“Why, it’s Mr. Tyler!” exclaimed Jess, who had a better view from where
she sat on the log that spanned Riddle Creek. “Oh, Roy, something’s
sure to happen to him! He’s awfully feeble.”
“And there’s a train almost due,” added Eva. “What can he be thinking
of to attempt such a thing?”
“Oh!” and Jess gave a shrill scream. “He’s fallen!”
Roy said never a word. He quickly passed his fishing-line to Eva, ran
nimbly across the tree trunk to the Burdock side of the creek, and then
started to climb the steep bank. The girls sat there and watched him
breathlessly, now and then darting a look higher up at the spot on the
trestle where the figure that had dropped still lay across the ties, as
if too badly hurt to rise.
The two Pell girls and their twin brothers, Rex and Roy, had gone down
to sit on the log in search of coolness on this blazing hot July
afternoon. Rex had been giving vent to his disgust because he wasn’t
able to accept the invitation to join a jolly party of friends for a
trip to Lake George and down the St. Lawrence. Cause why? Lack of
funds.
“You ought to have known you couldn’t go when Scott asked you, Rex,”
Roy had told him. “You would need at least fifty dollars for the
outing. And that sum will clothe you for almost a year. And clothes
with you, Rex, ought to be of sufficient importance to be considered.”
“I suppose I might as well go and tell Scott about it and have it over
with,” Rex had replied, creasing his handsome forehead into a frown. “I
dare say he’ll be calling me ‘Can’t Have It Pell’ pretty soon. It was
only two months ago I asked for a bicycle and didn’t get it, and there
was the new pair of skates I wanted last winter.”
“Don’t be late for tea,” Eva called out after him as he made his way to
the shore.
She kept her eyes on the trim figure till it was hidden by the trees
which grew thick along the road that led up to town.
“Well, if anybody in this world ought to have money it is that good
looking brother of ours,” remarked Jess with a sigh. “He’d appreciate
it so thoroughly. I don’t wonder he’s crabbed this afternoon. Just
think of the chance for a good time he’s had to let slip just for lack
of a little money.”
“Fifty dollars isn’t a little money, Jess,” returned Roy, casting his
line.
“I know it isn’t to us, but it is to most of the people we know, Scott
Bowman for instance. Do you suppose we shall _ever_ be rich, Roy?”
“We are rich now; at least you and Eva are, in my opinion.”
“We rich?” Eva nearly slipped from her position on the log at the
statement.
“Why, yes; haven’t you both contented dispositions, and isn’t that
worth a small fortune?”
“But why have you left yourself out, Roy?” Eva wanted to know. “Surely
you who never grumble, are satisfied with things.”
“No, I’m not.” A flash came into the boy’s eyes that made him really
handsome for the moment. “I’m chafing inwardly all the while at having
to be idle this way when it seems there ought to be so much I could do
to help along.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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