Laddie said he never had met any man who knew the origin of more words than father.He could even tell every clip what nationality a man was from his name.Hundreds of time I have heard him say to stranger people,"From your name you'd be of Scotch extraction,"or Irish,or whatever it was,and every time the person he was talking with would say,"Yes."Some day away out in the field,alone,I thought I would ask him what people first used the word "shame,"and just exactly what it did mean,and what the things were that you could do that would make the people who loved you until they would die for you,ashamed of you.
Thinking about that and planning out what it was that I wanted to know,gave me another idea.Why not ask her?She was the only one who knew what she had done away there in the city,alone among strangers;I wasn't sure whether all the music a girl could learn was worth letting her take the chances she would have to in a big city.From the way Laddie and father hated them,they were a poor place for men,and they must have been much worse for girls.Shelley knew,why not ask HER?Maybe I could coax her to tell me,and it would make my life much easier to know;and only think what was going on in father's and mother's heads and hearts,when I felt that way,and didn't even know what there was to be ashamed about.She wouldn't any more than slap me;and sick as she was,I made up my mind not to get angry at her,or ever to tell,if she did.I'd rather have her hit me when she was so sick than to have Sally beat me until she couldn't strike another lick,just because she was angry.But I forgave her that,and I was never going to think of it again--only I did.
Mother kept sending Leon to the post-office,and she met him at the gate half the time herself and fairly snatched the letters from his hands.Hum!She couldn't pull the wool over my eyes.
I knew she hoped somehow,some way,there would be a big fat one with Paget,Legal Adviser,or whatever a Chicago lawyer puts on his envelopes.Jerry's just say:"Attorney at Law."No letter ever came that had Paget in the corner,or anything happened that did Shelley any good.Far otherwise!Just before supper Leon came from Groveville one evening,and all of us could see at a glance that he had been crying like a baby.He had wiped up,and was trying to hold in,but he was killed,next.I nearly said,"Well,for heaven's sake,another!"when I saw him.
He slammed down a big,long envelope,having printing on it,before father,and glared at it as if he wanted to tear it to smithereens,and he said:"If you want to know why it looks like that,I buried it under a stone once;but I had to go back,and then I threw it as far as I could send it,into Ditton's gully,but after a while I hunted it up again!"Then he keeled over on the couch mother keeps for her in the dining-room,and sobbed until he looked like he'd come apart.
Of course all of us knew exactly what that letter was from the way he acted.Mother had told him,time and again,not to set his heart so;father had,too and Laddie,and every one of us,but that little half-Arab,half-Kentucky mare was the worst temptation a man who loved horses could possibly have;and while father and mother stopped at good work horses,and matched roadsters for the carriage,they managed to prize and tend them so that every one of us had been born horse-crazy,and we had been allowed to ride,care for,and taught to love horses all our lives.Treat a horse ugly,and we'd have gone on the thrashing floor ourselves.
Father laid the letter face down,his hand on it,and shook his head."This is too bad!"he said."It's a burning shame,but the money,the exact amount,was taken from a farmer in Medina County,Ohio,by a traveller he sheltered a few days,because he complained of a bad foot.The deion of the man who robbed us is perfect.The money was from the sale of some prize cattle.
It will have to be returned."
"Just let me see the letter a minute,"said Laddie.
He read it over thoughtfully.He was long enough about it to have gone over it three times;then he looked at Leon,and his forehead creased in a deep frown.The tears slid down mother's cheeks,but she didn't know it,or else she'd have wiped them away.She was never mussy about the least little thing.
"Father!"she said."Father----!"
That was as far as she could go.
"The man must have his money,"said father,"but we'll look into this----"He pushed back the plates and tablecloth,and cleared his end of the table.Mother never budged to stack the plates,or straighten the cloth so it wouldn't be wrinkled.Then father brought his big account book from the black walnut chest in our room,some little books,and papers,sharpened a pencil and began going up and down the columns and picking out figures here and there that he set on a piece of paper.I never had seen him look either old or tired before;but he did then.Mother noticed it too,for her lips tightened,she lifted her head,wiped her eyes,and pretended that she felt better.Laddie said something about doing the feeding,and slipped out.Just then Shelley came into the room,stopped,and looked questioningly at us.Her eyes opened wide,and she stared hard at Leon.
"Why what ails him?"she asked mother.
"You remember what I wrote you about a man who robbed us,and the money Leon was to have,provided no owner was found in a reasonable time;and the horse the boy had planned to buy,and how he had been going to Pryors'--Oh,I think he's slipped over there once a day,and often three times,all this spring!Mr.
Pryor encouraged him,let him take his older horses to practise on,even went out and taught him cross-country riding himself----""I remember!"said Shelley.
Leon sobbed out loud.Shelley crossed the room swiftly,dropped beside him and whispered something in his ear.Quick as a shot his arm reached out and went around her.She hid her head deep in the pillow beside him,and they went to pieces together.
