Richard Dares Venture | Page 3

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 lost!" cried Grace indignantly. "Didn't he bring us all safe through Baker's woods last fall, when we were nutting?"
"Baker's woods isn't New York city," replied her elder sister. "Hundreds of streets and millions of people! He'd have to keep his eyes wide open and his wits about him."
"And that is just what I would do!" broke in Richard. "You don't suppose I'd stand around like a gawk, staring at people!"
"But is it for fortune?" repeated Grace, freeing her hands from the dough and coming up close.
"Yes, it's for fortune, if that's what you call it," said Richard bluntly. "I'm tired of Mossvale, and I'm going to strike out, that is if I can get consent. I've spoken