Richard Dares Venture | Page 4

to mother about it already, and if--"
A heavy knock on the back stoop caused Richard to stop speaking. Going to the door, he was confronted by Nicholas Boswell, a young farmer who lived a short distance down the road.
"Hello, Nick!" exclaimed Richard. "That you? Come in!"
Nicholas Boswell was pale, and his face showed a troubled expression. For several seconds ho seemed hardly able to speak.
"No, thank'ee, Dick," he said at last. "I come to tell you that--" and here his eyes roved over to Nancy and Grace, and he stopped short.
"What?" asked the boy. "You ain't sick, are you?" he continued, noticing the unusual pallor on the other's countenance.
"Oh, no, I ain't sick," replied Boswell. "I never get sick. I was never sick in my life--'cepting when I was a babby. But I--that is--there's a man--some men wants to see you," he faltered.
"To see me! Where?"
"They are down the road aways. I'll show you."
"What do they want?"
"Come on--never mind asking questions," closing one eye and bobbing his head, as if he did not wish the girls to hear more.
"All right," returned Richard, and closing the door he followed Boswell up the lane to the road.
"Accidents is bad things, Dick," began the young farmer, as they drew away from the house. "But they will happen, you know--they will happen."
"What do you mean?" asked the boy quickly. "Who's had an accident?"
"Well, you see a man with the rheumatism ain't so sure of his footing as is one who ain't got no such affliction."
"And my father?" began Richard, his heart jumping suddenly into his throat.
"Your father as a painter often climbed long, limbery ladders as he hadn't oughter," continued Boswell soberly.
"Is he--is he _dead_?" gasped the boy, standing stock-still.
"No, oh, no!" exclaimed the young farmer. "But he had an awful fall, and he's pretty bad. I thought I'd tell you first, 'cause it might shock your mother."
"Where is he?"
"The men is bringing him up the road. Here they come now. You'd better go back, and kinder break the news to the folks. I'm terribly gritty--as gritty as any man--but I can't do that!"
Richard did not hear the last words. Trembling from head to foot, he sped up the road to meet four men, carrying a rude stretcher between them and slowly approaching.
CHAPTER II.
BITTER MOMENTS.
The serious accident that had befallen Mr. Dare was in reality a very simple one. The ladder that he had been ascending was covered with early morning dew, and when near the top his foot had slipped, and, being unable, on account of his rheumatism, to catch a quick hold, he had fallen on his side to the ground. No one had seen his fall, and he lay unconscious for full ten minutes before a fellow workman, who had been busy on the other side of the building, discovered him and summoned assistance.
The five or six men that were soon gathered did what they could to bring him to consciousness, but without success. One of them ran off to hunt up the doctor, and then the others took a door that had not yet been hung in the new house, and, fastening a heavy strip at either end for handles, covered it with their coats, and placed the wounded man upon it.
None of the men cared to face Mrs. Dare with such painful news, and it was only after repeated urging that Nicholas Boswell had been induced to go on ahead.
"My father, my poor father!" was all Richard could say, as he gazed at the motionless form upon the litter.
[Illustration: "My father, my poor father!"]
"Reckon he's hurt pretty bad," said Sandy Stone, a mason, who had been the first to be called to the scene of the accident. "'Tain't outside so much as it's in. Wait till we get him home."
For Richard was bending over his father, and trying his best to do something that would help the unconscious sufferer.
"Did you send for the doctor?"
"Yes; sent for Dr. Melvin first thing," replied one of the others, "But we don't know where he is."
"I think he is over at old Mrs. Brown's," returned the boy. "I saw him walking that way a while ago."
"I'll go and see," put in Nicholas Boswell. "Meanwhile you'd better go and tell your mother."
"My mother! what will she say? And Nancy and Grace and baby Madge! Oh, it's dreadful!" broke out Richard. "I'm sure none of them can stand it."
"I'll send my wife over soon as I can," said Sandy Stone. "She's as good as a doctor, and can quiet your mother, too. Be a brave boy, Dick, and go and tell her. It will be easier, coming from you, than it would from any of us."
So Richard returned to the house. His mother was dusting in the parlor, and going straight to her he said:
"Mother,