Volume I Part 64 (1/2)
”Yes ? uncle Rolf has let the farm ? only think of it! ? he has let the farm to that Didenhover.”
”Didenhover!”
”For two years.”
”Did you tell him what you knew about him?”
”Yes, but it was too late ? the mischief was done.”
Aunt Miriam went on skimming out her cruller with a very grave face.
”How came your uncle to do so without learning about him first?”
”Oh, I don't know! ? he was in a hurry to do anything that would take the trouble of the farm off his hands; he don't like it.”
”On what terms has he let him have it?”
”On shares ? and I know, I know under that Didenhover it will bring us in nothing, and it has brought us in nothing all the time we have been here; and I don't know what we are going to live upon ?”
”Has your uncle nor your aunt no property at all left?”
”Not a bit ? except some waste lands in Michigan? I believe, that were left to aunt Lucy a year or two ago; but they are as good as nothing.”
”Has he let Didenhover have the saw-mill too?”
”I don't know ? he didn't say ? if he has, there will be nothing at all left for us to live upon. I expect nothing from Didenhover, ? his face is enough. I should have thought it might have been for uncle Rolf. Oh, if it wasn't for aunt Lucy and Hugh, I shouldn't care!” ?
”What has your uncle been doing all this year past?”
”I don't know, aunt Miriam ? he can't bear the business, and he has left the most of it to Lucas, and I think Lucas is more of a talker than a doer. Almost nothing has gone right. The crops have been ill-managed ? I do not know a great deal about it, but I know enough for that; and uncle Rolf did not know anything about it but what he got from books. And the sheep are dying off ? Barby says it is because they were in such poor condition at the beginning of winter, and I dare say she is right.”
”He ought to have had a thorough good man at the beginning, to get along well.”
”O yes! ? but he hadn't, you see, and so we have just been growing poorer every month. And now, aunt Miriam, I really don't know from day to day what to do to get dinner. You know, for a good while after we came we used to have our marketing brought every few days from Albany, but we have run up such a bill there already at the butcher's as I don't know when in the world will get paid, and aunt Lucy and I will do anything before we will send for any more; and if it wasn't for her and Hugh I wouldn't care, but they haven't much appet.i.te, and I know that all this takes what little they have away ? this, and seeing the effect it has upon uncle Rolf ?”
”Does he think so much more of eating than of anything else?”
said aunt Miriam.
”O no, it is not that,” said Fleda, earnestly, ”it is not that at all ? he is not a great eater ? but he can't bear to have things different from what they used to be, and from what they ought to be ? O no, don't think that! I don't know whether I ought to have said what I have said, but I couldn't help it ?”
Fleda's voice was lost for a little while.
”He is changed from what he used to be ? a little thing vexes him now, and I know it is because he is not happy; ? he used to be so kind and pleasant, and he is still sometimes; but aunt Lucy's face ? Oh, aunt Miriam!”
”Why, dear?” said aunt Miriam, tenderly.
”It is so changed from what it used to be!”
Poor Fleda covered her own, and aunt Miriam came to her side to give softer and gentler expression to sympathy than words could do, till the bowed face was raised again and hid in her neck.