Part 21 (2/2)

Northmore's eyes grew bright and moist at the sight of him; and the doctor, who had stretched himself on the lounge five minutes before in a state of exhaustion, declaring that nothing short of a case of apoplexy could make him budge off it that evening, fairly bounded across the room at the sight of Morton, and shook his hand with a heartiness suggestive of exuberant vitality.

”When did you get home?” was the first question when the greetings were over, and ”When are you going away?” followed, without waiting for answer.

”I just got in on the train this noon,” said Morton, ”and I'm going to-morrow morning. Can't spend any time loafing, you know, for the term began a month ago, and I must get there now as soon as I can.”

”And you'll have back work to make up the very first thing,” said Mrs.

Northmore. ”It's too bad to work so hard all summer and then start into your studies at such a disadvantage.”

”I think I can manage that all right,” said the young man, confidently.

”I've got money enough to make the ends meet for a while, without doing any outside work, and it won't take me long to catch up.”

”Well, don't make too brilliant a run, Mort,” said the doctor, dryly. ”I hate to see a good proverb spoiled; and all work and no play ought to make Jack a dull boy, if it doesn't.”

”I rather think Jack's a dull boy to start with, if it knocks him out in one season,” said the young man, laughing.

He was so modest, so manly, and his buoyant energy was so refres.h.i.+ng, that it was no wonder they all sat looking at him as if they had a personal pride in his doings.

”But at least you won't have to teach school this winter,” said Mrs.

Northmore.

”Not unless somebody relieves me of what I've earned this summer,” said Morton, lightly. ”In that case I'll speak for my old place again.”

”I'll warrant they'd let you have it,” said the doctor.

”Oh, they've made me the offer, already,” said Morton; ”besides, I hold a first-grade certificate to teach in that county, and I might miss it on examination somewhere else.”

”Not much danger of that, I fancy,” said Mrs. Northmore, and the doctor added, growling, ”Those examinations are a good deal of a humbug. For my part, I think a few oral questions put to a fellow straight out would be worth as much as all that written stuff.” He had been a county examiner once himself, and had a painful remembrance of the ”stuff,” which, to tell the truth, his wife had mostly examined for him.

”I rather think an oral question that was put to me helped me in my examination,” said Morton, a gleam of amused remembrance coming into his eyes. ”Did I ever tell you about that? I had just finished one set of papers and gone up to the desk for another, when one of the examiners, a dry, shrewd-looking old fellow, leaned over and put this question to me: 'When turkeys are six and three-fourths dollars per dozen, how many may be had for two dollars eighty-one cents and one-fourth?'”

”The mean thing!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Kate. ”He didn't expect you to figure that out in your head, right then and there, did he?”

”He expected an answer,” said Morton, ”and do you know, as good luck would have it, I hit it at the first shot, and gave it to him in a quarter of a minute. I told him _five_, and that was right.”

”Well,” gasped the doctor, ”talk about lightning calculators!”

”But I didn't calculate it,” laughed the young man. ”I told you 'twas luck. You see I knew the answer, being turkeys, must be a whole number, and the sum named was less than half the price of a dozen, so it couldn't be six, and I took the chances on five. The man that asked the question saw through it, of course, and I believe he sort of liked me after that. But look here, who cares about county examinations or what I did last winter? I want to hear about this summer, and how you liked New England. Start in, Kate, and tell me everything.”

”'Only that and nothing more?'” she said, lifting her hands. ”Why, I intend to give out my experiences sparingly, and embellish my conversation with them for the rest of my life. But we did have a glorious time-I'll tell you so much. And New England's great. If you've any doubts on that point you may as well give them up right here and now. It's funny, some of it, of course; the little fields, and the stone walls, and the ox-teams-but you get used to those things, you know; and the people are nice. It's the next best thing to living out here-it really is-to live in the Old Bay State, as grandfather calls it.”

And then, with an abandon which hardly tallied with her avowed intention to keep some capital for future use, she threw herself into the doings on the old farm, the attractions of New England villages, and the delights-oh! the delights of Boston and the sea, with his eager questions drawing her on and fresh items suggesting themselves at every turn.

It lengthened itself into a long delicious evening, and after a little the young people had it all to themselves, for the doctor was called off, and not to a case of apoplexy either, only to a child who had put a b.u.t.ton into his ear; and a neighbor dropped in, to whose troubles Mrs.

Northmore must give her sympathizing attention.

There was one subject on which the young man's interest showed itself keen at a score of points in the course of Kate's vivacious talk. Did Esther look at this and that as her sister did? Did she note the contrasts with a touch of pride and pleasure in the ways at home? Was she wholly glad to stay behind? And might it not be longer than the winter, much longer perhaps, before she would be at home again.

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