"Oh, fie on you! But what do you think, Job?" Mr. Seymour asked after a pause. "Suppose we leave it until another day. There is some sense in what Kit says," he went on, patting her cheeks. "Gilbert doesn't look very rugged, and besides he could not do much before the summer vacation."
"I had not thought of his health," Uncle Job answered, looking me over as one might a horse he thought of running for first prize.
"Nor I; but it's as puss says, or a little that way," Mr. Seymour answered.
"Well, then, let the matter drop for the present," Uncle Job responded. "An education is not worth much if one breaks down in getting it. So go and build yourself up, young man, and we will talk about it again."
Thus happily, through Constance's sweet intervention, I was granted a further respite, and this more to my liking than I would have cared to tell, for I was now become greatly enamored of my liberty, and thought little of books, except as I might read them when Constance was by.
Being in this way freed from all anxiety, Constance and I did not lack for ways in which to pass the time agreeably in each other's company. If the weather happened to be fair, we rode or drove; or if there was snow, went coasting on the bluff back of the town. The thing, however, most to our liking, and of which we never tired, was skating. For this we went to the river, but later, and best of all, to Mr. Appletop's in the park across the road from the Dragon. This gentleman, now very old and feeble, was the father of the village, but a mystery to all its people, no one knowing his history, he having come into the country while it was still occupied by the Sacs and Foxes. A wanderer and misanthropist it was believed, he after a while married an Indian woman, and then, as if tired of roaming, settled down a little apart from the tribe in the house he still occupied. His wife dying about the time of Black Hawk's war, he remained when the Indians left, and in this way acquired a title to the land upon which the town stood. Being improvident and of careless habits, he had little by little parted with all his holdings until now he had scarce anything left save the park wherein his house stood. Here he lived without servants or companions of any kind, if I except a number of dogs he kept about him, some of which were of good breed, but in the main were of no account whatever. Seeing Constance and I skating one day on a small piece of ice beside the road, he asked us to come to the lake in his private grounds. This we did, to our great delight, and also to his no small pleasure, I must believe, for he used to sit and watch us and applaud everything Constance did for hours at a time.
In this manner, and to Constance's and my great happiness and the complete building up of my health then and for all time, the winter passed. In the spring, Uncle Job being away and having now no partner, he made me his agent to look after the house he was building in expectation of his marriage. This I found greatly to my liking, for in the work Constance and Miss Betty shared, and together we conceived many features in connection with the structure not common to the new country, nor contemplated in the plans Uncle Job had drawn. These, it was found, added to the cost, but he approved every one we proposed, claiming, and rightly enough, that they would cost less then than if added at a later period. After the house was built, much time was spent in furnishing, trips to Galena and Chicago being thought necessary in order to make sure we were getting the best of everything, and not patterns palmed off on our local merchants by the more fashionable purveyors in the larger towns.
While thus engaged I again suddenly changed my place of residence and manner of living, and this naturally enough. For, as might have been expected, my irregular life since leaving Wild Plum had made me impatient to see something of the great world outside, and so ready for any change that suggested itself. Of such things I often spoke to Constance, but not altogether to her liking, as I could plainly see by the expression of her eyes and more often by the tremor of her lips. In nothing, however, did the sweet creature array herself against anything I proposed, for had she done so I would have given it up, so great was my love for her. Thus we talked, at first vaguely, and then more particularly, but without anything definite, until one day we stood idly watching the War Eagle as she lay moored at the landing below Appletop, when suddenly seizing her hand, I cried out:
"Constance, I'm going to get a place on that boat if I can. It's the very thing we've talked about. What happiness to ride up and down the river and see the world, and earn your own living, too!"
At this outbreak she was so startled she could not speak, but after a while, turning to me with a sob, said, and sorrowfully enough: