FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  
bling off down the path. "And there's a deal of heft to a pail of water--uphill, too. An' by-me-by I got ter go down to the dock, I s'pose, when the boat comes in, to meet Broxton's gal. I 'xpect _she'll_ be a great nuisance, 'Mira." "I'll stand her bein' some nuisance if you give me the twenty dollars a month your brother wrote that he'd send for her board and keep," snapped Mrs. Day. "You understand, Jase. That money's comin' to _me_, or I don't scrub and slave for no relation of yourn. Remember that!" Jason shuffled on as though he had not heard her. That was the most exasperating trait of this lazy man--so his wife thought; he was too lazy to quarrel. He went out at the gate, which hung by one hinge to the gatepost, into the untidy back lane upon which one end of his rocky little farm abutted. Had he glanced back at the premises he would have seen a weed-grown, untidy yard surrounding the old house, with decrepit stables and other outbuildings in the rear, a garden which was almost a jungle now, although in the earlier spring it had given much promise of a summer harvest of vegetables. Poorly tilled fields behind the front premises terraced up the timber-capped hill. Jason Day always "calkerlated ter farm it" each year, and he started in good season, too. The soil was rich and most of his small fields were warm and early; but somehow his plans always fell through before the season was far advanced. So neither the farm nor the immediate premises of the old Day house were attractive. The house itself looked like a withered and narly apple left hanging upon the tree from the year before. In its forlorn nakedness it actually cried out for a coat of paint. Each individual shingle was curled and cracked. Only the superior workmanship of a former time kept the Day roof tight and defended the family from storms. Some hours later the _Constance Colfax_ came into view around a distant point in the lake shore. Mr. Day had camped upon the identical bench again and was still sucking at the stem of his corncob pipe. "Wal," he groaned, "I 'xpect I've got to go down to meet that gal of Broxton's. And the sun's mighty hot this mawnin'." "You wouldn't feel it so, if ye hadn't been too 'tarnal lazy to change yer seat," sniffed his wife. "Now, you mind, Jase! That board money comes to me, or you can take Broxton's gal to the _ho_-tel." Mr. Day shambled out of the front gate without making reply. "D
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Broxton

 
premises
 
season
 

untidy

 
fields
 
nuisance
 
cracked
 

workmanship

 

individual

 

shingle


curled
 

superior

 

advanced

 

attractive

 
hanging
 
nakedness
 

forlorn

 

looked

 

withered

 
change

tarnal
 

wouldn

 

mawnin

 

groaned

 
mighty
 

shambled

 

making

 
sniffed
 

Constance

 
Colfax

storms
 

family

 

defended

 

sucking

 

corncob

 
identical
 

distant

 

camped

 

understand

 
snapped

brother

 

exasperating

 

relation

 

Remember

 
shuffled
 

uphill

 

twenty

 
dollars
 

thought

 

spring