The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks
"Nothing like trying, Aunt Jane." "Humph! there's a good many things better than trying, sometimes. You've got to have sense in your trying. If it was me, I wouldn't go to Hillcrest for any money you could name!" But then," she added, "I'm old and you are young. I wish I could sell the old place for a decent sum; but an abandoned farm on the top of a mountain, with the railroad station six miles away, ain't the kind of property that sells easy in the real estate market, lemme tell you! "Besides, there ain't much of the two hundred acres that's tillable. Them romantic-looking rocks that 'Phemie was exclaimin' over last night, are jest a nuisance. Humph! the old doctor used to say there was money going to waste up there in them rocks, though. I remember hearing him talk about it once or twice; but jest what he meant I never knew." "Mineral deposits?" asked Lyddy, hopefully. "Not wuth anything. Time an' agin there's been college professors and such, tappin' the rocks all over the farm for 'specimens.' But there ain't nothing in the line of precious min'rals in that heap of rocks at the back of Hillcrest Farm--believe me! "Dr. Polly useter say, however, that there was curative waters there. He used 'em some in his practise towards the last. But he died suddent, you know, and nobody ever knew where he got the water--'nless 'twas Jud Spink. And Jud had run away with a medicine show years before father died." "Well!" sighed Aunt Jane. "If you can find any way of makin' a livin' out of Hillcrest Farm, you're welcome to it. And--just as that hospital doctor says--it may do your father good to live there for a spell. But _me_--it always give me the fantods, it was that lonesome. "It seemed, as Aunt Jane said, "a way opened." Yet Lyddy Bray could not see very far ahead. As she told 'Phemie that night, they could get to the farm, bag and baggage; but how they would exist after their arrival was a question not so easy to answer. Lyddy had gone to one of the big grocers and bought and paid for an order of staple groceries and canned goods which would be delivered at the railroad station nearest to Hillcrest on Monday morning. Thus all their possessions could be carted up to the farm at once. She had spent the afternoon at the flat collecting the clothing, bedding, and other articles they proposed taking with them. These goods she had taken out by an expressman and shipped by freight before six o'clock. In the morning she met the second-hand man at the ruined flat and he paid her the twenty dollars as promised. And Lyddy was glad to shake the dust of the Trimble Avenue double-decker from her feet. As she turned away from the door she heard a quick step behind her and an eager voice exclaimed: "I say! I say! You're not moving; are you?" Lydia was exceedingly 
 Prev. P 17/168 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact