Mary Louise by Lyman Frank Baum (top 100 books of all time checklist .txt) đ
- Author: Lyman Frank Baum
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âAnswer me!â
âHow kin I? Dâye know where Markâs Peak is?â
âNo.â
âIt takes a week ter git thar; theyâll likely hunt two er three weeks; mebbe more; ye kin tell that as well as I kin. Mister Willâs gone ter You-RUPP with Missâ Morrison, so Talbot he wonât be in no hurry ter come back.â
âGreat Caesar! Hereâs a pretty mess. Are you Talbotâs boy?â
âNope. Iâm a Grigger, anâ live over in the holler, yonder.â
âWhat are you doing here?â
âEarninâ two bits a week.â
âHow?â
âLookinâ after the place.â
âVery well. Mr. Morrison has given us permission to use the Lodge while he is away, so unlock the doors and help get the baggage in.â
The boy notched the stick with his knife, using great care.
âTalbot didnât say nuthânâ âbout that,â he remarked composedly.
Mr. Conant uttered an impatient ejaculation. It was one of his peculiarities to give a bark similar to that of a dog when greatly annoyed. After staring at the boy a while he took out Will Morrisonâs letter to Talbot, opened it and held it before Bubâs face.
âRead that!â he cried.
Bub grinned and shook his head.
âI kainât read,â he said.
Mr. Conant, in a loud and severe voice, read Mr. Morrisonâs instruction to his man Talbot to do everything in his power to make the Conants comfortable and to serve them as faithfully as he did his own master. The boy listened, whittling slowly. Then he said:
âMebbe thatâs all right; anâ agâin, mebbe tainât. Seeinâ as I kainât read I ainât goinâ ter take no oneâs word fer it.â
âYou insolent brat!â exclaimed Peter Conant, highly incensed. Then he turned and called: âCome here, Mary Louise.â
Mary Louise promptly advanced and with every step she made the boy retreated a like distance, until the lawyer seized his arm and held it in a firm grip.
âWhat do you mean by running away?â he demanded.
âI hates gals,â retorted Bub sullenly.
âDonât be a fool. Come here, Mary Louise, and read this letter to the boy, word for word.â
Mary Louise, marking the boyâs bashfulness and trying to restrain a smile, read Mr. Morrisonâs letter.
âYou see,â said the lawyer sharply, giving Bub a little shake, âthose are the exact words of the letter. Weâre going to enter the Lodge and take possession of it, as Mr. Morrison has told us to do, and if you donât obey my orders I shall give you a good flogging. Do you understand that?â
Bub nodded, more cheerfully.
âIf ye do it by force,â said he, âthat lets me out. Nobody kin blame me if Iâm forced.â
Mary Louise laughed so heartily that the boy cast an upward, half-approving glance at her face. Even Mr. Conantâs stern visage relaxed.
âSee here, Bub,â he said, âobey my orders and no harm can come to you. This letter is genuine and if you serve us faithfully while we are here IâllâIâll give you four bits a week.â
âHeh? Four bits!â
âExactly. Four bits every week.â
âGee, thatâll make six bits a week, with the two Talbotâs goinâ ter give me. Iâm hanged ef I donât buy a sweater fer next winter, afore the cold weather comes!â
âVery good,â said Mr. Conant. âNow get busy and let us in.â
Bub deliberately closed the knife and put it in his pocket, tossing away the stick.
âGals,â he remarked, with another half glance at Mary Louise, âainât ter my likinâ; but FOUR BITSââ
He turned and walked away to where a wild rosebush clambered over one corner of the Lodge. Pushing away the thick, thorny branches with care, he thrust in his hand and drew out a bunch of keys.
âIf itâs jusâ the same tâ you, sir, Iâd ruther yeâd snatch âem from my hand,â he suggested. âThen, if Iâm blamed, I kin prove a alibi.â
Mr. Conant was so irritated that he literally obeyed the boyâs request and snatched the keys. Then he led the way to the front door.
âItâs that thin, brass one,â Bub hinted.
Mr. Conant opened the front door. The place was apparently in perfect order.
âGo and get Hannah and Irene, please,â said Peter to Mary Louise, and soon they had all taken possession of the cosy Lodge, had opened the windows and aired it and selected their various bedrooms.
âIt is simply delightful!â exclaimed Irene, who was again seated in her wheeled chair, âand, if Uncle Peter will build a little runway from the porch to the ground, as he did at home, I shall be able to go and come as I please.â
Meantime Aunt Hannahâas even Mary Louise now called Mrs. Conantâ ransacked the kitchen and cupboards to discover what supplies were in the house. There was a huge stock of canned goods, which Will Morrison had begged them to use freely, and the Conants had brought a big box of other groceries with them, which was speedily unpacked.
While the others were thus engaged in settling and arranging the house, Irene wheeled her chair to the porch, on the steps of which sat Bub, again whittling. He had shown much interest in the crippled girl, whose misfortune seemed instantly to dispel his aversion for her sex, at least so far as she was concerned. He was not reluctant even to look at her face and he watched with astonishment the ease with which she managed her chair. Having overheard, although at a distance, most of the boyâs former conversation with Uncle Peter, Irene now began questioning him.
âHave you been eating and sleeping here?â
âOf course,â answered Bub.
âIn the Lodge?â
âNo; over in Talbotâs house. Thatâs over the ridge, yonder; itâs only a step, but ye kainât see it fâm here. My homeâs in the South Holler, four mile away.â
âDo you cook your own meals?â
âNobudy else ter do it.â
âAnd donât you get dreadfully lonesome at night?â
âWho? Me? Guess not. What the Sam Hill is they to be lonesome over?â
âThere are no near neighbors, are there?â
âPlenty. The Barker house is two mile one way anâ the Bigbee house is jusâ half a mile down the slope; guess ye passed it, cominâ up; but they ainât no one in the Bigbee house jusâ now, âcause Bigbee got shot on the mountân lasâ year, a deer huntânâ, anâ Bigbeeâs wifeâs married another man what says heâs delicate like anâ canât leave the city. But neighbors is plenty. Six mile along the canyon lives Doolittle.â
Irene was delighted with Bubâs quaint language and ways and before Mrs. Conant called her family to the simple improvised dinner the chair-girl had won the boyâs heart and already they were firm friends.
Hillcrest Lodge was perched upon a broad shelf of the wooded mountain, considerably nearer to the bottom than to the top, yet a stiff climb from the plain below. Behind it was a steep cliff; in front there was a gradual descent covered with scrub but affording a splendid view of the lowlands. At one side was the rocky canyon with its brook struggling among the boulders, and on the other side the roadway that wound up the mountain in zigzag fashion, selecting the course of least resistance.
Will Morrison was doubtless a mighty hunter and an expert fisherman, for the âdenâ at the rear of the Lodge was a regular museum of trophies of the chase. Stag and doe heads, enormous trout mounted on boards, antlers of wild mountain sheep, rods, guns, revolvers and hunting-knives fairly lined the wails, while a cabinet contained reels, books of flies, cartridge belts, creels and many similar articles. On the floor were rugs of bear, deer and beaver. A shelf was filled with books on sporting subjects. There was a glass door that led onto a little porch at the rear of the Lodge and a big window that faced the cliff.
This sanctum of the owner rather awed the girls when first they examined it, but they found it the most fascinating place in all the house and Irene was delighted to be awarded the bedroom that adjoined it. The other bedrooms were on the upper floor.
âHowever,â said Mr. Conant to Irene, âI shall reserve the privilege of smoking my evening pipe in this den, for here is a student lamp, a low table and the easiest chairs in all the place. If you keep your bedroom door shut you wonât mind the fumes of tobacco.â
âI donât mind them anyhow, Uncle Peter,â she replied.
Bub Grigger helped get in the trunks and boxes. He also filled the woodbox in the big living room and carried water from the brook for Aunt Hannah, but otherwise he was of little use to them. His favorite occupation was whittling and he would sit for hours on one of the broad benches overlooking the valley, aimlessly cutting chips from a stick without forming it into any object whatsoever.
âI suppose all this time he is deeply thinking,â said Mary Louise as the girls sat on the porch watching him, the day after their arrival, âbut it would be interesting to know what direction Bubâs thoughts take.â
âHe must be figuring up his earnings and deciding how long it will take to buy that winter sweater,â laughed Irene. âIâve had a bit of conversation with the boy already and his ideas struck me as rather crude and undeveloped.â
âOne idea, however, is firmly fixed in his mind,â declared Mary Louise. âHe âhates gals.ââ
âWe must try to dispel that notion. Perhaps he has a big sister at home who pounds him, and therefore he believes all girls are alike.â
âThen let us go to him and make friends,â suggested Mary Louise. âIf we are gentle with the boy we may win him over.â
Mr. Conant had already made a runway for the chair, so they left the porch and approached Bub, who saw them coming and slipped into the scrub, where he speedily disappeared from view. At other times, also, he shyly avoided the girls, until they began to fear it would be more difficult to âmake friendsâ than they had supposed.
Monday morning Mr. Conant went down the mountain road, valise in hand, and met Bill Coombs the stage-driver at the foot of the descent, having made this arrangement to save time and expense. Peter had passed most of his two daysâ vacation in fishing and had been so successful that he promised Aunt Hannah he would surely return the following Friday. He had instructed Bub to âtake good care of the womenfolksâ during his absence, but no thought of danger occurred to any of them. The Morrisons had occupied the Lodge for years and had never been molested in any way. It was a somewhat isolated place but the country people in the neighborhood were thoroughly honest and trustworthy.
âThere isnât much for us to do here,â said Mary Louise when the three were left alone, âexcept to read, to eat and to sleepâlazy occupations all. I climbed the mountain a little way yesterday, but the view from the Lodge is the best of all and if you leave the road you tear your dress to shreds in the scrub.â
âWell, to read, to eat and to sleep is the very best way to enjoy a vacation,â asserted Aunt Hannah. âLet us all take it easy and have a good time.â
Ireneâs box of books which Mr. Conant had purchased for her in New York had been placed in the den, where she could select the volumes as she chose, and the chair-girl found the titles so alluring that she promised herself many hours of enjoyment while delving among them. They were all old and secondhandâperhaps fourth-hand or fifth-handâas the lawyer had stated, and the covers were many of them worn to
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