United States or Macao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And while I'm catechising ye, may I ask for what do ye bring a slate out pig-minding and sky-making?" "I draws out the trees on it first," said Jan, "and then I does them in leaves. If you'll come round," he added, shyly, "you'll see it. But don't tread on un, please, sir."
When Jan returned to the windmill, and gravely announced that he had hired himself out as pig-minder to Master Salter, Mrs. Lake was, as she said, "put about." She considered pig-minding quite beneath the dignity of her darling, and brought forward every objection she could think of except the real one.
"Have you lost something?" said Jan. But the old man did not answer. He did not even speak of the leaf- picture, to Jan's chagrin. But, stroking the boy's shoulder almost tenderly, he asked, "Did ye ever go to school, laddie?" Jan nodded. "At Dame Datchett's," said he. "Ah! ye were sorry to leave school for pig-minding, weren't ye?" Jan shook his head. "I likes pigs," said he.
Master Salter's swine suffered neglect at the hands of several successors to the office Abel had held, and Master Salter whilst alluding to these in indignant terms as "young varments," "gallus- birds," and so forth was pleased to express his regret that the gentle and trustworthy Abel had given up pig-minding for nursing. The pigs' loss was the baby's gain.
"Thee likes pig-minding, I reckon?" said Jan, stripping the leaves from a sallywithy wand, which he had picked to imitate that of the swineherd. "Do I?" said the large-coated urchin, wiping his face with the big sleeve of his blue coat. "That's aal thee knows about un. I be going to leave to-morrow, I be.
For another sign of his being a true child of the mill, his nurse Abel anxiously watched. Though Abel preferred nursing to pig-minding, he had a higher ambition yet, which was to begin his career as a windmiller. It was not likely that he could be of use to his father for a year or two, and the fact that he was of very great use to his mother naturally tended to delay his promotion to the mill.
Word Of The Day