Madge Morton's Trust

by Amy D. V. Chalmers

IT'S all right, Phyllis! Tom Curtis is a dear. David is to go with us." Madge breathed a sigh of satisfaction over the success of her scheme.

Phyllis Alden laughed. She was buttoning the twins into clean pinafores. "I am not surprised. I knew Tom would find a place for David if you asked him to do so. Tom Curtis is quite likely to do Madge Morton's will."

Madge flushed. "Don't be a goose, please, Phil," she begged. "You know that as long as we are to take Miss Betsey Taylor on board our houseboat, in order to be able to pay the expenses of our trip this summer," Madge made a wry face, "that we ought not to leave poor David high and dry without any work to do. I was awfully sorry for the boy when he came here the other day and heard what Miss Betsey thought of doing. He turned quite white, and when I asked him if he was sorry to be thrown out of work, he said 'Yes,' and then he wouldn't talk any more."

Phyllis looked serious. "I hope it will turn out for the best, but it is asking a good deal of Tom to take this strange boy way down to Virginia with him. David hasn't a good reputation. Miss Taylor employs him only because he is a distant cousin of hers. No one else will have anything to do with him, he is so surly and unfriendly. He was turned out of the district school, and——"

Madge pretended to put her fingers in her ears. "Don't tell me any more mean things about that poor fellow, please, dear," she pleaded. "I suppose it is because I have never heard a good word about him that I, being an obstinate person, don't think he can be as bad as he is painted. I am a black sheep myself, sometimes, when my horrid temper gets the better of me, and I know how dreadful it is not to be trusted."

"You a black sheep! O Madge! how absurd you are," protested Phil.

But Madge was in earnest and would not be interrupted. "Tom really did need some one on his motor boat, Phil. He wrote me that he meant to hire some one to come along with him. Tom wishes to run his own engine, but he doesn't yearn for the task of cleaning it or to do the very hard work. Of course, that is all right. He has plenty of money and can do as he chooses. But it's different with David."

"How many boys will Tom have on his motor boat while he has us in tow?" inquired Phil. She realized that Madge had been seized with one of her sudden fits of enthusiasm over Miss Betsey Taylor's "hired boy" and that there was no sense in opposing her. The little captain would find out later whether her enthusiasm had been right or wrong.

"Four or five," answered Madge absently. "Do stand still, Daisy Alden, while I tie your sunbonnet, or I'll eat you alive!" she scolded kissing one of the twin babies on her fat pink cheek. "Come on, Phil. Hold tight to Dot. If we are going to drive out to Miss Betsey Taylor's to see whether she still desires to pay us sixty dollars a month for food, lodging and the pleasure of our delightful society aboard our precious houseboat, we had better start at once."