Part 15 (2/2)

CHAPTER XX.

MEG AS SCHOOL-MISTRESS

Upon arriving in Redfords, Meg Heger had at once given the letter which had been marked ”Important! Rus.h.!.+” to the innkeeper, who was about to start for the station to meet the eastbound train. He promised the girl to attend to putting the letter on the train himself, and thus a.s.sured that she had served her neighbors to the best of her ability, Meg went across the road to the school, only to find that her good friend, Teacher Bellows, was not to be there that day as he had been sent for by a dying mountaineer in his capacity as preacher, and had left word that he wished Meg to hear the younger children recite, and dismiss them at two, which was an hour earlier than usual.

Nothing pleased the girl more than to have an opportunity to practice the art of instruction, since that was to be her chosen life work, and a very happy morning she had with the dozen and one pupils, queer little specimens of childhood, although, indeed, several of them were beyond that, being long, lanky boys and girls in their teens. They, one and all, loved Meg devotedly and considered it a rare treat to have her in charge of the cla.s.s. This happened quite often, as, in his double capacity as preacher as well as teacher, the kindly old man had various calls upon his time; some of them taking him so far into the mountains that he was obliged to be gone for days at a time.

Meg had a charming way, quite her own, of teaching, with story and word pictures. Even the master had to concede that she was more fitted by nature than he was to instruct the child mind. At two o'clock, when the young teacher dismissed her cla.s.s, they flocked about her as she crossed the road to the inn.

The tallest among her pupils, a rancher's daughter, who was indeed as old as Meg, put an arm lovingly about her as she said, ”When yer through with yer schoolin', don't I hope yo'll come back to Redfords an' be our teacher.”

The mountain girl laughed. ”Why, Ann Skittle!” she teased. ”You will be married, with a home of your own, by the time that I am ready to teach.

You are seventeen, now, aren't you?”

Ann's sunburned face flushed suddenly and her unexpected embarra.s.sment caused Meg to believe that she had guessed more accurately than she had supposed. ”Yeah, I'm seventeen. But I'll be eighteen before snowfall, an'

then Hank Griggs an' me's goin' to be married. He's pa's hired man. A new one from Arizony.”

”Then why should you care whether or not I teach the Redford school?” Meg turned at the lowest step of the inn porch to inquire. Her dark eyes seemed always to hold a kindly interest in whatever they looked upon, were it a hurt little animal or, as at that moment, a girl who had not been endowed with much natural intelligence.

Ann Skittle, again visibly embarra.s.sed, stood looking down, twisting one corner of her ap.r.o.n as she said in a low voice: ”Me an' Hank is like to have kiddies an' I'd be wis.h.i.+n' you could teach 'em.”

Suddenly Meg leaned over and impulsively kissed the flushed face of her surprised companion. ”Of course you'll have little ones, dear,” she said, and in her voice there was a note of tenderness. ”No greater happiness can come to any girl than just that; to be a mother and to have a mother.” She turned away to hide the tears that, mist-like, always rose to her own eyes when she thought of the mother whom she never knew. Ann, calling goodbye, walked away toward the corral back of the school where her pony had been for hours awaiting her.

When Meg entered the front room of the inn, her smile was as bright as ever. Mrs. Bently often said that it didn't matter how gloomy the day might be, when Meg appeared with ”that lighten' up” smile of hers, somehow it seemed as though the sun had burst through, and even if things had been going wrong, they began to go right then and there. ”Mrs.

Bently,” the girl said, ”Pa Heger told me not to come home today without the County Weekly News. It's days overdue.”

The comely woman's face brightened.

”Wall, I've found that newspaper at last,” she announced. ”That man of mine didn't have on his specks when he was sortin' the mail, I reckon.

Anyhow he stuck that paper o' yer pa's 'way over into Mr. Peters' box.

'Twas fetched clear out to his ranch and fetched back agin.”

”Thanks.” Meg said brightly, as she took the paper. ”It won't matter any.

I don't suppose there's any startling news in it.”

Half way up the mountain road Meg drew rein and listened. There was not a breath of wind stirring. The sun beat down relentlessly and heat s.h.i.+mmered from the red-gold dust of the road ahead. The only sounds were the humming, buzzing and wing-whirring of the mult.i.tudinous insects all about her. Then again she heard the sound which had first attracted her attention. A pitiful little gasping cry. Leaping from her pony, she commanded: ”Pal, stand still for a moment. One of our little brothers is calling for help.”

Although the faint cry had instantly ceased, Meg remembered the direction from which it had come and climbed agilely down the rocks to find that one, having been dislodged, had caught a Douglas squirrel's tail and had held it captive so long that the creature was nearly starved.

”You poor little mite,” Meg said with tender sympathy as she stooped, and, after removing the heavy stone, lifted the small creature in her hands. She held it, unresisting, for a moment against her cheek, then put it into one of her saddle bags. Peering in, she said a.s.suringly, ”Don't be frightened. I'm going to take you to the hospital, but as soon as you are stronger, you shall have your freedom.” The bead-like eyes that looked up out of the dark depths of the bag seemed to be more appreciative than fearful. There was a quality in Meg's voice when she spoke to the sad and wounded that soothed and comforted even though the words were not understood. ”I'll take the newspaper out,” she thought; ”then his bed will be more comfortable.” And, as she did so, she chanced to see a name which attracted her attention. It was a name which had come, within the last three days, to mean much of possible comrades.h.i.+p to her. It was ”Daniel Abbott.” Opening the paper, the girl expected merely to read an article telling of the arrival of the Abbott family at their cabin on Redfords Peak, but, to her dismay, the story that newspaper contained was of an entirely different nature. It was a list of the properties in the county that were tax delinquents. Meg learned from the short paragraph that the ten acres and ”cabin thereon” belonging to one Daniel Abbott, having been for three weeks advertised as delinquent, was to be sold for taxes on August the tenth at five o'clock unless the aforesaid taxes, amounting to the sum of twenty-five dollars, should be paid before that hour.

The girl stared at the printed page, unable at first to comprehend its meaning. Then she glanced at the sun. It was at least two-thirty. But what could it mean? Surely the young man with whom she was talking but yesterday, when the children had brought him to see the baby lions, surely he had known of this and had paid the taxes. Refolding the paper, Meg started leisurely up the mountain road, but something seemed to be urging her to at least tell Dan Abbott what she had seen. Perhaps he had not paid the back taxes, and, if not, she might be instrumental in saving his cabin home for him, and yet, even as she thought of it, she was a.s.sailed with doubt. It would be impossible to reach Scarsburg, the county seat, before five unless one rode at top speed, and the Abbotts had neither car nor horse.

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