United States or Senegal ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I never saw a man eat so much in all my born days but I suppose he would be having more on his table than usual to show off a bit, knowing us Barbie boys would be writing home about it all. And drink! D'ye know, he began with a whole half tumbler of whisky, and how many more he had I really should not like to say! And he must be used to it, too, for it seemed to have no effect on him whatever.
"You couldn't hire me at all if it wasn't for Barbie," sez I. "An' I wouldn't hire you at all if it wasn't for her," he snaps. "You can do the right thing at the right time better'n any other man I ever had; but you're the contrariest man to work with on the job. You're allus flyin' up, an' you'd talk back if your throat was cut." "I'm free," sez I, "an' what's more, I know it.
With a quick oath, the belt pole was thrown to stop the lathe; down the length of the shop to the scrap heap of odds and ends at the rear Hughes raced, returning with a bit of metal in his hand. Barbara was backed against the bench, her eyes shut, and tears had begun to flow from under the lids. "Now, Miss Barbie," Hughes remonstrated. "You let me at that thing.
"Smokin' cigarettes is a nasty, filthy habit, an' " "Then I'll smoke a pipe," sez Barbie. "No you won't smoke a pipe! I don't intend to have a gal child of mine smokin' anything. It's disgustin', an " "It ain't as disgustin' as chewin', an' you chew," sez Barbie. "Now you look here!" yells Jabez, hot as a hornet, "I'm a man an' you ain't, an' that makes a heap o' difference.
To him they had a value not their own, just because they knew the brig and the burn and the brae, and had sat upon the school benches. He would have welcomed a dog from Barbie. It was from a like generous emotion that he greeted the bodies so warmly on his visits home he thought they were as pleased to see him as he was to see them. But they imputed false motives to his hearty greetings.
That was the first telegram ever seen in Barbie, and it had been brought by special messenger from Skeighan. It was short and to the point. It ran: "Will buy 300 stone cheese 8 shillings stone delivery at once," and was signed by a merchant in Poltandie. Gourlay was talking to old Tarmillan of Irrendavie, when Wilson pushed in and addressed Tarmillan, without a glance at the grain-merchant.
I kind o' fought shy of Danders 'cause it seemed to me that the' was always some kind of a job waitin' for me there, an' Barbie had left me a heap of work for that winter. "Have you learned anything yet?" she asked me, after the train had pulled into sight an' we was shakin' hands. "Not a thing for certain," sez I. "I've stumbled onto several rumors, but they always went out.
I sat there on the old pony a good long time, an' then I heaved a sigh 'at made me swell out like an accordion, an' headed back to the valley trail. When I turned around, there, standin' in the trail before me with a streak down each cheek, stood Barbie. "Ya ain't goin', are ya?" sez she. "I got to go, honey," sez I. "Ain't ya never comin' back?" asked she.
His sense of prosperity was soothing and pervasive; he felt it all round him like the pleasant air, as real as that and as subtle; bathing him, caressing. It was the most secret and intimate joy of his life to go out and smoke on summer mornings by his big gate, musing over Barbie ere he possessed it with his merchandise.
Almost before he was aware, the mean gray streets of Barbie had clipped him round. He stopped, panting from the hurry of his walk, and looked at the quiet houses, all still among the gloom. He realized with a sudden pride that he alone was in conscious possession of the town. Barbie existed to no other mind.
Word Of The Day