Aunt Jane's Nieces
Mr. Watson also arranged
with the son of the village curate to tutor Kenneth and prepare him
for college; but either the tutor was incompetent or the pupil did not
apply himself, for at twenty Kenneth Forbes was very ignorant, indeed,
and seemed not to apply himself properly to his books.
He was short of stature and thin, with a sad drawn face and manners
that even his staunch friend, Silas Watson, admitted were awkward and
unprepossessing. What he might have been under different conditions or
with different treatment, could only be imagined. Slowly climbing the
stairs to the little room Kenneth inhabited, Mr. Watson was forced to
conclude, with a sigh of regret, that he could not blame Miss Jane
for wishing to find a more desirable heir to her estate than this
graceless, sullen youth who had been thrust upon her by a thoughtless
request contained in the will of her dead lover--a request that she
seemed determined to fulfil literally, as it only required her to
"look after" Tom's relatives and did not oblige her to leave Kenneth
her property.
Yet, strange as it may seem, the old lawyer was exceedingly fond of
the boy, and longed to see him the master of Elmhurst. Sometimes, when
they were alone, Kenneth forgot his sense of injury and dependence,
and spoke so well and with such animation that Mr. Watson was
astonished, and believed that hidden underneath the mask of reserve
was another entirely different personality, that in the years to come
might change the entire nature of the neglected youth and win for him
the respect and admiration of the world. But these fits of brightness
and geniality were rare. Only the lawyer had as yet discovered them.
Today he found the boy lying listlessly upon the window-seat, an open
book in his hand, but his eyes fixed dreamily upon the grove of huge
elm trees that covered the distant hills.
"Morning, Ken," said he, briefly, sitting beside his young friend and
taking the book in his own hand. The margins of the printed pages were
fairly covered with drawings of every description.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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