FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84  
85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   >>   >|  
to gaze upon from the rocky cliffs, as it dashed itself in fine spray against their base, or from the broad crescent beach beyond, as it rolled its crested billows up the sandy slope. Yes, all these things were very pleasant,--far more delightful than she had anticipated. She thought during those first few days that she would like to live on there forever, until the novelty wore off and her father's ailings crushed out the new life which the change had given birth to and kept him locked in his own den with his miseries; and even then nature began to pall as a constant and sole companion, and her mind turned with ever-increasing anxiety to the one event which could possibly break this spell of monotony. Had her letter _in fact_ miscarried? or could it be that the favored recipient had treated it with cold contempt, ruthlessly destroyed it or cast it into the wastepaper-basket? Many were the painful, blush-provoking thoughts that each terrible possibility suggested. She had long since decided that she had been a little fool, and that of course Seniors in college had better things to do than to answer silly girls' more silly letters, when one day on her regular visit to Barton Bump's store she overheard the following: "It's bin a-kickin' round this here store three days, an' I ain't goin' ter be bothered no longer. Hiram, jes' you stick the dratted thing in one o' them 'ficial en-_vell_ups, an' 'dress it to Wash'ton, D.C." "Ain't ye goin' to advertise it, dad?" "'Tain't no good advertisin' it, Hiram. There ain't nobody as calls herself Jennings in the hull county, an' I know it." But Mabel interrupted him. "Miss Jane Jennings, is it? Why, that letter is for me!" she exclaimed eagerly. "Fur you, miss?" asked Barton, glancing at her suspiciously over his spectacles. "Ain't your name Moreley?" "Yes," she answered, in some embarrassment, "but--but Jane Jennings is our servant, you know. Give me the letter. I will take it to her." Barton hesitated. He hadn't had any communication with the government for some time, and liked to remind them in the capital now and then of his existence. "Well," he said finally, and with reluctance, "ef you're sartin', why, here ye be." And Mabel took it, and bore it away with a palpitating heart, quite forgetting to purchase the supplies which the cook had commissioned her to bring home for dinner. In the most secluded spot in the dark pine wood she broke the seal and read as foll
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84  
85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Barton

 

letter

 

Jennings

 
things
 
exclaimed
 

county

 
interrupted
 

dratted

 

ficial

 

bothered


longer
 

advertisin

 

advertise

 

eagerly

 

spectacles

 
sartin
 

reluctance

 

existence

 

finally

 
commissioned

dinner

 
supplies
 

palpitating

 

purchase

 

forgetting

 

capital

 

Moreley

 
answered
 

embarrassment

 

secluded


glancing

 

suspiciously

 

servant

 

communication

 

government

 

remind

 

hesitated

 

college

 

forever

 

novelty


father

 

ailings

 

crushed

 

locked

 

miseries

 

nature

 
change
 

thought

 

anticipated

 

crescent