ill
learn to copy him, as he already learned to respect and admire him.
There, Aunt Kate, I've been, and gone, and said it."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

PERPLEXING.

Many months had rolled by since Amos had undertaken to pay for the horse
which his brother had unhappily ruined in the steeplechase. Mr
Huntingdon never alluded to the matter again, but the difference in his
manner towards his elder son was so marked that none could fail to
observe it. There were both respect and affection in his voice when he
addressed him, and the poor young man's naturally grave face lighted up
as with a flood of sunshine when his father thus spoke to him. Miss
Huntingdon, of course, rejoiced in this change with all her heart.
Walter was as pleased and proud at it as if some special honours were
being conferred on himself. And old Harry--it was a sight worth seeing
to observe the old servant when his master spoke kindly to Amos: what
with winking and nodding, opening wide his eyes, lifting his eyebrows,
rolling his tongue about, and certain inward volcanic mutterings, all
constituting a little bit of private acting for his own special and
peculiar benefit, it might have been thought by those who did not know
him that something had been passing at the moment causing a temporary
derangement of his digestive organs. But Miss Huntingdon, as she marked
his mysterious conduct, was perfectly aware that it simply meant an
expression on his part--principally for the relief of his own feelings,
and partly also to give a hint to those who might care to know how he
felt in the matter--that things were "coming round nicely," and that Mr
Amos would get his proper place and his rights given him in the family,
and would in due time accomplish his great purpose.

Amos himself began to be much of the same opinion, and was greatly
touched by receiving a cheque from his father for a hundred pounds one
morning, with the assurance that he did not wish him to be out of pocket
on Walter's account, while at the same time the squire neither mentioned
the steeplechase himself nor allowed Amos to refer to it. The money was
now his own, he remarked, and the less said about where it was going to
the better.

A new year had now begun, and deep snow lay around the Manor-house. The
family party had assembled at breakfast, all except Miss Huntingdon and
Amos. The former at last appeared, but there was trouble on her brow,
which Walter, who loved her dearly, ins