ay, and he dragged himself out to the plateau, and let
Neil and Robin play that he was a balky horse who would not go,
notwithstanding their shouts and blows with dandelions and blades of
grass, while Baby Bessie pelted him with daisies from the white cross
and pansies from the border.

From that day on, Neil's improvement was rapid, and when, on the last
day of September, the Jerrolds returned to their house in Boston, they
left him domesticated with Miss Betsey, and to all appearance happy and
contented. He would never be very strong again, for the malaria
contracted in India had undermined his constitution; but he was able to
do all his aunt required of him, even to overseeing at times the hands
in the cotton-mill, an office he had once spurned with contempt, and
from which he undoubtedly shrank a little, although he never made a sign
to that effect.

A year or more after his arrival in America he wrote to Jack Trevellian
as follows:

"I hardly think you would know the once fastidious Neil McPherson,
if you could see him now in a noisy cotton-mill, screaming at the
top of his voice to the stupid operatives, and button-holed
confidentially by the Brother Jonathans, who address him as 'Square,
and speak of his aunt as the 'old woman.' But it is astonishing how
soon one gets accustomed to things, and I really am very happy,
especially when scouting the country on my beautiful bay, a present
from my aunt, who gave it to me on condition that I would take care
of it myself. Think of me in overalls and knit jacket, currying a
horse and bedding him down, for I do all that; in fact, I do
everything, even to splitting the kindlings when the chore-boy
(that's what they call him here) does not come.

"Ah, well; I have learned many things in this land of democracy, and
am content; though in my heart I believe I still have a hankering
after old aristocratic England, provided I could be one of the
aristocrats. I suppose you know that poor Blanche died last winter
of fever in Naples, but perhaps you do not know that she left me ten
thousand pounds! Fifty thousand dollars they count that in America,
and I actually do not know what to do with it. My aunt gives me a
thousand a year for spending money, and when she dies, I shall have,
as nearly as I can estimate it, half a million, which in this
country makes a rich man. If Bessie had not provide