"She is going to Colonel Tiffton's first, though they've all got the
typhoid fever, I hear, and that's no place for her. That fever is
terrible on Northerners--terrible on anybody. I'm afraid of it myself,
and I wish this horrid throbbing I've felt for a few days would leave my
head. It has a fever feel that I don't like," and the young man pressed
his hand against his temples, trying to beat back the pain which so much
annoyed him.
Just then Collonel Tiffton was announced, his face wearing an anxious
look, and his voice trembling as he told how sick his Nell was, how sick
they all were, and then spoke of Alice Johnson.
"She's the same girl I told you about the day I bought Rocket; some
little kin to me, and that makes it queer why her mother should leave
her to you. I knew she would not be happy at Saratoga, and so we wrote
for her to visit us. She is on the road now, will be here day after
to-morrow, and something must be done. She can't come to us without
great inconvenience to ourselves and serious danger to her. Hugh, my
boy, there's no other way--she must come to Spring Bank," and the old
colonel laid his hand on that of Hugh, who looked at him aghast, but
made no immediate reply.
"A pretty state of things, and a pretty place to bring a lady," he
muttered, glancing ruefully around the room and enumerating the
different articles he knew were out of place. "Fish worms, fishhooks,
fishlines, bootjack, boot-blacking, and rifle, to say nothing of the
dogs--and me!"
The last was said in a tone as if the "me" were the most objectionable
part of the whole, as, indeed, Hugh thought it was.
"I wonder how I do look to persons wholly unprejudiced!" Hugh said, and
turning to Muggins he asked what she thought of him.
"I thinks you berry nice. I likes you berry much," the child replied,
and Hugh continued: "Yes; but how do I look, I mean? What do I look like, a dandy or a
scarecrow?"
Muggins regarded him for a moment curiously, and then replied: "I'se dunno what kind of thing that dandy is, but I 'members dat yer
scarecrow what Claib make out of mas'r's trouse's and coat, an' put up
in de cherry tree. I thinks da look like Mas'r Hugh--yes, very much
like!"
Hugh laughed long and loud, pinching Mug's dusky cheek, and bidding her
run away.
"Pretty good," he exclaimed, when he was left alone, "That's Mug's
opinion. Look like a scarecrow. I mean to see for myself," and going
into the sitting-room, where the largest mirror was hung, he scanned
curiously the figure which met his view, even taking a smaller glass,
and holding it so as to get a sight of his back. "Tall,
broad-shouldered, straight, well-built. My form is well enough," he
said. "It's the clothes that bother. I mean to get some new ones. Then,
as to my face," and Hugh turned himself around, "I never thought of it
before; but my features are certainly regular, teeth can't be beaten,
good brown skin, such as a man should have, eyes to match, and a heap of
curly hair. I'll be hanged if I don't think I'm rather good-looking!"
and with his spirits proportionately raised, Hugh whistled merrily as he
went in quest of Aunt Chloe, to whom he imparted the startling
information that on the next day but one, a young lady was coming to
Spring Bank, and that, in the meantime, the house must be cleaned from
garret to cellar, and everything put in order for the expected guest.