Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. DR. OILBEET AND HIS DAUGHTER
COME TO AN USDEESTANDINO. Dr. Gilbert was a thrifty man. He held petty mortgages on half the farms in town, and carried on a large farm himself. Sometimes, when a sudden death brought forcibly to his mind the uncertain tenure of life, he became uncomfortable with the thought that his affairs were so extended and so complicated, that no one but himself could ever settle them safely and advantageously. At the close of the day on which he held his interview with Arthur Blague, and that young man determined to enter the mill at Hucklebury Run, he drank his tea, and taking a newspaper in his hand, subsided into a brown study. The occasion was the sudden revolution that had taken place in Arthur’s plans of life in consequence of his father’s death. Would his own little boy ever be brought to such a trial ? He must not be. He would set apart now, while it was possible, a sum that should be sacredly kept from all danger of loss, so that, in any contingency, little Fred should not miss his education. Having fully determined upon this, and arrangedthe plan by which the end should be effected, he called Fred to him, and took him upon his knee. Aunt Catharine was washing the silver, sitting high and trim in her tea-chair, and Fanny sat near the window reading.
I wonder what we shall make of this little boy, said the doctor, with one big arm around him, and the other fondling roughly his white little hand.
Oh ! I know what I’m going to be, said Fred, with a very wise and positive look, and a tone that indicated that he had never yet divulged his convictions to anybody.
Tell us all about it, then, said the doctor.
Oh! I know?I know. You can’t guess, responded the boy, with a smack of the lips that showed it must be s…