It was the unfortunate condition of Claude
Nutcombe which made life in the country a necessity. At that time
he was spending the remains of the money left him by his aunt, and
Elizabeth had hardly settled down at Brookport and got her venture
under way when she found herself obliged to provide for Nutty a
combination of home and sanatorium. It had been the poor lad's
mistaken view that he could drink up all the alcoholic liquor in
America.
It is a curious law of Nature that the most undeserving brothers
always have the best sisters. Thrifty, plodding young men, who get
up early, and do it now, and catch the employer's eye, and save
half their salaries, have sisters who never speak civilly to them
except when they want to borrow money. To the Claude Nutcombes of
the world are vouchsafed the Elizabeths.
The great aim of Elizabeth's life was to make a new man of Nutty.
It was her hope that the quiet life and soothing air of Brookport,
with--unless you counted the money-in-the-slot musical box at the
store--its absence of the fiercer excitements, might in time pull
him together and unscramble his disordered nervous system. She
liked to listen of a morning to the sound of Nutty busy in the
next room with a broom and a dustpan, for in the simple lexicon of
Flack's there was no such word as 'help'.
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