Part 44 (2/2)
She looks like what she does. What do you make of that?” he demanded, turning suddenly to Katy, who was regarding him with open-eyed curiosity.
Katy was startled but her keen wits. .h.i.t the nail on the head promptly.
”I guess you mean she looks like she'd do anything she thought she ought to and you couldn't make her if she didn't want to.”
”Good for you, child, that's just what I do mean--and it is a very valuable trait of character, little girls. Chicken Little, I was much obliged to you for showing me what I ought to do last winter.”
He drew her to him with an affectionate pat.
”And I am grateful to you for so many things, Jane. I shall never be able to half thank you, dear.” And Alice came over to give her another hug.
”Don't praise the child so much, you'll spoil her,” objected Mrs.
Morton.
”I can't help it, Mrs. Morton--she and Mr. Harding have given me Uncle Joseph and now it looks as if the letter she took to Mr. Harding, might give me back my father's property and this old home.”
”I am in hopes that may help you and Dr. Morton, Madam,” said Uncle Joseph gravely. ”Mr. Harding tells us Dr. Morton is anxious to sell the place, and if Mr. Ga.s.sett makes the settlement we hope for, he will simply pay back the purchase money to Dr. Morton because the place was never his to sell. He has arranged to meet us tomorrow morning.”
It was several years later before Jane was old enough to understand exactly how the letter she and Gertie had carried to d.i.c.k Harding could work all the wonders it seemed to be responsible for.
Mrs. Morton said it was the work of Providence that this special letter was preserved and found at just the right time. Uncle Joseph declared that Alice's asking them to hunt through the old closets had more to do with it than Providence. But d.i.c.k Harding said it wasn't Providence at all--it was paper dolls and Chicken Little Jane.
”At any rate,” he said, ”I never heard of Providence making a man turn green, and Ga.s.sett certainly did when I showed him his own writing and read him about two paragraphs of it. There it was in black and white that the mortgage on the house had been paid in full, and that the bank had just returned Mr. Fletcher's stock certificates deposited with them to secure a firm debt. The letter was jubilant over the business success that had enabled Fletcher and Ga.s.sett to pay up, and Mr. Ga.s.sett declared he was grateful beyond measure to Alice's father for risking his bank stock for the firm credit. Nice way he took to show his grat.i.tude, wasn't it?” d.i.c.k Harding looked the disgust he could not express.
Uncle Joseph had been telling the Mortons what happened when Mr. Ga.s.sett met them in Mr. Harding's office.
”Did he show any signs of fight at the start?” inquired Dr. Morton.
”Oh, he tried to bl.u.s.ter for a moment,” replied d.i.c.k, ”but I asked him 'Do we go on with this case in court, Mr. Ga.s.sett, or do we not? Yes, or no?' 'No,' said Mr. Ga.s.sett, so we got down to business.”
”He was willing to do anything to hush the matter up,” added Uncle Joseph. ”It took exactly ten minutes to hand over a check for the money Dr. Morton paid him for the house, and to give Alice a paper resigning all claim to the bank stock. I have an idea the old rascal was afraid we might discover something else he had stolen.”
”The Ga.s.setts are going away I understand,” said Dr. Morton. ”Well, it's a lucky strike for me to get the money back for the house. I am delighted, too, that Alice is to have her parent's home. Do you ever expect to come back to live in it, Alice?”
Alice blushed and d.i.c.k Harding looked confused.
”I hope to--some day,” she answered softly.
Uncle Joseph and Alice went back to Cincinnati on the fifteenth of August. The next two weeks were busy ones in the Morton home. The old gabled house was in the dire throes of packing.
Chicken Little could not remember any previous moving and she thoroughly enjoyed the excitement despite the fact that her mother looked worried, and her father was cross when she got in his way. She watched him fill box after box with books, for Dr. Morton had a large professional library besides the family books which ran into the hundreds. She loved to see the crates and barrels swallow up dishes and crockery like hungry monsters with wide-open jaws. She found even the wrapping of chair legs with excelsior, and the crating of bureau and tables, interesting.
”Looks just like they were put in cages,” remarked Katy, peering through the slats at a lonesome-looking, marble-topped stand.
Gertie gazed about at the stripped walls and windows and gave a little s.h.i.+ver. ”I don't like it--it looks like you were gone, Chicken Little.”
The house certainly had a forlorn look and an empty ring. Pete sat on his perch grim and curious. He seemed to regard the bustle and hammering as a personal affront.
<script>