"You!" exclaimed Ruth.
"You don't mean that you were ever a bare-footed boy, and lived about here?" exclaimed Sue, equally astonished.
"Why not, now?" replied Mr. Frothingham laughing; while Mr. Le Bras went up-stairs to ask his wife to come down and see their guest.
"Because," said Sue, "you're all dressed up, and wear a diamond pin. And aren't you the man that lives up in the big cottage, and that Felix says is a millionnaire, with more money than he knows what to do with?"
"That may all be true, my dear: but you know we live in America, where a barefooted boy may have as good a chance as any man, and perhaps better; because, you see, if I hadn't been a barefooted boy, who knew how to work and how to save, as very few do know how except poor men's children, I might never have been able to wear a diamond pin,—though that isn't of much consequence,—or build a cottage by the grand old sea, and have time to come and spend a summer in enjoying nature, when I am getting to be too old and heavy to want to work as hard as a young man can."
When Mrs. Le Bras came down, she, too, was surprised to learn that Mr. Frothingham had been born in that neighborhood, and had lived there until he was almost a young man.
"Certainly," said Mr. Frothingham. "I was born in a little brown farmhouse over towards the quarry: my father was the minister of the church over on the hill. He had a very small salary, and the farm helped support us."
"The white meeting-house with green blinds?" asked Felix; for he and Johnny had come in to see Mr. Frothingham.
"The very same, my boy: only it has been repainted and repaired inside, since my day. This little girl's grandfather was a near neighbor of ours, and one of my father's best parishioners. He was a very honest, kind-hearted, straightforward man; and his wife was a very dear friend of my mother's. Ethan was the oldest of the family, and worked hard, from the time he was big enough to handle a hoe; he had the hardest time of any of the children, and didn't get the schooling the others did; but that was partly because he was so ambitious about working, that he would not stop to go to school. It was a mistake, but he meant it all right; and he's helped his folks, and been an industrious, saving man. As for this little girl's mother,—and she looks just like her,—how well I remember Lucy! she was always one of the best scholars in school: we were in the same class. I saw her nearly every day of my life, and never too often, until I went to the city. When I came back, and found she was married to a nice young farmer here, I was a good deal taken back, for a while.—You see, it was my love for the old scenes that made me build a cottage here. When a man gets along in life, he likes to come back to the place where he was born: no other place can be quite so dear. I hoped once to have my children spend half of every year where I passed my childhood; but they are both gone. Mary, a girl of about Ruth's size, died over a year ago, and my wife hasn't been like herself since. Our boy died before the cottage was finished, and Mary only spent one season here."
"I am so sorry for you and your wife," said Mrs. Le Bras: "I don't know what I should do without my children."