FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   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   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  
nother thing; this draining is a business proposition and we're partners in that sense, too. Now we'll tell your mother." They told Mrs. Winter at lunch, and Jim saw that she hesitated and looked at Carrie. The girl's face was, however, inscrutable, and she gave no sign. Jim felt puzzled. He thought Mrs. Winter liked Langrigg and she had developed since she came. She was not so thin, she had lost her careworn look and gained a certain ease of manner. At the store, she had been highly-strung and restless; now she was happily calm. Moreover, she was making her influence felt and quietly taking control. Jim had noted that things were done better and cost him less. He wanted her to stay, because he thought she needed a rest and he would miss her if she went. "Well," she said, doubtfully, "if you are all satisfied----" "I am satisfied," Jim declared. "I imagine Jake is, but Carrie hasn't told us yet." Carrie gave him a quick glance and he thought her color was rather high. "You are kind," she said. "Mother looks younger than she has looked for long and perhaps we had better accept. But it is a big undertaking to drain the marsh. When do you begin?" "I thought we might begin this afternoon. However, I don't expect to drain it all right off. There's a pretty dry piece where I mean to start. I reckon I've money enough for the experiment, and can develop my plans afterwards when I see what the first lot costs." Carrie laughed and the hint of strain all had felt vanished. "You are certainly the hustling Jim we knew," she said. "I feel as if we were back in the woods." After lunch Jim crossed the marsh with Jake and stopped where a ridge of higher ground broke off at the edge of a muddy creek. In the corner, partly sheltered by a bank of gorse, stood a small white house with a roof of rusty iron where the thatch had been. The whitewash had fallen off in places, exposing a rough, granulated wall, for the house was a dabbin, built of puddled clay. A window was broken and the door hung crookedly. Except for a few rows of withered potatoes, the garden was occupied by weeds. Three or four shellducks, hatched from wild birds' eggs, paddled about the creek. "Shanks' dabbin; his father squatted here," Jim remarked. "I reckon I'm going to have trouble with the fellow." He opened the broken gate and two men came out. One was bent and moved awkwardly, but Jake imagined that rheumatism rather than
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   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   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Carrie
 

thought

 

broken

 

reckon

 

satisfied

 
dabbin
 
looked
 

Winter

 
higher
 

ground


crossed

 

opened

 
stopped
 

fellow

 
corner
 

partly

 
trouble
 
imagined
 

develop

 

rheumatism


laughed

 

vanished

 

strain

 

awkwardly

 

hustling

 

sheltered

 

Except

 

paddled

 

crookedly

 

window


Shanks

 
withered
 

shellducks

 

hatched

 

potatoes

 
garden
 

occupied

 
puddled
 

squatted

 
remarked

thatch
 

whitewash

 
granulated
 
experiment
 

exposing

 

father

 
fallen
 

places

 
gained
 

manner