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  “What troubles me is that I didn’t mean it when I began, and was going to use the dear girl as an instrument of torture for Nan. It wasn’t right, and I don’t deserve to be so happy. If all my scrapes ended as well as this, what a state of bliss I should be in!” and Tom beamed again at the rapturous prospect.

  “My dear boy, it is not a scrape, but a very sweet experience suddenly dawning upon you,” answered Mrs Jo, speaking very soberly; for she saw he was in earnest.

  “Enjoy it wisely and be worthy of it, for it is a serious thing to accept a girl’s love and trust, and let her look up to you for tenderness and truth in return. Don’t let little Dora look in vain, but be a man in all things for her sake, and make this affection a blessing to you both.”

  “I’ll try. Yes, I do love her, only I can’t believe it just yet. Wish you knew her. Dear little soul, I long to see her already! She cried when we parted last night and I hated to go.” Tom’s hand went to his cheek as if he still felt the rosy little seal Dora had set upon his promise not to forget her, and for the first time in his happy-go-lucky life Tommy Bangs understood the difference between sentiment and sentimentality. The feeling recalled Nan, for he had never known that tender thrill when thinking of her, and the old friendship seemed rather a prosaic affair beside this delightful mingling of romance, surprise, love, and fun.

  “I declare, I feel as if a weight was off me, but what the dickens will Nan say when she knows it!” he exclaimed with a chuckle.

  “Knows what?” asked a clear voice that made both start and turn, for there was Nan calmly surveying them from the doorway.

  Anxious to put Tom out of suspense and see how Nan would take the news, Mrs Jo answered quickly:

  “Tom’s engagement to Dora West.”

  “Really?” and Nan looked so surprised that Mrs Jo was afraid she might be fonder of her old playmate than she knew; but her next words set the fear at rest, and made everything comfortable and merry at once.

  “I knew my prescription would work wonders if he only took it long enough. Dear old Tom, I’m so glad. Bless you! bless you!” And she shook both his hands with hearty affection.

  “It was an accident, Nan. I didn’t mean to, but I’m always getting into messes, and I couldn’t seem to get out of this any other way. Mother Bhaer will tell you all about it. I must go and make myself tidy. Going to tea with Demi. See you later.”

  Stammering, blushing, and looking both sheepish and gratified, Tom suddenly bolted, leaving the elder lady to enlighten the younger at length, and have another laugh over this new sort of courtship, which might well be called accidental. Nan was deeply interested, for she knew Dora, thought her a nice little thing, and predicted that in time she would make Tom an excellent wife, since she admired and “appreciated” him so much.

  “I shall miss him of course, but it will be a relief to me and better for him; dangling is so bad for a boy. Now he will go into business with his father and do well, and everyone be happy. I shall give Dora an elegant family medicine-chest for a wedding-present, and teach her how to use it. Tom can’t be trusted, and is no more fit for the profession than Silas.”

  The latter part of this speech relieved Mrs Jo’s mind, for Nan had looked about her as if she had lost something valuable when she began; but the medicine-chest seemed to cheer her, and the thought of Tom in a safe profession was evidently a great comfort.

  “The worm has turned at last, Nan, and your bondman is free. Let him go, and give your whole mind to your work; for you are fitted for the profession, and will be an honour to it by and by,” she said approvingly.

  “I hope so. That reminds me—measles are in the village, and you had better tell the girls not to call where there are children. It would be bad to have a run of them just as term begins. Now I’m off to Daisy. Wonder what she will say to Tom. Isn’t he great fun?” And Nan departed, laughing over the joke with such genuine satisfaction that it was evident no sentimental regrets disturbed her “maiden meditation, fancy-free”.

  “I shall have my eye on Demi, but won’t say a word. Meg likes to manage her children in her own way, and a very good way it is. But the dear Pelican will be somewhat ruffled if her boy has caught the epidemic which seems to have broken out among us this summer.”

  Mrs Jo did not mean the measles, but that more serious malady called love, which is apt to ravage communities, spring and autumn, when winter gaiety and summer idleness produce whole bouquets of engagements, and set young people to pairing off like the birds. Franz began it, Nat was a chronic and Tom a sudden case; Demi seemed to have the symptoms; and worst of all, her own Ted had only the day before calmly said to her: “Mum, I think I should be happier if I had a sweetheart, like the other boys.” If her cherished son had asked her for dynamite to play with, she would hardly have been more startled, or have more decidedly refused the absurd request.

  “Well, Barry Morgan said I ought to have one and offered to pick me out a nice one among our set. I asked Josie first, and she hooted at the idea, so I thought I’d let Barry look round. You say it steadies a fellow, and I want to be steady,” explained Ted in a serious tone, which would have convulsed his parent at any other time.

  “Good lack! What are we coming to in this fast age when babes and boys make such demands and want to play with one of the most sacred things in life?” exclaimed Mrs Jo, and having in a few words set the matter in its true light, sent her son away to wholesome baseball and Octoo for a safe sweetheart.

  Now, here was Tom’s bomb-shell to explode in their midst, carrying widespread destruction, perhaps; for though one swallow does not make a summer, one engagement is apt to make several, and her boys were, most of them, at the inflammable age when a spark ignites the flame, which soon flickers and dies out, or burns warm and clear for life. Nothing could be done about it but to help them make wise choices, and be worthy of good mates. But of all the lessons Mrs Jo had tried to teach her boys, this great one was the hardest; for love is apt to make lunatics of even saints and sages, so young people cannot be expected to escape the delusions, disappointments, and mistakes, as well as the delights, of this sweet madness.

  “I suppose it is inevitable, since we live in America, so I won’t borrow trouble, but hope that some of the new ideas of education will produce a few hearty, happy, capable, and intelligent girls for my lads. Lucky for me that I haven’t the whole twelve on my hands, I should lose my wits if I had, for I foresee complications and troubles ahead worse than Tom’s boats, bicycles, donkeys, and Doras,” meditated Mrs Jo, as she went back to her neglected proof-sheets.

  Tom was quite satisfied with the tremendous effect his engagement produced in the little community at Plumfield. “It was paralysing,” as Demi said; and astonishment left most of Tom’s mates little breath for chaff. That he, the faithful one, should turn from the idol to strange goddesses, was a shock to the romantic and a warning to the susceptible. It was comical to see the airs our Thomas put on; for the most ludicrous parts of the affair were kindly buried in oblivion by the few who knew them, and Tom burst forth as a full-blown hero who had rescued the maiden from a watery grave, and won her gratitude and love by his daring deed. Dora kept the secret, and enjoyed the fun when she came to see Mother Bhaer and pay her respects to the family generally. Everyone liked her at once, for she was a gay and winning little soul; fresh, frank, and so happy, it was beautiful to see her innocent pride in Tom, who was a new boy, or man rather; for with this change in his life a great change took place in him. Jolly he would always be, and impulsive, but he tried to become all that Dora believed him, and his best side came uppermost for everyday wear. It was surprising to see how many good traits Tom had; and his effort to preserve the manly dignity belonging to his proud position as an engaged man was very comical. So was the entire change from his former abasement and devotion to Nan to a somewhat lordly air with his little betrothed; for Dora made an idol of him, and resented the idea of a fault or a flaw in her Tom. This new state of things suited bot
h, and the once blighted being bloomed finely in the warm atmosphere of appreciation, love, and confidence. He was very fond of the dear girl, but meant to be a slave no longer, and enjoyed his freedom immensely, quite unconscious that the great tyrant of the world had got hold of him for life.

  To his father’s satisfaction he gave up his medical studies, and prepared to go into business with the old gentleman, who was a flourishing merchant, ready now to make the way smooth and smile upon his marriage with Mr West’s well-endowed daughter. The only thorn in Tom’s bed of roses was Nan’s placid interest in his affairs, and evident relief at his disloyalty. He did not want her to suffer, but a decent amount of regret at the loss of such a lover would have gratified him; a slight melancholy, a word of reproach, a glance of envy as he passed with adoring Dora on his arm, seemed but the fitting tribute to such years of faithful service and sincere affection. But Nan regarded him with a maternal sort of air that nettled him very much, and patted Dora’s curly head with a worldly-wise air worthy of the withered spinster, Julia Mills, in David Copperfield.

  It took some time to get the old and the new emotions comfortably adjusted, but Mrs Jo helped him, and Mr Laurie gave him some wise advice upon the astonishing gymnastic feats the human heart can perform, and be all the better for it if it only held fast to the balancing-pole of truth and common sense. At last our Tommy got his bearings, and as autumn came on Plumfield saw but little of him; for his new lodestar was in the city, and business kept him hard at work. He was evidently in his right place now, and soon throve finely, to his father’s great contentment; for his jovial presence pervaded the once quiet office like a gale of fresh wind, and his lively wits found managing men and affairs much more congenial employment than studying disease, or playing unseemly pranks with skeletons.

  Here we will leave him for a time and turn to the more serious adventures of his mates, though this engagement, so merrily made, was the anchor which kept our mercurial Tom happy, and made a man of him.

  CHAPTER 10

  DEMI SETTLES

  MOTHER, CAN I have a little serious conversation with you?” asked Demi one evening, as they sat together enjoying the first fire of the season, while Daisy wrote letters upstairs and Josie was studying in the little library close by.

  “Certainly, dear. No bad news, I hope?” and Mrs Meg looked up from her sewing with a mixture of pleasure and anxiety on her motherly face; for she dearly loved a good talk with her son, and knew that he always had something worth telling.

  “It will be good news for you, I think,” answered Demi, smiling as he threw away his paper and went to sit beside her on the little sofa which just held two.

  “Let me hear it, then, at once.”

  “I know you don’t like the reporting, and will be glad to hear that I have given it up.”

  “I am very glad! It is too uncertain a business, and there is no prospect of getting on for a long time. I want you settled in some good place where you can stay, and in time make money. I wish you liked a profession; but as you don’t, any clean, well-established business will do.”

  “What do you say to a railroad office?”

  “I don’t like it. A noisy, hurried kind of place, I know, with all sorts of rough men about. I hope it isn’t that, dear?”

  “I could have it; but does book-keeping in a wholesale leather business please you better?”

  “No; you’ll get round-shouldered writing at a tall desk; and they say, once a book-keeper always a book-keeper.”

  “How does a travelling agent suit your views?”

  “Not at all; with all those dreadful accidents, and the exposure and bad food as you go from place to place, you are sure to get killed or lose your health.”

  “I could be private secretary to a literary man; but the salary is small, and may end any time.”

  “That would be better, and more what I want. It isn’t that I object to honest work of any kind; but I don’t want my son to spend his best years grubbing for a little money in a dark office, or be knocked about in a rough-and-tumble scramble to get on. I want to see you in some business where your tastes and talents can be developed and made useful; where you can go on rising, and in time put in your little fortune and be a partner; so that your years of apprenticeship will not be wasted, but fit you to take your place among the honourable men who make their lives and work useful and respected. I talked it all over with your dear father when you were a child; and if he had lived he would have shown you what I mean, and helped you to be what he was.”

  Mrs Meg wiped away a quiet tear as she spoke; for the memory of her husband was a very tender one, and the education of his children had been a sacred task to which she gave all her heart and life, and so far she had done wonderfully well—as her good son and loving daughters tried to prove. Demi’s arm was round her now, as he said, in a voice so like his father’s that it was the sweetest music to her ear:

  “Mother dear, I think I have got just what you want for me; and it shall not be my fault if I don’t become the man you hope to see me. Let me tell you all about it. I didn’t say anything till it was sure, because it would only worry you; but Aunt Jo and I have been on the look-out for it some time, and now it has come. You know her publisher, Mr Tiber, is one of the most successful men in the business; also generous, kind, and the soul of honour—as his treatment of Aunty proves. Well, I’ve rather hankered for that place; for I love books, and as I can’t make them I’d like to publish them. That needs some literary taste and judgement, it brings you in contact with fine people, and is an education in itself. Whenever I go into that large, handsome room to see Mr Tiber for Aunt Jo, I always want to stay; for it’s lined with books and pictures, famous men and women come and go, and Mr Tiber sits at his desk like a sort of king, receiving his subjects; for the greatest authors are humble to him, and wait his Yes or No with anxiety. Of course I’ve nothing to do with all that, and may never have; but I like to see it, and the atmosphere is so different from the dark offices and hurly-burly of many other trades, where nothing but money is talked about, that it seems another world, and I feel at home in it. Yes, I’d rather beat the door-mats and make fires there than be head clerk in the great hide and leather store at a big salary.” Here Demi paused for breath; and Mrs Meg, whose face had been growing brighter and brighter, exclaimed eagerly:

  “Just what I should like! Have you got it? Oh, my dear boy! your fortune is made if you go to that well-established and flourishing place, with those good men to help you along!”

  “I think I have, but we mustn’t be too sure of anything yet. I may not suit; I’m only on trial, and must begin at the beginning and work my way up faithfully. Mr Tiber was very kind, and will push me on as fast as is fair to the other fellows, and as I prove myself fit to go up. I’m to begin the first of next month in the book-room, filing orders; and I go round and get orders, and do various other things of the sort. I like it. I am ready to do anything about books, if it’s only to dust them,” laughed Demi, well pleased with his prospects, for, after trying various things, he seemed at last to have found the sort of work he liked, and a prospect that was very inviting to him.

  “You inherit that love of books from grandpa; he can’t live without them. I’m glad of it. Tastes of that kind show a refined nature, and are both a comfort and a help all one’s life. I am truly glad and grateful, John, that at last you want to settle, and have got such an entirely satisfactory place. Most boys begin much earlier; but I don’t believe in sending them out to face the world so young, just when body and soul need home care and watchfulness. Now you are a man, and must begin your life for yourself. Do your best, and be as honest, useful, and happy as your father, and I won’t care about making a fortune.”

  “I’ll try, mother. Couldn’t have a better chance; for Tiber & Co. treat their people like gentlemen, and pay generously for faithful work. Things are done in a businesslike way there, and that suits me. I hate promises that are not kept, and shiftless or tyrannical way
s anywhere. Mr Tiber said: ‘This is only to teach you the ropes, Brooke; I shall have other work for you by and by.’ Aunty told him I had done book notices, and had rather a fancy for literature; so though I can’t produce any ‘works of Shakespeare’, as she says, I may get up some little things later. If I don’t, I think it a very honourable and noble profession to select and give good books to the world; and I’m satisfied to be a humble helper in the work.”

  “I’m glad you feel so. It adds so much to one’s happiness to love the task one does. I used to hate teaching; but housekeeping for my own family was always sweet, though much harder in many ways. Isn’t Aunt Jo pleased about all this?” asked Mrs Meg, already seeing in her mind’s eye a splendid sign with “Tiber, Brooke & Co.” over the door of a famous publishing house.

  “So pleased that I could hardly keep her from letting the cat out of the bag too soon. I’ve had so many plans, and disappointed you so often, I wanted to be very sure this time. I had to bribe Rob and Ted to keep her at home tonight till I’d told my news, she was eager to rush down and tell you herself. The castles that dear woman has built for me would fill all Spain, and have kept us jolly while we waited to know our fate. Mr Tiber doesn’t do things in a hurry; but when he makes up his mind, you are all right; and I feel that I am fairly launched.”

  “Bless you, dear, I hope so! It is a happy day for me, because I’ve been so anxious lest, with all my care, I have been too easy and indulgent, and my boy, with his many good gifts, might fritter his time away in harmless but unsatisfactory things. Now I am at ease about you. If only Daisy can be happy, and Josie give up her dream, I shall be quite contented.”