Latest / The Man of the House / At Beth's Suggestion

Transcript

At Beth's Suggestion · The Man of the House

0:00
Chapter twenty five of the Men of the House by Pansy. The slibrivox recording
0:06
is in the public domain. Chapter twenty five. At Beth's suggestion, there
0:13
ought to be some way thought out for keeping these wrists in shape after you
0:17
get them done. Great use in silking them so nice and patting and smoothing
0:23
them when you know they'll be poked into a great box that doesn't fit them
0:27
and be all rumpled up dreadfully. This was Beth talking to herself while she
0:33
looked over and put the finishing touches on a dozen ladies gauntlet gloves that she
0:39
had taken unusual pains in silking. At least, she concluded that she was
0:44
talking to herself. Reuben was in the room and had been for an hour,
0:50
and Beth had set a good deal during the hour, at first to
0:54
him, but finding him eager over the arithmetic lesson that was puzzling him,
1:00
and getting no answer save an absent minded um now and then, which he
1:04
meant for yes, Beth had tried to keep still. Whether the subject had
1:11
specially interested him, or whether it was because he had just conquered a troublesome
1:15
example, I do not know, but as Beth finished her lecture about the
1:21
gauntlets, he looked up from his slate and said, what did you say,
1:26
Beth? Oh, said Beth, you've got back, have you.
1:30
I've been talking to you by spells for the last half hour, and I
1:34
might as well have talked to the lamp. Reuben laughed, owned that he
1:40
had been bothered by an example but had beaten it, and then asked again
1:45
what she's said about boxes? Oh, Beth said again, it was that
1:51
word that waked you up. Say anything about boxes, and if you are
1:56
within a hundred miles you will hear well. I said that some of you
2:00
ought to contrive better shaped boxes for these beautiful gauntlet gloves than the ones you
2:06
stuffed them into. I know they must come out looking horrid, and I
2:10
think it is too bad. Look at these, Reuben. Isn't that orange
2:15
silk too lovely for anything? That's an idea, said Reuben, taking the
2:22
gauntlet in hand and looking as though the orange silk was very far from his
2:27
thoughts, though he stared at it with wide opened, dreamy eyes. That
2:32
was really the beginning of it. The arithmetic suffered somewhat after that for days
2:38
together. The mother, looking on was a good deal disturbed. She wanted
2:44
Reuben to be a scholar his grandfather had been, and she had watched the
2:49
bringing out of the arithmetic and heard Reuben's determination to catch up with the rest
2:53
of the boys so he could join the class by next fall with great satisfaction.
3:00
Now the question was what had taken his attention so completely that for three
3:06
evenings he did not open the arithmetic. Never you mind, said miss Hunter,
3:12
nodding her head. The boy has an idea and is planning to carry
3:16
it out. I see him busy thinking even while he is eating his supper.
3:22
There isn't any mischief brewing as long as he has such clear eyes as
3:25
those, and praise every evening the way he does. Don't you be afraid?
3:32
You don't think he can do anything wrong, said missus Stone, But
3:37
she smiled as she said it. She was very proud of Reuben. Now
3:43
what was he about? Well, I suppose you have forgotten all about those
3:47
seven pasteboards out of which he meant to make his fortune. But you may
3:53
be sure he had not. All through the winter, which was now quite
3:58
gone, he had thought about that more or less gone off, and to
4:01
look at them in the corner of the attic, where they were stored and
4:05
thought over and cast aside several plans for making something new and wonderful out of
4:12
them. Nothing suited him. He wanted something different from what had ever been
4:16
seen, and he could not decide on what it should be. The moment
4:21
Beth began her argument against the boxes now in use for her favorite gauntlets,
4:27
he was interested. A thought came into his mind and grew as the days
4:31
went by. First experiment did not succeed. In fact, one entire sheet
4:39
of the seven was spoiled before anything had come of his idea. Meantime,
4:44
Beth grew almost discouraged over his stillness and dreaminess. It is worse than arithmetic,
4:51
she told Miss Hunter. For then I could get him to say a
4:55
word once in a while, But now he just sits and stares at the
5:00
the sky or the trees and doesn't open his lips. You wait, said
5:05
Miss Hunter. Something will come of it. I know, Miss Hunter believed
5:11
in Reuben. It was nearly two weeks after the new idea had taken root
5:17
that Reuben came home one evening with a radiant face. He could hardly eat
5:23
his supper, and made them all laugh By trying to eat his syrup with
5:27
a fork and stir his milk with a knife. He seized upon the bread
5:31
dish the moment supper was over, and followed Beth to the cellar for a
5:35
confidential talk Beth, he said, his face aglow with triumph. I've got
5:43
it, have you? Said Beth with provoking coolness, as she stooped over
5:49
the cooky crock. I hope it is worth having, and that you will
5:54
give me a piece of it. Reuben laughed gleefully. I'll do that,
6:00
he said, at least you shall have a piece of the thank you that
6:03
I feel sure mister Barrows will give me. I'm going to tell him that
6:09
you deserve the largest half of it, for it was you that gave me
6:12
the idea in the first place, Reubin, said Beth, seating her lamp
6:18
on the potato box and herself on an overturned tub. What do you mean
6:26
why that night, don't you know when you found fault with the boxes that
6:30
they packed gauntlets in. I never thought of it before, how awkward they
6:34
are, But that set me to thinking and planning until now I've got the
6:39
nicest kind of a box for them. I made one a regular beauty,
6:44
brought it home under my work apron, and hid it in the parlor.
6:48
I wanted you to see it before anybody else did, and tell me what
6:51
you thought of it. Not a soul has laid eyes on it. Are
6:57
there any gauntlets in the house, Yes, yes, there are some beauties
7:00
that I finished just this afternoon. The wrists are lined with dove colored silk,
7:05
and they are finished with the most lovely shade of blue silk. If
7:10
you have a box as pretty as they are, it must be a beauty.
7:15
Come children, called missus Stone. What in the world keeps you so
7:19
long in the cellar. It was not until the dishes were washed and the
7:26
little kitchen in complete order, that Reuben had a chance to show his treasure.
7:30
Then he and Beth went to the parlor, Beth with a pair of
7:34
the lovely gauntlets under her arm for a trial. It was a perfect fit,
7:41
an entirely new idea, a box finished with more care than usual,
7:46
in green and gold, and looking on the outside like all other boxes,
7:51
but within an ingenious piece of pasteboard had been fitted in such a way that
7:57
it shaped the graceful wrist of the gauntlet exactly and kept it from being crushed.
8:03
Beth clapped her hands in delight. They will be worth more money.
8:07
I know they will, she said eagerly. One day I said to mister
8:13
Barrows that it was too bad to crumple them all up in that way,
8:16
and that there ought to be boxes on purpose for them. But he said
8:20
that couldn't be done because they were such a queer shape that no machinery could
8:26
cut them, and nobody could make them after they were cut. But this
8:30
is easy enough, I should think, and it doesn't take up a speck
8:33
more room than the other way. What a queer, little twisty piece of
8:37
pasteboard that is, Reuben, How did you ever get it to fit in
8:41
as it should? I had an awful time with it, admitted Reuben.
8:48
For a while I thought I would have to give it up, and I
8:50
tell you I felt badly. I couldn't get to sleep at night for thinking
8:56
of it. And one night, don't you believe I'd dream about it.
9:01
You see, it wouldn't bend enough without breaking. But one day I hit
9:05
upon this plan of cutting little niches at regular places, and it worked like
9:11
a charm. I'll tell you what, Beth this is the only one I
9:15
have made. But I want to get half a dozen made up out of
9:18
my sheets, you know. And I want them made beautifully with lovely colored
9:22
paper and trimmed elegantly, you know. And I want you to help me
9:26
about it. I have money enough from what I saved over, you know
9:31
that mother let me have for the books and hat to buy some elegant paper.
9:35
And I want them to be the handsomest boxes that were ever seen in
9:39
our shop. And I want you to help me, well, said Beth.
9:46
I will. After that, Reuben was busier than ever. Only Beth
9:52
was in the secret now, and they worked together of evenings in the little
9:56
kitchen as late as the mother would allow, she looking sober meantime over the
10:03
arithmetic, but trying to take Miss Hunter's advice and wait a bit. At
10:09
last they were ready for exhibition, the entire half dozen, and very handsome
10:15
boxes. They were. Beth, with her talent for pretty things and her
10:20
fondness for learning to do whatever she saw done by dint of making many visits
10:24
to Reuben in the box shop and keeping her bright eyes wide open, was
10:30
no mean hand at the box business. She worked slowly, of course,
10:35
but very neatly, and she knew how to choose her colors so as to
10:39
harmonize them well, which was more than mister Barrows's forem, and often did
10:45
so. The boxes were carried in triumph to mother and miss Hunter, some
10:48
very handsomely made gauntlet gloves, showing off their beauty in their new houses in
10:54
a way that they had never been able to do before. But or me,
11:00
I don't know how to tell you how pleased mister Barrows was with the
11:03
new idea. He came over to the little House on purpose to take a
11:09
more careful look at the boxes and inquire into their management. He questioned and
11:15
cross questioned Ruben as to how he did this and managed that, and Beth,
11:20
not only but the mother and friend listened well pleased at Reuben's eager explanations,
11:28
and thought it not too high praise when mister Barrows said at last that
11:31
it was a complete success, and that a hundred of them should be manufactured
11:37
right away and placed in the sales room on exhibition, and that it was
11:41
a capital idea, and he believed manufacturers would all be willing to pay a
11:46
trifle more for the boxes, since their goods would show to so much better
11:52
advantage. You certainly deserve a great deal of credit, he said, turning
11:58
to Ruben out and carrying out this idea. I didn't do all the thinking,
12:05
declared Reuben eagerly. Beth made me think of it in the first place,
12:09
or I don't suppose it would ever have entered my head, I exclaimed
12:16
Beth, surprised out of her usual timidity before mister Barrows. Why, Ruben,
12:22
oh, I ever did was to grumble because they rumpled up the pretty
12:26
gauntlets so in the boxes that didn't fit them, Yes, Ruben said,
12:31
and that was exactly what set me thinking about it. Everybody laughed over this,
12:37
and mister Barrows said it would be a good thing if all grumbling could
12:41
be turned to so good an account. But the most surprising part of the
12:46
talk was yet to come. Mister Barrows had talked for some time with missus
12:52
Stone, then with miss Hunter, and a little with Miss Beth herself,
12:56
when he suddenly turned to Ruben with a question question, Well, young man,
13:01
what are you going to charge me for this invention of yours? Why,
13:07
said Reuben in great amazement and embarrassment. Nothing, sir, of course,
13:15
I'm sure I can't see why provided you mean to let me have it
13:18
at all. It is a good and useful thing, and I'm inclined to
13:22
think will please the manufacturers very much. It isn't mine, though, any
13:28
more than that jacket you have on is mine, or those new boots I
13:31
saw you where the other day. The question is what will you charge me
13:37
for the use of it if I am to have the use of it,
13:41
or do you mean to sell it to some of the other manufacturers. Reuben's
13:46
face was very red. It is for you, of course, sir,
13:50
he said, eagerly, and if it is of any good, I'm as
13:54
glad as I can be. But my boy, I thought those seven pasteboards
14:00
were for you to make your fortune with. You won't make it very fast
14:03
at that rate, I'm afraid. But Reuben, laughing and blushing away up
14:09
to the roots of his hair, declared that they had begun already to make
14:13
his fortune, for they had made him feel that maybe he could do things
14:18
and think of things. Well, said mister Barrows. At last, if
14:24
you won't sell your brains to me, I'll tell you what we'll do.
14:28
I'll have some boxes made up in our best style, and put on exhibition,
14:33
and I believe the manufacturers will be delighted with them and will sell them
14:39
for two dollars on a hundred more than the others. And one of those
14:43
dollars I'll have to pay for the additional trouble of making the boxes in this
14:46
way, and the other dollar you shall have as a nest egg for that
14:52
fortune we talked about. Never was there a boy more astonished. It was
14:58
plain that he had not been working for money, nor had he expected any,
15:03
and he was very earnest in his explanations. But mister Barrows assured him
15:09
that it was all right, that of course he ought to be paid for
15:13
his thought if it proved worth paying for, and the manufacturers would soon decide
15:18
that. Then he went off into an explanation of how the accounts could be
15:24
kept, and how the machinery could be set for cutting the ingenious little partitions,
15:30
and who would be the best person to glue them in, and from
15:33
this to explanations as to why it would be best for Reuben not to let
15:37
any of the other boys know about this private understanding between them, And was
15:43
altogether so business like and yet so kind, talking with him as though he
15:48
were already a man, indeed, as well as the man of that little
15:52
house. That Reuben's head was well nigh turned with business and pleasure by the
15:58
time mister Barrows went away. As for Beth, she professed not to be
16:03
surprised at all, but declared that of course mister Barrows ought to pay for
16:08
the idea. Why shouldn't he. It was a good one, and it
16:12
wasn't his. For her part, she knew it would work. The manufacturers
16:18
would like it. They couldn't help it. The gloves were all rumpled up
16:22
now, and they must know it. And she shouldn't wonder if Reuben really
16:26
would make his fortune out of it. Yet there was much laughing and talking,
16:33
and a great excitement in the little house that night. At last the
16:37
mother brought them back to everyday work by a very sensible remark. There's one
16:42
thing I hope, Ruben, now that you've got this plan well out of
16:47
your head, and that is that you'll go back to your arithmetic with all
16:51
your might. If you are going to invent things, or do much of
16:56
anything else that is worth doing, you'll have to know a great deal that
17:00
they learn out of books. That's true, said Reuben, and I mean
17:06
to know things, mother, whether I invent things or not, Yes,
17:11
said Beth. And if I am to be the sister of an inventor,
17:15
I must know things too. So, with much laughing, though it was
17:22
rather late, they settled themselves to arithmetic and worked an example that very evening
17:27
that Ruben called a tough fellow. In thinking of it long afterwards, it
17:33
seemed strange to Ruben that his great trouble should have followed so hard after this
17:38
first little success of his, almost as if it were jealous of the victory
17:44
and meant to make him suffer for it. At once. He went to
17:48
bed that night so happy, so very happy, that he told Beth if
17:55
she should hear him burst out laughing in the middle of the night because he
17:59
was so bubbled up with joy that he couldn't keep it in, she need
18:03
not be surprised, And the very next night, when he went to bed,
18:07
his heart felt as heavy as a lump of lead. End of Chapter twenty five