FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   >>   >|  
yourself. A magnificent sum truly. Pray, how do you manage to spend so much? You must be getting rich.' The words were sarcastic, but the tone belied the words, and Harold was about to speak, when his grandmother interrupted him, and said, 'What he does not spend for us he puts aside. He is trying to save enough to go to the High School, but it's slow work. I can do but little myself, and it all falls upon Harold.' 'But I like it, grandma. I like to work for you and Jerry, and I have almost twenty dollars saved,' Harold said, 'and in a year or two I can go away to school, and work somewhere for my board. Lots of boys do that.' Arthur was hitching his pony to the fence, while a new idea was dawning in his mind. 'Fifty cents a day,' he said to himself, 'and he has twenty dollars saved, and thinks himself rich. Why, I've spent more than that on one bottle of wine, and here is this boy, Amy's son, wanting an education, and working to support his grandmother like a common laborer. I believe I _am_ crazy.' He was in the cottage by this time--in the clean, cool kitchen where the supper table was laid with its plain fair, most unlike the costly viands which daily loaded his board. 'Don't wait for me, Harold must be hungry,' he said, adding quickly: 'Or stay, if you will permit me, I will take a cup of tea with you. The drive has given me an appetite, and your tea smells very inviting.' It was a great honor to have Arthur Tracy at her table, and Mrs. Crawford felt it as such, and was very sorry, too, that she had nothing better to offer him than bread and butter and radishes, with milk, and a dish of cold beans, and chopped beets, and a piece of apple pie saved for Harold from dinner. But she made him welcome, and Jerry, delighted to return the hospitality she had received, brought him a clean plate and cup and saucer, and asked if she might get the best sugar-bowl and the white sugar. Then, remembering the beautiful flowers which had adorned the table at Tracy Park, she ran out and gathering a bunch of June pinks, put them in a little glass by his plate. When all was ready and they had taken their seats at the table, Mrs. Crawford closed her eyes reverently and asked the accustomed blessing which in that house preceded every meal. Jerry's amen was a good deal louder and more emphatic than usual, while she nodded her head to Arthur, with an expression which he understood to mean, 'You know now what you ought
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166  
167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Harold
 

Arthur

 

dollars

 
twenty
 

Crawford

 

grandmother

 

dinner

 

chopped

 

saucer

 

magnificent


brought

 
delighted
 

return

 
hospitality
 
received
 

radishes

 

manage

 

inviting

 

butter

 

preceded


reverently

 

accustomed

 

blessing

 

louder

 

emphatic

 
understood
 

nodded

 

expression

 

closed

 

adorned


flowers

 

beautiful

 
remembering
 

gathering

 

smells

 

thinks

 

grandma

 

dawning

 

belied

 

bottle


school
 
hitching
 

interrupted

 

wanting

 

hungry

 
adding
 

viands

 
loaded
 
quickly
 

School