The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Ffolliots of Redmarley, by L. Allen Harker

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Title: The Ffolliots of Redmarley

Author: L. Allen Harker

Release Date: October 17, 2007 [eBook #22999]
[This file last updated on July 1, 2008]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FFOLLIOTS OF REDMARLEY***

E-text prepared by Al Haines

THE FFOLLIOTS OF REDMARLEY

by

L. ALLEN HARKER

JOHN MURRAY

TO

MABEL VIOLET JEANS.

For that dread "move" you saw me through,
For all the things you found to do.
For china washed and pictures hung--
And oh, those books, the hours among!
For merry heart that goes all day,
For jest that turns work into play,
For all the dust and dusters shared,
For that dear self you never spared:
And most of all, that all of it
Was light with laughter, spiced with wit--
Take, dear, my love, and with it take
The little book you helped to make.

First Edition . . . . . . . July, 1913
Cheaper Edition . . . . . . September, 1919
Reprinted . . . . . . . . . January, 1925

THE FFOLLIOTS OF REDMARLEY

CHAPTER I

ELOQUENT

"Father, what d'you think we'd better call him?" Mrs Gallup asked, when
the baby was a week old; "have you thought of a name?"

"I've _fixed_ on a name," her husband replied, triumphantly. "The
child shall be called Eloquent."

"Eloquent," Mrs Gallup repeated, dubiously. "That's a queer name,
isn't it? 'Tisn't a name at all, not really."

"It's going to be my son's name, anyhow," Mr Gallup retorted,
positively. "I've thought the matter out, most careful I've considered
it, and that's the name my son's got to be called . . . Eloquent
Gallup he'll be, and a very good name too."

"But why Eloquent?" Mrs Gallup persisted. "How d'you know as he'll
_be_ eloquent? an' if he isn't, that name'll make him a laughing-stock.
Suppose he was to grow up one of them say-nothing-to-nobody sort of
chaps, always looking down his nose, and afraid to say 'Bo' to a goose:
what's he to _do_ with such a name?"

"There's no fear my son will grow up a-say-nothing-to-nobody sort of
chap,"