Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-06
FINDING is KEEPING. /"
CHAPTER I.

made to this by very small girl.
She Maud, was in her rightful domain,
the nursery. Harry was the interloper,
and the terror of the methodical nurse who
would have the children in exact order.
She had given up Harry three years ago,
and now he was thirteen, and, as she de-
olared, he had grown quite rampageous,
and he do upset the children SOL"
The Boyle children were three, headed
by Maud above her was vacant space of
three years when Harry showed his 20 ram
pageous self; above him came two girls.
There is the family list headed by father
and mother
There was not a more charmingly COM
nonplace, more pleasantly successful fam
lily in the three Kingdoms. They lived in
a London suburb, and they had plenty Of
friends and comforts.
You are vulgar p Maud had cried
Sod you be if you got such find.
Hooray I say, where's the mater"
Gone out, Master Harry nurse an
swered.
What a bore Now, mind. nurse, that's
my sixpence. Just you keep it safe II
hadn't to play in that match this afternoon
I'd hang about till mother was back
Do they want you very much ?"
This was an infantile remark of small
DaYy's.
Don't you make any mistake" Harry
was grand. Should l be in Plummer's
Eleven if I wasn't something? Just see
me bat, that's all"
I'D like to see you.
.. I don't doubt you; but we can't have
kids on our ground"
At which Davy subsidized, and Harry
took himself off to don his cricketing
dannels.
When ne had gone the nursery inmates
looked at his sixpence, and each child
handled it as if there were some magic
in it.
What did Harry mean when he called
out that long word, findinskeepins ? ]"
asked Maud.
Bless you, Miss Maud He only meant
cos he'd had the findin he'd have a
right TO the keeping"
An accent on each word did not make
the good woman's explanation clearer to
the child
Nurse went on mending socks and the
children returned to their play. Maud
kept silence-not a common circumstance
to pass unmarked. All at once she spoke
this:
"Do you mean, Nurse, that if | picked
up hundreds of thousands Of gold sover-
eigns they would all be mine ?'
Her eyes were alight and quite rosy
color was flushing her round face.
Nonsense, Miss Maud. What should
you be wanting gold sovereigns for ?"
But if found them ?"
Ay, if. You're not likely to find
them. l never did. They don't lie about
nursery floors, do they?"
All, but outside somewhere" And the
child made gesture as if with her round
arms she would encircle the great, vague
world.
Years went by, and the Boyle nursery
had become almost a forgotten thing.
Nurse had gone 10 lord it over another
nursery good many degrees higher in the
monetary, if not in the social, scale. and
she, when her " family was in town.
brought little lady now and again to see
the grown up children who had once been
her babies But even to this there came an
end-a temporary end-for things hap
pened to the BOylcs which carried them
out of &" Nurses radius altogether.
Misfortune had seized the Boyles, and
they were at their worst when, some ten
years later, we meet them in a third-rate
street at New-Cross.
Five years had been sunny, prosperous
years then Mr.. Boyle was stricken by dire
malady and had to leave business. He was
a stockbroker, but in the year when illness
made il necessary that his city affairs
should be wound up, there was panic
upon panic, there were wars and rumors
of wars, and loss followed loss in rapid
succession.
On the eve of his fathers failure Harry
had sailed for Canada. lie had bought a
plat of Government land, and he was going
to reclaim il. and, so they all hoped, dig
fortune out Of it.
But moderate family can live on small
income il, as the saying is, they " cut their
coat according to their cloth. Mrs. Boyle
was wise woman, and she moved to a
cheaper house. Daisy ,or Margaret) Boyle
was married Katherine was useful; Maud,
now 10. might, if need showed itself, find
work, bat Davy and Dick must still go 10
school.
Yes a cycle of misfortune had begun,
the FIVE plentiful years were over, and the
beginning Of another five had come-years
OF trouble upon trouble. Mr.. Boyle died,
unwilling OF the calamitous times; another,
and then a third move had to be made,
each one carrying the family step down.
ward.
How Mrs Boyles blood did rebel when
the day came Tor her to take little Dick TO
Seacrofts school, where he was to be
years free OF expense to her. MillionaiFes
have been known to grow out of boys
brought up at Seacroft's school, but what
cheer is there in that thought to the poor
mother, who sees her little son arrayed in
the school garb, and who sees the gay sum
mer sun gliuting down from the tears in
his blue eyes to the fine new brass buttons
on his jacket?
But Dick became quite a happy lad
there, and he did not know much of the
home troubles; he got his holidays and he
saw two more new homes, but things were
not sad TO him. He had come to be four
teen; they were keeping him on at school
because he was so clever.
Harry had not made his fortune in the
FIVE years, not that many details were
known about him, for he did not often
write home Davy was seventeen, q nice
bright lad in a merchants office.
Maud, for three years, had taught as
daily governess. Ii would have been
wiser had she gone away andinto family,
but mistake was made, and the girl only
gave lessons in the neighborhood. Kath-
crime was the domestic mainstay of the
house, and the house, during the past year,
had to admit ledger.
This ledger had been a silent, nervous
old gentleman, who gave no trouble what
ever; perfect godsend of ledger, in fact.
He was order itself None of his belong
ings were ever allowed to litter his rooms.
He read 4 good deal. but his books had
their places orderly on their shelves, and
were read and re-read annotated and
digested. When the reading was laid aside
the old gentleman would amuse himself by
making pen-and-ink sketches of subjects
which the old authors treated of There
would be the preseutment of Creek poem;
or. sticking out from the rough edges of an
antique volume of strange Eastern lore,
there would be the fantastic drawing show
ing how the strange hieroglyphics told
their story.
Dick on holidays, and Maud. when the
silent Mr.. Harbutt came upon her in her
dustings, were the two who were shown
these things Why, no one knew; he never
honored them with any other mark of
favoritism.
But his residence with them came to an
end. for certain relatives came home to live
in England, after long absence in India,
and he was persuaded to 90 and end his
days with them.
His due payments, and handsome pres
ent he made the girls. set the household
on a very easy, comfortable footing for
several weeks, weeks in which search was
made for new ledger.
Many applied, but none were quite of
the right sort, after the kind, orderly,
quaint old gentleman.