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"You will not get any milk from me," said the cow, "until you bring me a whisp of straw from those threshers yonder." He came to the threshers. "What news to-day?" said the threshers. "It's my own news I'm seeking.
At last he saw her coming. She was walking close to the railings of the houses, looking neither to right nor left. She had on a lawn frock, and a hat of the palest coffee-coloured straw, with a narrow black velvet ribbon. She crossed the side street, stopped for a second, gave a swift look round, then came resolutely on. What was it made him love her so? What was the secret of her fascination?
Full of emotion, they carried it into the bakehouse. When the boards were unfastened, the straw fell down, the silver paper slipped off, and the anatomical figure made its appearance. It was brick-coloured, without hair or skin, and variegated with innumerable strings, red, blue, and white.
'I would give it thee without any threat, friend, said the yellow-haired man meekly, and handed me over his little sack of straw. He then leaned himself back as comfortably as he could against the cart, and began repeating, 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, by which I concluded that I had got into the company of a parson.
"Surely if she were worth a straw if she were worth the name of a woman at all she would feel it her greatest happiness to make it up to you for such...." She was going to say "a privation," but she always shied off designating the calamity. In her hurry to escape from "privation" she landed her speech in a phrase she had not taken the full measure of "Well perhaps I oughtn't to say that!
These she placed on the straw so that a pile was formed about as high as an ordinary chair. This pile was placed against the wall so that the wall served as a support. Then she seated herself upon this. "Minnie, dearest," said she. "Well, Kitty darling." "It's really quite soft and comfortable. Do come and sit on it; do, just to please me, only for five minutes. See!
They carried in their arms figures of straw that looked like children, which they threw into the river. When this disgusting mob overran the quays with its thousands of imps, it produced a strange effect upon the combatants, and entirely contrary to that expected by their patron. The enemies on both sides lowered their arms and separated.
This he took in good part from us; but one evening after drill, as he was crossing the yard, a hussar cried out: "Halloo, Gravedigger! help me to drag in these bundles of straw." Zébédé, turning about, replied: "My name is not Gravedigger, and you can drag in your own straw. Do you take me for a fool?" Then the other cried in a still louder tone: "Conscript, you had better come, or beware!"
Universally the front part is open, forming a kind of verandah, in which tables and benches are placed. The bedrooms join on each side, and here the passenger may sleep as comfortably as he can, on a wooden platform covered by a thin straw mat. The venda stands in a courtyard, where the horses are fed.
Although perfectly justifiable in me to have done so, who was to show that? The evidence of those around me the whole of them together was not worth the asseveration of one white man; and under the circumstances not worth a straw. Indeed, considering what had immediately led to the rencontre, such testimony would have been more likely to damage my case than otherwise!
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