FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   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   >>  
ain, because it looked so big, and trying to push his left hand into his pocket. "Beautiful sunshine, isn't it?" said Martha. "Yes, 'tis," answered Bud, sticking his right foot up on the rung of the chair and putting his right hand behind him. "This snow looks like the snow we have at the East," said Martha. "It snowed that way the time I was to Bosting." "Did it?" said Bud, not thinking of the snow at all nor of Boston, but thinking how much better he would have appeared had he left his arms and legs at home. "I suppose Mr. Hartsook rode your horse to Lewisburg?" "Yes, he did;" and Bud hung both hands at his side. "You were very kind." This set Bud's heart a-going so that he could not say anything, but he looked eloquently at Miss Hawkins, drew both feet under the chair, and rammed his hands into his pockets. Then, suddenly remembering how awkward he must look, he immediately pulled his hands out again, and crossed his legs. There was a silence of a few minutes, during which Bud made up his mind to do the most desperate thing he could think of--to declare his love and take the consequences. "You see, Miss Hawkins," he began, forgetting boots and fists in his agony, "I thought as how I'd come over here to-day, and"--but here his heart failed him utterly--"and--see--you." "I'm glad to see you, Mr. Means." "And I thought I'd tell you"--Martha was sure it was coming now, for Bud was in dead earnest--"and I thought I'd just like to tell you, ef I only know'd jest how to tell it right"--here Bud got frightened, and did not dare close the sentence as he had intended--"I thought as how you might like to know--or ruther I wanted to tell you--that--the--that I--that we--all of us--think--that--I--that we are going to have a spellin'-school a Chewsday night." "I'm real glad to hear it," said the bland but disappointed Martha. "We used to have spelling-schools at the East." But Miss Martha could not remember that they had them "to Bosting." Hard as it is for a bashful man to talk, it is still more difficult for him to close the conversation. Most men like to leave a favorable impression, and a bashful man is always waiting with the forlorn hope that some favorable turn in the talk may let him out without absolute discomfiture. And so Bud stayed a long time, and how he ever did get away he never could tell. CHAPTER XXVI. A LETTER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. "SQUAR HAUKINS "this is too Lett
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   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   >>  



Top keywords:
Martha
 

thought

 

favorable

 
Hawkins
 

bashful

 

Bosting

 

looked

 

thinking

 

sentence

 

intended


frightened

 
wanted
 

spellin

 
school
 
Chewsday
 

ruther

 

coming

 

HAUKINS

 

CONSEQUENCES

 

earnest


LETTER

 

conversation

 

difficult

 

absolute

 

discomfiture

 
forlorn
 

impression

 

waiting

 

stayed

 

spelling


schools

 

disappointed

 
CHAPTER
 

remember

 

minutes

 

appeared

 

suppose

 

Boston

 

Hartsook

 

Lewisburg


snowed
 
pocket
 

Beautiful

 

sunshine

 

putting

 
answered
 

sticking

 
desperate
 
declare
 

consequences