You ought to see that boy strut ’round. He ‘feels his oats’ as father says. He’s got a gold watch, a very showy one, and takes it out every five minutes to look at it. You would think he was a millionnaire by the airs he puts on. The other day he asked me: “Do you ever hear from Grant Colburn?”
I answered that I was going to write you.
“He was a great fool to go to California,” said Rodney.
“What was there to stay for here?” I asked. “His mother has been turned out of the house without a cent, and you and your mother have taken everything.”
“That’s perfectly proper,” said Rodney. “We are blood relations to Mr. Tarbox.”
“Oh, well, she had her living for five years,” said Rodney. “She’ll get along well enough. She can hire out in some family. She’s strong enough to work.”
“She’s been treated mighty mean,” I said indignantly.
“Ma offered her twenty-five dollars,” replied Rodney, “but she was too proud to take it. I s’pose she wanted more.”
“Well, it was a pretty mean sum to give your grandfather’s widow,” I remarked.
“My mother understands what’s proper,” said Rodney stiffly. “Have you seen my new watch?”
“Ma sent to New York for it. It cost sixty dollars. I guess it’s as good a watch as anybody carries in Woodburn.”
I wish, Grant, you could come home, and bring a better watch. How it would take down the pride of that young snob!
Oh, I mustn’t forget to tell you that Mr. Jones—Abner Jones—is in trouble. It seems that your step-father held a mortgage of a thousand dollars on his farm, and it comes due in two or three months. Mrs. Bartlett threatens to foreclose, and unless he can get some one else to assume the mortgage, I am afraid the farm will be sold for much less than its value. It is worth three thousand dollars, but father says it won’t fetch, at a forced sale, much over two thousand, perhaps only that sum. I pity Mrs. Jones. I was speaking to Arthur Jones yesterday. He feels very bad about it.
But I have written you a long letter. Let me hear from you soon.
“There’s another reason for going home,” observed Grant, as he folded up the letter. “I shall start by the next steamer.”
“I will expect you back in three months,” said Mr. Crosmont. “While you are away my son will take your place in the office, but I shall miss you very much.”