This recommendation made no impression upon Mr. Archibald, who laughed contemptuously and went away; but I felt very grateful to the boy Roberts, who preferred speaking the truth to toadying to the disparaging opinions of his young master. Mr. Graham was very ill, suffering from brain fever, the result of many months of anxiety and watchfulness over his daughter. The illness had long been pending, and descended upon him with terrible force. He became delirious, raving night and day, until nature was exhausted, and a calm settling upon him, he followed his daughter to the grave.
This second blow, following so closely upon the first, fairly broke me down; a gloom settled upon the house, but nowhere so darkly as upon me. I not only grieved deeply for the great loss I had sustained, but there was the weight of a dark uncertain future hanging over me.
I saw nobody but Roberts until the second funeral was over; and a few days after the event, Mr. Archibald, Roberts, and another servant in livery entered the stable. The latter person seemed to be very deferential to Mr. Archibald, and I saw at once that he was his own servant—a man I had heard Roberts speak of as Mr. Archibald’s Hoskins.
‘There, that’s the nag, Hoskins,’ said Mr. Archibald; ‘I make you a present of him, instead of a Christmas box by-and-by. He will fetch something for cats’-meat, if for nothing else.’
This unmerited insult was received with an approving laugh from Hoskins; but Roberts, with tears in his eyes, stepped forward and said,—
‘If you please, Mr. Archibald, Miss Nellie always said Blossom was not to be sold.’
‘Did she?’ returned Mr. Archibald. ‘And pray what was to be done with him?’
‘Master said he would keep him while he lived, and leave enough money to keep him at grass in his old days, if he died before him.’
Oh, kind mistress and worthy master! you have the thanks a horse can give for the noble thought; but alas, it was never to be!
‘There was nothing of the sort in his will,’ said Mr. Archibald; ‘and I do not feel called upon to carry out such a sentimental scheme upon your bare assertion, my lad. Hoskins, the animal is yours; get him out of the way as soon as you can, for I want the stable for my own horses.’