“Don’t I?” he answered, drawing a long breath. “Is this goin’ to be my room?”
“Yes, you are to sleep here regularly. That bureau is for your clothes. You can put your bundle inside now, and in a few days you shall have some more to put in.”
“It’s stavin’,” ejaculated Julius, rapturously.
“I am not familiar with that word,” Mrs. Taylor said, “but I suppose it means that the room suits you. You will find some water in the pitcher, if you want to wash. When you have got through, you may come downstairs. We shall have dinner directly.”
Left to himself, Julius sat down on the bed, and tried to realize the situation.
“What would Jack say if he should see me now?” he said to himself. “I didn’t expect I was goin’ to set up as a gentleman so quick. Ain’t this a jolly bed? I’ll sleep like a top on it. It’s a blamed sight better than lyin’ on the floor in Jack’s room, or sleepin’ in old wagons, or on the piers. I feel as if one of them magician chaps had shaken his stick at me and changed me from a bootblack into a prince, like he did in that play at the Old Bowery. So I’m Julius Taylor now.”{89}
Julius arose from the bed, and proceeded to wash his face and hands, though, under ordinary circumstances, he would scarcely have thought it necessary. But he reflected that he had ascended in the social scale, and it was only proper to adapt himself to his new position. When he had completed his ablutions, to use an expression which he would not yet have understood, he heard a bell ring below.
“That’s for grub!” he said to himself. “I guess I can do my share.”{90}
CHAPTER XIII.
THE NEW DOLL.
Julius had been unusually fortunate in obtaining a home in Mr. Taylor’s family. His new guardian was a man of wealth; indeed, he was the wealthiest man in Brookville. He owned shares in banks and mining companies, and could have lived handsomely had his farm yielded no income. He had a taste for agriculture, however, though he personally carried on but a small part of his extensive farm. His wife had been born and brought up in an Eastern city, was well educated, and, though she superintended the affairs of her household, did comparatively little work herself, having the aid of two stout, capable girls in the kitchen, who relieved her of all the drudgery, and, being competent for their positions, required very little looking after. It will be seen, therefore, that Mr. Taylor’s household is not presented as that of an average Western farmer. Though, as a class, our Western farmers are intelligent, they lack the refinement and cultivation which Mr. and Mrs. Taylor derived from their early advantages.