Reaching the barn quite drenched, Budd found Mr. Benton engaged in feeding a dozen or more gaunt and ill-kept cows, who seized the musty hay thrown down to them with an avidity that suggested, on their part, a scarcity of rations. The same untidiness that marked the house was to be seen about the barn also, which, if anything, was in a more dilapidated condition than the former.
"Good-morning, Mr. Benton. What can I do to assist you?" asked Budd, pleasantly, as soon as he entered the barn.
"Hum! I don't suppose ye can milk?" was the rather ungracious response.
"No, sir; but I'm willing to learn," replied Budd, good-naturedly.
"Well, I'll see 'bout that after awhile. I suppose ye might as well begin now as any time. But fust git up on that mow an' throw down more hay. These pesky critters eat more'n their necks are wuth," said Mr. Benton, kicking savagely at a cow that was reaching out for the wad of hay he was carrying by her.
Budd obeyed with alacrity; and when that job was finished it was followed by others, including the milking, wherein the lad proved an apt scholar, until nearly six o'clock, when Mrs. Benton's shrill voice summoned them to breakfast. That meal, possibly on account of Budd's want of the good appetite he had had the night before, seemed to him greatly inferior to his supper. The coffee was bitter and sweetened with molasses, the johnny-cakes were burnt, and the meat and vegetables were cold. He did his best to eat heartily of the unsavory food, however--partly that he might not seem to his employer over-fastidious in taste, and partly because the morning's work had taught him that he should need all the strength he could obtain ere his day's task was over. Stormy though it was, he felt sure Mr. Benton would find enough for him to do.
In fact, long before the first of April came, Budd realized fully the force of the words Mr. Wright had shouted after him the night he stopped there to inquire the way to Mr. Benton's. Had he really known his employer and family, he certainly would not have been over-anxious to have hired out to him for the season; for the dilapidated condition of the buildings and the untidiness and disorder that marked everything about the place were not, after all, the worst features with which Budd had to deal. He soon found that his employer was a hard, cruel, grasping tyrant, while his wife was a complete termagant, scolding and fault-finding incessantly from morning until night. There was not an animal on the place that escaped the abuse of the master, and not even the master himself escaped the tirades of the mistress.
Budd, by faithfully performing every task assigned him, and thus frequently doing twice over what a lad of his age should have been expected to do, tried to win the approval of both Mr. Benton and his wife. He soon found this impossible, and so contented himself with doing what he felt to be right, and cheerfully bore the scoldings that soon became an hourly occurrence.
It was indeed astonishing with what good nature the lad bore both the work and the abuse put upon him. Mr. Benton attributed it to the paper he had asked the boy to sign, and chuckled to himself at the thought that Budd's fear of losing his wages kept him so industrious and docile. He confidentially admitted to his wife, one day, that the lad was worth twice what he had agreed to pay him; "only I ain't paid him nothin' as yit," he added, with a knowing look, which his wife seemed to understand, for she replied:
"Now ye are up to another of yer capers, John Benton. There never was a man on the earth meaner than ye are!"