Slowly and sadly the amateurs submitted to the fateful decree and moved toward home, while Mrs Weathervane bestowed a sympathetic kiss upon her troubled visitor. A great many people came to doors and windows to see the couple pass by, but what was public interest to a couple whose motive had been rudely destroyed? So dejected was their mien as they approached the Burton mansion, and so listless was their step, that the dog Terry, who was on guard at the front door, gave only an inquiring wag of his tail, and did not change his position as the boys passed over the door-mat upon which he lay. A moment or two later a carriage dashed up to the door, and Mrs. Burton descended, hurried into the house, and exclaimed:
“How dared you to do such a vulgar, disgraceful thing?”
“Well,” said Budge, “that’s another of the things we don’t understand much about, even after we’re told. We thought we could be just as good to you an’ Uncle Harry as dirty little Italian boys is to their papas an’ mammas, an’ when we tried it, you made us go straight home.”
“Dzust the same fing as saying ‘Don’t’s at us,” Toddie complained.
“An’ after we got a whole lot of money, too!” said Budge. “Papa says some big men don’t get more than a dollar in a day, an’ we got most a dollar in a little bit of a while. It’s partly because we was honest, though, I guess, an’ told the troof everywhere—we told everybody that we wanted the money to help Uncle Harry to buy a horse an’ carriage.”
UNCLE HARRY’S FRANTIC EXAMINATION OF HIS BELOVED VIOLIN
Uncle Harry himself, moved by his aching tooth, had returned from New York in time to hear, unperceived, the last portion of Budge’s explanation, after which he heard the remainder of the story from his wife. His expression as he listened, his glance at his nephews, and his frantic examination of his beloved violin, gave the boys to understand how utter is sometimes the failure of good intentions to make happy those persons for whose benefit they are exerted. The somber reflections of the musicians were unchanged by anything which occurred during the remainder of the afternoon, and when they retired, it was with a full but sorrowful heart that Budge prayed: “Dear Lord, I’ve been scolded again for tryin’ to do somethin’ real nice for other people. I guess it makes me know something about how the good prophets felt. Please don’t let me have to be killed for doin’ good. Amen.”
And Toddie prayed: “Dee Lord, dere’ some more ‘Don’t’s been said to me, an’ I fink Aunt Alice ought to be ’hamed of herself. Won’t you please make her so? Amen.”