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Mary Louise well knew these peculiarities, having previously lived in his house, and also she knew he was a kind-hearted man, devotedly attached to his deaf wife and thoroughly trusted by Gran'pa Jim. "I was told," said the girl presently, "to direct all my letters to my grandfather in your care." "I am aware that you have done so," he replied.
I've always wanted a mother; you don't know how much I've wanted a mother; but I never 'xpected not till Gran'pa Simon come I never 'xpected to get such a lovely one. You don't know; I wisht I could tell you; I wisht I could do sumpthin' so 'at you'd know how glad I am." She leaned over and kissed him.
In the latter case she would forfeit her trunk and her pretty clothes, which she did not wish to do unless it proved absolutely necessary; and, after all, she decided, frankness was best. Gran'pa Jim had often said that what one could not do openly should not be done at all. There was nothing to be ashamed of in her resolve to leave the school where she was so unhappy.
"Well, yes, you may tell Billy, but charge him to keep it a profound secret." "Oh! he will, he will; he'll do anything like that 'at I ask 'im to." Ralph picked up his cap and turned to go; he hesitated a moment, then he crossed the room to where old Simon still sat, and, standing before him, he said: "I'm sorry you're sick, Gran'pa Simon. I never meant to do wrong by you.
The girl became thoughtful for a time. "I can't understand," she finally said, "why Gran'pa Jim acts the way he does. Often he has told me, when I deserved censure, to 'face the music' and have it over with. Once he said that those who sin must suffer the penalty, because it is the law of both God and man, and he who seeks to escape a just penalty is a coward.
No! no! gran'pa, take back your words, or take back your puppies. Won't risk to carry both. I'd sooner take Patsy Rifle, with all her weight, and no terms at all." "Pshaw, Ned, you're a fool." "That's no news, gran'pa, to you or me. But it don't alter the case. Put up your puppies." "No, Ned; you shall have them on your own terms. Take 'em as they are. I give them to you."
"That's it, Jake," he said to himself, turning to his papers; "you talk too much. If a man prints a thing, and nobody knows who printed it, he's safe." "I'm pretty sure, Gran'pa Jim," said Mary Louise that evening, "that I've trailed the traitor to his lair, and he's none other than Jake Kasker!"
Mary Louise reflected, with a little shock of pain, that her mother had never been very near to her and that Miss Stearne might well perform such perfunctory duties as the girl had been accustomed to expect. But no one could ever take the place of Gran'pa Jim. "Thank you, Miss Stearne," she said. "I am sure I shall be quite contented here. Is my room ready?"
"Take the chair, Ned," said the old man, with a smaller degree of kindness in his tone than was habitual with him. "Take the chair. "Why, what's the hurt, gran'pa?" demanded the young man, though he rose and did as he was bidden. "If 'twas a fiddle, now, there would be some danger of a crash, but a big book like that seems naturally made to sit upon." The old man answered him mildly:
Gran'pa Jim had not told her she could come to him, even in an emergency, but when she explained all the suffering she had endured at the school she knew quite well that he would forgive her for coming. But she needed money for the long journey, and this must be secured in some way from her own resources.
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