Bad Hugh

"Won't somebody tell me what it means?" Hugh gasped, stretching out his

hands toward Rocket, who even attempted to lick them.

At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket's bridle, laid it

across Hugh's lap, saying, softly: "It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend, saved from

Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he rides as easily as ever. I am

impatient to be off."

But had Hugh's life depended upon it, he could not have mounted Rocket

then. He knew the friend was Alice, and the magnitude of the act

overpowered him.

"Oh, Miss Johnson," he cried, "what made you do it? It must not be. I

cannot suffer it."

"Not to please me?" and Alice's face wore its most winning look. "It's

been my fixed determination ever since I heard of Rocket, and knew how

much you loved him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and

now you must not spoil it all by refusing."

"As a loan, then, not as a gift," Hugh whispered. "It shall not be a

gift."

"It need not," Alice rejoined, as a sudden plan for carrying out another

project crossed her mind. "You shall pay for Rocket if you like, and

I'll tell you how on our ride. Shall we go?"

Once out upon the highway, where there were no mud holes to shun, no

gates to open and shut, Hugh broached the subject of Rocket again, when

Alice told him unhesitatingly how he could, if he would, pay for him and

leave her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins had

saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the carpet, had been placed by

the queer little child in an old envelope, which she called her letter

to Miss Alice. Handing it to her that morning with the utmost gravity,

she had asked her to read "Mug's letter," and Alice had read the brief

lines written by 'Lina: "Hugh must send the money, as I told him before.

He can sell Mug; Harney likes pretty darkies." There was a cold, sick

feeling at Alice's heart, a shrinking with horror from 'Lina

Worthington, and then she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and

so, as skillfully as she could she brought it around, that having taken

a great fancy both to Lulu and Muggins, she wished to buy them both,

giving whatever Hugh honestly thought they were worth. Rocket, if he

pleased, should be taken as part or whole payment for Mug, and so cease

to be a gift.

"I have no mercenary motives in the matter," she said, "With me they

will be free, and this, I am sure, will be an inducement for you to

consent to my proposal."

A slave master can love his bond servant, and Hugh loved the little Mug

so much that the idea of parting with her as he surely must at some

future time if he assented to Alice's plan, made him hesitate. But he

decided at last, influenced not so much by need of money as by knowing

how much real good the exchange of ownership would be to the two young

girls. In return for Rocket, Alice should have Muggins, while for Lulu

she might give what she liked.