FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  
n offspring in her own way, but Judith would rout her out and force her to comply to community housekeeping in the poultry-house. The Knights' motto might have been: "Lazy Faire" and the Buck's "'Nuff Said," as a wag at Ryeville had declared, but such mottoes did not fit Miss Judith. Nothing must be left as it was unless it was already exactly right and enough was not said until she had spoken her mind freely and fearlessly. Everything about this girl was free and fearless--her walk, the way she held her head, her unflinching hazel eyes and ready, ringing laugh. Even her red gold hair demanded freedom and refused to stay confined in coil, braid or net. "I'm sure I don't know where you came from," Mrs. Buck drawled. "You're so energetic and wasteful like. Of course my folks were never ones to sit still and be taken care of like the Bucks," and then her mild eyes would snap a bit, "but the Knights believed in saving." "Even energy?" asked Judith saucily. "Well, there isn't any use in wasting even energy. My father used to say that saving was the keynote of life as well as religion. I reckon you must be a throw back to my mother's grandfather, who was a Norse sailor, and reckless and wasteful and red-headed." "Maybe so! At any rate I'm going to plough some guano into these acres, even though I can't plough the seas like my worthy grandpap, Sven Thorwald Woden, or whatever his name was. Just look at our wheat, Mother! It isn't fit to feed chickens with because our land is so poor. I'm tired of this eternal saving and no making. There is no reason why our yield shouldn't be as great per acre as Buck Hill, but we don't get half as much as they do. I've got to make a lot of money this summer so as to buy bags and bags of fertilizer. I've got a new scheme." "I'll be bound you have," sighed Mrs. Buck. "But you'll have to help me by making cakes and pies and things and peeling potatoes." "All right, just so you don't hurry me! I can't be hurried." "What a nice mother you are to say all right without even asking what it is." "There wasn't any use in wasting my breath asking, because I knew you'd tell me without asking." "Well, this is it: I'm going to feed the motormen and conductors. I got the idea yesterday when I was coming up from Louisville by trolley, when I saw the poor fellows eating such miserable lunches out of tin buckets with everything hot that ought to be cold and cold that ought to be hot. I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

saving

 

Judith

 
energy
 

wasteful

 

plough

 

making

 

mother

 

wasting

 

Knights

 

Thorwald


summer
 

housekeeping

 

poultry

 

shouldn

 

chickens

 

eternal

 

reason

 

Mother

 

yesterday

 

coming


Louisville

 

conductors

 

motormen

 

breath

 

trolley

 

offspring

 

buckets

 

fellows

 

eating

 
miserable

lunches

 
sighed
 

fertilizer

 

grandpap

 

scheme

 

comply

 

things

 

peeling

 

hurried

 

potatoes


community

 

drawled

 

spoken

 

energetic

 

freely

 

ringing

 

unflinching

 
fearless
 

Everything

 

confined