Aunt Annie cut the discussion short by
cutting the string with a table knife and breaking the wax.
And behold, a clean sugar-bag tightly folded and rolled.
And inside a strong whitey-brown envelope.
And on the envelope written or rather printed the words:
"For horse-feed, stabling, and supper."
And underneath, in smaller letters, "Send Bible and portraits
to-----." (Here a name and address.)
And inside the envelope a roll of notes.
"Count them," said Aunt Annie.
But the settler's horny and knotty hands trembled too much, and so did
his wife's withered ones; so Aunt Annie counted them.
"Fifty pounds!" she said.
"Fifty pounds!" mused the settler, scratching his head in a
perplexed way.
"Fifty pounds!" gasped his wife.
"Yes," said Aunt Annie sharply, "fifty pounds!"
"Well, you'll get it settled between yer some day!" drawled Uncle
Abe.
Later, after thinking comfortably over the matter, he observed:
"Cast yer coffee an' bread an' bacon upon the waters---"
Uncle Abe never hurried himself or anybody else.
THE BATH
The moral should be revived. Therefore, this is a story with a moral.
The lower end of Bill Street--otherwise William--overlooks Blue's
Point Road, with a vacant wedge-shaped allotment running down from a
Scottish church between Bill Street the aforesaid and the road, and a
terrace on the other side of the road. A cheap, mean-looking terrace
of houses, flush with the pavement, each with two windows upstairs and
a large one in the middle downstairs, with a slit on one side of it
called a door--looking remarkably skully in ghastly dawns, afterglows,
and rainy afternoons and evenings.
Pages:
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