“Not much, Hugh, I only want you to take these notes for me.”
“Notes, eh?” said Hugh, taking the neatly folded letters in his hand, and reading the addresses. After reading them all aloud, he placed them in a pack and added. “Pretty business, I think, for a young lady like you to be writing to the boys? Oh, for shame, Jessie Carlton! I thought you were too modest to do that!”
“There’s nothing improper in my notes, master Hugh! Uncle Morris read one of them, and he says they are very sweet and proper. Will you please take them for me?”
“Yes, if you will pay me the postage on them. You know that Uncle Sam gets his pay beforehand, and I must have mine. So hand me over twelve cents, and I’ll carry your notes. Come, be quick! Hand over your money! It is time I was gone.”
“O Hugh, don’t tease so,” said Jessie.
“Do you call it teasing to ask for your pay when you are going to work for anybody!” asked Hugh, with a very tantalizing air.
Just then Guy passed through the parlor, and seeing that Jessie was getting tired with her vexatious brother, he asked what was the matter. She told him. He took the notes from Hugh, who was only too glad to give them up, and said—
“I’ll take them for you, Jessie.”
“You are a dear, good brother, and I love you ever so much,” said Jessie, holding up her lips for a kiss.
Guy kissed his sister and hurried away to school, happy in the thought that he was contributing to her pleasure, while Hugh went out with a cold, uneasy heart, and murmuring to himself—