FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   70   71   >>   >|  
m ter leave this yere ranch afore sun-up. Jest you speak up an' out. If yer folks has sent you here"--his eyes hardened and flashed--"to borrer money, why, you kin tell 'em I ain't got none to loan." Sissy laughed gaily. "Why, I know that, Mr. Spooner. It's jest because, be-cause yer so pore--so very, very pore, that I comed up." "Is that so? Because I'm so very poor?" "I heard that in the store this evenin'. I was a-comin' in as you was a-comin' out. I heard Popsy say you was the porest man in the county, porer than all of us pore folks put together." She had lost her nervousness. She stood squarely before the old man, lifting her tender blue eyes to his. "Wal--an' what are you a-goin' to do about it?" "I can't do overly much, Mr. Spooner, but fer a little girl I'm rich. The dry year ain't hurt me any--yet. I've three dollars and sixty cents of my own." One hand had remained tightly clenched. Sissy opened it. In the moist pink palm lay three dollars, a fifty-cent piece, and a dime. Never had Pap's voice sounded so harsh in my ears as when he said: "Do I understan' that ye offer this to--me?" His tone frightened her. "Yas, sir. Won't you p-p-please t-take it?" "Did yer folks tell ye to give me this money?" "Why, no. I'd oughter hev asked 'em, I s'pose, but I never thought o' that. Honest Injun, Mr. Spooner, I didn't--and--and it's my own money," she concluded, half defiantly, "an' Popsy said as how I could do what I liked with it. Please take it." "No," said Pap. He stared at us, clicking his teeth and frowning. Then he said, curtly, "Wal, I'll take the dime, Sissy--I kin make a dime go farther than a dollar, can't I, boys?" "You bet," said Ajax. "And now, Sissy, you run along home," said Pap. "We'll take her," I said, for Sissy was a sworn friend of ours. At once she put her left hand into mine. We bade the old man good-night, and took leave of him. On the threshold Ajax turned and asked a question---- "Won't you reconsider your decision, Mr. Spooner?" "No," he snapped, "I won't. I dunno as all this ain't a reg'lar plant. Looks like it. And, as I say, the scallywags in these yere foothills need thinnin'--they need thinnin'." Ajax said something in a low voice which Sissy and I could not hear. Later I asked him what it was, because Pap had clicked his teeth. "I told him," said my brother, "that he needn't think his call was coming, because I was quite certain that they d
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   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   70   71   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Spooner
 

dollars

 

thinnin

 

stared

 

Please

 
clicked
 
curtly
 

clicking

 

frowning


brother

 

question

 
coming
 

reconsider

 

thought

 

Honest

 

defiantly

 

concluded

 

farther


dollar

 

scallywags

 
threshold
 

foothills

 

snapped

 
decision
 
friend
 
turned
 
opened

evenin

 

porest

 

county

 

Because

 
tender
 

lifting

 

nervousness

 

squarely

 
hardened

flashed

 

laughed

 

borrer

 
overly
 

sounded

 

understan

 

frightened

 
clenched
 

tightly


remained

 

oughter