FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>  
ulu. "I'll tell you," put in May. "We'll play they are three stiff old ladies, who always wear best clothes, you know, and sit so in chairs; and that Nippy and Maria are coming to make them a visit. They needn't really come, you know. Mrs. Eugenie, sit up straight. Now listen to the hateful old thing! She's talking to Victoria." "Sister, when are those children coming?" "I don't know, sister," squeaked back Lulu in the character of Victoria. "I wish they wouldn't come at all. Children are the bane of my existence." "You horrid doll, talking that way about _my_ baby," cried Bertha, giving Victoria a shove. "Don't, Beppie; you'll push her down," said May. Then changing her voice again, "Your manners is most awful, I'm sure," she squeaked, in the person of the irate Victoria. All the children giggled, and Mrs. Frisbie looked up from her book. At this moment in ran the two boys, hot, dusty, and excited,--Arthur with a handful of "fractional currency," and Jack waving a two-dollar bill. "See!" they cried. "Four dollars and sixty-five cents. Isn't that splendid? Mr. Ashurst bought all the Croppys, and gave twenty-five cents a piece for them." "Let us see, let us see!" cried the little girls, precipitating themselves on the money. "Look here, now, Mary Frisbie--no snatching!" protested Jack,--"I haven't told you the best yet. Mr. Ashurst says we're such good farmers, that he'll give us work whenever we like to take it. He says I could earn three dollars a week _now_! Think of that." "Oh, how much!" cried Lulu, awe-struck. "What could you do with so much, Jacky?" "Now boys,--listen to me," said their mother. "Go upstairs right away and get ready for tea. You look like real farmers' boys at this moment, I declare, so hot and dusty. I don't wonder Mr. Ashurst offered you work,--though I think it was very impertinent of him to do so. I hope you said that your father's sons didn't need to earn money in any such way." "Why, Mamma, of course I didn't. Arthur and me like to work, and we are going to somehow just as soon as we're big enough. It's lots better fun than going to school. Besides, Papa says we may. He told us all American boys ought to work, whether their fathers are rich or poor." "Papa likes to talk nonsense with you," said Mrs. Frisbie, biting her lips. "Go up now and dress." There was a howl from both boys. "O Mamma! not yet. It's too early for that horrid dressing, oh, a great dea
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>  



Top keywords:
Victoria
 

Frisbie

 

Ashurst

 

moment

 

Arthur

 
horrid
 
farmers
 

dollars

 
listen
 

children


squeaked

 

talking

 
coming
 

declare

 
father
 

impertinent

 
offered
 
upstairs
 

chairs

 

clothes


struck

 

mother

 

ladies

 

nonsense

 

biting

 

fathers

 

dressing

 

Besides

 

American

 

school


giggled

 
character
 

person

 

looked

 

excited

 
Sister
 

handful

 
sister
 

Bertha

 
giving

Children
 

Beppie

 
manners
 
changing
 

wouldn

 

fractional

 
currency
 

precipitating

 
snatching
 

protested