb. They'll sell splendidly, Jack," he declared. "Of course they will," said Jack, delighted that he could open trade in a way to suit all parties. "Now let's all go down to Miss Pease- ley's and arrange it with her." So Cornelius threw down his saw and joined Jack. Rosy ran in and washed her sticky fin- gers, racing after the boys, who had gotten quite a little distance down the road, screaming, "Wa-it! I'm Company oh! wo-ft." The other two members turned around : "We are waiting, don't you see ? Don't fluster so." "You were awfully slow," said Corny, falling into step with her. "There, push back your hair, or Miss Peaseley will read you a lecture as long as your arm." 42 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " She reads me one anyway, every time I see her," panted Rosy, getting the hair that the wind had played a prank with in her race, out of her eyes ; " the last one was on turning my toes in when I walked. She says it isn't elegant, at all." "Well, you want so badly to be elegant," cried Corny, bursting into a loud laugh, " I should think you'd be obliged to her for calling your attention to such little details as the bad management of your toes." " I am obliged to her," said Rosy, " and I do try ever since to turn them out." " That's what makes you walk lately just like a crab," observed Cornelius pleasantly; "I thought you were going on your nose only yesterday when Mamsie sent you on that errand. You don't know how you looked, Rose." "Well, I don't think we are any of us as thankful as we ought to be to Miss Peaseley," Jack broke in, as he stalked on by Cornelius' other side. " She's given us a great lift in our business, and we ought to show her that we ap- preciate it." " I think so too," agreed Rosy, who liked the long word. A NEW TURN OF AFFAIRS. 43 "Go ahead, Jack, and do the fine thing, and I'll say * yes ' at the right time. Rosy, you bet- ter keep still, for you might make a mistake," advised Corny. "No; I'm going to thank her for telling me about that hateful habit with my toes," declared Rosalie perversely. " I am glad she told me of it, and I shall tell her that I'm turning them out every time since so." "You may, Rosy; I would if I were you," said Jack quickly, with a pinch on Cornelius' fat arm. " Well, here we are," as the Peaseley homestead came into view ; and the " Brimmer Company " walked up the box-bordered path to the side door with quite a business air, and all three stood on the flat stone that served as a step, anxiously awaiting the opening of the door. "The idea!" ejaculated Miss Clorinda, raising her hands at sight of them, " if you haven't re- turned my call in season. I've just given orders to Hannah about your butter and doughnuts. " Miss Peaseley," began Jack. " O, Miss Peaseley ! " broke in Rosy- impul- sively, " I think it was very good in you to tell me about turning in my toes, and I've turned 'em out ever since." 44 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. "Well, now that is a good child," declared Miss Peaseley, startled into approval; "walk right in," and she flung wide the green door. "There, come in here," and she hurried them into the "keeping-room." "I'll see if I can't find some doughnuts they won't be very good," she added, diving into the ancient side- board in the corner; "they've been cooked so long, but maybe you can eat them. Yes, here's a plateful." With that, she advanced on the children with a huge blue plate filled with crisp toothsome doughnuts of the generous pattern that was certainly not of the " two-bites-of-a- cherry-kind." " They're awful good," exclaimed Cornelius. " I didn't have as good luck as common with these," observed Miss Clorinda, " and beside, they're not fresh ; but my doughnuts are gener- ally pretty fair, if I do say it, who ought not to." Rosy was eating in quiet delight, so there was no fear of interruption from that source, and Jack held his doughnut while he began again, -*- " Miss Peaseley, we've all come to tell you that we thank you so much for your kind offer to help us in our business, but it wouldn't be right to accept it, for " A NEW TURN OF AFFAIRS. 45 " Why not, pray tell ? " cried Miss Clorinda, interrupting with a snort, "if I choose to do it say?" " Because we never have let anybody help us in that way," said Jack proudly, " and " "You've never set up in business before either, have you ?" demanded Miss Peaseley. "Now I don't approve of this red shop affair, and all the rest, as I told you at your house, but if you've commenced, and are determined to go on, why, I'm going to see you through, that's all. So I'll send the butter and the doughnuts every week," she brought up decidedly. "But we cannot take them as gifts," said Jack firmly, thinking it best to be brief if he got a chance to speak at all ; " that's what we came over to say. We will sell them for you." " Sett them for me!" almost screamed Miss Peaseley, " why, land alive, Jack, I don't go around the country selling my things ! " "I know it," said Jack, and the other mem- bers stopped eating in amazement, to listen to him, " but we thought if you really wanted to help us, you would put some butter in our store for us to sell, and pay us so much a pound for selling it for you, and we could manage the 46 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. doughnuts in the same way. That would be trade, you know. The other way would be " "What?" demanded Miss Clorinda. "Just the same as if we were lazy beggars." Miss Peaseley turned off abruptly with a sniff to the window, and stood looking out a minute, and as quickly turned back again. It was im- possible to discover by her manner whether or no she was displeased at the new turn the affairs had taken. She only said, " All right ; we will settle it so if you like. I will pay you five cents for every pound of butter you sell for me, and the same for each dozen of doughnuts." " O, Miss Peaseley! thank you ever so much," cried Jack ; " we shall move into the Red Shop next Tuesday, and will then be all ready to open accounts." Now that it was all over, his hand trembled so that he could scarcely hold his doughnut. Rosy, seeing everything moving nicely, went back to hers in serene content. CHAPTER VI. A LIFT INTO SUCCESS. TTWERYTHING is now " bully," he -""^ wanted to say, but stopped in time, sub- stituting "just royal! You're as splendid as you can be, Miss Peaseley." This was Cornelius' tribute. "And we'll do the right thing by you," he added, afraid he had been too meekly thankful. " Run along with you," cried Miss Clorinda, with a short laugh, as they filed to the door. " Here, you might as well put these doughnuts in your pockets ; I don't want them, they're too old. And, Rosy, don't you forget to keep your toes turned out, that's a good child." " I won't," promised Rosy, as they sped off. And just as soon as those Brimmer children were fairly out of sight, Miss Peaseley went back to her best chamber, drew out from the big bureau drawer the Sunday shawl she had 47 48 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. scarcely put away, and took down her bonnet once more from the peg in the closet. " I might as well do it up now. If it waits, it will lag like everything else that is put off." So she pinned herself into her shawl, tied on her bonnet, and went down the box-bordered path, taking, when she reached the gate, a dif- ferent road from the one over which the chil- dren were now scampering to Brimmer Place. When Miss Clorinda Peaseley reached home, she was too tired to do anything but take off her things, and call Betty to make a cup of tea. "I declare, I never was so beat out; but I'm glad enough that I've got their promises down in black and white." She waved, as she spoke, a bit of paper, across whose front r-an some ten or a dozen names. " There, Betty," she cried to that individual, just entering the door with the tea, " we are going to have a new establish- ment in Cherryfield, quite up to the times, too, it will be kept, or I miss my guess." " Establishment ! " repeated Betty helplessly, " whatever is that, Miss Peaseley ? " " Shop," cried Miss Clorinda, seizing the tea, and drawing off a comfortable swallow. " That's good," taking another, " and begins to stop the A LIFT INTO SUCCESS. 49 ache in my bones. How stupid you are, Betty, not to know your English tongue any better than that. However," as the fragrant decoction began to thrill her with new life, she added more politely, " establishment is not a very com- mon word, and it is not strange that you did not know its meaning." "It is not, indeed," said Betty. "I never heard the word before, and when folks means shop, it passes me why they don't say shop." With this thrust, she was quite pleased, and waited patiently to hear the rest of the news that her woman's curiosity longed for. " Well, well, say no more," commanded Miss Peaseley, not disposed to give the good woman's tongue too great liberties; "we are to have a new business firm right here in our midst, wide-awake, and sharp as steel, too, they are." "My!" ejaculated Betty. "Who be they, for the land's sakes tell, Miss Peaseley." "Brimmer Brothers and Company," said Miss Clorinda quietly. "Brimmer Brothers who why, they ain't any relation to Mis' Brimmer, be they ? " "They are," said Miss Peaseley as quietly. " Quite closely related." 50 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " You don't say," exclaimed Betty. " Cousin to Mis' Brimmer's husband, most likely. They can't be his brothers, because they all died before he left her a relict. What's brought 'em to Cherryfield?" " Nothing," said Miss Clorinda in the crispest of syllables. " They have always lived here." At that, Betty forgot her curiosity, and ran to her mistress to peer anxiously into her face. " Oh ! I am not crazy," said Miss Clorinda composedly. Then she laughed. "I might as well end the mystery and relieve you at once, Betty ; it's Jack and Cornelius and Rosalie Brimmer, who are going to open a shop in their old red tool-house next Tuesday. There! " "Mercy/" screamed Betty shrilly, stepping back so suddenly that she nearly fell backward. "If I ever did! Them children!' 1 '' It was im- possible to give all the scorn she felt in one ren- dering, so she repeated it " Them children ! " " They are young," said Miss Peaseley, " but as I don't know anything against them but their want of age, I shall patronize them all I can." " What are they going to sell, for the land's sakes, tell," cried Betty in amazement. " Rib- bins, I s'pose." A LIFT INTO SUCCESS. 51 "O, no! it is not that sort of a shop; at least to begin with. Why, apples, potatoes, family provisions, and butter, and doughnuts, Betty." " And you're going to uphold such a piece of foolishness as to buy of 'em," exclaimed Betty ; "like enough to get took in with decayed apples and measly potatoes. I sh'd think at your time of life you'd have more sense, Miss Peaseley." "I'm not the youngest that ever was," con- fessed Miss Clorinda, not a whit disturbed at the unusual frankness of speech, "yet I don't know as it's anything to be ashamed of. All the more reason, maybe, why I should give young people a chance. Yes; I shall trade there as much as I can. I've been around and got all these names " (with that she waved the paper once more before Betty's eyes) " of people who promise to trade there too, and give Brim- mer Brothers and Company a lift into success." " What in the world do you want to buy doughnuts for?" demanded Betty, so overcome by the general announcement, that she took refuge in details, " when you've got me to make all you want say?" " Oh ! I don't expect to buy any," said Miss Peaseley airily. " As you say, I don't need to. 52 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. I am going to put some there to sell, and butter too." It was all out now, and she had to cough to keep herself from laughing outright at her domestic's face. "Sell?" gasped Betty. " Oh for the land's sakes!" and she sat down on the near- est chair and stared at her mistress. "Now, Betty," said Miss Clorinda briskly, and setting down her empty tea-cup, " I know just what is on your mind to say, if you weren't so shaken by surprise as to be unable to get it out ; that a Peaseley never has been known to sell a fip's worth, and that you should think I wouldn't be the first one to demean myself and the name. I know it all, Betty, that this is what you'd like to say." "It is," said Betty, staring from her chair, "but I hain't got breath to speak it." " Well, it's understood that you have said it," observed Miss Peaseley coolly, "so we needn't waste any more time in comments. It's all set- tled ; I'm to trade at that new shop, and place butter and doughnuts there to sell. Now you can go to your work and I'll go to mine." Mother Brimmer had been the most consider- ate of women all through this exciting week : A LIFT INTO SUCCESS. 53 never asking questions, nor apparently observing anything unusual in the goings-on around her. "She's the most lovely Moramie in the world," declared Rosy in the confidential shelter of the wood-pile. " I do appreciate it so, her never asking us things when we are determined on giving her a great surprise. It's exceedingly polite in her." " She's of course the best woman in all the world," cried Jack stoutly, "and we three must work like beavers to show her we feel it." " She's the only one," said Cornelius posi- tively; "the others are just bonnets and clothes, and they scold and fret, or else they're silly. She's worth working for." " And the baby," supplied Rosalie, "we mustn't forget that Roly-Poly-Pinky Woo has got to have some money earned for her." "We'll never forget the baby," cried the boys together. "Come on, Primrose," as a small round head appeared over the wood-pile. " Two budders," said Primrose gravely, point- ing a small forefinger at the boys, "and one owny tony sissy-bud." After finishing taking the census of the family she dropped her little hand quite satisfied. 54 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " Sissy-bud is coming," called Rosalie. " She wants me to make a cap for her rag-doll. I promised it, and only ran out to tell you before you went to Deacon Jones for the potatoes and apples that I've wound all the string into a ball." The last was uttered under some diffi- culty, as she was keeping pace with the quick time that Primrose's little fat feet were making into the house. " You're a good, royal Company ! " shouted Jack after her. Company waved him thanks from the back door-step. "Now, Cornelius, every moment is precious of this last getting-ready day. We must be off with our wheelbarrow as soon as you can say 'Jack Robinson,' for those potatoes and apples, and we mustn't forget to call on the way back at the Beechers for the bag of turnip's." CHAPTER VII. FAIRLY UNDER WAY. IT was very bright and gay at the "Brim- mer Place " on the eventful morrow. Any one approaching it from Cherryfield high road could almost detect the prevailing spirit of the occasion, in the very atmosphere, and the flavor of good-will in a chance passer-by. " Going to see the Red Shop, and the new firm hey?" would be asked by the pedestrian, or sung out from wagon or buggy as the occu- pant paused to discuss this new element of town-life. "Well, you better. I tell you, Cherryfield's going to wake up now. I'd advise you to drop in and pay your respects." And nearly all Cherryfield did send that day one or more members of each family to " pay its respects " to Brimmer Brothers and Company. The interior of the little Red Shop, not for- getting the responsibilities it had assumed on its 55 66 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. entrance into the great world of business, as a centre of trade, still allowed a little thread of decoration to be woven in by the Company who would have been delighted to array the whole apartment in gala attire. But this the Brothers would not allow. " It looks foolish," said Jack, while Cornelius gave "a disapproving sniff when it was proposed "to spend much time or strength in putting pretty things up, and don't seem consistent with the hard work we've all got to do to show peo- ple we really mean to make this thing a success. You may do a little, though, Rosy," he added, with a kindly look at her disappointed little face, " if you want to." " Don't, Jack," put in Cornelius in alarm ; "she'll stick up all sorts' of stuff all over the walls. Girls always do if you tell them they can do anything; they're so silly, and don't know where to stop." "I do want flowers," said Rosalie, with a sorrowful little quiver in her voice, " growing ; you know in those cracked saucers Mamsie gave me, with moss and red-cups. Can't I have those?" " I don't see why not," Jack had said with a FAIRLY UNDER WAY. 57 hearty ring in his voice, and pinching Cornelius to keep him still. " And Holy Poly would like to help you get them in the woods." "Flowers!" ejaculated Corny, turning off in disdain to kick his well-worn shoes into the peb- bles and sticks out of the path. And Holy Poly, when the matter was pro- posed to her, signified grave assent to the plan, and immediately tied on her pink sunbonnet, begged an old knife of Mamsie to dig out the roots with, and besieged Rosalie every ten min- utes afterward to set out for Bragget Woods, the scene of their future operations. All this had been done a week ago, and now the little " wood-gardens," as Rosalie and Roly Poly called them, held their little lichens and " red-cups," ferns, mosses, and partridge berries, each with frond and spear and cup bravely erect, and with company manners on as if to say, " See us ! we'll do our best to help you." And even Jack said they looked very well " For a girl," added Cornelius. And now here they were in the shop on small brackets of the boys' making, firmly fastened to the walls. All around the sides of the shop ran the bins, each holding its portion of potatoes, beans, on- 58 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. ions, turnips, cabbages, and anything else that it appeared to the Brimmer Boys that they could sell well, and that they could manage to secure for this first day's inspection. And up in one corner was the department for the small fruits, tucked into the protecting angle of the walls. Raspberries from their own vines, blueberries picked by Holy Poly's patient little fingers, and by Rosy's older ones. Currants, gooseberries, and whatever came in their way, were invitingly placed before their would-be purchasers. Down one side of the shop, in front of its row of bins, ran the counter, where all parcels were to be done up, orders were to be taken, and all the bookkeeping was to be done. For this pur- pose Jack had made a strong book by tying in fresh leaves to an old leather account-book that had been his father's; to this he had tied a freshly-sharpened pencil. As this was to be a cash store, there was no need for great exertions in the way of bookkeeping; and each one of the firm, Company included, could make the entries of their sales with their own hands. Cornelius was dreadfully disappointed when he found that there were to be no bills to be made out and sent. For him, the glory of the FAIRLY UNDER WAY. 59 Red Shop, and the whole business, was sadly dimmed ; and it took much patient reasoning on the part of the elder member of the firm, and a deal of sturdy persistence as well, to make him see the wisdom of such a course. "We don't know enough," said Jack, "to keep accounts straight, to begin with. Besides, it's safer all around to start on a cash basis, and it's the only way that I shall consent to," he was obliged to add. This was the first time that Jack had asserted himself as the most important member of the firm, and Cornelius, quite awed, went so far as to beg his pardon for insisting on the new and ambitious plan. All the children wanted Mother Brimmer to bring out her knitting, and sit in the rocking- chair which the boys begged to bring over from the house, and receive the people who might be drawn to the shop. But she shook her head. "That wouldn't be good for the business, children," she declared sagely, "to see an idle woman sitting up ready for company." " But you wouldn't be idle," said all three to- gether ; " you'll be knitting on our winter stock- ings, Mamsie." 60 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " I shall be idle, if I let my housework go," said Mother Brimmer decidedly, " and take my knitting as an excuse for seeing the folks. No, no, dears, I'll run in once and awhile, and see you all, but if anybody wants to see me to talk and visit, they'll find me where I ought to be, doing my work. We'll all begin right, and then 'twon't be hard to keep on at business." On a conspicuous spot on the door-post, was tacked the notice, written out in Jack's best hand, as Parson Higginson had advised, and Cornelius felt a thrill of gladness at the escape he had experienced from becoming the mean boy he now knew he should have been, had he kept the five dollar gold piece, without making an effort to find the owner. The first customer who came to look, admire, and buy, was Mrs. Prouty, who hurried in, drag- ging Arabella, whining and pulling back every step, trying to handle, and peer into everything that struck her fancy. "Well, I declare!" exclaimed Mrs. Prouty, bringing up at the counter and gazing expan- sively around, " if this don't beat all ! Why, it really does look something like a shop." " That's what we are going to make it," said FAIRLY UNDER WAY. 61 Jack, drawing himself up, while Cornelius swelled as much as he dared, and even Rosy looked important. " Folks said you were fixing up the old red tool-house into a shop," said Mrs. Prouty, pick- ing up one corner of her apron to fan her heated face, thereby giving Arabella a delightful chance of escape. "But la! I thought 'twas only to amuse yourselves with. Arry ! stop picking at those berries." "Amuse ourselves," cried Jack and Cornelius together, while Rosy, knowing too well the powers of the Prouty baby, ran to rescue the blueberries from the grasp of the exploring in- fant. "Why, we must work to take care of Mamsie and Primrose." "Yes, yes, I know," assented Mrs. Prouty, who didn't realize at all. " Well, I want a cake of soap. I'll buy something for good luck to you, and I might as well take soap as anything," she concluded. " We haven't any soap," said Jack, from be- hind the counter, and wondering if it was bad luck to fail to supply one's first customer. "We don't keep it," announced Cornelius, back of Jack, with the air of a merchant prince, 62 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. and as if soap were wholly beneath the trade they meant to work up. "Not keep soap?" repeated Mrs. Prouty in astonishment. "Who ever heard of a shop without soap in it, pray tell ? Arabella ! " CHAPTER VIII. AN ENCOURAGING ASPECT. \ RABELLA still kept on investigating the depths of the apple-bin, to the imminent danger of falling in bodily. Her mother deserted for a moment the soap question, and rushed across the small shop to unceremoniously pick her off from its edge, where she dangled, vo- ciferating lustily. " If ever I see your like ! " cried Mrs. Prouty in a vexed way, and pulling the child's pinafore straight. "There, behave yourself, do, or I won't bring you again well, as I was saying " and she ambled back again to the little counter, "you haven't any call to being shop-keepers if you don't keep soap. Why, it's the first thing any one thinks of." Jack instinctively looked across at Arabella's face, who as soon as her mother's back was turned, had gone in a direct line for the apple- 63 64 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. bin, while he took up the slate, and said, " Thank you, Mrs. Prouty, for the idea. I'll add that to our stock." Cornelias, who had been vaguely wondering if Mrs. Prouty had brought any money with her that indicated a desire on her part to be suited so far as to drive a trade, now broke in, " We've got lots of other things." " Corny," said Jack, in a whisper that com- manded instant attention, "you know the rule we agreed to, that we would never urge our wares, but let people see for themselves what we've got ? now stick to it." "But she's different; she isn't people," said Corny back again, in a low tone, dreadfully dis- comfited that he had been the first to break one of the new rules. " Oh ! I s'pose so," said Mrs. Prouty, rolling her large eyes placidly in all directions, " but, you see, I don't want anything but some bar soap, and being that you have opened shop, I thought that I'd trade with you for the sake of friendship. Well, I'll go in and set with your ma a spell, I guess. Arabella ! " She made a dart at the offending infant, who, having secured a fine red apple, had consumed AN ENCOURAGING ASPECT. 65 two thirds of it, and picking her up as one would a sack of meal, she waddled out of the shop, apple and all, with a pleasant good-morning. Corny was going to scream out to her to come back and pay for the apple, but Jack wouldn't let him. "Now, if that isn't mean," cried Rosy, her cheeks flushing, and aching to add her voice to have the debt paid. " Everybody will eat up our things that way, Jack, and suppose we are only giving a party. Do let us lock the doors," she cried, anxiety getting the better of her. " You small goosie ! " cried Jack, laughing. " What would be the use of our trying to keep shop at all, if we must lock our doors ? Nobody would come at all, then. No, we must trust people, and once in a while get an apple eaten up, and call it loss." " I'm going to charge it to her," cried Corny, suddenly. "Then I'll have a chance to make out one bill ; so, there, Jack." " It would look nice on paper, wouldn't it ? " said Jack scornfully; "Arabella Prouty to Brim- mer Brothers and Company, one apple, eaten, 1 cent. I sh'd like to know who would be the mean one, then ! " 66 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " And 'twouldn't do any good, either, to send it," said Corny, pretending not to see Jack's face, " for Mrs. Prouty wouldn't pay it." " I'm so glad she didn't see the doughnuts," breathed Rosalie gratefully. "Oh! how nice that Mamsie covered 'em with that clean nap- kin." "It's a wonder she didn't smell them," said Jack. "Well, we are lucky. Instead of be- moaning ourselves, we ought to thank our stars we got off so good. Here comes a customer." " Good-morning," cried little Mrs. Higginson, the parson's wife, stepping over the low sill, and giving a bonny smile to each of the firm, " I want to tell you that the Little Red Shop is already a great comfort to me." How bright she was, and what an inspiration to the depressed firm ; and how business bright- ened up and began to take on an encouraging aspect at once! Each one bustled out from behind the counter, anxious to help her, and considering themselves well paid in advance by her own sweet presence among them. " I have company coming unexpectedly to tea to-night," she was saying, " and I cannot stop to make any cake. I am so thankful that I can AN ENCOURAGING AHPECT. 67 buy some of Miss Peaseley's. Oh! how good they are," she exclaimed, as Rosy ran and lifted the clean napkin. "Aren't they?" cried Company, with luminous eyes, while Jack hurried off for the paper and string, and Cornelius hung around and wished that there was something that he could do. "Don't trouble yourself to get any paper or string, Jack," said the parson's wife. "I brought a basket. Here, dear, I shall want all you have stay you ought to show these to customers so that they may know that you are to keep them regularly. These may remain here till four o'clock; then if one of you boys could bring them over " She looked at the other mem- bers of the firm. "Oh! let me," cried Corny. "I haven't done anything yet. I'll bring them over." "I should be glad to have you," said Mrs. Higginson, laughing. "And you may fill my basket with apples, for I see you have some very fine ones there." Both boys seized the basket she held out, and vying with each other to find the best specimens, soon filled it to the brim, and snapped on the cover. 68 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " Now, how much am I to pay you ? " asked the parson's wife, smiling at the three business- like faces, and taking out her pocket-book. "There were just a dozen apples" said Jack. " They are a cent apiece, but ten cents a dozen ; and the cakes are twelve cents a dozen." "And that is just twenty-two cents," said Mrs. Higginson, laying down a bright new quarter on the counter. " We haven't any change yet," said Jack, " but I'll run into the house and see if mother has some, if you can please wait." The parson's wife bit her lips so that the " Never mind, I do not want any change," that she longed to say, did not escape them. She would not lower the self-respect of these young people by such mistaken kindness, but helping them by right methods, would restrain her zeal in that direction, and make it the servant of wisdom. So she chatted pleasantly with the other two, gave a few bits of advice about arti- cles to keep for sale, until Jack came back with a beaming face, and laid three pennies in her hand. " We are very much obliged to you," he said, all his heart in his eyes. AN ENCOURAGING ASPECT. 69 " And we thank you for coming," said Rosalie, blushing like a wild rose. " And I wish you'd come every day," declared Cornelius. " I don't mean to buy," he added abruptly, horror-struck at the idea that his mo- tive might have been mistaken. "Of course you don't, and I shall come often," said the parson's wife, laughing gayly, "for I find that the Little Red Shop is a pleasant place to visit. Here are a crowd of boys, Jack," she added, looking down the street, "perhaps they are to be customers. Good-by, and good luck ! " Two boys pushed by her somewhat rudely and hurried within the door. " Oh, hulloa ! " said one. It was Ragged Joe who lived down by the mill, and he wasn't a pleasant boy to be intimate with, nor very choice as to his associ- ates. The other boy was not known by Jack or Cornelius. "Well, now," said Joesy, swaggering around the shop, and making a mental inventory of its contents, " we're fixed up fine here, we is. That's good ; well, now, to business. I'll take my five dollars, if you please, what I lost, you know." He turned up suddenly to Jack, and looked him squarely in the face. CHAPTER IX. TIME FOR ACTION. rpHE biggest boy was "Ragged Joe," but the four or five others now pushing into the shop were nearly as big, and only one degree better in morals. They all lived down at the " Four Corners," in a lot of tumble-down shanties that the selectmen of Cherryfield threat- ened every year to tear down. As this crew came rushing into the neat little shop, Rosy gave a small cry of terror and fled behind the counter. Jack turned at her cry, while Cornelius advanced sturdily to meet them. " I should like my money," said Ragged Joe, winking to the rest of the boys and impudently viewing Cornelius. "I thought I'd just call around here and get it." He pointed with his dirty thumb to the posted slip on the door-cas- ing. "Lost it, ye know, out o' me trousers pocket." TO TIME FOR ACTION. 71 With that one of the boys snickered ; Ragged Joe turned and shook his fist at him. "Where did you lose it?" asked Corny boldly, his black eyes flashing. " What difference does it make to ye where I lost it, you young whelp, you!" cried Joey defiantly. "I lost it; that's enough. Hand it over, or I'll break every bone in your body. Here, you fellows, you run through this ere shop and see if there's anything to your mind, while I attend to this chap who's got my money and won't give it up." In a second a boy started, as if by a precon- certed signal, rushed to the door, locked it, and put the key in his pocket, coming back with a grin. Ragged Joe anointed his hands with Nature's provision from his dirty mouth, and squared up to Cornelius, who not flinching, was preparing to defend himself as best he might. There was a quick leap over the counter, a dash between the two boys, one well-aimed blow into the centre of things, and the bully was picking himself up from the floor, sputtering with rage. " You won't do that again, I'll tell you. Give it to 'em, boys ; pitch in ! " And then all the occupants of the shop were 72 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. in one wild scuffle; all but Company. She, with white face and clasped hands, was doing her best not to scream, remembering her mother's words " In any danger, control your fear, and see what you can do to help yourself or others." A little click, so faint that none but strained, watching ears could hear it, arrested her atten- tion. Ah ! now Company steals out softly from behind the counter, back of the combatants, who would scarcely have noticed the approach of an army. Soft, now, little Rosy, you have your oppor- tunity to make Company a valiant member of the firm. Ah ! you have it ; your fingers have seized the precious key lying where it dropped from the ragged pocket of the boy now tussling with the others ; but be very careful, or all will yet be lost. But Rosy has been a faithful little learner of Mother Brimmer's precepts, and the fingers do not tremble that fit the key into the lock and turn it rapidly. None too soon ; for Jack, de- spite his strength and wit, is no match for the tiger fighting of the "Four Corner boys," and between his defence of Cornelius and himself, is TIME FOR ACTION. 73 nearly spent, as the door flies open. The assail- ants turn with a wild yell, and they all rush to the spot, and with Rosy are almost precipitated into the arms of Parson Higginson, standing on the flat door-stone. "I came just in time, I see," observed the parson, surveying the group. " No ; you needn't take the trouble to look for a window to jump out of, my boy." This to Ragged Joe, who slunk off to the back part of the shop ; " I know you, you see, so it would do no good to run. I came just in time," he repeated. " You did indeed, sir," said Jack, wiping the blood from his face. " I do so wish we could have whipped them," burst forth from Cornelius, who by reason of Jack's constant vigilance, had had the time to send blows that hurt no one, to right and left blindly. "May we try it again? Oh! do let us, sir." "By no means," said the parson. "Now, my fine boys, stand out here where I can get a good look at you." It was impossible not to obey him. He was no more like the amiable man who stood up in the pulpit and preached every Sunday with a 74 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. gentle voice, the duty of bearing love and mercy to one's neighbor, than a hurricane is like a south breeze. His command rang through the small shop, with ringing force, bringing the mis- erable offenders to the line his imperious finger indicated they should stand on. " A goodly crowd ! " he remarked ; " I know every one of you well. Now, what are you in this shop for, assaulting the proprietors, may I be permitted to inquire ? " The crew all looked helplessly at Ragged Joe. He regarded the crack in the floor that his bare toes touched, with a stolid gaze ; but unable to bear the piercing gaze he felt, rather than saw, was on him, he shifted uneasily, finally looked up and blurted out with an attempt at bragga- docio, "I came to get my money." "Your money?" repeated Parson Higginson;- "I was not aware that you ever had any. How much was it ; and how did Jack and Cornelius Brimmer get it ? " Driven into a corner, Joesy cried in despera- tion, "I lost that ere five dollar gold piece that Cornelius Brimmer's found. It's mine, and I come after it, an' he wouldn't give it up, so I had to fight a bit." With that, he tried to TIME FOB ACTION. 75 slip out between the minister's arm and the door. " Not so fast, not so fast, Joe," said the par- son, gently pushing him back into the line again, " you may go by and by, but with proper escort. Cornelius, will you do an errand for me?" The boy dashed out to the flagstone step, saying, "Where, sir?" " To Constable Plumtree's," said Parson Hig- ginson, " and tell him that there are seven boys whom he must take care of, waiting for him here. Hurry, my lad ! " " I suppose they will be shut up?" said Cor- nelius, hesitating a bit. " Undoubtedly ; still, we will leave all that to him, as it is not our matter " "I'd much rather fight it out," said Corny, turning a bright eye up to the minister to see if there were any chance of the proposition meet- ing favor. " No, no," said the parson, laughing ; " fight- ing is not in our line. The constable is the one to attend to these young fellows. Go along as you are bid, Cornelius." "I hope they will not be shut up long, sir," ventured Company, clasping her hands. To 76 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. Rosalie nothing seemed so very dreadful as the loss of the sunshine and freedom. "Perhaps they never will do it again," she added, with a pitiful glance at the seven. " I do not intend that they shall in this town, at least," said the minister. ' Now, while Cor- nelius is away, I will tell you all that the owner of the five dollar gold piece is found. I came over to give you this information. Lucky it was that I started at once as soon as I heard it." "Oh! who? "cried Jack and Rosy together. " Who lost the gold piece ? What a pity that Corny could not have heard first," added Com- pany. "If Cornelius had staid to hear, Jack must have gone," said the parson, looking down at her with a kind smile ; " and Jack, your brave defender, is hardly in a condition for further effort just now." Thereupon Rosy began to be anxious at once about Jack's hurts, forgetting all about the gold piece. " Tell us who it was that lost it, please, sir," begged Jack. " You never could guess," exclaimed the par- TIME FOR ACTION. 77 son abruptly. "So I will tell you at otice. It is Miss Clorinda Peaseley ! " "Miss Peaseley!" almost screamed the two Brimmers. "Why didn't she tell us?" de- manded Jack. " You forget ; she didn't know you had found a gold piece till some one told her that it was posted up here on your shop-door," said Mr. Iligginson ; " then she came over to me, and told me the whole story, and what she wanted done with the five dollars. It seems that a day in last March," the parson leaned against the door-post comfortably, and one eye on his pris- oners, went on rapidly, "Miss Peaseley felt anxious about the Widow Brown, and fearful that she needed some money, put a gold piece with some other comforts into a little basket, and went over there. * I put the gold piece in the bottom of the basket,' she said, 'that the widow might find it as a surprise ; for it isn't pleasant to have money given to you as if you were a pauper.' Miss Peaseley says it was all snow and slush where the widow's little path ran, and so she went across the end of the pig- yard. "When she went into the house, she found 78 THE LITTLE EED SHOP. Mrs. Brown sick in bed, so the giver had to un- pack her basket herself. To her dismay, when the bottom was reached, there was no gold piece. Instead there was a treacherous hole. All searching every step of the way she had come, did no good. The pigs had rooted over their quarters, burying the five dollar gold piece, as it is now proved, too deep for keen eyes to trace it. " Miss Peaseley always supposed she had lost it in the brook that runs over the Peter lot; that, you know, would be worse than the hay- mow where the needle was lost. Now here is the best of the story. She has given the five dollars as a present to Cornelius, with her best respects. Here he comes J " CHAPTER X. A GOOD DAY. /CONSTABLE PLUMTREE arrived in state ^-^ under Cornelius' guidance, and escorted with much pomposity, his several prisoners off to durance vile, Rosy following quite a little distance to beg that he would not really and truly lock them up. "Don't fear, Miss," said the constable, nod- ding back to her, " that they'll get more'n their deserts. They're wanted for something beside this 'ere case; leastways them two," pointing with his thumb at Patsy and Ragged Joe. "Do you know anythin' where Mis' Bagley's six silver spoons went to ? She hain't set an eye on 'em since you stopped there one day; I don't suppose you've seen 'em now ? " Mr. Plumtree rolled his blue eyes over the two in a most innocent way. "We've never seen 'em, neither of us," 79 Go THE LITTLE RED SHOP. declared Patsy, preparing to say something stronger. Ragged Joe hung his head in silence. "S'pose not, s'pose not," said the constable coolly. " Well, come along ; you'll have plenty of chances to say so before a big company. Good-by ! " and he disappeared with his charge. And then the presentation took place. Cor- nelius was the happy possessor of the five dollar gold piece sent to him by its owner under the most flattering circumstances. But there was no time for making a holiday orer it. Mother Brimmer, who had been emp- tying a pair of pillows into new casings, in the garret, had heard nothing of all this commotion, and the children now hurried in and ran to the foot of the stairs to tell her the fine news. Mr. Higginson staid behind to keep shop. When they ran out again, the shop was nearly full of customers, who had met on the way, and now made things quite lively. "As I am a silent partner," said the parson, " I don't see but that I better take a turn at do- ing up bundles;" so back of the counter he went, tying up things as briskly as if he had never any leaning toward the ministry, but had been a clerk all his life. A GOOD DAY. 81 " I'll take the doughnuts, Jack, when I return home," he said, " as I shall go directly back. Miss Peaseley's doughnuts are a prize that any one would be willing to carry," he remarked carelessly to the company, who were using their eyes to the utmost in becoming acquainted with the shop's capacity for becoming a centre of trade. " Miss Peaseley's doughnuts ! " exclaimed a stout man, reflectively chewing a straw, while he made mental comments, " did you say Miss Peaseley's?" he asked, with the air of a man who expected to be informed he had made a mistake. " Miss Clorinda Peaseley made those dough- nuts and placed them here to be sold for her," said the parson, pointing to the fragrant cakes in the basket under the clean napkins, " and just as fast as the firm sell them, I doubt not she will put more here." Then he fell to ac- complishing a neat knot, thus saving himself from the disgrace of a laugh at the expressions on the faces before him. The thing took immensely. Not to buy cakes made by Miss Peaseley, the rich woman of Cherryfield, and exposed for sale by her, was 82 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. to make no social claims whatever, and Cor- nelius was made happy by being obliged to re- cord a string of names of people who would experience dreadful disappointment if denied the purchase of a portion of the next instalment. "I think I will see that Miss Peaseley will make those cakes," said the parson, buttoning up the list in his coat pocket. " Now do up the doughnuts, Rosy, and I will hurry to put them in Mrs. Higglnson's hands." Clothes-lines, clothes-pins, soap, stove black- ing, common pins, needles, Ironing holders (those Rosalie was to make), pencils, thread, baking powder, starch, shoe-blacking and brushes, floor brushes, pails. These were some of the things that people inquired for, and Jack made a note of them, in order when possible to add them to the stock in trade. It was a good day. Seven dollars and twenty- one cents had been brought into the business ; and now that the minister had set his approval on the whole thing in such a conspicuous man- ner, the Little Red Shop had the finest of all outlooks for the future. But it was hard work; there is no denying that. And many a day Jack longed so for re- A GOOD DAT. 83 lease from the steady grind of the thing, that nothing but the thought of mother and the baby kept him constant to the demands made upon him ; while Cornelius grew restive to such a degree under the tread-mill life to which he found himself now bound, that nothing but the disgrace of backing out of an honorable bargain, kept him from rushing off on occasional holi- days with the other boys. Rosy alone, of all the firm, seemed perfectly happy and contented, singing at her work, keeping every bit of the shop's interior as neat as wax, tending her flowers, and when there were no customers to wait on, sewing on her ironing holders, for which she had now stirred up quite a market. " But she's a girl," said Corny scornfully, one night to himself, aching in each separate and distinct joint, and feeling like an old man from close confinement and lack of play, "and you can't please one better than to let her mope and potter around. Oh ! if Jack and I could have one day." At last, on the third week, Mother Brimmer came to the rescue. "Boys, why don't you take a day off from the shop each week? You'd work better to pay for it." 84 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. Jack and Cornelius stared at her. " Why, Mamsie," cried Rosalie, dropping her holder in astonishment. " It's just this," said Mother Brimmer in her most practical fashion, "you are hoys." Both straightened up at that. "I know, dears, you are men in ambition, bless you, and you realize your ambitions, too; but you and I must not forget that you are growing boys. Now if we forestall Nature and try to make men of you before your time, what results?" No answer. "You know," said Mother Brimmer, answer- ing her own question, "feeble, broken-down men whose work in life is all done early. Do you want to give up all that life promises you, for thoughtlessness and want of care now?" "No indeed, mother," declared Jack posi- tively. " Faugh ! I'm not going to be a broken-down man," cried Cornelius in great disdain. " I am as strong as an ox. Why, look at my arm, mother." He held up that sturdy member and shook his brown crop of hair, repeating, u Tm not going to be a broken-down man." A GOOD DAT. 86 _ " You don't know, Corny," said Mother Brim- mer earnestly, " health is one of the best gifts that the dear Father bestows. It is our duty to care for it, and to improve it. Now you can do that by leaving the business one day each week, and completely forgetting it, have a royal play spell with the other boys." " 'Tisn't any fun playing without Jack," said Cornelius, discontentedly dragging the toe of his shoe back and forth on the floor. " That brings me to what I was about to pro- pose," said Mother Brimmer, "that you and Jack take your holiday together." " Mother ! " they all exclaimed at once ; Rosy opening wide eyes at the thought that she was to be left alone in the shop. " The day that you are both away, I will stay here," said Mrs. Brimmer, looking around the small centre of trade for that district. " It will be good for me to turn around my work too ; and after you select your day, I will make my plans, and everything will move along beauti- fully." She leaned back in the chair and looked at them all. "Mother," exclaimed Jack, flying across the 86 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. shop, and throwing his arms around her, " are you sure this won't make things harder for you?" " We wanted to make it easier for you," said Cornelius, and wishing that he didn't want so very much to play with the boys, " and to take care of you." " And the baby," added Rosalie, not willing that Primrose should be left out. " Of course, and the baby," said Jack, holding the mother close. "I shall find it much easier to 'keep shop* one day in the week, than to see these cheeks growing white," said Mother Brimmer, pinching Jack's cheek and trying to do the same thing by Cornelius. " No, no, boys," she added more soberly, "there is no way to get rid of the truth that it ought to be done, because it is right." After that the little shop was very still. CHAPTER XT. NEW DEVELOPMENTS. rriHE weekly holiday was now an established -* thing, and much dear Mother Brimmer rejoiced thereat. It was good to see Jack's ruddy cheek, and Cornelius' length of limb that proclaimed itself below the well-worn knicker- bockers and jacket sleeves. Rosy hummed de- lightedly at her task when thinking of it, until one day she was sent off unceremoniously to play with the neighbors' girls. The "next neighbor" living a good half-mile distant, it required a run on brisk little feet to ac- complish the visit and get home again to supper. " Oh ! I don't want to go, mother," begged Company in dismay, and looking up from her holder of red flannel with cheeks as bright, "I was going to make Miss Tisbett's holder next." "And then Grandma Bacon's, I suppose," said 87 NEW DEVELOPMENTS. 89 "Come and get my sunbonnet and take me to play with Neddy Bruce," repeated the baby in gleeful tones. " Go, Rosalie," said her mother. Rosy threw down her holder and jumped to her feet; the weight of years seemed to drop from her, making her a child once more. " Come," commanded Roly Poly, seizing her hand. Rosy danced along, just about as old as the baby who clung to her, shouting with delight, and Mother Brimmer saw them no more. And before any one quite knew it, the quar- ter-day came when the Little Red Shop could fairly be said to be established on a firm basis. "Jack," said Mr. Corbin, president of the Cherryfield Savings Bank, as the senior partner of Brimmer Brothers and Company was coming out after making a deposit, " you are really go- ing to be a moneyed man some day, aren't you?" " I don't know, sir," said Jack, quite awed at being addressed by the president himself, " I'm afraid not. But we are going to take care of mother and the baby." "Come in here." President Corbin motioned to his private office, and as in a dream Jack soon 90 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. found himself sitting on the extreme edge of a big luxurious chair, the door shutting out all in- truding visitors, while the keen, searching eyes of the great man were reading him through and through. At last the president withdrew his gaze. "It is much easier to make money than to save it, Jack," at last he said slowly. " Yes, sir," said the boy, thinking of the coal bill, and the baby's shoes, and the flour barrel to keep filled. " It is something to get the pennies together hey, Jack?" queried the great man sharply. " Yes, sir," again replied Jack, not daring to emerge from the shelter of the monosyllable. "Do you mind telling me how you do it?" was the president's next question. Jack said "No, sir," promptly, then hesitated, stammered a bit, and finally stopped. "Don't be afraid," said Mr. Corbin encour- agingly, "just begin again." "It is such a small business," said Jack, blush- ing up to his brown ears, " that you won't think it's much." " I was once a boy like you, Jack," said the president with a smile; then his face grew NEW DEVELOPMENTS. 91 grave, he put down his foot which had care- lessly crossed the other, to the floor, leaned slightly forward in his revolving chair and bent a searching glance upon the lad. "My father died when I was a dozen years old. I was the oldest of five children." " Five children ! " repeated Jack, feeling one degree less like a grandfather. " Why, there are only four of us." "Four others looked to me," repeated Mr. Corbin distinctly, "as the man of the house. There were not many play-days that came in my way after I was twelve years old, I can tell you, Jack." " What did you do?" asked the boy, suddenly forgetting the bank president in his eagerness to get at the facts. U I sold tin, collected rags and old papers," said the president, as proudly as though describ- ing a day " on change." " And I made money, too, Jack. I had to, for there was my mother and the four little ones back of me, waiting for bread/' Jack's eyes glistened. " And nothing but faith in my mother made me hold on." 92 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. The boy held his breath, hang-on every word. " As for play," continued the bank president, " I didn't know what it was, after I started in business." "Did you ever want to?" Jack threw out the question breathlessly, then blushed at his temerity. "Want to?" Mr. Corbin leaned back in his chair and viewed his questioner. "Well, my boy, I have seen the time when I thought I should be obliged to tie myself up to keep from running away from my work. Think of the foot-ball games, and the fishing and coasting ! " Now the president's eyes glistened. He was astonished to feel himself thrill as he could not remember for forty odd years just by talk- ing over his old experiences with this country lad. " I am so glad ! " Jack never knew how he came to say it ; it was out in a burst before he was aware of it himself, and then he immedi- ately lost all fear, and confessed that he hi ad carried in his heart just such longings for many weeks till he had felt disgraced, and his mother had come to the rescue and insisted on the NEW DEVELOPMENTS. 93 weekly holiday. But the feeling of disgrace had staid with him because he had wanted to desert his work for play. The bank president glanced up at the marble clock on the office mantel. In an hour a meet- ing of directors would be held in the room ; the time intervening he had intended to spend in trying a new pair of horses purchased the day before. But looking into the boy's eyes, he concluded that the dashing turnout might stay in the stable, while " Who knows but Itielp to make a future bank president," he said to him- self. The directors coming in at eleven met on the threshold a tall, ruddy-cheeked boy, who made way respectfully for them to pass in, and whose keen dark eyes haunted the memory of more than one of them. Jack dashed along the thoroughfare, a new boy. He even pinched himself to make sure that it was really Jack Brimmer who had been talk- ing for an hour with President Corbin, straighten- ing up as he reached The Little Red Shop, at the remembrance of the last words, "Come to me whenever you find it hard to hold on ! " Mother looked up with a smile, opened her 94 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. mouth to speak, but thought better of it, and folded her lips tightly together. " I'm sorry to have been gone so long," cried Jack, with a bright flash of his eyes on her, and rushing through the kitchen. " Corny is in the shop, I suppose ? " " No ; he went over to Deacon Hubbard's after the potatoes." Jack, half-way to the shop, turned back and nodded " All right," and, hurrying in, plunged into tKe labors that his hour at the bank had delayed. " Corny went ever so long ago," observed Rosy placidly, patting the green leaves of her plate-gardens with a wet cloth to make them shine. " He said he'd be back in half an hour." " He's been hindered at the Deacon's, I ex- pect," said Jack, moving the sugar barrel to make more room, into another corner. "Mrs. Hine was in here just after you had gone away," said Rosy, bestowing a loving dab on an ivy leaf, "and she asked for macca something, and cloves; yes, I am sure it was cloves, because she said she wanted to put them into mince pies." "People don't put cloves into mince pies, NEW DEVELOPMENTS. 05 Rosy," corrected Jack in the midst of the racket he was making with the barrel. " I suppose she was going to pound them up," said Rosalie ; " there, see how they shine, Jack ! " She turned a glowing face around from her vines and buds. "I am going to sell them, Jack." Notwithstanding the joy with which she made this announcement it was easy to see that her lip quivered, and she touched the tips of the leaves with a loving little finger, as if she would hold to them always. " Sell them ! " cried Jack, turning away from the barrel, "why, who wants to buy flowers? They can get plenty in the woods." " But these are growing," -said Rosy, nodding to them. " And Mrs. Hammond wants to buy two of them, and she says, Jack, that she will get a flower-man in the city to take the rest, and if I will start some more, she does not be- lieve but he will take them all." Jack stood watching her. Like a flash it came to him, the flowers had waked up a new industry. " Rosy," he said gravely, " you will beat us boys completely," for he knew enough to reckon that fancy prices for flowers to suit the whim of long purses, would be a greater income than the 96 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. few pennies eked out in the dull routine of a general trade such as they could carry on in The Little Red Shop. But Rosy didn't think so ; and opening her eyes wide at the thought of even equaling the boys, much less surpassing them, she clambered down from the old chair where she had been standing to tend her gardens, and ran bac'c of the counter to consult a memorandum she had made in the senior partner's absence. " Yes, it is macca; that first part is right," she declared, spelling out the syllables, " but I don't know what the rest is, although I asked her over twice. What can it be, Jack?" Jack didn't know, so Rosy ran in to ask mother, because if it was anything that the shop should contain, Jack could send for it on the morrow. Every Wednesday, nowadays, the expressman, Jacob Pilger, got things for which there was a demand in the city, for the firm. And Company, running along under the apple- trees between The Little Red Shop and the house, reproachfully mourned over her stupidity that had made her neglect asking Mrs. Ham- mond to write the desired name of the article down for Jack to see. NEW DEVELOPMENTS. 97 " H\A-loa ! " A man out in a wagon pulled up suddenly to the poplars outside the gate. "Where's your biggest brother?" he called gruffly. " Don't be frightened, Rosy." Cornelius' face, white as a sheet, despite its numerous freckles, loomed up above the side of the wagon, where Rosy could see he had been lying down. " Come here!" Company ran out to the gate, her small heart palpitating with fear, and clasping her hands as she ran. " I've been pitched into," said Corny, with an effort, holding his head up enough to look at her. "An* mauled," said the farmer, afraid some- thing would be left out ; " I found him down by Deacon Hubbard's woods." "The Corner boys," said Corny, feeling faint, and lying down again. " Run and bring Jack, Rosy, but don't you tell mother I" CHAPTER XII. A SUCCESS. . BRIGHAM looked Corny all over. "You haven't a single hurt, my man, only this ankle sprain." " That's where I fell over Deacon Hubbard's stone wall, running away from the Cornerites," said Corny, "but it isn't as bad as the old eggs they pelted me with," he added with a wry face. " They're a bad lot," said the doctor. " Not the eggs, but the boys, and somebody is going to walk down there and attend to things at the Corners, or I'll do it myself." "Mr. Plumtree's doing it," said Rosy, and then the story all came out about Patsy Denny and Ragged Joe, and the assault in the little shop. " You're a brave couple of boys to hold out against such a crew," said the doctor, " it would take a good deal of pluck " 98 A SUCCESS. 99 " Oh ! we couldn't have done it if it hadn't been for Company," cried Cornelius, popping up his head from the old hair cloth sofa. " Easy there, my boy," said the doctor, " till this leg of yours is fixed." Corny made a grimace and sank back again, while giving out the rest of the story. " Com- pany got the key when it fell out of Jim Coan's pocket, and went and unlocked the door. If it hadn't been for that, we should all have been whipped." Dr. Brigham turned around from his bandage and liniments, to bestow a smile on Company, whose round little face flushed all over. " I don't see but you're a pretty strong busi- ness firm," he said, going back to his work again. "I didn't like her to be in the firm at first," confessed Corny, " because she is a girl, but she did most as good as a boy, so I like it now." Dr. Brigham laughed heartily, Jack and Mother Brimmer, who had stepped out of the room for a momet, now popped in their heads in astonishment at the sounds of hilarity. "I am finding my patient very amusing," said the doctor, tucking his bottles and ban- 100 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. dages away in his case. " He won't lie here many days, I can assure you, Mrs. Brimmer." "I hope not, sir," said Mother Brimmer, try- ing to be cheerful. "Indeed I won't," exclaimed Corny, kicking the well leg up in the air. "If you keep still, you'll get up all the sooner," warned the doctor, snapping the case to, and bestowing his most professional air on the patient. " Remember, now." " When I am a man, I'm going to be a doctor," observed Corny irrelevantly, and giving a final wave to his leg, "it must be such fun to ride around and dose folks, and make 'em mind." "You can't always have the last-named pleas- ure, you'll find," said the doctor, laughing. " Well, good day, I'll look in to-morrow." And now, Corny, who had privately and pub- licly sniffed at a girl's love for flowers, became absorbed in the new industry waked up in con- nection with the Little Red Shop. Tied a pris- oner to the old sofa, there was nothing to do but lie and count the hours until he would be well once more, and able "to pitch into business again," to use his own words. So, one day, hear- ing Rosy chattering over her little wood gardens, A SUCCESS. 101 he begged her to bring one to him, and in the talk that followed, was quite surprised to find that there was lots of fun in the enterprise. Before he knew it, he was interested in lichens, and partridge berries, ferns, and cup moss, and then it all came to him, that once when down in the meadow digging for flagroot, he had run across a queer plant with a pretty leaf, and when he got well he would go and get some for Rosy to add to her gardens. And both children were now chattering and planning as merry as magpies, and Corny's face held the first con- tented expression since the accident. Mother Brimmer, mending stockings over in the corner, pricked up her ears at the word " flagroot." "Jack can get Teddy Haskins to help him dig a lot, and I will dry and candy it," she said suddenly ; " strange we never thought of it before." "And do it up in little paper bores," cried Rosy, dropping a bit of cup moss. " O Mamsie ! " " We sha'n't have boxes to do it up in for a good spell, probably," said Mrs. Brimmer cau- tiously, "but we'll make it look nice and eatable someway." 102 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "I'm going to tell Jack," cried Rosy flying off, dreadfully excited. " Don't go," begged Cornelius. " Here be is," said Mother Brimmer, looking out of the window, as Jack sprang over the flat door-stone. " Good news," he cried, hurrying in. " It isn't half as nice as our news, you better believe," shouted back Cornelius from the sofa. " Tell yours first, Jack," said Mother Brimmer, " you spoke first." " Mr. Hine is going to put his agency in our shop," cried Jack in intense excitement. " Now, mother, what do you think of that ! " Mr. Hine was an old tight-fisted farmer, very rich and very disagreeable, living over beyond Orange Hill, who had held back from the move- ment in which most of the prominent farmers and village people united, to help forward the interests of the Brimmer household, either by selling produce to the new firm, or by trading at the Little Red Shop. He had poohed and sniffed at the whole thing, openly ridiculing it on every occasion that presented the least chance of a listener. "Think o' them boys," he cried once to A SUCCESS. 103 Farmer Bisbee's wife, " a settin' up to go into business. What can they do, I sh'd like to know." "Nothin'," said Mrs. Bisbee, "if everybody does as you do. What makes you act so like Kedar, Mr. Hine, I don't see " " I never hearn anythin' like it," said the old man, quite worked up. "They'll bust in a month." "Now, see here, Mr. Hine," declared Mrs. Bisbee, who was never afraid to use her tongue, "I ain't a-goin' to stand here and hear things against them boys. I'll help 'em up and on, and lots of other folks will too. Land! it's enough to go to anybody's heart, if they've got such a thing in their bodies, to see 'em work. We'll be proud of 'em yet in Cherryfield, I can tell you. 'Tain't in natur that such a woman as their mother is, shouldn't have good boys." "The boys are well enough," said Farmer Hine carefully, "it's the puttin' notions into their heads, and makin' 'em think they're smart, that I don't like." "Well, then, if you hain't anythin' against the boys, only their age," cried Mrs. Bisbee im- patiently, " why in the land can't you keep 104 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. from puttin' stones in their way, and hanging of millstones around their necks say ? " " I ain't a-hangin' millstones on their necks," said the farmer, quite astonished at the storm he had raised. "Yes you are, too," contradicted Mrs. Bisbee flatly. "You're a-lettin' that tongue of yours work day and night against them poor children whose father is dead, and whose mother has nothing but her pluck to keep her head above water. You've worked more mischief than you can undo in one spell. I don't see how you can do such things, Mr. Hine, and you a perfessor. It beats me." Mr. Hine having never met people with the courage of their convictions in regard to the matter, was surprised to find a twinge of re- morse in the region where he always located his conscience, now attacking him. And without another word he slapped the old horse with the end of the reins, and started off in the direction of town. When he reached there, he drove silently to the post-office, got his mail, and after finishing his few errands, drove off down a side road to the Brimmer place, and made his call on Jack. A SUCCESS. 105 "He wants to have us take orders for him, for all his things," said Jack, " even berries, and Mrs. Hine's butter. A regular agency. I've talked with him most an hour, and we've settled it all up. He's a splendid man." Cornelius gave three cheers from his prison. "We're going to be rich, sure as fate," he cried shrilly, " and then we'll keep a big store down in the village." " It will be many a long year," said Mother Brimmer in her most cautious fashion, " before we shall be rich, and I hope never, if it is going to turn our heads. No, boys, it's hard work and long work, and work altogether, that is ahead of us, in order to make a success of The Little Red Shop." "Now tell your news," said Jack, when the talk ran low over his recital. "We're going to beat up a flagroot trade. Mother thought of it," said Cornelius. "It don't seem much to tell of beside your news, but I guess it will work." Jack hailed the plan with joy, his keen judg- ment foreseeing the possibilities it held, and go- ing up to his mother's chair, he bent over it to put a kiss on her cheek. It was unlike Jack to 106 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. be so demonstrative, and Mother Brimmer in- voluntarily laid down the stocking and put her finger on the spot her boy's lips had pressed, as if she would hold the kiss there forever. Just then the door opened, and Miss Clorinda Peaseley came in. " A new stock of doughnuts," she said in her brisk way, with a nod apiece for each of the group. "O, Miss Peaseley," cried Rosy, rushing to relieve her of the basket, " you're our fairy god- mother." " Fairy nonsense ! " exclaimed Miss Peaseley ; nevertheless she was much pleased, and untied her bonnet strings for a comfortable call. "I'm astonished at you, Jack," she began, "to find The Little Red Shop locked. I came around that way and couldn't get in." "I'm afraid my good luck has turned my head a bit," said Jack. " I ran in to tell Mam- si e and the others the news. Business now ! " and he was off like a shot. "Business now and all times," said Mother Brimmer, "seeing we have set out to succeed." " And you will succeed," declared Miss Clo- rinda, and her eyes shone, "because you've A SUCCESS. 107 started right. It's only to do your duty over and over, every day, Mrs. Brimmer, and before you know it, The Little Red Shop will be"- A success," shouted Corny, eager for the last word. CHAPTER XIII. A FAMILY PARTY. nnHE air was clear and fresh ; a slight fall of snow just conveniently stopping at the point of becoming higher than the overshoes of the pedestrians, lay on the ground. It was an early fall, as the old farmers say when there is snow at Thanksgiving, and every sign gave promise of winter shutting in rapidly. The old gray house set back from Cherryfield high road, had its chimney smoking by break of day, for Mother Brimmer tied on her baking apron as soon as she had told Rosalie how to prepare the simple breakfast " to hurry forward those pies," as she said. " All that can be done to-day, Rosy," she ob- served, in the midst of the bustle that now en- sued, " is clear gain toward to-morrow. Always remember that, child ; don't leave a lot of odds and ends to do when you're going to have com- 108 A FAMILY PARTY. 109 pany, thinking you'll have time. You never do ; and the last minute catches you before you know it." "It's such fun," hummed the one girl of the family, stirring the cornmeal mush in the kettle vigorously, " to have company. I don't ever remember having any before." "You forget the parson coming to tea," said Mrs. Brimmer, bringing out her pie-plates from the pantry. " Let me see ; I shall make four mince ones." " He isn't company ! " cried Rosy. " Mr. Iligginson isn't ; I am not a bit afraid of him." "No more you should be," exclaimed Mrs. Brimmer, setting down her pie-plates; "and then again, child, there isn't any call to be afraid of any one, so long as you haven't been doing anything wrong." " But it scares me to think something don't look nice, or I don't know how to do things," said Rosy. " Well, that's very silly," observed Mrs. Brirnmer, going for her pastry-board ; " do the best you can, Rosy, and then let it go." Rosy turned her little anxious face toward her mother, and smiled. " Anyway, this com- 110 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. pany is to be nice, and the things will be nice, too, I guess, ma." "We'll try to make 'em so," declared her mother, energetically stirring up her mince-meat in the stone jar. "What will Miss Clorinda say to see the goose that I'm going to roast all myself ? " cried Rosy, deserting her mush-kettle, to go over with this important question to the baking-table. "Say, ma?" I'm sure I don't know ! " cried Mrs. Brim- mer, with pride. " She'll say, * Was there ever such a goose ! ' like as not, though, Rosy." " Do you suppose she really will ! " cried the girl in delight, the color coming into her cheeks. When she looked like this, Jack and Cornelius, and everybody else, always called her " Wild Rose," and it was their secret delight to sum- mon the lovely bloom in as many startling ways as they could. "But you'd better fly back to that mush," said Mother Brimmer presently, " and get break- fast as you'd ought to, and not look ahead to to-morrow. That'll take care of itself." " So it will ! " cried Rosy merrily. Jack and Cornelius, now hurrying in to break- A FAMILY PARTY. Ill fast, the small maid-of-all-work had to desert her delightful anticipations of to-morrow's good times and fly to the work in hand. It was pres- ently on the table the steaming dish of mush, the baked potatoes, and the large pitcher of milk, and Mother Brimmer being summoned from her work, wiped her hands, took off her apron, and joined the others at their simple meal. For the good woman, although her children were "in business and doing for themselves," as she proudly expressed it, observed the same fru- gality as when times were hard and the future looked dark. "We won't give up our plain breakfasts; they've always done us good, and we don't need any other food," she would say when the boys urged her to have a "bit of meat for herself, at least." " No, no ; I don't want it," she said, " mother's tough and hearty. As long as I've such perfect health, you needn't worry, children." So the money that would have gone into the butcher's till for the beefsteak or mutton chop, went instead into the bank to Brimmer Brothers and Company's credit. And the economy observed in the matter of 112 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. breakfasts went into all the other details of daily life. The only thing in which the family indulged themselves was in the matter of books and magazines ; and occasionally Mrs. Brimmer would send the young people off of an evening to a good lecture or concert in the Town Hall, or she would go with some of them, one always being obliged to remain with Roly Poly, who was called "the baby," although rejoicing in the dignity of five years. The business of Brimmer Brothers and Com- pany, conducted in the little Red Shop, formerly an old tool-house, had prospered steadily from a small beginning in trading a few vegetables sup- plied by neighboring farmers ; cakes from Miss Peasley's generous oven, and a sprinkling of other commodities, till now it was an estab- lished grocery store : small, but eminently re- spectable in trade. It was started because the little money left by Father Brimmer when he died had, de- spite all the watchful care of it, dwindled till now there was only a pittance left. The old weather-beaten house would last them their lifetime, and the ground was theirs, but the growing family would need more each year A FAMILY PARTY. 113 to support them, and make them able to take their proper place in the world. And the chil- dren, who had silently worried over the problem, how to help the mother they had seen working for them early and late ever since they could remember, were at last one day helped out by the little old red tool-house. "Here I am," it seemed to say. "Your mother has given me to you for a play-house ; now use me to help her." It was an inspiration in the first of it, to be followed by hard and grinding work, much of it in the face of half-laughing opposition and downright sneers of friends and townsfolk. But Brimmer Brothers and Company having begun to face the world never once thought of shirking any of the duties which they met there, but just the same as if everybody believed that they could make a success of the business, they determined in their own minds to do so, and be- haved accordingly. And Rosy, the most timid little thing before strangers, forgot all her fears now, and as Company of the new concern de- veloped a resoluteness and self-possession that amazed the boys. All this was two years before this Thanks- 114 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. giving ; and now Mother Brimmer and the suc- cessful business firm and Roly Poly, were to have a party ! After the breakfast dishes were cleared away, the boys hurrying off to the shop, as they an- ticipated a rushing trade for the day, the old kitchen began to assume the aspect of getting ready for some great festivity, while it smelt of spices and boiling sweets clear out beyond the lilacs and down to the front gate. Every passer-by must have known that it was Thanks- giving, and suspected pies and such other ac- companiments of the national holiday at once. The stoning of raisins and buttering of cake- pans fell to Rosy to do, who was excused from shop duty for the morning to help the mother in her unwonted tasks ; and patiently the little girl performed it all, secretly planning, as she waited on the busy housewife, taking the thou- sand and one necessary steps in and out the buttery and pantry, if one of her little wood- gardens remained unsold in the shop, to take it to dress the dinner-table on the morrow. " They can't all be sold," thought Rosy, almost wishing for the moment that there was not quite such a demand for them. " If the red partridge- A FAMILY PARTY. 115 berries could only stay at home, what a party we would have ! " But when Cornelius ran in to dinner, Jack staying behind to mind the shop, he shouted out gleefully, " Rosy, every single one of your gar- dens is gone, and we could have sold two more if we'd had 'em i " Rosy gave a great sigh, and then reproached herself for even wishing it otherwise. " Rosy'll make more money than any of us," declared Cornelius, " you see if she doesn't," between his mouthfuls. " How I wish I'd thought about fixing up roots and ferns and such things in old cracked saucers." " But you help me," cried Rosy. "I couldn't even dig the roots without you, Corny." " And me, too! " cried Roly Poly, breaking in with the greatest eagerness. " I always go with you, Rosy, you know," and she laid down the little bone she was slowly picking to regard her sister gravely. " So you do ! " cried Rosy and Cornelius to- gether. " I'm sure we couldn't ever get along without you, Pet ; " whereat the baby of the family felt happy, and smilingly resumed her bone once more. 116 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. But that night a rap sounded on the outer door, sharp and decided. " Run and see who it is, Jack," said Mother Brimmer, looking up from her stocking-mending. Jack came hurrying back, a large parcel with white paper loosely folded over it, in his hand. " It's for Rosy," he said, setting it down. "For me?" cried Rosy, too astonished to open it ; but Cornelius helped her. " It's your old red wood-garden ! " exclaimed Corny, dreadfully disappointed, at least expect- ing a big cake. " Oh ! " Rosy clasped her hands, and took an ecstatic little spin in the middle of the floor. " Nbw it isn't wicked to want it ! " she cried, dreadfully excited. " If I'd known you wanted to keep one," said Jack slowly, " so bad, I never'd sold it." " Who bought it?" asked his mother. " Mrs. Higginson." " I wonder what other people do who haven't got such a minister, and his wife," observed Mrs. Brimmer, wiping her eyes, as Rosy fell to oh-ing over her treasure, and fondling each leaf. " Folks ought to be good who sit under their preaching," she added. A FAMILY PARTY. 117 " We'll be good to-morrow, anyway," declared Cornelius. " My ! don't it seem funny to go to church in the middle of the week!" But on the morrow, wasn't that a festive scene ? The table was laid in the keeping-room, whose door opened into the kitchen ; knives and forks were laid for seven guests : Mr. and Mrs. Higginson, the minister and his good wife ; Miss Clorinda Peaseley, of course as their best friend; old Widow Tucker and her spinster daughter who went out tailoring, and lived down in the Hollow ; not because they would be such pleasant additions to the party, as that Mother Brimmer felt sure that no other invitations would be sent to them, bidding them to a Thanksgiving dinner; and lame Joey Clark and his sister, for the same reason, and because the children had begged to ask them. Rosy's wood-garden had the place of honor in the centre of the table, and it did seem as if there never was such a number of bright little berries to cast a glow over the neat cloth, done up in Mother Brimmer's best style. How they shone among their green leaves ! And the goose! The cheeks of the little maid who cooked it, rivalled her partridge berries 118 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. in coloring, at all the compliments that were showered upon her ; while the chicken pie, and spare-rib, and plum pudding, and pies, were de- clared the best ever eaten ; and the hickory nuts and butter nuts, cracked by the boys, received most honorable mention. And old Widow Tucker's thin face began to lose some of its worn lines, and she forgot to make any uncharitable remarks about other peo- ple, to which she was a little prone, and her daughter, Miss Mary Jane, seeing her ma so happy, came out from behind her spectacles and began to be pleasant, too. And the minister told the most delightful stories ; and when he got tired, then there was Miss Clorinda to set the ball of conversation to rolling again. Everybody laughed, even lame Joey Clark, and, altogether, there was no family party in all Cherryfield so merry and festive. And as they at last arose from the table, everybody protesting that they could not eat a bit more, Rosy pulled her mother's gown and whispered, "I want to send a basketful of good- ies down to the Four Corners boys ; may I, ma? " CHAPTER XIV. A NEW PLAN. ES, dear." Mother Brimmer smiled and nodded, and Rosy ran off for a basket. "What are you going to do?" cried Cor- nelius, seeing her turn over the turkey drum- sticks in the platter, when the basket, lined neatly with brown paper, was all ready and waiting on a chair. So Mother Brimmer began to explain. "Oh! now, I say that's too bad," cried Cor- nelius, "to give away a lot of things to those fellows who pitched into us in our shop, and egged me most to death, besides making me sprain my ankle. Don't let her do it, ma," he begged. " But Mr. Plumtree made them sorry about fighting in the shop," said Rosy, continuing her selection of pieces, "and they had to work 119 120 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. awfully hard at the farmer's where he bound them out ; and now they're all so poor, I don't suppose they've had the least bit of a Thanks- giving dinner." " They don't deserve any," said Cornelius stoutly. Even Jack looked as if he thought Company's sentiment wasted. " I told her she might," said Mrs. Brimmer quietly, the guests looking on with no words to offer. "Look at her, she's putting in an awful lot," shouted Cornelius, hanging over the turkey platter. " Rosy, don't give 'em that. 11 "That" was half of an apple tart, rich and red, and juicy. " Probably the first they've ever tasted," said the minister softly. Jack rubbed the toe of his boot back and forth over the polished wooden floor, Miss Clo- rinda gave a mild sniff of disapproval of the way things were going on, but by pinching herself, she managed to keep still ; Corny alone, keep- ing up the other side of the argument. " It's a perfect shame, when it's the first time we've ever had a Thanksgiving," he cried, with a red face and indignant eyes, " to pack off all A NEW PLAN. 121 those nice things to a lot of dirty, mean old Cor- ner boys." Mother Brimmer still kept silent. " Jack thinks so." Corny whirled around and pointed to the senior partner triumphantly. " He knows ; and you ought to do as he says, Rosy." Company's little right hand dropped to the side of the basket, while her round face took on a pained expression as she looked at Jack. The big boy flushed up to his dark hair, and he dropped his eyes to the floor to follow the working of his uneasy boot. He longed to say " I think it's ridiculous, when we are all work- ing so hard, to give away such things to those idle, good-for-nothing Corner boys," but a verse from the Bible came ringing through his ears. For a moment, he thought the parson must be repeating it, and he glanced up quickly. No ; there he sat in the high-backed chair looking at him silently. Then Jack remembered it was in church that very morning that he had heard the words "Do good to them that hate you." Here was the direct command from the Mas- ter. Jack in the past year of work and respon- sibility, had drawn very near to his Heavenly Father ; at the last, glad to enroll himself as a 122 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. member of the Church of Christ. And, yet, on this blessed day of thankfulness for the wealth of mercies that had been showered upon him, he was avariciously shutting his heart to the good impulse that would help some of God's poor, needy ones, up into the range of human sym- pathy and love. They might be wicked ; all the more reason that he should do what he could to bring them to love the good. Mean, con- temptible fellow that he was to even look his disapproval to what Rosy was doing ! Jack threw back his head, and Cornelius gave a long breath of delight. " Go on, Rose," said the big boy of the family, "and I'll help you," Thereupon Jack sprang forward, and seized an orange and laid it in the basket, and followed with two or three handfuls of butternuts. " O w ow ! " cried Corny in despair. "Come on, Corny," cried Jack, his color deepening into a bloom to match that in Wild Rose's cheeks, and his dark eyes dancing with delight, " if you want any hand in this basket ; see, it's almost full." And the next thing that Corny knew, he was tucking in the drumsticks of the chickens, that A NEW PLAN. 123 he had fondly hoped to pick clean on the mor- row; and Jack had saved himself from being the one to pull down the sweet impulses of his younger brother and his little sister, into the mire where all was of evil growth. "I suppose," said the parson, when all the packing was done, even to the tying of the string across the cover, " that you don't want my com- pany on your walk over to the Corners eh, Jack?" " Don't we, though," cried the boy, never the least bit afraid of the minister; now, warmed up to self-forgetfulness, in a mood light-hearted enough for anything. " Yes, sir, we do ! " echoed Corny, whipping out his knife to cut off the string-end. " That'll be just gay, if you'll come." " Suppose we all accompany the basket party," proposed Miss Peaseley slowly, and taking her feet away from the cheerful blaze of the snap- ping hickory ; " that is, those who care to," she added, with a thought in time for the widow and her daughter, and lame Joey Clark. Joey looked wistfully across at his sister; but she shook her head, and he sat back obedi- ently in the depths of his chair. 124 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "Want to go, Joey?" asked Mr. Higginson. " Yes, sir," Joey's thin cheek glowed at once, and his eyes sparkled. "Now, I feel just like a ride on this cold afternoon," declared Parson Higginson, jumping up, and swinging his arms. " I'm going over cross lots to ask Farmer Hooker to lend me his green wagon and Betty the mare. Want to go, Jack and Corny, and help harness ? " Both boys signified without any hesitancy, that they did. "Joey, you have the first invitation," said the parson, nodding over at the lame boy ; " get all bundled up in fine style, and all you others," waving his ministerial hands merrily toward the group ; " follow suit, and we'll pick you up in about ten minutes oh! here's my coat; thank you, Jack, and Rosy, for my hat. Come on, boys ! " And so, what was supposed to be rather a hard and unwelcome duty of trudging down to the Corners with a heavy basket containing some of the Thanksgiving goodies, turned out to be, under the minister's management, the most royal frolic of the season, and one well suited to wind up a Thanksgiving party with. And then came Christmas. A NEW PLAN. 125 There was no party at the old Brimmer place, of course. Mother Brimmer would have held up her hands in amazement at such an idea. One festive occasion was quite enough to in- dulge in for a year, and the memory of it would follow each day of the twelvemonth, with inspir- ation to heartier work than ever. " It's Thanksgiving all the year," said Corny one day, well along in December. " Didn't we have a good time? I haven't got the taste of those pies out of my mouth yet," and he smacked his lips. " Those were the most economical pies I ever made," said Mrs. Brimmer, laughing, " they last so long." " I'm going to pretend," said Corny, nailing away vigorously on his mother's washboard, which a rainy day had allowed him to mend, " that we're going to have some more on Christ- mas." "Better not," said Mother Brimmer wisely, "for you're not going to, and when the time comes you'll be disappointed." "No, I sha'n't, Mamsie," said Cornelius de- cidedly, "'cause I know you aren't going to make any. But I remember just how they 126 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. tasted, and when I'm pretending we can have 'em all over again, it's 'most as good as eating any." " It's a very cheap way of getting a nice dish," said Mrs. Brimmer, cutting up her meat for the stew, "but I don't think sham pies are as good as the plain boiled dinner we're going to have Christmas." Cornelius pounded away a few moments in silence ; then he said, " I suppose we ought to do something for Christmas; that don't take money, I mean," with a glance at his mother. "Well, now, children," said Mrs. Brimmer, neatly dividing an obdurate joint, " there, that's done. I've been thinking about Christmas, and a plan has come to me." "Don't tell till Jack comes," cried Rosalie, over in the corner busy with her ironing holders. " O, Mamsie, do wait ! " she begged in alarm. "Jack knows about it," said Mrs. Brimmer; "he and I talked it all over the night you two went to singing-school. And he wanted me to tell you both as soon as I could get a good chance. Now's the time, I think, seeing Roly Poly is having her nap, and we three are all quiet together." A NEW PLAN. 127 " O, Mamsie ! what is it ? " cried Rosy breath- lessly; and, dropping her sewing, she ran up to her mother's side, Cornelius also deserting his washboard. " Go right straight back," said Mother Brim- mer, clapping the potatoes into the kettle, " and pick up your work dear me ! can't you hear just as well when your fingers are busy, pray tell?" Thus reproved, they hurried back again. "Now tell, do, Mamsie," they begged, once more in their places. "Well," said Mrs. Brimmer slowly, "it's just this ; Roly Poly must hang up her stocking the same as usual, of course." "But do let it be a better one this year," cried Corny, "old turnip dolls, and such make- believe stuff, as it was last Christmas ! " he added contemptuously. " Roly Poly had a beautiful time," said Rosy, " she's been talking of it most every day since. Don't you remember what fun it was seeing her pull out the things?" "And the doll, I'm sure, was a wonderful affair," said Mother Brimmer, " and lasted much better than a store one would have done." 128 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "And when it wrinkled it looked just like an old woman," said Corny, with a shout at the re- membrance; "and how funny it was to hear Roly Poly call it her baby." " And wasn't the molasses candy with the butternuts meats good," observed Rosalie re- flectively, "and the furniture you and Jack made for the dolly oh! I think that was so pretty." " And the mittens Mamsie knit her ; I forgot them," said Corny. " Yes ; it was pretty good, after all. But we're richer now, and we ought to give her a better stocking this Christmas," he added decidedly, with quite an air. "I don't know about being richer," said Mother Brimmer cautiously, and giving a final stir to the several ingredients in the kettle, she put on the cover, took down her pans and set about moulding her bread ; " our expenses in- crease every year as you children grow older; and it isn't right to plan taking anything that isn't actually necessary, out of the nest-egg. Roly Poly will need every bit we can give her toward her education by and by." " We aren't being educated," said Corny de- liberately. A NEW PLAN. 129 Mother Brimmer turned away from her bread- board, looked at him keenly, then sent a swift glance over to her one girl. "And that's just what I want to talk about this morning. You're going to have a chance at it, if you both agree to the plan." It was impossible for the children to work now ; and the needle and the hammer dropped, while Mother Brimmer went on. "Mr. Thomas will come here for an hour, two evenings a week, for a dollar, and teach Jack and both of you ; and I'm to have the chance of listening and asking questions, so you might as well call me a scholar, too." Neither of her auditors said a word, but stared at the mouth that was issuing such won- derful words. " There will have to be hard work on your part to make every minute tell," said Mother Brimmer, " as you've got to keep your books by you and study when you get a chance. But the most important of all, is to keep saying the things you learn, over and over to yourself, so that you can't forget them ; I wouldn't give a cent that any child of mine should get anything into his or her head, that can't stay by them," 130 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. she added, with a scorn to match that of Cor- nelius' own. "We never'll forget what we once learn," cried both Corny and Rosalie in one breath. " But how are we going to pay for it, Mamsie? " " Well, now to pay for the lessons, we shall all have to sacrifice something," said Mrs. Brim- mer, drawing herself up to her full height, and looking resolutely at them. "We can give up our play afternoons," said Corny slowly, his black eye steadily on her. " Never ! " exclaimed Mrs. Brimmer, bringing her hand down on the table with emphasis, " those mustn't be touched, whatever we do ; that's decided." " What can we give up ? " cried Rosy, in astonishment. " We're saving everything as close as can be, now," said Cornelius, with a decided nod. " Jack turns every penny twice over before he'll begin to think of spending it, and then he claps it into the bank. What in the world can we save more, ma ? " " I said * sacrifice,' " replied Mrs. Brimmer, very distinctly. "We shall have to draw out some of the nest-egg. This will come hard, be- A NEW PLAN. 131 cause all of us have been working diligently to put the little fund there, and every cent taken away from it reduces the interest." Cornelius began to look grave at once. Rail as he might at Jack's regard for every penny, the accumulation of the deposit in the bank was as dear to the heart of the younger boy, who had no delight so great as an errand that took him past the large, red building, over whose door was the magical word Bank. To stand here a moment and reflect that nearly one hun- dred dollars was recorded on the books to the credit of Brimmer Brothers and Company, re- paid for many hours of toil and self-denial. Now, if they had a teacher, some of that slowly- accumulated money must be used. It was to be a sacrifice, as the mother had said. "But," Mrs. Brimmer's tone changed to a ringing one of hopefulness and courage, "the money thus taken out and used, will be the best investment possible ; better than a ten per cent interest for all of us. Think of it, children ; an education for you and for me ! " and for one little moment, the barriers of a pent-up longing, that had possessed her heart for years, were dropped. 132 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. "Mother," they cried, "let us have Mr. Thomas come just as soon as he can ! " "He can't come till Christmas Eve," said Mrs. Brimmer. " But he'll begin then, and be glad to, for he's too poor to go home for a va- cation. So he told me yesterday, when I stopped into the District school." " Is that where you went, Mamsie, in the afternoon, when you put on your Sunday shawl and bonnet ? " asked Rosy, who hadn't recov- ered from the astonishment produced by seeing such preparations made for a visit about which there was no attending conversation. "Yes, child; I asked Jack about it, first; and then he wanted, if Mr. Thomas could do it, to have me tell you and see if you would like to fall into the plan. If Mr. Thomag couldn't do it, why, then, you two wouldn't have any dis- appointment to bear. But he can. O, what a Christmas we will have ! " CHAPTER XV. "OUR ENTERPRISE." - THOMAS, a tall, thin, keen-eyed young man, came in bringing a green flannel bag. "Good-evening!" said Mother Brimmer as cordially as she ever welcomed any visitor in her life. She put out her hard-working hand, which the young man took respectfully, say- ing, "I'm glad to be here, I assure you, Mrs. Brimmer. Good-evening, Rosy, and Jack and Cornelius ! " " Good-evening, sir ! " The young voices held a glad ring ; the eyes, blue, and brown, and black, sparkled joyously. The best chair was set by the red-covered table under the bright lamp, the schoolmaster led to it, and then, sur- rounded by the eager faces, the bag was opened, the well-worn school books drawn out, and the work may be said to be fairly begun. 134 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. Mother Brimmer laid aside her sewing, and sat there with swelling .heart, and eyes and ears as intent as were those of her children. That any opportunity should come to her house without being improved to the utmost, was a thing undreamed of. And she drank in all the instruction in such an absorbed way that the schoolmaster, looking up occasionally, caught many a glimpse into a depth of the longing, self-sacrificing patience of years, that the good woman supposed hidden in her own uncom- plaining heart. " Take a book, Mrs. Brimmer, do," said Mr. Thomas, after one of these revelations. And he smiled as he pushed an English history across the red table cover. Mother Brimmer hesitated. " That wasn't in the bargain, sir. I was only to hear, and ask questions sometimes." "An old bargain is good enough till you make another," said the schoolmaster carelessly. " I fancy the young people will get along much faster if you go with them." He looked at them quickly. " Do, mother," begged Rosy, leaving her small forefinger on its paragraph, and cuddling "OUR ENTERPRISE." 135 up to the comfortable figure ; and, " Yes do, mother," echoed the boys ; so Mrs. Brimmer took her book. " I sha'n't forget this, sir," she said gratefully. And there she was, a pupil in the evening school in the old Brimmer Place ! This had all been going on some two months. The English history was now exchanged for an American one ; the class was well along in arithmetic, while grammar and geography flourished as by magic. The talk in the shop between whiles, in those idle moments when customers were not keeping the fingers and brains of the firm busy, and there was no work to be done to help along the business, were now devoted to saying over to each other the many bits of knowledge gained out of Mr. Thomas' green flannel bag. And it was quite surpris- ing, even to the young people themselves, how much better, for this course, they learned their lessons, and how the memory grew strong and active, till it became a good and reliable ser- vant, incapable of playing them foolish tricks. Inside the old Brimmer house toil was rob- bed of half its grim aspect by the companion- ship of the good friends admitted to Mrs. 136 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. Brimmer's acquaintance. How she thought and studied as she baked and swept, cooked and washed, ironed and sewed ! A new world was hers, as she, with hope and courage for any- thing that life might have in store for her, was acquiring the golden means that were to bring the richest possibilities to herself and to her family. It really seemed as if the Old Brimmer Place must look diffeoent to a passer-by, yet outwardly it was the same dear old home as before. One morning, well along in March, Jack Brimmer walked to the door of the president's office in the bank building and knocked. " Come in ! " It was Mr. Corbin's voice, and Jack felt re- assured at once as he stepped in, cap in hand. "Ah, Brimmer, my boy," said the president cordially, and extending his hand. " Glad to see you. Sit down while I finish these papers. I'll soon be through." "I can come another time," said Jack re- spectfully. " No, no ! You don't interrupt. I'll soon be through. Sit down." So Jack gladly sat down. "OUR ENTERPRISE." 137 "What is it?'\asked Mr. Corbin, the last paper disposed of and locked in his desk. He whirled around in his office chair, and, dismiss- ing his business expression, the hard lines of his face relaxed into encouraging friendliness. " Can I do anything to help you, Jack ? " " You told me to come to you," said the boy, twirling his cap a bit awkwardly, "whenever " and there he stopped. " So I did," responded the president heartily, " and I meant it. Now, what can I do for you ? " " You said, ' Whenever you find it hard to hold on.' I remember the very words, sir, they helped me so." Mr. Corbin leaned forward in his chair and looked at the boy. Almost as eager a face was it as the one he helped to make joyful. How it brought back the hard perilous times in his own young life, when a word even of kindly encouragement would have been a godsend. Help this brave young fellow ? Wouldn't he? "Tell it all out, Jack," he said decidedly. "Don't be afraid. Speak as you would to your mother. Now, what is it?" "Perhaps I ought not to have come," said Jack hesitatingly, and twirling the cap again, 138 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. "as you said 'whenever you find it hard to hold on, sir,' but I thought I would just tell you how it was. It isn't hard for me to get along now, sir ; business is first-rate," and Jack straightened up, and let the cap be quiet ; "but it's bard for other boys, and I thought maybe you didn't know it, and I'd tell you what some of them want." The bank president sank back in his chair and gazed at the boy. " Go on," he said. "Now, my mother has managed it so that Mr. Thomas, who is teacher at the Centre schoolhouse, you know, sir, comes to our house two evenings every week for a dollar a week, and teaches us Cornelius and Rosy and me ; and he lets mother be a scholar, too, without extra charge. Well, sir," the boy drew a long breath, but proceeded quietly, " money wouldn't make men of us, nor a woman of Rosy, even if we could build up a good trade, without educa- tion. Now, when the Baxters, who live a mile from us there are three boys there, and two girls heard of it, how we were being taught evenings, they just teased their father to let them have Mr. Thomas, too." "Do not any of the Baxters attend school?" "OUR ENTERPRISE." 139 "No, sir; Ted and John work on the farm, and Jimmy is a cripple, and has to stay in the house ; and the girls do the housework. They haven't any mother, sir." "Ah?" Mr. Corbin was being enlightened on village history. " Go on, my boy." "Mr. Baxter couldn't afford it, and at last they had to give up asking," said Jack. " I wish you could see how badly they felt, sir," and Jack stopped again*. "Are there any other boys and girls who can not go to school, and who desire to study in this way?" asked the president abruptly. "Yes, sir." Jack spoke up promptly, with the air of one who had thoroughly mastered his subject before presenting its claims. " In all I know of fifteen boys and girls who can't get any education unless some one helps them out." The boy's breath came quick and hard, and his eyes glowed. " Fifteen boys and girls ! " interrupted Mr. Corbin. "Is it possible? And I fancied that Cherryfield was superior in its educational ad- vantages to other towns." " The school is first-rate," said Jack. " Mr. Thomas is a splendid teacher, but the boys 140 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. and girls can't be spared to go, you see, sir. And it's hard to get money out of farming." " What do you propose to have done for these boys and girls, Jack?" asked the presi- dent. " For I see that you have got a plan in your head already," he added, smiling. " I want to hear it." "I thought, sir," said Jack, "that maybe you'd ask the selectmen to let Mr. Thomas teach us in the schoolhouse two or three even- ings every week, so as to give those who cannot go to school days, a fair chance. Couldn't it be done, sir, don't you think ? " Jack got up and took an anxious step or two forward, and the president also rose. " Jack," he said, and he took the boy's brown palm, " I tell you what I will do. I promise you that Mr. Thomas shall be hired, if he's willing to do it; if not, some other good teacher to hold a school two or three evenings a week in the schoolhouse, or some other con- venient place, without charge ; that is, if the scholars are not able to pay. Does that suit, my boy?" " Capitally, sir," cried Jack, as heartily as if a hundred dollar note had been put in his hand. "OUR ENTERPRISE." 141 "Now, start the good news among all your friends as soon as you like." The president still held the brown palm, thinking meanwhile : " This is the hand of a future public-spirited citizen of Cherry field ; a man who will work for the good of his fellows while he does not neglect his own." Aloud he continued : " Thank you for coming to me, Jack. Whatever else you think of that will benefit the boys and girls, let me know." He pressed the hand cordially, then dropped it. "Now I must to business again. I will let you know about teacher and place very soon. Do you see that you collect the scholars. Good-by, Jack, and success to our enterprise." " Our enterprise ! " Really, the head of any other boy in Cherryfield would have been turned by the mere thought of association in any scheme with the great man of the town. As for Jack, he was so intent on the absorbing delight that now his friends would have the chance that he was enjoying, that, beside ex- ulting in the conviction of Mr. Corbin's good- ness, he had time for no other reflections, but gave himself up ' at once, in the intervals of work and study, to his part of the " enterprise." 142 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. Cherryfield Main Street began to have a new sensation the next day when it was known that President Corbin had bought John Shaw's grocery store ; not for the purpose of turning John out, for he was a good fellow, and had his regular list of customers. But the president openly declared that, while he should let John remain, he had his eye on the second story of the building, which was a long, unfinished room. When questioned, he answered that when prop- erly prepared, it would be an excellent place for the young idea to shoot, and that every one would know all about it a the proper time. And now the village carpenter put in an appear- ance, and the president, stopping in his carriage on his way to the bank of a morning, would give him his instructions for the day. And before people's surmises had been well aired, it seemed as if the thing were done, and, at the same time, a crowd of grateful young folks from Cherryfield's four corners, let loose the secret. That evening there was a sort of jubilee meeting in the grocery store. CHAPTER XVI. LOSING 8ELF-CONTEOL. "TACK BRIMMER, racing over the stairs ^ two at a time, leading to the "Thomas School," as the boys dubbed the long hall over the grocery store, saw Cornelius with an air of great concern upon his countenance, waiting for him at the top. " Hulloo ! why didn't you stay all night ? " "Didn't want to," said Jack, with another jump that brought him to Corny's side. " Well, you might as well," said that in- dividual ; " your history class has got all through." "O, dear!" cried Jack regretfully, and wincing. " You can't expect to be as late as this, and find everything waiting," said Cornelius briskly ; " well, never mind now, you're late, and that's all there is about it ; what did he say ? " he 144 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. asked, and then began to answer his own ques- tion : " wouldn't let 'em come, of course. So you got your labor for your pains." " He can't let 'em come," said Jack slowly, and with a look of pain. " Nonsense ! he's tight as the bark on a tree, and twice as " "It's no such thing," declared Jack. "He told me all about it, Corny," added Jack in an awful whisper, bending down to his brother's ear ; " there's a mortgage on Mr. JBrowri's house ! " Cornelius started back. They were poor in the old Brimmer Place, to be sure, and had been much poorer, but what little they had they could claim before all the world as theirs alone. " Oh, oh ! " Then seeing Jack's face, he added indifferently, " Never mind ; when Mat gets bigger he'll pay it off/' " How is he going to without any school- ing?" demanded Jack gloomily ; " and that can't be had without money nothing is good for much in this world, but money, I believe," he said bitterly under his breath. He was tired and discouraged in his efforts to accomplish his friend's great desire, and distressed because he LOSING SELF-CONTROL. 145 had lost his own recitation, a thing that had not happened since the evening school was opened. " Oh ! yes, there is," said Cornelius in alarm at Jack's strange manner and words, " ever so many things beside money. Don't you know mother don't care for it, and she would, if it was the best thing in the world." " Think how she's had to work," Jack went on. It seemed as if his better self had taken this very moment to prove faithless, and, desert- ing him, let all his weakness get the best of him. " I don't suppose ever a mother had to slave so on all this earth, as ours has, Corny." And he brought his two brown palms together in a savage clap. " I know it," said Corny. A moment in which it seemed as if dark despair were to envelop both of the boys, to the shutting out of sweet, reverent faith, and youthful enthusiasm; but Cornelius came up out of the gulf most suddenly. " And she's taken comfort every single day in her life," he declared in a ringing tone ; " look at her face, dear old Marnsie, nnd hear her laugh when she talks it over so 1 " 146 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. He struck his hands together quite as smartly as his brother's had met, and faced him. " Well, let's go in," said Jack, only half out of his depression ; " if lessons are over, we might as well show ourselves." Before Corny could beg him to present a pleasanter countenance, he had gained the schoolroom door, opened it and stalked down to his seat. The younger brother from his corner could see him, his head on his hand, busily engaged in a book, but the droop of his figure, very un- like his usual sturdy outline, so distressed the watcher that he tumbled hastily out of his seat, and almost ran up to Mr. Thomas' desk. " Please, sir, may I speak to Jack a mo- ment ? " " Certainly." Mr. Thomas was giving a nice point to his pencil, and scarcely looked up. Corny hurried off. " Jack," he whispered, laying his hand on the elder's shoulder, " don't feel so ; it makes me sick to see you." Jack started. Corny could feel the thrill that passed through him, and the brown eyes looked a moment into his. LOSING SELF-CONTROL. 147 " Go back to your seat," he commanded sharply, " and let me alone." Corny's hand fell limply to his side ; with one more look into the face just a little below him, he turned and went unevenly down the aisle, dazed and cruelly hurt, to his corner. Jack buried his head deep in both hands and plunged into work, but the words danced like so many demons before him, every one having its quota of stinging reproaches to hurl at him. Many curious eyes glanced from one to the other of the brothers, for Cornelius, less skilled in the art of self-control, was having a hard time over in his corner. To tell the truth, for the first and only time in his life, the boy was crying. Silently but surely the tears were dropping behind the pages of a book he was making a pretence of studying, while having forgotten his handkerchief which he had left behind at home, he was vainly attempting to stem the flood with the backs of his chubby hands. But as a river is swollen by the debris floating down to it in a spring freshet, so Corny, as the remem- brance of all Jack's bitter words, ending in his astounding unkindness, came rushing through 148 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. his mind, found it impossible at last to do any- thing but lay his brown stubby head flat on his desk and allow the tears to stream down his fat cheeks unmolested. The boys began to nudge each other at that. " I guess he's got a fit," whispered one. " We ought to tell the teacher." " No, no ! let him be," said another, with a more practiced eye surveying the boy. " He'll come to." " I sha'n't ; I shall tell," said the first one in a louder whisper, being balked. " Sh " warned the other. "Boys!" said Mr. Thomas, with a careless glance in their direction, " no more whispering." " There, now, Jim Bent," said the last boy, dodging behind his book and dropping his voice, "you almost did for Corny. Let him alone, can't you, till he gets over it ? If you don't, I'll lick you when we get out." He doubled up his fist and shook it at Jim, while the side of his face toward the teacher was sweetness itself. Jim accepted the promise and subsided, but the other boys had now taken it up, and it was too late to shield Corny from further notice. LOSING SELF-CONTROL. 149 And in a moment, Mr. Thomas himself walked up. " What is the matter ? " he asked in kindly astonishment, feeling hurt himself that anything could harm the Brimmer boys. "He's crying," volunteered a boy, pointing cheerfully to Corny, " and he's been crying ever so long." The boy who wanted to tell, now almost wished he had risked the licking, for the pure gratification of being the first to hand in the news. "Why, Cornelius," exclaimed Mr. Thomas, bending over the boy, and laying his hand gently on the stubby head, " can you not tell me what the trouble is ? " " N-n-nothing," Corny managed to mumble out. " Are you sick?" asked the teacher anxiously. " N-no, sir," said Corny. But he still sobbed on silently as if his heart would break. Mr. Thomas, at his wits' end, went down the length of the room, and paused at the desk where the tall boy still sat, his head buried in his hands, absorbed in his book. " Jack," said the teacher very gravely, " I think your brother must be sick." CHAPTER XVII. CALLED AS HELPERS. "TACK sprang to his feet. A dark flush ^ spread over his face ; he threw down the book he had been vainly endeavoring to study, and dashed down the schoolroom aisle. " Stand back, fellows, can't you ? " he cried, parting them to right and left as they crowded around his brother's desk. The boys fell back summarily. " Corny," whispered Jack hoarsely, and lay- ing his hand on the sturdy shoulder now bowed with the first sorrow that had been able to bring tears to the brave eyes, "I didn't mean you know it to be cross to you. Why should I ? " lamented the elder brother, regard- less who might hear, " when you are the best friend I have, after mother. I'm a brute mean and cruel Corny, but I didn't mean to be. Do look up, old fellow, and say it's all right ! " 150 CALLED AS HELPERS. 151 Jack shook the shoulder, not ungently, but Corny, once started in tears, could not stop the flood. The matter of self-control was now wholly out of his hands. The flush deepened on the big boy's cheek ; he drew his breath hard v and set his teeth, and the next moment he had lifted his brother by main force from his seat, and staggered out from the gaping crowd with his burden, into the hall. Mr. Thomas, knowing better than to follow him, called the school to order, and very soon the exciting episode gave way to the usual evening routine. Outside, Jack was saying brokenly, " Corny, you'll despise me, but I was all at sea, and in doubt as to its being much use for any of us boys to try to be a man." At that, Corny came up out of his flood, to stare, with round drops waiting to fall from his wet eyelashes, at his brother. Slowly his amaze- ment gathered to itself a scorn that Jack felt, rather than saw. " I know it. You can't help but despise me, but I must tell you, then you'll see it wasn't because I was out of sorts with you, but with myself. O Corny! I wish I could cry but somehow my eyes are dry. Do help me." Jack 162 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. threw himself down on the bench, and buried his face in his hands. Nothing more was needed to bring Cornelius up to his old self. Help Jack ? And Jack dis- oouraged! Corny got up from his recumbent position, the tears quite dried on his r^ound cheeks, and raised himself to his greatest pos- sible height. " I suppose God is the same ? " he said at last. " You said once you believed in Him." Jack sprang to his feet as if stung. " I do now ; may He forgive me for thinking that He had forgotten all about how hard the boys are struggling in His world. Thank you, Corny." He grasped the fat palm hanging by the younger boy's side. " Come in once more ; I don't believe we'll disgrace ourselves and Mamsie again." Jack strode in like a man, and Cornelius' boot-heels rang sturdily over the schoolroom floor. All eyes greeted them ; no one making the least disguise of the interest the affair had aroused. Jack threw back his head, and smiled at the boys, while Corny's broad face was wreathed with the most benign expression, that made it look like a laughing moon. The scholars smiled back, and each drew a CALLED AS HELPERS. 153 relieved sigh, now the temperature of the schoolroom was right once more, since the Brimmer boys were themselves again; and scarcely realizing that there had been any break in the sunshiny intimacy between the two brothers, the classes settled back to work, and straightway forgot the whole thing. But Mr. Thomas thought it all over, and de- cided on a certain plan. After school was over, and the brothers were rushing off, arm-in-arm, as was their custom, the teacher sang out, " Here, Jack, wait a bit," and motioned to a seat back of the desk. Jack stopped, whirled "about, and came back rather unwillingly. " You don't mind telling me," began Mr. Thomas, " I'm sure, if there's anything I can help you about?" Jack shook his head sturdily with a smile. "You and I are too good friends," Mr. Thomas proceeded, " to have any silence between us. If there is anything troubling you, maybe I can find a way to help you out of it." Jack stood quite still, evidently battling with himself. If he only might confide in this good friend ! Truly there would be " a way out " of 154 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. the trouble. "But it's Mr. Brown's secret," thought the boy, " and I'm not quite so mean as to tell it ; that would be dreadful. Better let Reuben and Mat go without the schooling than that." So he still shook his head. " Very well," said Mr. Thomas, very much dis- appointed, and rising, " if I cannot do anything to show my affection for you, Jack, now when you seem to be in trouble, I am very sorry. If, at any time, you think better of my offer to help, come to me, my boy. You will always find me ready to do everything in my power." " Thank you," cried Jack, all his heart in his eyes ; and grasping Corny's fat arm the tighter, he hurried his brother off. All the way home the two tongues ran glibly enough. Jack told to the absorbed listener all that Mr. Brown had said on the fruitless visit, when young Brimmer had, according to the promise given to the Brown boys, interceded with the father, begging that his sons might go to the evening school over John Shaw's grocery store, at a cost to each, of one dollar a week Corny interrupting occasionally with outbursts of astonishment at finding Mr. Brown a poor CALLED AS HELPERS. 156 man with a dreadful mortgage hanging over his house, or exclaiming indignantly at the trials imposed by Providence upon their two ac- quaintances. " What ever will you do, Jack?" he asked, at length, as they neared the big old gray house that loomed up on the Brimmer grounds. " Oh ! isn't it just splendid to see Mamsie's light in the window? I know just how she looks be- hind the curtain, with her mending-basket, and Rosy sitting by with her book. Isn't it prime to see it all before we get in ? " Cornelius gave a loud smack of delight, and turning in the gateway, ran along the box- bordered path, speedily executed a jump over the steps, and leaving Jack and his question un- answered, burst into the cheery keeping-room. " Goodness, Corny ! " exclaimed Mother Brim- mer, as a gust of wind followed the boy's sudden entrance, " you most blew out the light ; where's Jack?" "Just back," said Corny, with a nod of his head toward the gate, and giving his mother a kiss. " Whew ! it's cold to-night, though ! " " What did Mr. Thomas say when you told him why Rosy didn't go to school to-night?" 166 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. asked Mrs. Brimmer, looking up from her work a minute. " He didn't say anything," said Corny in sud- den and complete dismay. " Didn't say anything?" cried Mrs. Brimmer and Rosy together. " Well, that's very strange," added the mother, while Rosy's round face grew very grave. " I forgot to tell him oh ! I forgot," con- fessed Cornelius wildly, feeling as if the even- ing and everything connected with it were certainly bewitched. Just then Jack walked in. "What's the matter?" he cried, catching sight first of all, the displeasure on his mother's face. Then his glance went around to Rosy, who appeared very near to tears, and finally he looked full at Corny. " What M the mat- ter?" he repeated. " For the first time in his life,'" began Mother Brimmer very gravely, "Corny has not paid enough attention to what his mother said, to remember the message she sent to Mr. Thomas." "Tell her, Jack," implored Cornelius, be- sieging the elder brother. Tell her quick, do, what made me forget." CALLED AS HELPERS. 157 His hands worked nervously, and he seemed in danger of being submerged by another flood of tears. But he kept them back bravely, looking to the big boy for relief. " Mother," said Jack, " I'm the bad boy. I've made a mess of the whole evening every- thing's happened. I'll begin at the beginning and tell you all about it." So he threw him- self into a chair close to the mother, Corny, with immense relief to his own overcharged feelings, dragged another noisily into place, and the tale began : " You know I went to Mr. Brown's at six o'clock, so as to have plenty of time before school ? " Mother Brimmer nodded, and fell to working again. Even in an absorbing recital like this, her fingers could not afford to be idle. " Go on with your work, Rosy, child," she said to Company. " You can hear as well if your needle is going." " Well, first thing when I got to Mr. Brown's they were at supper." " At supper ! " exclaimed Mother Brimmer, " why, I thought they always ate at five o'clock." 158 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " Well, they had to have it to-night at six," explained Jack. " Mr. Brown went over to the Hollow to help Mr. Jenkins kill his pigs, and didn't get back till late ; and there he sat eat- ing till I thought he'd never get through." " You shouldn't criticise other people's ways," said Mrs. Brimmer gravely. " "Tisn't nice." Jack flushed. " I know it, Mamsie." " Do go on, Jack," begged Rosalie, in great excitement, setting uneven stitches. " Well, they wanted me to sit up at the table, but I told them I'd been to supper, so I waited in the keeping-room, and studied over my lessons. And finally Mr. Brown came in, smelling of ham, and says, ' Well, Sonny, what can I do for you ? ' " " Sonny ! " cried Cornelius, in a dudgeon. Was not Jack in business for himself ? " Why didn't you knock him down?" " O Corny ! " exclaimed Rosy, in horror, drop- ping her work. "Well, I thought I wouldn't just then," said Jack with a laugh. " I'd take out my revenge in making him let his boys go to evening school. So I began to tell what I'd come for. I hadn't said ten words before Mr. Brown brought down Wllll M.l K VVOUK," SIIK S.VIJJ To 97 198 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. was working with might and main to lift the dreadful mortgage. And Miss Clorinda sent over three or four times a day for things she did not want, beside getting another woman to help Betty make double the amount of doughnuts, for they were going off literally like "hot cakes," while, as for the butter, the firm could not begin to supply the demand. The trouble that Connors and his sons hoped to make for The Little Red Shop, proved to be the greatest blessing that ever fell upon a strug- gling business, and cemented as nothing else could have done, the friendship between the Brimmers and their faithful helpers. And it seemed to make a man at once of Jack, who, made very humble by the want of faith he had shown, was kept from pride now that every- thing seemed to be on the pinnacle of success. It did the hearts of all good just to look at the boy, and realize that here indeed was one of Cherryfield's rising citizens. Corny had more difficulty to keep within bounds, and his mother warned him that it would be a great temptation for him not to be puffed up at this sudden rise in fortune. STANCH FRIENDS INDEED. 199 " If you do put on airs, I shall be sorry you haven't Connors' store thriving across the way," she said decidedly ; " nothing can be worse than to have one of my boys spoiled." And Cornelius promised quickly that he never, never would "talk big" in all the world, and then the next thing he knew he was biting his lip to keep back the words rushing out when some of his friends dropped in to see them. It really began to look like a big business, this begun so simply in The Little Red Shop, and the bank account grew apace, and Mr. Corbin's face was wreathed in smiles whenever he looked at Jack, and Corny began to dream wildly o' nights of Jack's being asked to be a director in the bank, and all things went on merrily from week's end to week's end. And the tucks in Rosy's dresses had to be let down, and Mother Brimmer sighed one day and said she had lost her little girl, for Company was braiding up her long hair, and begging to pin it high on her head. " I don't want to be big, Mamsie," said Rosy, " only it's in the way." " I suppose you may," said Mother Brimmer, 20:) THE LITTLE RED SHOP. with another long sigh, " but I'm sorry all the same." " Then it shall hang down my back forever," cried Rosy merrily, and, her cheeks aflame, " O, Mamsie ! I want to be your little girl always," and she threw her arms around the comfortable neck. " And you always shall," declared Mrs. Brim- mer, drawing her close, " and here's my baby," as Primrose, watching the unwonted spectacle out of grave eyes, deserted her doll, and rushed for the comfortable lap ; " Mother never'll forget to save room for her." About this time, three persons were holding a conclave in the minister's study. They were Miss Clorinda Peaseley, Mr. Corbin and the parson himself. " It's high time," announced Miss Peaseley in a high key, " that the work was begun. You haven't set about it a moment too spon, Mr. Corbin." " No, indeed," said the president. " Well, now, as I understand it," said Parson Higginson, leaning back in his study chair, and folding his hands ministerially, "you two," bowing to the president and Miss Peaseley, his STANCH FRIENDS INDEED. 201 good parishioners, "are proposing to build this shop, and give it rent free to the Brimmers they to be allowed to buy it whenever they wish, at the fair cost of the materials and labor?" " That is our proposal," said Mr. Corbin. " How I wish I had some filthy lucre," sighed the parson, " that I might help on this under- taking." " Nonsense ! " exclaimed the president with a laugh, who said pretty much what he wanted to to his pastor. " You've done more than all of us put together, by your example to those good people." " Example does very well," said the parson, " but material help is not to be despised." " Which is our part," cried Miss Clorinda sharply. " Why, you'd put us out in the cold, and leave us nothing to contribute," which raised a great shout at the president's and her own expense. But Miss Clorinda cared little for that. " I think we'd better give the work to Crocker," said Mr. Corbin, when the laugh died down. " He needs it very badly. And nothing would please Jack more than to help up an- other poor struggling soul." 202 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. " You'll have that boy in the bank with yon, first thing you know," said the parson suddenly, with almost as wild dreams as Corny. " No, I shall not," said the president quickly, " unless my opinions are changed by Jack's decided talent for banking. He has made a business ; let him stick to it, is my creed." " I'm very glad to hear you say so," remarked Miss Peaseley, twisting in her chair to get a better view of the president's face, " for I must say I've been worried dreadfully for fear that yon were going to make him dissatisfied with the grocery business, and, as you say, he's made it, so I did want to see him stick to it like a Christian." " And he shall ; you need not give another thought toward me as a meddler," said Mr. Corbin ; "look over at the parson, rather. He's had his eye on him, I suspect, for the pulpit." " I must confess to some leaning that way," said Mr. Higginson. " What a capital preacher he'd make!" " He can preach back of that counter of his," cried Miss Clorinda sharply again. " I'd like to know if it don't take grace not to sift sand into sugar and sell it at ten cents a pound, STANCH FRIENDS INDEED. 203 and to keep from watering the milk when you know you lose money by it say ? " " You are quite correct," said Parson Hig- ginson, "it takes grace, indeed." " Well, then, promise to keep hands off from the boy, won't you?" cried Miss Clorinda earnestly. " If Mr. Corbin won't influence him, you ought to let him alone. I'm a great deal more afraid of you," she added. " I promise," said the parson, laughing, "only I shall be glad to see the day when Jack will come to me and say, ' I am going to be a minister.' '' "Well, that day won't ever come," flatly declared Miss Peaseley ; " for that boy is going to show that a business can be made and carried on in a Christian way. You see if he isn't." And then they lapsed into a talk over the plans for the new building, which were to be very secret indeed. CHAPTER XXIII. THE SECRET. |_)RIMROSE rushed in flushed and panting. -*- It was baking day, and there was a huge fire roaring up the chimney. "O, Mamsie!" it was all the child could say, as she threw herself up against the hands carrying a pie across the floor to the brick oven. " Take care, child ! This is too full of juice. You almost threw that over ! " " Are we to be very awful rich ? " cried Prim- rose, with sparkling eyes. " Very, Mamsie ? " " No," said Mrs. Brimmer ; " we never shall be rich at all, Prim." Then she stooped down, slipped her pie in, got up and wiped off the few drops of juice trickling over her apron. The child stopped short, her cheek paling. "Why, Mamsie?" "You see, we are working people," said 204 THE SECRET. 205 Mother Brimmer cheerily, " and so we don't expect to have fortunes left us. I sh'd rather work for what I got," she added proudly. Primrose slowly surveyed her with grave eyes, her small face working ; realizing that the disappointment into which she had been so suddenly plunged, was fast gaining on her, she turned an abrupt back on her mother, and at last took refuge behind her pink gingham apron. "Who's been talking to you," asked Mrs. Brimmer, her black eyes scanning keenly the little face, " to put such ideas into your head, I sh'd like to know?" " Everybody," said Primrose, swallowing fast to keep from an outbreak of woe. " Everybody ? Well, now begin. In the first place," Mrs. Brimmer sat down in the nearest chair she could find, "come to mother,** holding out her hand.' Primrose turned and plunged across the kitchen, hiding her face in the depths of the comfortable lap. " Mat and Reuben Brown told me " she gasped. " Sha'n't we ever be rich ? " And at last the tears came. 206 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. "There, there," said Mrs. Brimmer, with soothing pats on the yellow head. " I suppose it seems to those poor boys as if the business was going to make us rich folks. But it won't, child ; only it will get you all your education, and that will make the Old Brimmer Place better than a castle." "What is a castle?" asked Primrose, sud- denly pausing in the midst of a^ob. "Oh! a big stone building, where there are plenty of princesses in it," said Mrs. Brimmer " that is, it's big enough to hold 'em and where they all eat off gold plates every day." " Oh ! oh ! " screamed Primrose. Then she asked with sudden awe, "Are they live folks who live there ? Real live little girls like me ? " " La, yes ! " said Mrs. Brimmer with a laugh. " They're nothing but flesh and blood when all is said, just like common folks. And they're not half so happy as we are, Prim ; they fight and quarrel most every day with somebody." "What do they fight for?" demanded the child, with wide-eyed astonishment, " if they've got gold plates." " Because they want diamond ones, I sup- pose," said Mrs. Brimmer, " or something else THE SECRET. 207 that they don't happen to have. There, now, go to play, child ; mother must fly to her bak- ing." She glanced at the old clock in the cor- ner, and bustled out of her chair. Primrose slowly went out of the kitchen, and sat down on the back steps to think it all out by herself. " Hulloo, Prim ! " sang out a boy. And "Hulloo, Prim!" as another boy fol- lowed around the corner of the house. " I know all about prinscissors ! " cried the child excitedly, and springing to her feet ; " they live, oh ! in the biggest houses, and they fight about gold plates, and I'd rather live in the old Brimmer House." " I should think you would," cried one of the boys. " The Brimmer House is the jolliest old place in all Cherryfield." " What in the world do you mean by prin- scissors?" cried the other. " I know," cried Primrose, with her most im- portant air, and shaking her yellow head, "I know." " Well, run in and tell Jack and Corny to hurry out. We've got something to tell 'em. Mr. Thomas sent us." 208 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. "Jack and Corny aren't at home," said Primrose, descending to her ordinary manner. "They're over to the mill. I heard 'em tell Mamsie they were going." " Come on, then, if that's the case," said the first boy ; " no use in waiting here," and they dashed off. Meanwhile an animated conversation was going on in the parson's study. "Whatever shall we do!" cried Miss Clor- inda Peaseley, trembling with excitement. " Here the foundation of our building is only made, and the whole air of Cherryfield is full of the secret that we three promised faithfully to keep. However did it get out ?" " As you say," replied Mr. Higginson, " the air is full of it. I've always noticed when no one tells a profound secret, that it is the quick- est out. What shall we do now that it has escaped us ? That is the question." He glanced over at the president. " John Peavey asked me point-blank this very morning," said Mr. Corbin, " if I was not putting up that building .for the Brimmer boys." " And Mrs. Tousey says she knows, absolutely THE SECRET. 209 knows, that I am doing it for them," cried Miss Clorinda with a laugh. " Nobody suspects me of such a thing," said the parson, "but I have been questioned by at least a dozen separate and distinct persons within the last week if I am not aiding and abetting you two in the work. As you say, Miss Clorinda, the air is full of our secret." "And if we don't look out the Brimmers will hear it," exclaimed Miss Peaseley excitedly. " Now, what's to be done ? That's what I'd like to know." CHAPTER XXIV. THE SECRET IS OUT. ~TV /TR. THOMAS walked rapidly up and -^ -*- down the schoolroom in a great state of excitement. Never since he could remem- ber had he felt so stirred up in his mind. It was with the greatest difficulty that he held himself in check while thinking of the arrival of the boys and girls, so soon to gather for evening school. He folded his hands together in front of him, and held them there, deco- rously trying to observe the calm demeanor he was far from feeling. But that being no suc- cess > speak of, he twitched them apart, and swung each one nervously by his side. This not seeming to suit his ideas as to the dignity a teacher should wear when confronted by a pupil, he vainly essayed crossing them com- posedly on his breast as he brought his pace down to a meditative step. But the latter 210 THE SECRET 18 OUT. 211 pose proving as utter a failure as before, he fell back into his old swinging gait, and let his arms go as they would. Accordingly, he was just in the heat of the ferment that possessed him, when the door cautiously opened, and he was conscious that a head was intruded into the apartment. " Come in, boys," he called, struggling with the confusion into which he was now thrown at being thus discovered ; " you're a bit early, aren't you ? " " Yes, I am," answered Miss Clorinda Pease- ley ; " and I did it a-purpose. Are you sure everything is ready that your scholars won't get at it before you are ready to march ? Steady now, Mr. Thomas," she said, coming in and going quite close to the teacher, whom she scrutinized most exhaustively. " I'm afraid you'll let it out yet," she concluded anxiously. " I'm a bit shaken," said Mr. Thomas, " and that's the truth. You see it's long since I've been in any such secret, and I've worked pretty hard, and it's got a little the best of me. But I have fifteen minutes yet " he glanced at the clock "before the pupils come, and I think I'll come out of it all right." 212 TUE LITTLE RED SHOP. " What are Greek roots good for," said Miss Clorinda, a trifle contemptuously, " if they don't help you to bear a strain like this one ? or all your everlasting sums in arithmetic; if you can't subtract from your nerves, and add to your self-control, I should say there was some- thing else to learn," she added quite plainly. "True, true," assented the schoolteacher, " yet if they do not help me when a big excite- ment comes, like to-day, they're a deal of com- fort every day." "That may be," retorted the spinster, "but if I'd stuck to a Greek root and my algebra year in and year out, as you have, I wouldn't let 'em leave me in the lurch in a pinch like this one. Well, well, however, that's neither here nor there. Time's getting on, and all your young brood will whoop over the stairs before any one can say ' Jack Robinson.' Here they come now ! " she announced. " Don't look as if you were going to have your picture taken, as the photograph man says, but think of something else, and smile real pleasant." The schoolmaster, on that, executed a most unhappy grin, and thereupon presented a coun- tenance so unlike his own, that three or four THE SECRET IS OUT. 213 small boys " whooping in " immediately turned and fastened their gaze upon him, as if they would read him through and through. "Go to your seats, Jones and Wilcox," he said spasmodically, and motioning Miss Pease- ley to a seat, he put himself back of his desk, and with no further concern about his visitor, he began to arrange his desk. " Oh ! I can't stay," said Miss Clorinda airily, and looking as inscrutably wise as it was pos- sible for a woman lo look who was denied the use of her tongue. " Betsey will be setting the house on fire like as not, if I don't hurry home. Well, you be there sharp, remember," and flashing him another glance from her sharp gray eyes, she bustled out of the room as a small delegation of boys and girls rushed over the stairs. " I will," promised Mr. Thomas after her. " Something's up," whispered Carter and Jones, back of their spelling books ; " did you ever see him look so ? My ! do you s'pose he's going to marry her ? " breathed Jones in a startled way. Carter burst out laughing, which so irritated Mr. Thomas, as the sound reached him, that he 214 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. brought down his paper cutter sharply on the desk, with a " Silence, boys ! " that effectually stopped their amusement. But the other boys had caught the infection of the excitement, and were now studying closely Mr. Thomas and his erratic movements to their hearts' content. The result was that he was twice as nervous as before, and felt that to hear lessons with any sort of composure would be beyond him altogether. " Pupils," he said suddenly, and putting down his book, "I am going to throw myself on your mercy. Don't look questions at me ; I'm not equal to lessons to-night. You may study by yourselves ; I shall leave you on your honor for an hour," and he took up his hat and shot out of the room. The scholars stared wildly at each other for the space of a moment, and then the uproar began. Chairs were pushed back from desks, and books thrown down to lie where they drop- ped. Every boy found his feet, and a high hilarity reigned among them all. " This isn't much like being on honor, now," said one boy, pausing to take breath. " It's the first shock of the surprise," said THE SECRET IS OUT. 215 another, the leader in all new enterprises ; "come on a bit, then we'll sober down." But the other boy would not " come on," and, the girls setting the example, the fun slacken- ing, the room soon quieted down, and a sem- blance to study was begun, each scholar keeping a steady eye on the clock. Mr. Thomas, out in the open air, turned down Main Street, walking rapidly, and with a sort of exultant defiance in his singular action. Swinging around the corner, he came suddenly upon two gentlemen walking slowly in an oppo- site direction, and conversing as they went. " Beg pardon," he began awkwardly. Hey ? O, Thomas, that you?" cried Presi- dent Corbin, dropping the arm of his friend. "What ! not in school?" exclaimed the min- ister in amazement. " I was so nervous," confessed Mr. Thomas, "thinking of the whole thing, and afraid I shouldn't do my part well, that I left the scholars to study by themselves, and got out into the open air." Mr. Corbin and the parson burst into a laugh. " We're not much better," they cried. " Blesa me ! " added the president, " I haven't been so 216 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. excited since I was a little shaver, and got my first top." " Well," said the schoolteacher, drawing a long breath, "I'm thankful it's nearly over. I've almost let it out at least a hundred times." " Have the Brimmer boys and Rosy come into school?" inquired the president. " No ; but they're sure to be there," said Mr. Thomas. " See ; it's only half-past seven now. Oh ! they're sure to be there," he repeated. " Still it's quite necessary to be certain about it," said Mr. Higginson. " Wouldn't you better run back and reconnoiter, and bring us word?" Mr. Thomas turned on his heel. " I suppose so," he said. " I hope no one will catch me making observations." So while the others, like a couple of conspir- ators, waited under cover of a tall building, he retraced his steps, and mounting the back stairs, took advantage of his intimate knowledge of the premises, to step into a closet that held a fcmall window opening into the main room, Here he had the satisfaction of quickly perceiv- ing the three Brimmers, studying away as vigi- lantly as if the eye of their master was upon THE SECRET IS OUT. 217 them ; as indeed it was, though they did not know it. Mr. Thomas therefore took himself down from his post of observation, and soon joined his two confreres where they were im- patiently awaiting him. " It isn't hard for us to make up our minds where we will walk this evening," observed the president facetiously, and linking his arm to that of his pastor again. " I declare, it's the sightliest place in all Cherryfield," said Mr. Higginson enthusiasti- cally, as all three paused in front of a sub- stantial foundation of a building that in the moonlight gave to a vivid imagination, promise of a fine structure that should overtop the loftiest ones yet in the town. " Brimmer Brothers and Company will look well on the central door, now won't it?" broke out the schoolmaster excitedly. " Hush ! hush ! even now it might creep out," warned the president. Mr. Thomas hugged himself with his long arms, and shut his lips fast. " It's eight o'clock," he said as a relief, and pulling out his watch, " almost time to go back and marshal the boys." 218 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " And for us to gather our forces," said the president. " Come, pastor," and he led him away, " we'll be at the corner precisely at eight-thirty." " All right." Mr. Thomas skipped back like a boy, ran up the stairs, and presented himself among his pupils with such shining eyes that all greeted him with a spontaneous " Hurrah ! " " Oh ! you needn't cheer me," cried the mas- ter hilariously, " you'll have enough cheering to do before the evening's out hem ! I mean, you may all put aside your books and look at me." Which indeed they could not very well help doing. " Hem ! I want you all to take a little walk with me. That is, we will march where? I will tell you at the proper time. You are not to ask me questions. You are not even to imagine the surprise in store for you ; you are simply to obey commands, and, at the signal, to fall into step. It is now seventeen minutes past eight." Mr. Thomas pulled out his long- suffering watch once more. " At eight-thirty precisely, you will lay aside your books, and form a line, two and two. Brimmer," the mas- ter nodded to the tall boy over in the corner, THE SECRET IS OUT. 219 " will you and Corny lead the procession ? The rest can fall into line as you like." Then the master, his face overflowing with a secret excitement that would not let him con- ceal his joy, busied himself about his own affairs, and left the boys to get ready for the great denouement as they best could. And on the minute exactly, the " Thomas School " deserted their classroom, turned their backs on their studies, and set forth, winding down the stairs in a bewildered state of mind, but in an orderly procession. Mr. Thomas, as was proper, led the way. It was like a silent army going out to possess a sleeping garrison. No one was there to watch their march, because no one had been apprised of their coming. As simply as if it were one boy leaving the school, the long line moved down the stairs and out of the building ; as steadily and quickly as if a campaign were planned, by a sure hand and clear head, the silent procession went its way to the corner, where, under cover of some tall buildings, stood a group that soon announced their intention of joining in the march. "How do you do?" cried President Corbin, 220 THE LITTLE RED SHOP. bowing profusely to the ranks. " Thank you ! I believe I will go, too," and he fell into step just back of the master. "No, no, sir," protested Mr. Thomas, exe- cuting a skillful pas seul by which he achieved a position in the rear of the moneyed man, " your place is in front." " At least I shall be supported by the clergy," said Mr. Corbin, drawing Mr. Higginson for- ward. " And Miss Peaseley, too," said the parson, offering her his arm ; " you can allow three abreast, can't you, as leaders?" " Nonsense ! " said Miss Clorinda, whose evi- dent great satisfaction would not allow her to be other than blunt-spoken, " you two go ahead ; no woman ever led an army well, so far as I've heard, except Joan of Arc, and goodness me ! " with a short laugh, " I'm not much like her. I'm going with you, Mrs. Brimmer." And there, to be sure, was Mother Brimmer advancing from the shadow of a tree-trunk into the bright moonlight. Jack, Cornelius and Rosalie now rubbed their eyes violently, but there was no time to explain, hardly to wonder. The president was fast giving out his orders. THE SECRET IS OUT. 221 " Attention ! " he said, in a low voice ; " we don't want to attract a crowd, so we'll be as quiet as possible. Now follow us." They passed the word along, and with that, he and the parson set off at marching pace, until they brought the line up in true soldierly fashion in the open lot on the corner, where workmen had for some time been laying a foundation for a building, to be used for what purpose, no one in Cherryfield seemed to know. The boys of the "Thomas School" had fretted a bit at the land being now built upon. It had been an excellent place for a ball ground and a tennis court; and it was so near the center of the town as to be a good meeting place for all their number. Aside from that regret, everybody was glad of the enterprise that would set in motion a new improvement in real estate. But though all means such as are generally employed had been used freely to find out who were the men behind this building operation, or why the work was to be done, no one had actually found out the fact, or could say that any of the numerous surmises was the truth. Xow to-night, in the bright moonlight, drawn 222 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. around the spot in a large circle, the " Thomas School" were to be let into the secret by a unique method. " Girls and boys," said the parson, in obe- dience to a whisper from the president, and running his eye around the ring, " you all see this foundation," pointing to it. Who didn't? "What's it for?" piped out Johnnie Carey, in an awful spasm of uncontrollable curiosity. " Ah ! that is the question. You might guess one thing, and you might guess another, and come far from the truth. Now you shall know without delay. It is to be a building " A groan of disappointment passed around the entire circle as the parson paused, appar- ently at the end of his narration. " in which we hope to see illustrated, Cherryfield's attempt to prove that good citi- zenship pays. Good citizenship, I repeat," said the parson, getting excited, and waving his hand. " Honesty toward all men ; charity toward all, and the heart set on God. This makes a good citizen, girls and boys." " Hear ! hear ! " cried the president, pounding with his walking-stick on the ground. THE SECRET IS OUT. 223 " Now this building is to be erected as the place where such good citizenship may be seen ; where it may work before you all, through, we will hope, long and happy lives. You may cheer now, if you like, for the good citizens, the future dwellers in this building that is to be" Parson Higginson stepped on a stone, and swung his hat. "As we shall probably have a crowd of sightseers upon us presently," he said, on the conclusion of this performance, which immensely relieved the pent-up condition of the boys, " we will proceed briefly. Brimmer and Company, as you have been cheered by your comrades, will you have the goodness to step out here and show yourselves?" He nodded over at them and held out his hand to Rosy. " I do not understand," began Jack, standing quite still. Corny, pretending great calmness, felt his legs shake under him with some great development, he could not tell what, impend- ing. Rosy smiled innocently on the crowd, and thought it a beautiful sight, but that it had anything to do with them, never entered her mind. 224 THE LITTLE BED SHOP. " Of course you don't understand," exclaimed the parson and the president together, nodding at the senior member. " And maybe you won't till you see Brimmer Brothers and Company on the middle door. Then how will it look ? " cried Miss Peaseley. "Say? Big letters, you know, and as bright as the gilt can make 'em, you know. Say?" " Hurry, Jack, and lead the others out. I hear the rumblings of the earth that proclaim ' the coming crowd. We want this all to our- selves ; that's one reason why we chose to bring you all here in the evening. Come," and Jack found himself with Corny and Rosy somehow in the centre of the circle, with the three conspirators all talking together and say- ing something to the circle, Mother Brimmer over on the outer edge, and the schoolmaster distributing himself generously in as many places as he impartially could. And out of the confusion the ear could catch, " It's for you, Jack, and Corny, and Rosalie." " The Little Red Shop is to be the Brimmer Store." " You are to have it at twenty-five dollars THE SECRET IS OUT. 225 rent the first year, and as you make your profits your rent will advance, until you are treated like other business concerns." "There is to be a library and reading-room in the second story " "And it will be ready to move into in six months " The noise of numberless feet, bringing spec- tators rushing to the scene, anticipating a fire, or an explosion, or an impromptu political parade, or one of the thousand and one events that thrill a town centre, brought this ringing order : " Hurry ! we want this celebration all to our- selves. Now, another cheer from you all for Brimmer Brothers and Company now!" It came from bewildered and happy and ex- cited throats, almost drowning its finale, "The crowd are coming! Disband, and scamper home ! " University of California Library Los Angeles This hook is DUE on the last date stamped below. Phone Renewals 310/82^-9188 M)G 04 Illlll A 000 029 984 2