Bildungsromans; Communities -- Juvenile fiction; First loves -- Juvenile fiction; Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- History -- Juvenile fiction
The wanderers came out to the town proper. Streets were being
surveyed, straightened, new ones laid out. There were about a hundred
houses ranged round the Fort, but they had begun to spread outside.
The disputes with the Pitt family, who had held the charter of
Pennsylvania, had been mostly settled and grants of land given to many
of the returned soldiers in lieu of the money the Colonial government
could not pay. Pittsburg now belonged to the State, and a project had
been broached to make it the county seat.
Grandfather looked very tired and pale as he came in and went straight
to his chair. His daughter took his hat and cane.
"I did not mean to go so far. I wanted to look at the spot where I had
buried my money;" with a little hollow laugh.
"Did you bury some money?" asked Daffodil, with eager curiosity.
"Can't you dig it up again?"
"No, dear; it has to stay there for years. It may be dug up in your
time, but I shall not need it."
She looked puzzled.
"You must have a cup of tea," said Mrs. Bradin, and immediately she
set about it. Grandfather leaned back in his chair and closed his
eyes. Dilly espied her mother in the adjoining room and went thither
to exploit the splendid time with the squirrels and show the flowers
she had gathered. Then she stood rather wistfully.
"Well?" said her mother in a tone of inquiry.
"Grandfather went to look at the money he had buried, but he couldn't
find it. Do you suppose some one has taken it away?"
"Buried?" She seemed mystified a moment, then smiled. "It wasn't as we
bury things. A long time ago when the French held the Fort and seemed
likely to keep a good part of the country grandfather bought a large
tract of land. Then the French were driven out by the English and they
in their turn by the Colonists. But the land is there and some day the
money may come out of it. Grandad thinks he might as well have thrown
it into the river. But he has never wanted for anything, and it would
likely have been spent for something else. It's odd grandfather should
have said that to-day. He seldom mentions it. He was quite troubled
over it at first--when _I_ was a little girl."
"Oh," returned Daffodil, relieved, though she did not understand the
matter.
"Go and put your flowers in water;" said her mother.
Grandfather was soundly asleep and did not wake until dinner was on
the table. Then he scarcely tasted it.
"You must not take such long walks," his daughter said. "You cannot
stand it any more."
"No, I am getting old," rather sadly. "When your mother died I felt
that I didn't want to live, and now I am content to go on in this
lovely world until the Lord calls me home. I thought once I should
round out the century. There have been many changes in the hundred
years."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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