Part 8 (1/2)
”O, bah!” exclai athe knives, Wad, while I milk; then we'll dress that fawn in a hurry Wish the fellow had left us the doe instead”
CHAPTER VIII
HOW VINNIE MADE A JOURNEY
Leaving Jack to drive home the borrowed mare in the harness of the stolen horse, and to take such measures as he can for the pursuit of the thief and the recovery of his property, we have now to say a feords of Mrs Betterson's younger sister
Vinnie had perhaps thriven quite as well in the plain Presbit household as she would have done in the home of the ambitious Caroline The tasks early put upon her, instead of hardening and i, with a grace like that acquired by girls who carry burdens on their heads For it is thus that labors cheerfully perforive a power and a charm to body and e Greenwood, who had been brought up with her in his uncle's faone to seek his fortune in the city A great change in the house, and a very unhappy change for Vinnie, had been the result It was not that sheout had occasioned the co ith hi wife showed a strong determination to take Vinnie's place in the household
As long as she was conscious of being useful, in however humble a sphere, Vinnie was contented She did her daily outward duty, and fed her heart with secret aspirations, and kept a brave, bright spirit through all But now nothing was left to her but to contend for her rights with the new-coe where she had almost ruled before Strife was hateful to her; and why should she remain where her services were now scarcely needed?
So Vinnie lapsed into an unsettled state of e, as well as to a larger class of boys, when the great questions of practical life confront the?”
How ardently she wished she had money, so that she could spend two or three entire years at school! How eagerly she would have used those advantages for obtaining an education which so many, who have the--could expect nothing--which she did not earn
At one tio to work in a factory; at another, to try teaching a district school; and again, to learn some trade, like that of dress-o out into the world and gain her livelihood like a boy
In this mood ofhis accidental visit to her sister's family The other was from Caroline herself, whoa plaintive letter to her ”dear, neglected Lavinia”
Many tears she shed over these letters The touching picture Jack drew of the invalid Cecie, and the brave little Lilian, and of the sick mother and baby, with Caroline's sad confession of distress, and of her need of sy girl's heart She forgot that she had anything to forgive All her half-formed schemes for self-help and self-culture were at once discarded, and she foro to Illinois,” she said, ”and take care of my poor sister and her sick children”
Such a journey, fro in those days But she did not shrink from it
”What!” said Mrs Presbit, when Vinnie's detero and work for a sister who has treated you so shamefully all these years? Only a half-sister, at that! I'ht you had , I ah now,” Vinnie replied
”Yes, now she has need of you!” sneered Mrs Presbit
”Besides,” Vinnie continued, ”I ought to go, for the children's sake, if not for hers Think of Cecie and the poor baby; and Lilian not ten years old, trying to do the housework! I can do so much for them!”
”No doubt of that; for I irl as ever I see But there's the Betterson side to the fa to your friend's account; a proud, do a slave of yourself for thehty uncomf'table place, mark my word!”
”I hope noit, Aunt Presbit,” added Vinnie, in a tre voice ”It isn't your fault
But you kno things are”
”O, la, yes! _she_ wants to go ahead, and order everything; and I think it's as well to let her,--though she'll find she can't run over _me_!
But I don't bla sensitive; and if you've o, I sha'n't hender ye,--I'll help ye all I can”
So it happened that, only four days after the receipt of her sister's letter, Vinnie, with all her worldly possessions contained in one not very large trunk, bid her friends good by, and, not withoutjourney