Richard Dares Venture | Page 3

was content to
spend the remainder of his life.
But Richard Dare partook of but little of his father's retiring disposition.
He was a bright, active boy, with a clear heart and brain, and he longed
to get at some work where energy would be the road to success. His
comprehension was rapid, and beneath an outwardly calm spirit, lurked
the fire of a youth well trained to grapple with noble purposes and
bring them to a successful issue.
Richard's desire to go to the metropolis was a natural one. There was
nothing in quiet Mossvale to entice any one with push to remain there.
The entire population of the district did not number three hundred
people, and the only business places were three general stores, a
blacksmith shop and a cross-roads hotel.
A number of years previous, Mr. Dixon Maillard, a rich man from
Newark, had endeavored to boom the village by starting a hat factory
there, then trying to make his employees buy houses and lots from him
on the installment plan, but this scheme had fallen flat, and the factory
plant was removed to a more promising locality.
The Dare cottage stood some little distance from the village center. As
Mrs. Dare had said, Richard had the garden in excellent condition, not
only the larger portion devoted to the vegetables and small fruits, but
also the front part, in which were planted a great variety of flowers in
which his mother took keen delight.
"Is father coming home to dinner to-day?" asked Richard, a little later
on, as he entered the kitchen with a pail of water which Nancy, the
oldest of his three sisters, had asked him to draw from the well.
"I guess not," replied the girl. "His rheumatism hurt him so much he
said he might not be able to walk from Dr. Melvin's new house."

"Ma put up his dinner," put in Grace, the second oldest.
"Then he won't be back," returned Richard, somewhat disappointed, for
he had been calculating on broaching the subject of going to New York
to his father after the midday meal.
"He said his shoulder hurt him awfully last night," added Grace. "I
heard him tell ma he could almost feel the bullet worrying him in the
flesh."
"It's mighty queer he doesn't get a pension," said Nancy. "I'm sure he
deserves one. Didn't he ever apply, Dick? I read in a Philadelphia paper
the other day about a man getting sixteen dollars a month allowed, and
a whole lot of back pay--more than two or three thousand dollars!"
"Two or three thousand dollars!" cried Grace. "Oh, Nancy, it's a
fortune!"
"But it's true, every word."
"I believe father has tried," replied Richard. "But it seems that he must
have witnesses to prove his identity, and all that--"
"And can't he get them?" asked Grace, eagerly.
"I believe not. All his old comrades are either dead or scattered, and he
hasn't a single address."
"Did he ever hunt for any of them?"
"I think he wrote two or three letters, but that's all. You know how
father is."
"I just guess I wouldn't let it rest there!" declared Grace, diving into the
bread batter with a vim. "I'd advertise in the papers, and turn the whole
country upside down before I'd give up!"
"Well, father looks at it as a kind of charity, anyway," explained
Richard. "And he doesn't care much to accept it so long as he is able to

work."
"Yes, but, Dick, if he's entitled to it by law, don't you think he ought to
take it?"
"He has certainly lost many a day's work on account of his failing,
Nancy. He ought to get something for that."
"Then why don't you speak to him about it?" asked Grace. "He'll listen
to you quicker than he will to any of us."
"Perhaps I will. Maybe he will give me a list of those who knew him in
the army, and then I can start a grand search, as you suggested. But I've
got a little plan of my own to carry out first, and I want you girls to
help me."
"What plan?" asked Nancy; and Grace ceased her bread-making to
listen to what her brother might have to say.
"I'm thinking of going to New York, and I--"
"New York!" both girls ejaculated. They would have been no more
astonished had he said Paris or Pekin. "Why, Dick, what put that idea
into your head?" continued Nancy.
"Take me along if you go," added Grace.
"Nobody but myself put it into my head, Nan," replied Richard, "and I
won't be able to take anybody along, Grace."
"Going to make your fortune?" queried the younger girl.
"You'll get lost," put in the other.
"Nonsense! catch Dick getting