Free The Clock by James Lincoln Collier Page B

tell him, though. I’ll tell him what happened, just so he knows he’d better not sign you up again.”

CHAPTER NINE
    T HE BIG PROBLEM , that I could see right off, was that Robert and I were plain mill hands, and didn’t have any right to speak to Colonel Humphreys. He was a mighty important man, and you just didn’t go up to his house and knock on his door like he was an ordinary farmer. He had a big house on a hill just on the edge of Humphreysville. I knew where it was, because I’d been past it plenty of times heading down to Derby to see Ma’s cousins. I could go around to the back door and tell the servants that I had a message for the colonel. But the servants weren’t likely to take much note of me. They’d want to know what the message was, and all of that, and wouldn’t believe me if I told them, anyway. What were we going to do? I didn’t know. All I could do was go on from day to day and hope I would come up with an answer.
    Two nights later, when I came home from the mill, Pa was sitting at the table waiting for me. “Sit down, Annie,” he said.
    I sat down at the table. “What’s wrong, Pa?”
    He looked at me. “Daniel Brown came by this morning. He seems to know this story of yours about Mr. Hoggart pestering you.”
    Daniel Brown was Hetty’s pa. “I didn’t tell him, Pa.”
    â€œHe thought I didn’t know about it. He came to warn me. It was mighty embarrassing for me, Annie.”
    â€œI swear I didn’t say anything to him, Pa.”
    â€œWho did, then?”
    â€œHetty must have. She knows all about it.”
    â€œHow does she know? Did you tell her some story?”
    I blushed, for I had told her, and she’d told some of the other girls. “Pa, the girls all know. They’re all afraid Mr. Hoggart will try the same on them.”
    â€œAnnie, you shouldn’t be spreading these stories. It could cause us a lot of trouble if it got back to Mr. Hoggart that you were spreading gossip about him.”
    â€œPa, it’s not just stories. It’s true.” It was making me feel sort of crazy and sick that he wouldn’t believe me.
    â€œWhat about that tale that Mr. Hoggart’s been stealing wool? You have no proof of that.”
    Suddenly I was worried. Hetty had promised not to tell her pa about that. “Did Mr. Brown tell you I’d said that?”
    â€œNo,” Pa said. “He didn’t seem to have heard that.”
    So Hetty hadn’t told. “It’s true, anyway.”
    â€œAnnie, you can’t go around saying things like that without proof.”
    But we had proof. I’d seen that cabin in the woods. “Pa—” Then I realized that I couldn’t say anything about it, for he’d be dreadful angry at me if he found out I’d tracked Mr. Hoggart through the woods. “Robert says the tally sheets didn’t work out. That’s proof.”
    â€œNo, it’s not.” He slapped the palm of his hand down on the table. “It doesn’t prove anything at all. There could be a whole lot behind this that you don’t know anything about.” He gave me a stern look. “Now, I want you to stop all this. We could get into serious trouble if it got back to Mr. Hoggart that you were spreading these kinds of rumors about him.”
    Well, there wasn’t any point in trying to argue with him. I had a funny feeling that he believed me, at least partly. He’d known me all my life, and he knew I wasn’t the kind to make up stories like that. But what with the mess he’d got himself in, he couldn’t afford to believe me. For if he believed me, he’d have to take me out of the mill.
    Anyway, I realized that I’d better make sure Hetty didn’t tell her pa about the wool, so that night I walked her home. “Did you know your pa came to see my pa about what Mr. Hoggart tried to do to me?
    â€œHe