“There was no need of changing your clothes, to go there,” continued Mrs. Allen.
“Well, I wont do so again, if you don’t want me to,” replied Henry.
This answer, though made in a respectful tone, surprised Mrs. Allen so much, that she looked at the boy a moment, as if in doubt whether he could be in earnest.
“I don’t see how I could have forgotten about the wood,” continued Henry. “I thought of it as I was coming home from school; and I started out to get it, almost the first thing after I got home; but just then I heard the cows making a racket in the barn, and I went to see what the matter was, and I never thought of the wood again. After this I mean to keep enough in the back-room all the time to last two or three days; then if I should happen to forget it, once in a while, you wont get out.”
Henry had usually received the reprimands of Mrs. Allen in sullen silence, and no wonder she was surprised at the spirit manifested in this reply. But her husband came in, tea time had arrived, and the subject was dropped.
Henry was at this time attending school, as Mr. Allen had little for him to do. He was to have from four to six months’ schooling a year, and to devote the rest of his time to work. This was the agreement made with Mrs. Hapley. Of course, while attending school, Henry could have but few play hours, unless he encroached upon time that should have been devoted to work, which he was sometimes tempted to do. The next day, however, after the conversation just reported, he was careful to do his work up thoroughly, although it left him no time for sport. He had the kitchen fire started in the morning before any one else was up—a feat almost without a precedent. Instead of cutting a scanty mess of hay for the day, as usual, he cut enough to last two days. The wood-box in the house was heaped full in the morning, and again replenished at night. And so with all his other work. The yard and roads were very muddy, but Mrs. Allen searched in vain for his tracks on her clean floors, and as she did so, “wondered what was going to happen.”
Thus matters went on for several days. No one appeared to notice that Henry was not doing just as he had done for several weeks. He got no commendation or encouragement, either by words or looks. He was a little disappointed that his efforts to please were not noticed; but then it was some satisfaction that no fault had been found with him, since he began to reform. Even when, while wiping the supper dishes one evening, he had the ill luck to drop a saucer, which flew into fragments, Mrs. Allen did not scold him, but simply remarked that it was fortunate it was an odd one. He also found a good deal of satisfaction in the consciousness that he was trying to do right. He felt on better terms with himself and every one else, than he did a few days before, His moping, homesick feelings were fast disappearing.
When Henry came home from school on Saturday, he mentioned to Mrs. Allen that he had been invited to go over to the sugar camp with his sister and others. As he had been away one afternoon, that week, he did not like to ask for another half day; but he hoped permission would be given him to go, without his request, and he finished up his work as quickly as possible, that he might be ready to start the moment the word was spoken. But when these things were attended to, Mrs. Allen had other jobs for him to do, which he cheerfully performed; and when these were finished, knowing it was too late to join the excursion party, he actually went to braiding husks of his own accord, and so filled up the remainder of the afternoon.
“Why, Henry!” exclaimed Mrs. Allen, as she went into the barn towards sunset, and found the boy at work, “I thought you had gone off to play. You needn’t have done this, to-day.”
“I thought I would be getting the husks out of the way, they have been lying around so long,” replied Henry.