his lazy brother.
After some urging, Mamma consented to go to her room for forty
winks, leaving Jack in the care of Frank, begging him to be as
quiet as possible if the dear boy wished to sleep, and to amuse him
if he did not.
Being worn out, Mrs. Minot lengthened her forty winks into a
three hours nap, and as the “dear boy” scorned repose, Mr. Frank
had his hands full while on guard.
“I’ll read to you. Here’s Watt, Arkwright, Fulton, and a lot of
capital fellows, with pictures that will do your heart good. Have a
bit, will you?” asked the new nurse, flapping the leaves invitingly
for Frank bad a passion for such things, and drew steam-engines
all over his slate, as Tommy Traddles drew hosts of skeletons
when low in his spirits.
“I don’t want any of your old boilers and stokers and whirligigs. I
m tired of reading, and want something regularly jolly,” answered
Jack, who had been chasing white buffaloes with “The Hunters of
the West,” till he was a trifle tired and fractious.
“Play cribbage, euchre, anything you like”; and Frank obligingly
disinterred himself from under the folios, feeling that it was hard
for a fellow to lie flat a whole week.
“No fun; just two of us. Wish school was over, so the boys would
come in; doctor said I might see them now.”
“They’ll be along by and by, and I’ll hail them. Till then, what
shall we do? I’m your man for anything, only put a name to it.
“Just wish I had a telegraph or a telephone, so I could talk to Jill.
Wouldn’t it be fun to pipe across and get an answer!”
“I’ll make either you say”; and Frank looked as if trifles of that sort
were to be had for the asking.
“Could you, really?”
“We’ll start the telegraph first, then you can send things over if you
like,” said Frank, prudently proposing the surest experiment.
“Go ahead, then. I’d like that, and so would Jill, for I know she
wants to hear from me.”
“There’s one trouble, though; I shall have to leave you alone for a
few minutes while I rig up the ropes”; and Frank looked sober, for
he was a faithful boy, and did not want to desert his post.
“Oh, never mind; I won’t want anything. If I’d o, I can pound for
Ann.”
“And wake mother. I’ll fix you a better way than that”; and, full of
inventive genius, our young Edison spliced the poker to part of a
fishing-rod in a jiffy, making a long-handled hook which reached
across the room.
“There’s an arm for you; now hook away, and let’s see how it
works,” he said, handing over the instrument to Jack, who
proceeded to show its unexpected capabilities by hooking the cloth
off the table in attempting to get his handkerchief, catching Frank
by the hair when fishing for a book, and breaking a pane of glass in
trying to draw down the curtain. –
“It’s so everlasting long, I can’t manage it,” laughed Jack, as it
finally caught in his bed-hangings, and nearly pulled them, ring
and all, down upon his head.
“Let it alone, unless you need something very much, and don’t
bother about the glass. It’s just what we want for the telegraph wire
or rope to go through. Keep still, and I’ll have the thing running in
ten minutes”; and, delighted with the job, Frank hurried away,
leaving Jack to compose a message to send as soon as it was
possible.
“What in the world is that flying across the Minots’ yard a brown
hen or a boy’s kite?” exclaimed old Miss Hopkins, peering out of
her window at the singular performances going on in her opposite
neighbor’s garden.
First, Frank appeared with a hatchet and chopped a clear space in
the hedge between his own house and the cottage; next, a clothes
line was passed through this aperture and fastened somewhere on
the other side; lastly, a small covered basket, slung on this rope,
was seen hitching along, drawn either way by a set of strings; then,
as if satisfied with his job, Frank retired, whistling “Hail