Part 12 (1/2)
He sat round sideways, one leg on the seat, and the reins now hanging loosely in his hands, as Shadrack jogged lazily on, while he was evidently highly pleased and flattered by Marion's attention.
”Well, Jabe,” continued Marion, ”perhaps, if you don't like to work, you like to study. Do you ever go to school?”
”I went last winter by spells, an' I s'pose I shall go this winter too.”
”Do you like it?” asked Marion; ”what do you like best,--spelling?”
”Spelling,” repeated Jabe, in a ruminating tone,--”spelling, no, I don't like it much, that is, I don't like it the way they larn you down there.
I think p'r'aps if they'd let a feller follow his own fas.h.i.+on I might like it; but they put in so many letters that there aint no kind o'
sense in havin', that it jest confuses me, an' so I ginerally spells accordin' to fancy.”
”O Jabe!” replied Marion, ”that will never do in the world; but perhaps you like arithmetic better.”
”'Rithmetic!” and Jabe fairly dropped the reins and struck an emphatic blow on his knee, as he exclaimed again: ”'rithmetic! I tell you _there_ you got me. If there is anything I do hate on the face o' this airth, it's 'rithmetic! Spellin's bad enough, but 'rithmetic's wus. When you set me to doin' a sum it's jest like the feller that had to go through the drill for the whole regiment; he got on fust-rate till they told him to go form a holler-square; but he said _that_ 'wrenched him awfully.'”
”O Jabe! Jabe!” cried Marion, now fairly convulsed with laughter, ”I am afraid you will never make much of a scholar anyway. But, indeed, you ought to try and do better; just think what a comfort you might be to your mother, if you would only----But stop the horse, stop the horse a minute; I've got an idea!”
Jabe drew up the reins with a sudden jerk, and looked at Marion as if she had scattered every idea he ever possessed.
”You jump out!” she exclaimed; ”no, you needn't do that; just help me over on to the front seat, and then you climb on to the back. I'm going to drive up to school in style.”
Jabe dropped the reins, and did as he was told, with a very bewildered expression on his great, round face, as he looked at Marion very much as if he doubted her sanity; but she went on talking very fast as she tucked in the almost worn-out robe, and took the reins in her hands.
”Don't you see, we're almost to the school, and everybody will be on the lookout for me; so I want to dash up to the door in very stunning fas.h.i.+on. Now sit up straight; fold your arms; hold your head up;--so,--that's it; you're my tiger; that means the groom, boy, you know, who sits behind when the gentleman drives. Now, when I stop the horse, you jump out just as quick as ever you can and rush to his head, as if you thought he wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get out. Do you understand?”
”Yes,” replied Jabe, who sat as straight as a ramrod, his eyes twinkling under his bushy, fur cap, and his mouth stretched from ear to ear. If he didn't love work, he certainly did a good joke, and he entered fully into the spirit of the thing.
”Well, now, keep sober, and don't forget what I told you.”
Marion braced her feet against the dasher; threw back her shoulders; extended her arms at full length, and gave poor old Shadrack such a tremendous ”cut” with the whip that he sprang forward as if forty fiends were after him; but Marion was used to driving, and only flourished the old wooden-handled ox-whip, and urged him on the faster.
Everything happened precisely as Marion wished. Of course Miss Stiefbach had become considerably alarmed at her long absence, and every one had come into the front of the house, and all were looking out for her, their faces pressed up against the window-panes as they crowded together.
Just as Marion came in sight some one opened the front door; this was what she wanted. Giving the whip an extra flourish, and saying in an undertone to Jabe, ”Be ready,” she dashed up to the gate, and suddenly drew the reins up short. Poor Shadrack, being thus brought to a very unexpected stand-still, threw his head up in the air, and planted his fore feet straight out in front of him, in a most warlike att.i.tude.
Almost before they stopped Jabe sprang out and grasped the poor panting beast by the head, as Marion threw the reins down, and stepping to the ground exclaimed in a pompous tone, loud enough to be heard by those standing in the door-way, ”Rub him down well, Thomas, and give him an extra measure of oats;” then, as she turned into the gate, ”and Thomas, have the tandem at the door in the cutter, to-morrow-morning at ten.”
Jabe, not to be outdone, touched his hat, sprang on to the seat, and whisked Shadrack round and up the road, at a pace that would have made his mother hold up her hands in holy horror.
”Why, Marion Berkley, where _have_ you been?” exclaimed a chorus of voices, Miss Stiefbach's actually among the number.
”I've been taking an airing on the Western Avenue. How do you like my turn-out? Neat but not gaudy, isn't it?”
”Well, Marion, I don't know what you will do next,” said Miss Christine; ”but where have you really been?”
”Marion, I must ask you to give a strict account of yourself,” said Miss Stiefbach, who, now that she had recovered from her unusual surprise and alarm, was her own stately self again. Whereupon Marion gave a brief and satisfactory history of her afternoon's expedition, embellis.h.i.+ng it with sundry remarks and expressions of her own, which rendered it highly entertaining to her younger hearers; and I might say to all but Miss Stiefbach, for Miss Christine joined heartily in the general laugh at Marion's first sleigh-ride of the season.
CHAPTER XI.