THE STORY OF GLASS

CHAPTER I

A FRIENDLY FEUD

Jean Cabot "lived around." She did not live around because nobody
wanted her, however; on the contrary, she lived around because so many
people wanted her. Both her father and mother had died when Jean was a
baby and so until she was twelve years old she had been brought up by a
cousin of her mother's. Then the cousin had married a missionary and
had gone to teach the children in China, and China, as you will agree,
was no place for an American girl to go to school. Therefore Jean was
sent to Boston and put in charge of her uncle, Mr. Robert Cabot. Uncle
Bob was delighted with the arrangement, for they were great friends,
Jean and this boy-uncle of hers.

But no sooner did she arrive in Boston and settle down to live on
Beacon Hill than up rose Uncle Tom Curtis, Jean's other uncle, who
lived in Pittsburgh. He made a dreadful fuss because Jean had gone to
Uncle Bob's to live. _He_ wanted her out in Pittsburgh, and he wrote
that Fraeulein Decker, who was his housekeeper, and had been governess
to Jean's own mother, wanted her too.

That started Hannah, Uncle Bob's housekeeper.

"The very idea," she said, "of that German woman thinking they want
Jean in Pittsburgh as much as we want her here in Boston. Didn't I
bring up Jean's father, I'd like to know; and her Uncle Bob as well? I
guess I can be trusted to bring up another Cabot. It's ridiculous--that's
what it is--perfectly _ree_-diculous!" That was Hannah's favorite
expression--"Ree-diculous!" "I'd like my job," went on Hannah, "sending
that precious child to Pittsburgh where her white dresses would get all
grimed up with coal soot."

But Hannah's scorn of Pittsburgh did not settle the matter.

Instead Mr. Carleton, Uncle Tom Curtis's lawyer, came to Boston as fast
as he could get there and one afternoon presented himself at Uncle
Bob's house on Beacon Hill. Uncle Bob was in the library when he
arrived and the two men sat down before the fire, for it was a chilly
day in early spring. After they had said a few pleasant things about
the weather, and Uncle Bob had inquired for Uncle Tom, they really got
started on what they wanted to say and my--how they did talk! It was
all good-natured talk, for Uncle Bob liked Uncle Tom Curtis very much;
nevertheless Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom's lawyer did talk pretty hard and
pretty fast, for they had lots of things to say.

At last Uncle Bob Cabot rose from his le