The Hero of Hill House | Page 6

Lola and Doyle out to your grandmother's, and try to get work there," he said one morning at the breakfast-table. "You can stay on here with the other children, and can get along very well if I am gone all summer. It will make it easier for you if I have the little ones."
Austin's chin dropped, and he looked at his father in blank amazement. Surely he had heard wrong. He started to protest, but another suggestion stopped him. "If I refuse, he will take all the children away, and we shall have no home; that would grieve Mother," mused the boy. Because Austin hesitated in answering, his father continued to explain his plan. "If I find a good job I shall get a house and send for the rest of you children and we shall live near your grandmother and uncles. I believe we can do better there than here." And having said this, he waited for Austin to speak.
"Yes, I suppose we could manage to get along a while," the boy said, choking a little. How lonely and bare his path looked before him he could not explain, and intuition told him it would be useless for him to try to do so. His father seemed to forget that he was lonely too, and missed the gentle mother.
Little more was said on the subject, but Mr. Hill arranged his affairs and, taking the two younger children with him, went to a distant State, leaving Austin and his two sisters and younger brother to look out for themselves for an indefinite period.
John Moore and his wife were shocked beyond measure when they learned Mr. Hill's plans, but knowing that it would be useless for them to remonstrate, they said nothing. However, they vowed in their hearts to look after the orphans in their father's absence. But there was one feature of his father's absence that Austin had not told any one. Had his uncle John known this, he would have been more than angry with his brother-in-law. Henry Hill had not left sufficient means with Austin for the care of the children. He had needed a neat sum for his fare and had taken almost all from the family purse, promising to send something back to Austin soon. One week had passed, and a second, and although a letter had come announcing their safe arrival, nothing had been said about money. The little home was becoming bare of food, and Austin did not wish to tell his circumstances to any one. He would have to find a way to make money for himself.
The neighborhood in which he lived abounded in market-gardens, and Austin decided to get work in the garden of a neighbor, with permission to bring the children with him and allow them to work what they could also. All of them together would be able to support themselves till their father found work and should help them again. With Austin to decide was to act, and the very next morning he went to the house of Mr. Long and asked for work. Mr. Long had been observing the boy and liked his pluck, and gave him work as he wished.
Now began a new epoch with Austin. There was a feeling of independence in making and using his own money that was very pleasant. He did not wonder that the older boys had gotten out to do for themselves. Though he had to rise early and work late to keep up his house-work and home chores, and his field-work, he did not count it a hardship. He felt manly and strong in doing it.
Mr. Hill smiled with pleasure when he read in Austin's letters of the arrangements he had made and how well they were getting along. That was just the thing. With the wages of the children they would not need much from him, and he would have more for himself. There was no need of Austin's having more than was actually necessary, and that would not be much. It was certainly fortunate that Austin had such a head for business.
But the best-laid plans sometimes prove to have a flaw, and this was unpleasantly true in this case. Though Mr. Hill explained at length to his parents how nicely Austin was getting along, he could not make them think all was well. They seemed to think, and others were of the same mind, that he was neglecting his duty.
"Who has the care of the children?" his mother asked him one day.
"Austin is looking after them," was the easy reply.
"You do not mean to say you left that boy with the care of the children," she exclaimed in amazement.
"Why, Mother, he manages them fine. I was gone a month a while back and everything was running along all