Because of Stephen by Grace Livingston Hill Read Free Book Online

brother was one whose influence was to be feared .
    So Stephen stayed behind, followed his sis ter about, and did what she asked him to do. In the course of the morning much scrubbing and putting to rights was done , and a savory dinner was under way in spite of the marked absence of needed culinary utensils.
    Philip Earle drove away into the sunshine at high speed. He was determined to make all the time he could. He felt uneasy about Stephen, lest he should mount his horse and come after, in spite of injunctions to stay about the house and take care of his sister until they got things into some sort of shape. There were more reasons than one why Philip sh ould be uneasy about Stephen today. Nothing must be al lowed to happen to startle the newcomer on this her first day. Perhaps she would be able to make thing s much better. Who knew? It cer tainly would be great to have something homelike about them. Though it would be all the worse when she would get tired of it,—as of course she would sooner or later,—and take her things and herself off, leaving them to their desolation once more. But Philip would not let himself think of that. With the gayety of a boy of fifteen he called to his horses and hastened over the miles to town.
    Margaret and Stephen went out to walk around the house, and plan how the kitchen could be bro ught near enough for use. Marga ret suggested, too, that there ought to be an other bedroom built on the other side of the house. She tried to find out how much of a share in things Philip owned, but Stephen was non-committal and morose when she talked of this, and did not seem to take much interest in any changes she would like to make in the house ; so she desisted.
    She wondered why this was. Could it be that Stephen was short of money? She knew that he had a good sum left to him by his own mother, and her father had also left certain properties which had gone to him at the death of her mother. Could it be that they were tied up so that he could not get at the interest, or was it possible that he had lost some of his money by speculation? Young men were sometimes foolhardy, and perhaps that was it, and he did not like to tell her.
    Well, she would just be still on the subjects that she saw he did not wish to talk about, and work her way slowly into his confidence. She had accomplished even more than she had hoped for right at first, for Stephen's letters had not led her to think she would be very welcome, and she had come with a high heart of hope that she might first win his love for herself and then his life for God.
    For several years now she had been praying for this stranger brother, until, when she was left in the world alone, she had come to feel that God had a special mission for her with him; and so she had dared to come off here alone and uninvited. She was not going to be daunted by any little thing. She would try to be as wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove. Meantime she thought she understood Philip Earle somewhat, and she wished that he did not live in the same house with her brother. He might be interesting to try to help, taken by himself; but she was fearful that he would not help her with her brother.
    Philip had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in getting help to bring the freight that he found waiting in the little station. For Margaret had laid her plans well, and, knowing the ways of delays on railroads, had shipped her household goods to this un known land much in advance of herself, that when she arrived, there might not be so much possibility of sending her away, at least, until she had ha d opportunity to try her experi ment. A girl with a little wider experience of the world, especially of the wild Western world, would not have dared do what she had attempted.
    Two stalwart ranchmen Philip enlisted to help him, with their fine team of horses. They were the wildest of the wild men, who drank heavily, and gambled recklessly, and cared not at all that man's days