Читать книгу Lefty Leighton - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 5

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Lefty was spared another scene with his uncle the next morning for he slept overtime and when he came down to breakfast he was relieved to hear that he was to eat alone. Mr. Hulbert had left for his place of business, the Mapletown Paper Mills, or the “works” as the townspeople were wont to call it.

“Your Uncle Charles has been gone this half hour, dear,” said his aunt. “I’m glad for your sake, for I want you to go away with only the happiest memories of your home. You will, won’t you?”

Lefty smiled at this good woman who had always been so loyal and kind to his brother and himself. “I’m happy now,” said he truthfully, for the morning was warm and sunny. “I’m just not going to think about what happened last night or anything. After all, I suppose I shouldn’t be worrying over what people say about Ken—even if he is my own twin brother.”

“But you do,” smiled Mrs. Hulbert sweetly. “And I love you for it, Lefferts. There’s something about loyalty that sticks out all over a person and it does that with you.”

“It does with you too,” Lefty said laughingly.

“Well, it isn’t a bad trait,” his aunt returned. “In fact, it’s a very good trait where Kenneth is in question. An impulsive boy like him needs every bit of loyalty and love that a brother can find it in himself to give. And you’ll always do that, I know.”

“I’ll say I will!” exclaimed Lefty, looking out of the window. Then, “There’s Fenton coming out of the house now, aunt. He’s loaded down like a truck horse. Gosh, I hope he . . . no, there’s their car coming around the drive. That means we won’t have to hire a taxi to the station. Mr. Cole must have stayed home to see him off. I better run up and get my stuff so’s I don’t keep them waiting.”

“Yes, you better,” said Mrs. Hulbert, in a flutter. “But while we’re still alone, Lefferts, I want to tell you. . . .”

“Yes?”

“If there’s anything mentioned about Kenneth on your way down to the station,” she said, glancing the while out of the window, “speak up the same as you did to your Uncle Charles last night.”

Lefty turned around. “What makes you think I wouldn’t, aunt?”

“I didn’t think you wouldn’t, Lefferts,” she answered smilingly. “I just wanted to remind you in case Mr. Cole tries to cow you into agreeing with him. He is obstinate when he gets an idea in mind—they all say that down at the works. But you have mind enough of your own and you’ll know what to say. You’ll always remember that it’s a sort of reflection on me to have people think ill of Kenneth—I’ve tried so hard to make him a good boy.”

“And you have, aunt,” said Lefty, feelingly.

“I know it, Lefferts. He is a good boy, but when a thing like this comes up and suspicion gets even the tiniest foothold, people are likely to forget how good he has been, and it’s my job and yours to uphold him without flinching—right to the end. Here they are at the door, dear. Run up and get your things and I’ll tell them to wait a minute.”

Lefty ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. He fairly flew into his room, racing around breathlessly and picking up his luggage with trembling fingers. For, after all, what could gossiping people and a missing brother mean when the time for his first camp experience was at hand! He was first and last a thorough boy of fourteen years and it was quite in the natural order of things for him to push disappointment and anxiety into the background when joy and summertime beckoned him so gaily.

And so in this happy frame of mind he left his home and Mapletown behind, unsuspecting that each mile travelled brought him that much nearer the great adventure.