



Produced by Sandra Laythorpe






MAGNUM BONUM

or, Mother Carey's Brood

By Charlotte M. Yonge





LIST OF CONTENTS.


I. JOE BROWNLOW'S FANCY

II. THE CHICKENS

III. THE WHITE SLATE

IV. THE STRAY CHICKENS

V. BRAINS AND NO BRAINS

VI. ENCHANTED GROUND

VII. THE COLONEL'S CHICKENS

VIII. THE FOLLY

IX. FLIGHTS

X. ELLEN'S MAGNUM BONUMS

XI. UNDINE

XII. KING MIDAS

XIII. THE RIVAL HEIRESSES

XIV. PUMPING AWAY

XV. THE BELFOREST MAGNUM BONUM

XVI. POSSESSION

XVII. POPINJAY PARLOUR

XVIII. AN OFFER FOR MAGNUM BONUM

XIX. THE SNOWY WINDING-SHEET

XX. A RACE

XXI. AN ACT OF INDEPENDENCE

XXII. SHUTTING THE STABLE DOOR

XXIII. THE LOST TREASURE

XXIV. THE ANGEL MOUNTAIN

XXV. THE LAND OF AFTERNOON

XXVI. MOONSHINE

XXVII. BLUEBEARD'S CLOSET

XXVIII. THE TURN OF THE WHEEL

XXIX. FRIENDS AND UNFRIENDS

XXX. AS WEEL OFF AS AYE WAGGING

XXXI. SLACK TIDE

XXXII. THE COST

XXXIII. BITTER FAREWELLS

XXXIV. BLIGHTED BEINGS

XXXV. THE PHANTOM BLACKCOCK OF KILNAUGHT

XXXVI. OF NO CONSEQUENCE

XXXVII. THE TRAVELLER'S JOY

XXXVIII. THE TRUST FULFILLED

XXXIX. THE TRUANT

XL. EVIL OUT OF GOOD

XLI. GOOD OUT OF EVIL

XLII. DISENCHANTED





MAGNUM BONUM

OR, MOTHER CAREY'S BROOD




CHAPTER I.--JOE BROWNLOW'S FANCY.



     The lady said, "An orphan's fate
     Is sad and hard to bear."--Scott.


"Mother, you could do a great kindness."

"Well, Joe?"

"If you would have the little teacher at the Miss Heath's here for the
holidays. After all the rest, she has had the measles last and worst,
and they don't know what to do with her, for she came from the asylum
for officers' daughters, and has no home at all, and they must go away
to have the house purified. They can't take her with them, for their
sister has children, and she will have to roam from room to room before
the whitewashers, which is not what I should wish in the critical state
of chest left by measles."

"What is her name?"

"Allen. The cry was always for Miss Allen when the sick girls wanted to
be amused."

"Allen! I wonder if it can be the same child as the one Robert was
interested about. You don't remember, my dear. It was the year you were
at Vienna, when one of Robert's brother-officers died on the voyage out
to China, and he sent home urgent letters for me to canvass right and
left for the orphan's election. You know Robert writes much better than
he speaks, and I copied over and over again his account of the poor
young man to go with the cards. 'Caroline Otway Allen, aged seven years,
whole orphan, daughter of Captain Allen, l07th Regiment;' yes, that's
the way it ran."

"The year I was at Vienna, and Robert went out to China. That was eleven
years ago. She must be the very child, for she is only eighteen. They
sent her to Miss Heath's to grow a little older, for though she was at
the head of everything at the asylum, she looks so childish that they
can't send her out as a governess. Did you see her, mother?"

"Oh, no! I never had anything to do with her; but if she is daughter to
a friend of Robert's--"

Mother and son looked at each other in congratulation. Robert was the
stepson, older by several years, and was viewed as the representative of
sober common sense in the family. Joe and his mother did like to feel
a plan quite free from Robert's condemnation for enthusiasm or
impracticability, and it was not the worse for his influence, that he
had been generally with his regiment, and when visiting them was a good
deal at the United Service Club. He had lately married an heiress in a
small way, retired from the army, and settled in a house of hers in a
country town, and thus he could give his dicta with added weight.

Only a parent or elder brother would, however, have looked on "Joe" as
a youth, for he was some years over thirty, with a mingled air of
keenness, refinement, and alacrity about his slight but active form,
altogether with the air of some implement, not meant for ornament but
for use, and yet absolutely beautiful, through perfection of polish,
finish, applicability, and a sharpness never meant to wound, but
deserving to be cherished in a velvet case.

This case might be the pretty drawing-room,