Laddie: A True Blue Story

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ther said when they were coming here in a wagon, and she had ridden until she had to walk to rest her feet, and held a big baby until her arms became so tired she drove while father took it, and when at last they saw a house and stopped, she said if the woman hadn't invited her in, and

squirm most. There was no possible way to get around it. It meant, that if you liked a splinter new slate, and a sharp pencil all covered with gold paper, to make pictures and write your lessons, when Clarissa Polk sat next you and sang so low the teacher couldn't hear until she put herself to sleep on it, "I WISHT I had a slate! I wisht I HAD a slate! I wisht I had a SLATE! Oh I WISHT I HAD A SLATE!"-it meant that you just had to wash up yours and stop maki

other people when they reached your house. Father and mother had been through it themselves, and they must have been tired as could be, before they reached Sarah Hood's and she took them in, and rested and fed them, even when they were only a short way from the top of the Little Hill, where next morning they looked down and stopped the wagon, until they chose the place to build their house. Sarah Hood came along, and helped mother all day, so by night she was settled in the old c

ever figured out how many hundred sheet

it will make a stack high enough

church always led me to thi

o I get there, I do

ime to stop. We always k

ys said: "Here comes another 'Even So!'" He said we had done "even so" to people until it was about our share, but mother said our share was going to last until the Lord said, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and took us home. She had much more about the stranger at the gate and entertaining angels unawares; why,

ute the grown folks left the room to milk, do the night feeding, and begin supper, he twisted in his chair and looked at every door, and went and stood at the back dining-room window, where he could see the barn and what was out there, and coming back he took a peep into father's and mother's room, and although he limped dreadfully when he came, he walked like any one when he went over and picked up father's gun and looked to see if it were loaded, and seemed mighty glad when he found it wasn't. Father said he could load in a flash when it was necessary, but he was dubious about a lo

show him to bed. He stayed so long father went to the foot of the stairway, and asked him why he didn't come down and he said he was in bed too. The next morning he was sleepy at breakfast and Laddie said it was no wonder, because Leon and the

man was telling Leon how foolish it was for boys to live on a farm; how they never would amount to anything unless they went to cities, and about all the fun there was there, and how nice it was to travel, even along the roads, because

when father was around, so it would be better to wait until Monday. The traveller tagged Leon and told him what a fine fel

w him the place, and probably it would have made no difference if he had, for all the money must have been spent on Sally's wedding. Of course father

I could see no one wanted to leave the man alone in the house. He said they'd go to bed early, and we came in quite late. The lamp was turned lo

r both sat down suddenly and hard. Then Laddie ran to the barn and came back and said none of the horses had been taken. Soon they went into the parlour and shut the door, and when they came out father staggered and mother looked exactly like Sabethany. Laddie ran to the barn, saddled Flos and rode away. Father wa

and he sank back in the chair and kept still. Mother always had spoken of him as "

ad been spent, and showed the traveller the Station, just to brag, and he guessed there might be something there, and had gone while we were at church and taken it. He had all night the start of us, and he might have a horse waiting somewhere, and be almost to Illinois by this time, and if the money belonged to father, there would be no Christmas; and if it happened to be the money the county gave him to pay the men who worked the roads every fall, and

ther, either one. Of course he loved his mother, just as all of us did; he never, never could go away and not let her know about it. If he had gone, that watchful-eyed man, who was lame only part of the time, had taken the gun and made him go. I thought I might as well save the money he'd overlooked, so I gripped it tight in my hand, and put it in my apron pocket, the same as I had Laddie's

screamed, flew in my face and scared me good, but no Leon; so I tried the corn crib, the implement shed, and the wood house, climbing the ladder with the money still gripped in one hand. Then I slipped in the front door, up the stairs, and searched the garret, even away back where I didn't like to very well. At last I went to the dining-room, and I don't think either father or mother had moved, while Sabethany tur

ree," s

veller t

None of us knew there w

seemed t

er trusts him ab

't think

silly. It's Le

ation!" I cried. "He didn't touc

was one thing; seeing the only father you had l

And I thought Leon must be hiding for fear he'd be whipped for telling, but I've hunted where we usually hide, and promised him ev

I saw that money wasn't the trouble, else he'd have looked quick enough to see how much I had. They were thinki

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taking Amanda Deam h

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ere you

then Leon said there might be a reason. He told about having seen a black man, and that he was hidden some place, and we hunte

o

ped sick if we ever went near or told, and we never did, not even once, unless Leon wanted to boast to the traveller man

and began to walk the floor, and never went near or even touched him. I c

father, we don't! Not one of us do! Don't you remember about 'Thou shalt not,' and the Crusaders? Leon's the best fighter of any of us. I'm not sure that he couldn't even whip Laddie, if he got mad enough! Maybe he can't whip the traveller if he has the gun, but, father, Leon simply couldn't take the money. Laddie will stay home and work, and all of us. We can help get it back. We can se

s head and reach

said. "You blessi

r arm, and said: "Come, mommy, let's go and tell the Lord about it, and the

o make my father look like the Princess' and my mother hold her heart with both hands, and if no one were to know about it like they had said, how were we any different from Pryors? We might be of the Lord's anointed, but we could get into the same kind of trouble the infidels could, and have secrets ourselves, or at least it seemed as if it might be very nearly the same, when it made father and mother look and act the way they did. I wondered if we'd have to le

most touched the ground, and it lifted up and swept over the rails. She took our meadow fence lengthwiselike, and at the hitching rack she threw the bridle over the post, dismounted, and then I saw she had been riding astride, lik

door and spoke breathlessly, as if

hat robbers had taken quite a large sum of hidden money you held for the county, and church,

ly," said

r motioned to

ome," she said. "W

nds and stood straight, breathing fast, her eyes shining with exciteme

nusually ill, and I heard her leave the house, after I'd gone to my room. I watched from my window and saw her take a seat on a bench under the nearest tree. I was moving around and often I looked to see if she were still there. Then the dogs began to rave, and I hurried down. They used to run free, but lately,

est. Mother saw him distinctly as he reached the road, and she said he was not a large man, he stooped when he ran, and she thought he moved like a slinking, city thief. She is sure he's the man who took your money; she says he acted

father. "

looked at him

n who took the money would burden himself with a gu

r. "Your mother saw

a gun. Except the man you took in, no str

loaded as it stood; whoever took it carried the am

lways stood and then he stooped and picked

hed muslin in which he wr

tched a match, bent, and ran it back and forth over the floor, and at one place there was a flash, and the flame w

y think the gun was loaded

reasonable conclu

looked at the gun, and he LIKED it when he saw it wasn't loaded. He smiled. And he didn't limp a mite when I was the onl

k and when to keep still. Little Sister, the next time you see a stranger examine my gun

sir,"

switchings I'd had for telling things, besides what Sally did to me about her and Peter. I would

ssage anywhere for you? Are both your

stopped to think, so I just told her: "La

she could do, so she took my h

nd get back the money, and give

t the money. Father didn't even look at a big paper piece I found where it was hidden. But they are anxious about the man. Mot

like. The colour left her cheeks and lips and she shivered and shook and never said one word. I ca

house, and went to my mother. On her knees, the Princess buried her face i

thing inside her had broken

and he waved his hand toward me. Mother turned to me, but already she h

that made her come back

nd you wanted to keep it a secret and give him anot

hem into mother's room, stepped back and closed the door. After a while it opened and they came out together, with both mother's arms around the Princess, and she had cried until she staggered. Mother lifte

said the Princess. "It's father who

ere it pleased on the road. When father came in he looked at mother, and she said: "I haven't the details, but she understands

couldn't figure out exactly what she d

d go northwest. I went back to the catalpa tree and wondered myself; but it was too much for me to straighten out: just why my mother wanting to give the traveller man another chance wou

ht he wouldn't want to bother with me, so I slid from the tree, and ran to tell mother. She wen

her, you would rub Flos down, blanket her, and if you can, walk her slowly an

rthwest roads. The Pryor girl was here a few moments ago, and her mother saw a man cross their place about the righ

she s

sit

on and start a search. They would keep to the woods, I think! You'

he house, and mother said to father: "What can he b

ow, but if any one can save

turns praying. From the way they talked to the Lord, you could plainly see that they were reminding Him of

put the piece I found, and when he opened right at it, in the Bible, he turned on past, exactly as if it were an obituary, or a piece of Sally's wedding dress, or baby hair from some of our heads. He went on hunting places where the Lord said sure and strong that He'd help people who loved Him. When either of them prayed, they asked the Lord to help those

re big like that was why

k, and frozen so stiff I could scarcely hang to the limb, I heard the bulldogs at Pryors' begin to rave. They kept on steadily, and I thought Gypsies must be passing. Then from the woods came a queer party that s

ed again, and then fell from the tree and almost bursted. As soon as I could get up, and breathe, I ran to the front door, screami

p and his head high. He was scratched, torn, and dirty. He was wheezing every breath most from his knees, and Mr. Pryor half carried him and the gun. When th

his arms and carried him into the house, an

money from the road. He followed into t

now they were coming, that this hound took your money. Your dog barked and awakened the boy and he loaded the gun and followed. The fellow had a good start and he didn't get him until near daybreak.

s spilling water father had called for, all over the carpet, she shook so. When Leon drew a deep breath and his he

the tears rolling down his cheeks. "'

s. If I stood in your boots, sir, I would rise up in the mighty strength of my pride and pull

ok, his poor feet! They a

s, and began kissing them. Father wet Leon's lips an

said, "that it may hap

yes and caught on

out for the 'Even So'

oor, until I looked to see if it had cracked from top to bottom; b

ather to put away, and that time he took it. But e

I said, "I

ms of the greatest importance. This is our lesson. Hereafter, I and all my family, who have been through this, will know that money is not even worth thinking about

l him. I can keep secrets real well. I have several big ones I've never t

have goes into the bank, and some of us will cheerfully ride for what we want, when we need it. As for not tel

nd when his eyes came open so they'd stay a little while,

h a rumpus! Let him fool me. Be smart as the next fell

on was growing better every minute, and he stared at her, and then his dealish, funny old grin began t

mother until she made me thi

low and wondering-like, and father never opene

at an age where she'd known boys to get wrong ideas, and how things looked, and in the middle of it he raised on his elbow and took her in his arms and said: "Well of all the gee

r and clung to her tight and at

tion, O my

t my rep

ddie looked at each other and shouted. I guess they thought Leon was a

I have got to tell you how proud I am of having a brother who is a real C

the big tears squeeze out, although he fought to wink them back. He held to Laddie and

to talk

carried the money and gun, we got along better, but I had to keep an eye on him every minute. To come through the woods was the shortest, but I'm tired out, and so is he. Getting close I most felt sorry for him, he was so forlorn, and so scared about what would be done to him. He stopped and pulled out another roll, and offered me all of it, if I'd let him go. I didn't know whether it was really his, or part of father's, so I told him he could just drop it until I found out. Made him sweat blood, but I had the gun, and he had to mind. I was mast

the community; but mother said she didn't want to be mixed up with a trial, or to be responsible for taking the liberty of a fellow creature, and father said that was exactly like a woman. Leon went to sleep, but none o

ant her around, so he stopped at the schoolhouse and told her to stay at Justices' that night, we'd need all our rooms;

n't be likely to come back for it, and father said he was at loss what to do with it, but Laddie said he wasn't-it was Leon's-he had earned it; so father said he would try to

ght off to sleep again, and it happened all over. Then father began getting his Crusader blood up, although he always said he was a man of peace. But it was a lucky thing Even So got away; for after father had watched Leon a while, he said if that man had been on the premises, his fingers itched so to get at him, he was posit

home when he was, and there stood Mr. Pryor. He said they could see the lights and they were afraid the boy was ill, and could any of them help. Father

hair, and that would be snow-white; then he turned at last and stumbled toward the door. Laddie held it for him, but he didn't seem to remember he was there. He muttered over and over: "Why? Why? In the name of God, why?" L

eally loved to fight, he marched poor Even So back to our house. Every few rods they met more men out searching who came with them, until there were so many, our front yard and the road were crowded. Of all the sights you ever saw, Even So looked the worst. You could see that he'd drop over at much more. Those men kept crying they were going to hang him; but mother went out and talked to them, and said they mustn't kill a ma

fore. He brought the money Leon took from him, but the men said no doubt he had stolen that, and Leon had earned it bringing him back, so the traveller shouldn't have it. They took him away on a horse and said they'd let him go, but that they'd escort him from the county. Father told Mr. Freshett that he was a l

swallow a big dose of croton oil for his health. That was the only KIND thing they did, for afterward they started him down the track and told him to run, and all of them shot at his feet as he went. Hannah Freshett told me at school the next day. Her father said Even So just howled, a

d no one before spring who had been robbed, he said Leon might do what he liked with the money. I used to pretend it was coming to me, and each day I thought of a new way to spend it. Leon was so sure he'd get it he marched right over and asked Mr. Pryor about a nice young thoroughbred horse, from his stables, and when he came back he could get a coltlike one so very cheap that father and Laddie looked at each ot

aded his price so that if the money had to go, he would be tempted to see if we couldn't manage it ourselves. I do