CHAPTER II.
DAB'S OLD CLOTHES GET A NEW BOY TO FIT.
Hamilton Morris was a very promising young man, of some thirty summers.He had been an "orphan" for a dozen years; and the wonder was that heshould so long have lived alone in the big, square-built house hisfather left him. At all events, Miranda Kinzer was just the wife forhim.
Miranda's mother had seen that at a glance, the moment her mind wassettled about the house. As to that and his great, spreading,half-cultivated farm, all either of them needed was ready money andmanagement.
These were blessings Ham was now made reasonably sure of, on his returnfrom his wedding-trip, and he was likely to appreciate them.
As for Dabney Kinzer, he was in no respect overcome by the novelty andexcitement of the wedding-day. All the rest of it, after the departureof Ham Morris and the bride, he devoted himself to such duties as wereassigned him, with a new and grand idea steadily taking shape in hismind. He felt as if his brains too, like his body, were growing. Some ofhis mother's older and more intimate friends remained with her all day,probably to comfort her for the loss of Miranda; and two or three ofthem, Dab knew, would stay to tea, so that his services would be indemand to see them safely home.
All day long, moreover, Samantha and Keziah and Pamela seemed to findthemselves wonderfully busy, one way and another, so that they paid evenless attention than usual to any of the ins and outs of their brother.
Dabney was therefore able, with little difficulty, to take for himselfwhatever of odd time he might require for putting his new idea intoexecution.
Mrs. Kinzer herself noticed the rare good sense with which her sonhurried through with his dinner, and slipped away, leaving her inundisturbed possession of the table and her lady guests, and neither shenor either of the girls had a thought of following him.
If they had done so, they might have seen him draw a good-sized bundleout from under the lilac-thicket in the back yard, and hurry downthrough the garden.
A few moments more, and Dabney had appeared on the fence of the oldcross-road leading down to the shore. There he sat, eying one passer-byafter another, till he suddenly sprang from his perch, exclaiming,--
"That's just the chap! Why, they'll fit him, and that's more'n they everdid for me."
Dab would probably have had to search along the coast for miles beforehe could have found a human being better suited to his presentcharitable purposes than the boy who now came so lazily down the road.
There was no doubt about his color, or that he was all over of about thesame shade of black. His old tow trowsers and calico shirt revealed theshining fact in too many places to leave room for a question, and shoeshe had none.
"Dick," said Dabney, "was you ever married?"
"Married!" exclaimed Dick, with a peal of very musical laughter, "is Imarried? No. Is you?"
"No," replied Dabney; "but I was very near it, this morning."
"Dat so?" asked Dick, with another show of his white teeth. "Done yegood, den; nebber seen ye I look so nice afore."
"You'd look nicer'n I do if you were only dressed up," said Dab. "Justyou put on these."
"Golly!" exclaimed the black boy. But he seized the bundle Dab threwhim, and he had it open in a twinkling.
"Any t'ing in de pockets?" he asked.
"Guess not," said Dab; "but there's lots of room."
"Say dar was," exclaimed Dick. "But won't dese t'ings be warm?"
It was quite likely; for the day was not a cool one, and Dick neverseemed to think of getting off what he had on, before getting into hisunexpected present. Coat, vest, and trousers, they were all pulled onwith more quickness than Dab had ever seen the young African displaybefore.
"I's much obleeged to ye, Mr. Kinzer," said Dick very proudly, as hestrutted across the road. "On'y I dasn't go back fru de village."
"What'll you do, then?" asked Dab.
"S'pose I'd better go a-fishin'," said Dick. "Will de fish bite?"
"Oh! the clothes won't make any odds to them," said Dabney. "I must goback to the house."
And so he did: while Dick, on whom the cast-off garments of his whitefriend were really a pretty good fit, marched on down the road, feelinggrander than he ever had before in all his life.
"That'll be a good thing to tell Ham Morris, when he and Miranda gethome again," muttered Dab, as he re-entered the house.
Late that evening, when Dabney returned from his final duties as escortto his mother's guests, she rewarded him with more than he couldremember ever receiving of motherly commendation.
"I've been really quite proud of you, Dabney," she said, as she laid herplump hand on the collar of his new coat, and kissed him. "You'vebehaved like a perfect little gentleman."
"Only, mother," exclaimed Keziah, "he spent too much of his time withthat sharp-tongued little Jenny Walters."
"Never mind, Kezi," said Dab: "she didn't know who I was till I toldher. I'm going to wear a label with my name on it when I go over to thevillage to-morrow."
"And then you'll put on your other suit in the morning," said Mrs.Kinzer. "You must keep this for Sundays and great occasions."
"Any more weddings coming, right away?" said Dab, with a sharp glancearound upon what remained of the family; but the girls were all verybusy just then, with their books and their sewing, and he did not getany direct reply. Even his mother walked away after something she hadleft in the dining-room.
When the next morning came, Dabney Kinzer was a more than usually earlyriser, for he felt that he had waked up to a very important day.
"Dabney," exclaimed his mother, when he came in to breakfast, "did I nottell you to put on your other suit?"
"So I have, mother," replied Dab: this is my other suit."
"That?" exclaimed Mrs. Kinzer.
"So it is!" cried Keziah.
"So it isn't," added Samantha. "Mother, that is not what he had onyesterday."
"He's been trading again," mildly suggested Pamela.
"Dabney," said Mrs. Kinzer, "what does this mean?"
"Mean!" replied Dabney. "Why, these are the clothes you told me to buy.The lot I wore yesterday were a present from Ham Morris. He's a splendidfellow. I'm glad he got the best of the girls."
That was a bad thing for Dabney to say just then, for it was vigorouslyresented by the remaining three. As soon as quiet was restored, however,Mrs. Kinzer remarked,--
"I think Hamilton should have consulted me about it, but it's too latenow. Anyhow, you may go and put on your other clothes."
"My wedding suit?" asked Dab.
"No, indeed! I mean your old ones,--those you took off night beforelast."
"Dunno where they are," slowly responded Dab.
"Don't know where they are?" responded a chorus of four voices.
"No," said Dab. "Bill Lee's black boy had em on all yesterday afternoon,and I reckon he's gone a-fishing again to-day. They fit him a good sightbetter 'n they ever did me."
If Dabney had expected a storm to come from his mother's end of thetable, he was pleasantly mistaken; and his sisters had it all tothemselves for a moment. Then, with an admiring glance at her son, thethoughtful matron remarked,--
"Just like his father, for all the world! It's no use, girls: Dabney's agrowing boy in more ways than one. Dabney, I shall want you to go overto the Morris house with me after breakfast. Then you may hitch up theponies, and we'll do some errands around the village."
Dab Kinzer's sisters looked at one another in blank astonishment, andSamantha would have left the table if she had only finished herbreakfast.
Pamela, as being nearest to Dab in age and sympathy, gave a veryadmiring look at her brother's second "good fit," and said nothing.
Even Keziah finally admitted, in her own mind, that such a change inDabney's appearance might have its advantages. But Samantha inwardlydeclared war.
The young hero himself was hardly used to that second suit, as yet, andfelt any thing but easy in it.
"I wonder," he said to himself, "what Jen
ny Walters would say to me now.Wonder if she'd know me."
Not a doubt of it. But after he had finished his breakfast, and goneout, his mother remarked,--
"It's really all right, girls. I almost fear I have been neglectingDabney. He isn't a little boy any more."
"He isn't a man yet," exclaimed Samantha. "And he talks slangdreadfully."
"But then, he does grow so!" remarked Keziah.
"Mother," said Pamela, "couldn't you get Dab to give Dick Lee the slang,along with the old clothes?"
"We'll see about it," replied Mrs. Kinzer.
It was very clear that Dabney's mother had begun to take in a new ideaabout her son.
It was not the least bit in the world unpleasant to find out that he was"growing in more ways than one," and it was quite likely that she hadindeed kept him too long in roundabouts.
At all events, his great idea had been worked out into a triumphantsuccess; and, before the evening was over, Pamela replied to a remark ofSamantha's,--
"I don't care. He's taller than I am, and I'd ever so much rather have afrock-coat walk beside me to meeting."