a string of fish!"
"I caught 'em 'way down the Cocahutchie, Mother," said Jack. "I caught
'em all under water. Had to go right in after some of 'em."
"I should say you did," growled his father, almost jocosely, and then he
and Mrs. Ogden and Aunt Melinda and the children crowded around to
examine the fish, on the pump platform.
"Jack must do something better'n that," said his father, rubbing his face
hard with the kitchen towel; "but he's had the best kind o' luck this
time."
"He caught a team of runaway horses this morning, too," said Mary,
looking proudly at the fish. "I wish I could do something worth talking
about, but I'm only a girl."
Jack's clothes had not suffered much from their ducking, mainly
because the checked shirt and linen trousers, of which his suit consisted,
had been frequently soaked before. His straw hat was dry, for it had
been lying on the grass when he went into the water, and so were his
shoes and stockings, which had been under the bed in his bedroom,
waiting for Sunday.
It was not until the family was gathered at the table that Jack came out
with the whole tremendous story of his afternoon's sport, and of its cash
results.
"Now I've learned all about fly-fishing," he said, with confidence, "I
can catch fish anywhere. I sha'n't have to go to fish out of that old
mill-pond again."
"Six dollars!" exclaimed his mother, from behind the tea-pot. "What
awful extravagance there is in this wicked world! But what'll you do
with six dollars?"
"It's high time he began to earn something," said the tall blacksmith,
gloomily. "It's hard times in Crofield. There's almost nothing for him to
do here."
"That's why I'm going somewhere else," said Jack, with a sudden burst
of energy, and showing a very red face. "Now I've got some money to
pay my way, I'm going to New York."
"No, you're not," said his father, and then there was a silence for a
moment.
"What on earth could you do in New York?" said his mother, staring at
him as if he had said something dreadful. She was not a small woman,
but she had an air of trying to be larger, and her face quickly began to
recover its ordinary smile of self-confident hope, so much like that of
Jack. She added, before anybody else could speak: "There are
thousands and thousands of folks there already. Well--I suppose you
could get along there, if they can."
"It's too full," said her husband. "It's fuller'n Crofield. He couldn't do
anything in a city. Besides, it isn't any use; he couldn't get there, or
anywhere near there, on six dollars."
"If he only could go somewhere, and do something, and be somebody,"
said Mary, staring hard at her plate.
She had echoed Jack's thought, perfectly. "That's you, Molly," he said,
"and I'm going to do it, too."
"You're going to work a-haying, all next week, I guess," said his father,
"if there's anybody wants ye. All the money you earn you can give to
your mother. You ain't going a-fishing again, right away. Nobody ever
caught the same fish twice."
Slowly, glumly, but promptly, Jack handed over his two greenbacks to
his mother, but he only remarked:
"If I work for anybody 'round here, they'll want me to take my pay in
hay. They won't pay cash."
"Hay's just as good," said his father; and then he changed the subject
and told his wife how the miller had again urged him to trade for the
strip of land along the creek, above and below the bridge. "It comes
right up to the line of my lot," he said, "and to Hawkins's fence. The
whole of it isn't worth as much as mine is, but I don't see what he wants
to trade for."
She agreed with him, and so did Aunt Melinda; but Jack and Mary
finished their suppers and went out to the front door. She stood still for
a moment, with her hands clasped behind her, looking across the street,
as if she were reading the sign on the shop. The discontented,
despondent expression on her face made her more and more like a very
young and pretty copy of her father.
"I don't care, Molly," said Jack. "If they take away every cent I get, I'm
going to the city, some time."
"I'd go, too, if I were a boy," she said. "I've got to stay at home and
wash dishes and sweep. You can go right out and make your fortune.
I've read of lots of boys that went away from home and worked their
way up. Some of 'em got to be Presidents."
"Some girls amount to something, too," said Jack.
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