"But he can't make no noon-mark this arternoon,--we're all in a mess an'

litter, so!"

"Just as well now as any time," said Jack. "The doorway is clear. I sha'n't interfere with anybody."

"What'll be to pay?" Peakslow asked.

"O, I don't charge anything for a little job like this,--to one of Mr.

Betterson's neighbors."

"That's jes' so; he didn't charge me nary red," said Mr. Wiggett. "An'

he's done the job for me now tew times,--fust time, the tornado come and put the noon-mark out o' j'int, 'fore ever a noon come round."

Jack adjusted his compa.s.s, while the house-raisers looked on, to see how the thing was done, Peakslow appearing as much interested as anybody.

Jack got Link to make the first marks for him on the floor, and laughed, as he looked through the sights of the compa.s.s, to hear Mr. Wiggett describe the finding of his section corner,--"runnin' a line plumb to the old stake, out on the open perairie,"--and praise the boy-surveyor's skill.

The mark was made with quickness and precision; friends and strangers crowded around Jack with kind words and questions; and he was surprised to find himself all at once a person of importance.

Peakslow puffed hard at his pipe. His face was troubled; and two or three times he pulled the pipe out of his mouth, thrust his knuckles under his hat, and took a step toward the young surveyor. He also cleared his throat. He evidently had a word to say. But the word would not come.

When at last he let Jack go off without offering him even a syllable of thanks, the bystanders smiled, and somebody might have been heard to mutter, "Peakslow all over! Just like his hoggishness!"

Jack smiled too as he went, for he had shrewdly observed his enemy, and he knew it was not "hoggishness" which kept Peakslow's lips closed, but a feeling which few suspected in that grasping, hard, and violent-tempered man.

Peakslow was abashed!

CHAPTER XLI.

CONCLUSION.

The house made once more inhabitable, Peakslow's family moved back into it. But this change did not take Lyddy away from the "castle," nor break up Vinnie's school.

The "castle" now underwent some renovation. The long-neglected plastering was done, and the rooms in daily use were made comfortable.

Meanwhile the boys were full of ambition regarding their water-works.

The project had cost them a good deal more trouble than they had antic.i.p.ated at first; but they were amply repaid for all on the day when the water was finally let on, and they saw it actually run from the spout in the back-room! Such a result had seemed to them almost too good ever to come true; and their joy over it was increased ten-fold by the doubts and difficulties overcome.

Jack had come over to be present when the water was brought in, and he was almost as happy over it as they.

"No more trouble with the old well!" said Rufe.

"No more lugging water from the grove!" said Wad.

"Or going into the river head-first after it, as you and I did!" said Link.

Vinnie was proud of her nephews, and Caroline and Lord were proud of their sons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WATER QUESTION SETTLED.]

"How fine it will be for your dairy, in summer,--this cold, running water!" said Vinnie.

But Chokie seemed best pleased, because he would no longer be dependent upon precarious rains filling the hogshead, but would have a whole tankful of water--an ocean in the back-room--to sail his shingle boats on.

The boys had also acted on another suggestion of Jack's, and taken the farm to work. This plan also promised to succeed well. The prospect of doing something for themselves, roused energies which might have lain dormant all their lives, if they had been contented to sit still and wait for others to help them.

As Vinnie's school became known, other pupils appeared from up and down the river, and by the first snowfall she had more than a dozen scholars.

Among these were Sal Wiggett and two big boys belonging to the paternal Wiggett's "third c.r.a.p" of children, and Dud and Zeph Peakslow.

The Betterson boys also attended the school, Wad and Link as pupils, and Rufe partly as a pupil and partly as an a.s.sistant. Vinnie could teach him penmanship and grammar, but she was glad to turn over to him the cla.s.ses in arithmetic, for which study he had a natural apt.i.tude.

The Peakslow children, both boys and girls, had a good deal in them that was worth cultivating; and amid the genial a.s.sociations of the little school they fast outgrew their rude and uncouth ways. It was interesting to see Zeph and Cecie reciting the same lessons side by side, and Rufe showing Dud about the sums that bothered him.

Caroline had very much objected to Vinnie's enlarging her school, and especially to her receiving the big boys. The success of the experiment surprised her. Vinnie had a charming way with the younger children, and a peculiarly subduing influence over the big boys.

"Lavinia dear," said Caroline "what have I always said? You are a most extraordinary girl!"

And now things came round curiously enough; and an event occurred of which n.o.body could have dreamed when Vinnie set out alone, with a brave heart, to do her simple duty to her sister's family.

It was found that she had a happy faculty for interesting and instructing the young. So when, in the spring, a girls' school was opened at North Mills, she was offered a place in it as a.s.sistant teacher, which her friends there--Jack's friends--prevailed on her to accept.

Leaving Long Woods cost her many regrets. But the better order of things was now well established at the "castle" (which was fast ceasing to be a castle, in the popular speech); and she felt that its inmates could spare her very well,--if they would only think so!

Other considerations also consoled her for the change. She would still be where she could see her relatives often; and now Jack's delightful home was to be her own.

THE END.