FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   >>  
metimes it's kids that he's played to, an' I'll be triggered if one of 'em one day didn't have no excuse to offer except that David had fit him--'bout a cat, or somethin'--an' that ever since then he'd thought a heap of him--though he guessed David didn't know it. Listen ter that, will ye! "An' once a woman held me up, an' took on turrible, but all I could git from her was that he'd sat on her doorstep an' played ter her baby once or twice;--as if that was anythin'! But one of the derndest funny ones was the woman who said she could wash her dishes a sight easier after she'd a-seen him go by playin'. There was Bill Dowd, too. You know he really HAS got a screw loose in his head somewheres, an' there ain't any one but what says he's the town fool, all right. Well, what do ye think HE said?" Mr. Jack shook his head. "Well, he said he did hope as how nothin' would happen ter that boy cause he did so like ter see him smile, an' that he always did smile every time he met him! There, what do ye think o' that?" "Well, I think, Perry," returned Mr. Jack soberly, "that Bill Dowd wasn't playing the fool, when he said that, quite so much as he sometimes is, perhaps." "Hm-m, maybe not," murmured Perry Larson perplexedly. "Still, I'm free ter say I do think 't was kind o' queer." He paused, then slapped his knee suddenly. "Say, did I tell ye about Streeter--Old Bill Streeter an' the pear tree?" Again Mr. Jack shook his head. "Well, then, I'm goin' to," declared the other, with gleeful emphasis. "An', say, I don't believe even YOU can explain this--I don't! Well, you know Streeter--ev'ry one does, so I ain't sayin' nothin' sland'rous. He was cut on a bias, an' that bias runs ter money every time. You know as well as I do that he won't lift his finger unless there's a dollar stickin' to it, an' that he hain't no use fur anythin' nor anybody unless there's money in it for him. I'm blamed if I don't think that if he ever gits ter heaven, he'll pluck his own wings an' sell the feathers fur what they'll bring." "Oh, Perry!" remonstrated Mr. Jack, in a half-stifled voice. Perry Larson only grinned and went on imperturbably. "Well, seein' as we both understand what he is, I'll tell ye what he DONE. He called me up ter his fence one day, big as life, an' says he, 'How's the boy?' An' you could 'a' knocked me down with a feather. Streeter--a-askin' how a boy was that was sick! An' he seemed ter care, too. I hain't seen
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   141   142   >>  



Top keywords:

Streeter

 

anythin

 

nothin

 

Larson

 

played

 

declared

 

gleeful

 

emphasis

 
explain

blamed

 

understand

 

imperturbably

 

grinned

 

called

 

feather

 

knocked

 

stifled

 
stickin

dollar

 

finger

 
suddenly
 

remonstrated

 

feathers

 

heaven

 

doorstep

 

turrible

 

derndest


easier

 

dishes

 

Listen

 

excuse

 

triggered

 

metimes

 
guessed
 

thought

 
somethin

soberly

 

playing

 

paused

 

slapped

 

murmured

 
perplexedly
 
returned
 
somewheres
 

playin


happen