Part 7 (1/2)
”And I presu another reef in her shawl, ”that you heard her tell a good deal about us; things that would no doubt tend to prejudice a stranger; though if all the truth was known she wouldn't feel so hard towards us as I have reason to think she does”
Jack hastened to say that he had never heard Vinnie speak unkindly of her sister
”You are very polite to say so,” said Mrs Betterson, rocking the cradle, in which the baby had been placed ”But I know just what she has said She has told you that after I married Mr Betterson I felt above my family; and that when her mother died (she was not _my_ mother, you knoe are only half-sisters), I suffered her to be taken and brought up by the Presbits, when I ought to have taken her and been as a er than I She is even younger by a ood deal about his having an aunt younger than he is”
”Yes,” spoke up Rufe, standing in the door; ”and I've asked a hundred times e don't ever hear from her, or write to her, or have her visit us Other folks have their aunts coet was, 'family reasons, Rufus!'”
”That is it, in a word,” said Mrs Betterson; ”family reasons I never could explain theh, Heaven knows, I should be glad enough to see her; and I hope she has forgiven what seemed my hardness; and--do tell irl is she? how has she come up?”
”She is one of the kindest-hearted, irls in the world!” Jack exclai at his own enthusias up such a girl,” said Mrs Betterson, with a sigh--of self-reproach, Jack thought
”But she has a natural refine couldfor her to be brought up with George Greenwood She owes a great deal to the love of books he inspired in her You ought to know your sister, Mrs Betterson”
The lady gave way to a flood of tears
”It is too bad! such separations are unnatural Certainly,” she went on, ”I can't be accused of feeling above acies left hily unfortunate”
”Two such able-bodied boys must be a help and coh,” said Mrs Betterson, ”are good boys, but they have been brought up to dreams of wealth, and they have not learned to take hold of life with rough hands”
Jack suggested that it ht have been better for them not to have such dreaht down to the coet, that they have Betterson blood in their veins”
Jack could hardly repress a slanced from those stout heirs of the Betterson blood to the evidences of shi+ftlessness and wretchedness around them, which two such sturdy lads, with a little less of the precious article in their veins,to rehts, and he was glad when Link vociferously deo and catch thebut killhi hand ”Don't infer froain with feeble pride, ”that we are poor Mr Betterson will coets help froh, however, to enable him to carry on a farriculture a respectable profession”
Jack could not forbear another hit at the big boys
”It requires land,” he said; ”and that you have It also requires bone and muscle; and I see some here”
”True,” sied the the needful labors of the farm”
”He hasn't set us the example,” broke in Rufe, piqued by Jack's remark
”If he had taken hold of work, I suppose we should But while he sits down and waits for so and help him, what can you expect of us?”
”Our Betterson blood shows itself inhis re himself once more on the doorstep
Evidently the boys were sick of hearing their mother boast of the aristocratic fae the subject
”Sickness has been our great scourge The clireed with either me or my husband Then our poor Cecilia o, which injured her so that she has scarcely taken a step since”